Chaya Gritton

For the past 75 years, the Wisconsin Writers Association (WWA) has diligently supported writers and authors throughout the state. And this year, it’s honoring one of its own.  Christy Wopat—WWA’s event committee chair, an elementary school teacher, as well as the author of the award-winning book Almost a Mother: Love, Loss, and Finding Your People When Your Baby Dies, among others—was recently awarded the prestigious Fidelia Van Antwerp Award for Outstanding Service.  Over the past 75 years, this award has only been awarded a handful of times—making it all the more special for Christy. 

Following the conclusion of the WWA’s Fall Conference, where Christy received the award, I was able to have a chat with her over the phone to learn more about the work she does for the state’s writing community. 

Chaya Gritton: Can you describe what the Fidelia Van Antwerp Award for Outstanding Service is? 

Christy Wopat: Well, I didn’t even know it existed until a few weeks ago. But basically, Fidelia Van Antwerp was the very first president of the WWA. The WWA just celebrated their seventy-fifth anniversary this year and for the past three years, I’ve been the chair of the events committee for WWA. Barry [Wightman], the current president of WWA, put me in charge of planning this giant conference to celebrate the anniversary. In addition, I started during COVID, and I got our events switched to online, where we did Zoom events and conferences. The board really wanted to recognize me for all the work I did the last three really strange years, plus this conference.

CG: It sounds like you did a lot of event planning.  Can you go into a little more detail on the type of events that you would normally help plan? 

CW: In June of 2020, so right in the thick of the pandemic, I was home. I couldn’t do anything or go anywhere. I went to an open mic on Zoom for WWA, and they said, ‘Hey if anybody wants to volunteer, reach out’. I did and Barry Wightman, the president, called me and said, ‘How do you want to help?’ I said, ‘Well I can tell you the things I’m good at. I’m a teacher and I can run a committee.’ He said they really need an events committee because they only put one event on a year, and they wanted more... Ever since then, practically every single month, we’ve had some sort of Zoom event for our members that’s free of charge. It’s usually on the craft of writing, but sometimes it’s an open mic and sometimes it’s just a social. We’ve even had some events on the business of writing. It’s exciting because we’ve seen our membership grow a lot because of those events, and now we’re doing critique groups and a lot of other new things that will help grow membership even more.  

CG: Can you tell me a little about yourself outside of volunteering at WWA? 

CW: Sure, I’m an elementary school teacher and I teach fourth grade. I have a husband and two kids, and I live in Holmen Wisconsin. I’m a writer, I like to blog, and I have three books out. Like most writers I love to read, I love to write, and I love to buy books even though I have way more at my house than I could ever read... One of the things that I love about my whole hobby of writing is the community. That’s why I love WWA. There are groups out there that really want writers to feel like they belong and that they are not at all exclusive. They are just so welcoming. Chippewa Valley Writers Guild is like that, WWA is like that. Even when I was just first starting to write, I still felt like I was a part of it and accepted. 

CG: What are your goals for the future with writing and the WWA? 

CW: With writing I am trying to break into the children’s literature world, but my book has been on submission for a while now and hasn’t sold. My goal is to finally get something that sells. My other books are through an indie publisher, and that was a great experience. But with children’s literature, it’s tougher to get books into people’s hands because kids can’t buy them themselves... For WWA I tried to retire from the events committee, but I have a feeling that I’m being sucked right back in. Last weekend after the conference I just felt this huge sense of accomplishment thinking about all the writers that attended.  

For more on Christy and her work, check out her website.   