Joan Wiese Johannes

photo by Milton Friend

CONTACT

Joan Wiese Johannes
Port Edwards, Wisconsin

BIO

Joan Wiese Johannes lives in Port Edwards, Wisconsin with her poet/artist husband Jeffrey, two cats, and a golden retriever. She has been publishing poetry for twenty years and writing music for Native American flute for seven. A poem of hers was displayed at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point during the Conference on Preventing All Forms of Violence Against Women March 2-5. She has won the Triad and Trophy Poem contests sponsored by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and received honorable mentions in the Trophy Poem, Triad, and Muse contests for WFOP, as well as from The Writer's Place and English Journal. Her poetry, articles, and creative nonfiction have been published in numerous journals and magazines, including Cat Fancy, Rattle, The Wisconsin River Journal, Moving Out, Jam Today, Rhino, and Wisconsin Academy Review. Her poems have been anthologized in Poets Who Haven't Moved to Minneapolis, Poets Who Haven't Moved to St. Paul, At the Heart of Riverwood, and Wisconsin Poets' Calendars.

Joan has published three chapbooks, two of poetry and one of original north woods mythology. A presenter and featured reader at venues in Wisconsin and Minnesota, her workshops and presentations include Native American flute as well as poetry. She has studied with internationally known Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai at seven week-long workshops since 1997, and in 2003 was awarded a silver medallion for sharing Native American flute through publishing duets for voice/flute in actual pitch and flute tablature. Her duet CD of original flute compositions was also released in 2003. Her workshops include both poetry and Native American flute; for example, in one of her presentations, she shows how percussion instruments can accent poetry.

1993 Wisconsin Secondary Teacher of the Year, 1999 Chisholm Award winner for the exemplary teaching of English, and winner of the Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress awards from The Wisconsin Rapids Community Company of Players, Joan uses her skills as a teacher and dramatist to entertain and inform audiences. Still employed full time as a teacher, she hopes to retire someday to a career as an artist in residence.

PUBLICATIONS

Myopic Nerve, 2005 ($11.25 postage included)
Four Duets for Native American Flute and Voice, sheet music, 2003. ($8.00 plus $1.00 postage)
Heyoalinda, CD released with Wayne McCleskey, 2003 ($15.00 postage included)
Mother Less Child, poetry chapbook, 2000. ($7.00 plus $1.25 postage)
The Mending of the Moonglow, creative nonfiction chapbook, 1999. (Sold Out)

BOOKINGS

2008

February
Co-facilitating "Cadence of the Earth Workshop" combining writing and nature instruction February 8-10th at the Glenn Valley Lodge in Baraboo. Reservations now being accepted via www.earthwonders.net

POEM

STORM DOOR

When the house became so hot
we couldn’t breathe,
my parents dragged the storm door
down the steps of our front porch,
their cheeks pressed together
with the heavy pane between.
On the swing, my little sister sat
so still her legs hung
like a fraction of a spider.

In an inchworm of a voice,
she told me Dad had sworn
to take us to the woods
and beat the daylights out of us
if we were bad again
now that the neighbors could hear us
through the scream door.

I thought of telling her
she hadn’t heard him right, but didn’t.

Joan Wiese Johannes
First published in Simul, Lutheran Voices in Poetry, Xulon Press, 2007

Home Wisconsin