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The Process

(Left to right) Matt Ledger, Steve Grutzmacher, and Alissa Ehmke determine which prose and poetry entries to send to the judges.

The Hal Grutzmacher’s Writers’ Exposé and Photography Jubilee celebrates the creative process – each photograph, each poem, and each story represents time, patience, and skill from a budding or seasoned artist. This special issue of Peninsula Pulse, my favorite of the year, calls for the same care and energy, the same attention to detail.

There are no credentials to submit, except the willingness to pen the story in your head, play with words and stanzas, adjust lighting and experiment with angles, and bravely put it out there. This year, we received submissions from individuals of all ages, from throughout Door County, Wisconsin, the U.S., and beyond.

I organized each submission with an identification number and distributed the prose and poetry to a pre-screening committee consisting of Steve Grutzmacher, Marge Grutzmacher, Matt Ledger, Alissa Ehmke, and Carol Thompson. Over Cornerstone pizza and assorted beverages, the screeners pared down the entries to send to our esteemed, volunteer judges, who took the process on from there, choosing the featured pieces.

Our photography judges – Len Villano and Katie Sikora – met (with no refreshments, to protect the submitted photographs) and examined each image one by one. They scrutinized and discussed before finally choosing the photos that grace the pages of this issue.

Katie Sikora and Len Villano work together to choose this year’s winning photographs.

This final product has required a number of talented individuals’ time and expertise in writing, in photography, in graphic design (thank you, Ryan Miller), in public relations (thank you, Madeline Johnson, Dave Eliot, and Allison Vroman), and…meeting deadlines.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and submitted!