New Accolades For A Wisconsin Poet, Simulating Extreme Storms, House Votes To Roll Back FCC Internet Privacy Rule

Featured in this Show

• Wisconsin Poet Pens Award-Winning Work

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  We hear from a former Wisconsin Poet Laureate who recently won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

• Using Computer Simulations To Learn About Tornadoes

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  As tornado season approaches, we talk with a UW researcher who’s using computer models to learn more about how and why tornadoes form.

• House Votes To Roll Back FCC Internet Privacy Rule

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  A signature Internet privacy law put into place by the FCC under the Obama Administration has been voted out by Congress. We’ll speak to an expert about the original rule and what its repeal could mean for internet users moving forward.

• Wisconsin Poet Max Garland Wins Brittingham Prize In Poetry

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  Max Garland is a Wisconsin poet with a long list of honors for his work.

  His latest achievement is the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, which is awarded by the University of Wisconsin Press each year and includes publication of the poet’s work. And even though it’s not the first time Garland has been recognized in the state’s poetry circles, he spoke about the satisfaction that comes with being able to share his work with others after the toil of making a poem come together.

  “You hack away at (poems), and you pile them up, and you throw them away and you retrieve them,” he said. “So having the book come out will just sort of increase the chances that something I thought of and said will reach and maybe have meaning to someone else,” he said of his new book, “The Word We Used For It.”

  Garland was the state’s poet laureate from 2013-14. He is also a writer in residence for the city of Eau Claire, and the influences of the western Wisconsin landscape — known for its brutal winters and scenic summers that draw tourists — are evident in his work.

  “The cover of this particular book will be a scene of snowstorm over the Eau Claire River,” he said. “Living in Wisconsin, you better make some sort of negotiation or peace with the weather, or you’re going to have a long winter. It’s something that we have to endure but hopefully learn to love as well.”

  Despite becoming an influential poet in Wisconsin over the last several years, Garland didn’t always fit the profile of someone who was bound to be a recognized poet. His first book didn’t come out until he was 45 years old. He grew up in rural western Kentucky and said he had little chance of going to college or becoming a poet.

  But he said he benefited from grants and publicly funded programs — from his education to National Endowment for the Arts and Wisconsin arts grants. He has been critical of policies that lower public support for the arts.

  “To take money from public support for the arts is sort of doing our enemies’ job for them,” he said. “I think strengthening the amount of wisdom, imagination and creativity in young people, and trying to articulate the deepest parts of ourselves is a source of national strength.”

  Under President Trump’s proposed budget, four independent cultural agencies would be gutted — the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

  “Maybe I’m just saying I’m grateful that someone gave me ladder, and I don’t want to be a part of pulling that ladder up after me,” Garland said.