WISCONSIN RESIDENTS: WE WANT TO READ YOUR POETRY & FICTION!
Our 2024 writing contests are open for submissions. Sean Enfield will judge the fiction contest. Dorothy Chan will judge the poetry contest.
2024 Fiction Contest Guidelines
2024 Poetry Contest Guidelines
Contest Deadline: MARCH 31, 2024 (UPDATE)
Entry fee: $10 Academy members / $15 non-members
Judges: Sean Enfield for fiction and Dorothy Chan for poetry
Prizes:
- 1st-place winners receive a one-week artist residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.
- Win cash prizes: $500 for 1st place, $250 for 2nd place, and $100 for 3rd place.
- Read at the 2024 Wisconsin Book Festival.
- 1st-3rd-place winners are published in print and online issues of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine.
ABOUT OUR CONTESTS
Since 1994, Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine has sponsored the premiere annual fiction and poetry contests for Wisconsin writers. The contests are open to all Wisconsin residents and students age 18 and older. We encourage emerging and established writers to send in their best works of fiction and poetry for a chance to win up to $500 and other prizes along with publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, and a one-week residency at the lovely Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.
Congratulations to the
2023 Fiction and Poetry Contest Winners
Fiction Winners
1st Place
Matt Cashion, La Crosse
“Music Appreciation for the Dead”
2nd Place
Susanna Daniel, Madison
“The Goddess of Illicit Choices”
3rd Place
Holly Hilliard, Madison
“Zugunruhe”
Fiction Honorable Mentions
John Mulvihill, New Glarus, “Not Drowning, But Waving”
Poetry Winners
1st Place
Taylor Kirby, Madison
“if I have an addiction to water, know it’s hereditary”
2nd Place
K.E. McCoy, Madison
“Climate Passover”
3rd Place
Sheryl Slocum, Milwaukee
“My Son Standing Near a Glass of Water”
Poetry Honorable Mentions
William Stobb, Onalaska, “Ache Index”
Emily Bowles, Appleton, “This is Not a Villanelle”
Adam Fell, Madison, “A Deterioration in Talks”
Steven Espada Dawson, Madison, “Mercury Goes Right Through You”
Marnie Dresser, Spring Green, “I Hate People Who Cut in Line But”
Kelly R. Samuels, La Crosse, “Ambiguous Loss”
Contest Support
Thanks to our 2023 contest judges Debra Monroe (fiction) and Nikki Wallschlaeger (poetry). All contest judging is done blindly and the winning submissions are selected through criteria established by individual judges. The 2023 contests were administered by Christopher Chambers, former editor of Wisconsin People & Ideas. Thanks also to the Wisconsin Academy donors, members, and the following contest sponsors for their support of Wisconsin writers: