Door County, Wis. (August 10, 2021) — The organizers of the Norbert Blei Memorial Scholarship have announced the 2021 winner of the group’s annual scholarship in honor of the well-known Door County writer. A graduating senior from Gibraltar Area Schools in Fish Creek, Audrey Viste was recently presented with the award by one the Scholarship Committee’s long-time members, Pete Thelen, a well-known Door County musician. Viste said she plans to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design this coming September.
The Norbert Blei Memorial Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship offered to a graduating Gibraltar Area Schools senior in honor of the memory of well-known local writer Norbert Blei. Blei was a committed lifelong writing teacher, a talented writer and author, and a lover of words and the literary arts. His career began in Chicago, where he was a contemporary and friend of urban writers, newspaper columnists and media figures like Mike Royko, Studs Terkel, and Harry Mark Petrakis.
Blei moved to Door County in 1969 and famously wrote his many books in a converted chicken coop, including his seminal Door County non-fiction book, ‘DOOR WAY.’ After Blei’s death on April 23, 2013, his chicken coop/writing studio was moved to Write On, Door County, the writing arts nonprofit organization, in Juddville, where it is used as a meeting place for writing seminars and other gatherings.
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