Sturgeon Bay Poet Awarded Honorable Mention in State Contest

Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Wisconsin Academy’s quarterly magazine of Wisconsin thought and culture, is pleased to announce the winners of their 2017 statewide fiction and poetry contests. Winners receive awards of $500 to $100, publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, and a reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival. First-place winners in both categories also receive a one-week writers’ residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.

This year’s fiction contest was judged by Mount Horeb-based author Alex Bledsoe, and the poetry contest was judged by Appleton-based poet Melissa Range. The fiction contest received 51 submissions, and the poetry contest received 475 submissions. The first- through third-place poems, as well as the first-place story, will appear in the Summer 2017 issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas (available July 15). The second- and third-place stories will appear in subsequent issues, along with honorable mention poems.

The Fiction Contest winners are: First – “Mudstone” by Bob Wake, Cambridge; Second – “The Hardest Part” by Jeff Esterholm, Superior; Third – “The Rescue” by Ann Zindler, Waukesha. The Poetry Contest winners are: First – “The New American Nostalgia” by Nicholas Gulig, Fort Atkinson; Second – “Salvation Doesn’t Come” by Hansa Kerman Postotnik, Madison; Third – “Time Speeding Up” by Georgia Ressmeyer, Sheboygan.

Paulette Laufer, of Sturgeon Bay, was awarded an honorable mention in poetry for “Daily Reminders.”