Submission Window Opened: JANUARY 15, 2025
Entry fee: $10 Academy members / $15 non-members
Submission Deadline: MARCH 31, 2025
Lead Judge: Maggie Ginsberg
- 1st-place winners of the Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Contest will receive a one-week artist residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.
- Winners will receive a prize of $500 for 1st place, $250 for 2nd place, and $100 for 3rd place.
- All winners are invited to read their work at the Wisconsin Book Festival.
- 1st-3rd-place winners will be published in print and online issues of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine.
Eligibility
- Authors must be age 18 or older and reside or attend school in Wisconsin.
- All submissions must be original and previously unpublished work, whether online or in print.
- Current Wisconsin Academy staff, board, and Foundation board members are not eligible. If you have questions about eligibility, please reach us at contact@wisconsinacademy.org.
Submission Guidelines
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Cover page with: story title, word count, author's name, address, phone number, email address
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Typed, double-spaced manuscript
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12-point clearly readable font. For example: Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.)
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6,000 word maximum
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1” margins
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Numbered pages
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We prefer a header on each page with title of story
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Please do not include your name on the manuscript pages.
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Please only include one story per entry. You may submit multiple entries, and each additional entry requires paying a contest fee.
Print or electronic submissions will be accepted.
Electronic Submissions
Electronic submissions (and judging) will be managed via AirTable. After registering, participants will receive a link to submit their manuscript.
2025 Writing Contests Closed March 31, 2025
Print Submissions
- Print submissions must be postmarked, delivered, or date-stamped by 11:59 pm CT on the contest due date. Submissions postmarked or hand-delivered after the deadline will not be considered and the entry fee will be retained to cover handling.
- Keep a copy of your manuscript. Print manuscripts will be recycled, not returned. If you are able, we encourage you to submit online rather than in print.
- Every contestant must be able to provide an electronic version of their manuscript by email if needed.
Entries may be mailed or hand-delivered to
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters
1922 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53726
Contest semifinalists will be announced by July 1, 2025!
The 1st-place winner will be published in the fall 2025 issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas; 2nd and 3rd-place winners will be published in subsequent issues.
2025 Fiction Contest Judge
Maggie Ginsberg is a writer, editor and author in Wisconsin. Her debut novel, Still True, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in September 2022 and won the Wisconsin Library Association’s 2023 WLA Literary Award for Fiction. It was the honorable mention selection for the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, one of four finalists for the Chicago Writers Association 2023 Book of the Year, a 2023 Midwest Book Awards silver medal winner in the Literary/Contemporary/Historical Fiction category, and one of three finalists for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award for Outstanding Debut.
Maggie is the managing editor at Madison Magazine, where she has worked full time since 2020 after freelancing for city, regional and national magazines since 2006. She has published hundreds of articles throughout her career, earning numerous honors from the City Regional Magazine Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Milwaukee Press Club. She was born in Minnesota and has lived in Wisconsin since 1985.
