Dear colleagues,
Mise en Place, the 2025 Writing Innovation Symposium (WIS), takes place online and onsite in Milwaukee, WI, on January 30th and 31st. Please note the following dates:
- By 12/6: Participants in WIS ’25 and past symposia are invited to contribute an original recipe for comestibles as well as concoctions and constructions of all kinds: https://bit.ly/WIS25cooks
- By 12/13: Undergraduate writers are invited to share recorded audio and video sparks (30 seconds) and flares (3 minutes): https://bit.ly/WIS25Prop. Full details including prompts and accessibility guidelines are detailed in our submission guide: https://bit.ly/WISFlaresGuidelines.
- By 1/21: Register to join us online ($25-$75) and onsite ($25-$115) in Milwaukee, WI: https://bit.ly/WIS25Reg.
Program highlights include:
- A plenary roundtable on food, community, and activism lead by Ashley Beardsley.
- A Macmillan-sponsored workshop on globalizing FYW led by Lauren Rosenberg.
- Contributions of all kinds by the 2025 Bedford/St. Martin’s WIS Fellows, including Heather Martin, Holly Burgess, Jasmine Rodriguez, Marshall Kopacki, Raegan Gronseth, Shannon Hautman, and Sona Srivastava. Learn more via Bits Blog posts by past fellows and WIS organizers: https://bit.ly/BitsBlogWISposts.
- Flashtalks, workshops, posters, displays, and installations that plumb connections among writing, food, and arts-based writing pedagogy, autoethnography, Black Lives Matter, collective composing, composing with maps, conference critters, data visualization, digital literacy, drawing as writing, dual-enrolled students, empowered incarcerated students, failure in assessment, food writing, GenAI, intuitive writing, literacy practices and sponsors, Milwaukee history, narrative and health settings, nature and well-being, researcher positionality, writing history, writing successful personal statements, and more.
- The conviviality, creativity, and knowledge of WIS ’25 contributors, including Abigayle Farrier, Alec Esther, Alexis Piper, Amanda Seligman, Amber Chavez, Ben Pladek, Clara Perotti, Dallas Brister, David Yarnall, DeVaughn Harris, Emilie Helmbold, Erica Leigh, Eve Anzalone, Gabriel Velez, Hannah Locher, Jenna Green, Jessica Lauer, Jessica Yood, Jiaming Lou, Kelly Aliano, Kristin Gecan, Kyle Battle, Laura Vernon, Lillian Pachner, Lilly Campbell, Marcia Buell, Mark McBeth, Megan Mericle, Mikala Jones-Wall, Morgan Shiver, Motunrayo Ogunrinbokun, Natalie Taylor, Phillip Troutman, Nicole Walker, Olivia Rowland, Rani Srinivasan, Sara Kelm, Sophia Khan, Susan Naomi Bernstein, Tara Knight, Tristen Yang, Tuka Al-Sahlani, Victoria Shropshire, and Zach Muhlbauer.
We hope you’ll join us—
Jenn Fishman, WIS Chief Capacitator
On behalf of the 2025 WIS Brigade: Darci Thoune, Gitte Frandsen, Grant Gosizk, Jenna Green, Jessie Wirkus Haynes, Kaia Simon, Kelsey Otero, Lilly Campbell, Nora Boxer, Maxwell Gray, and Patrick Thomas with Ott Memorial Writing Center staffers Holly Schmid, Sophie Anderson, Tristen Yang, and Victoria Zeisig