Wisconsin Writers Jade Ring contest info and judges

Judges for the 2016 Jade Ring competition include Laurie Scheer, Patricia Skalka, and Marilyn Taylor. Jade Ring contestants may also elect to receive the judge’s written feedback on their entries for an additional fee. See submission guidelines for more information. The contest submission period closes July 31, 2016. Winners and placers are announced at the Jade Ring Banquet Saturday, October 15, 2016 at the WWA Fall Conference held in Neenah.

Download the mail in submission form

OR Enter online

Nonfiction Judge

Laurie Scheer, Media Goddess, is a former vice president of programming for WE: Women’s Entertainment. She has worked as an assistant, d-girl, and producer for ABC, Viacom, Showtime, and AMC-Cablevision.

Laurie has been an instructor at numerous universities across the US including Northwestern, UCLA, American University, and Yale. She is the author of a book about working in Hollywood entitled Creative Careers in Hollywood and her DVD How to Pitch and Sell Your Screenplay has been a perennial favorite at screenwriting events.

As a professional speaker, she has appeared at annual conventions for NAB, NATPE, The Great American Pitch Fest, Screenwriters’ World, Reel Screen, WIFV, FTX West, the Willamette Writers Conference. She has served as a judge for numerous screenplay competitions, film festivals, and the International Emmys. She is currently a Faculty Associate/Writing Mentor with UW-Madison’s Continuing Studies Writing Department where she critiques writers’ works, conducts numerous online and in-person courses, and serves as the director of the Writer’s Institute.

She is also the Founding Editor of the literary magazine, The Midwest Review. Her current interest is in exploring ways to preserve good storytelling within the 21st century transmedia marketplace and sharing her new book The Writer’s Advantage: A Toolkit for Mastering Your Genre (Michael Wiese Productions, 2014) with writers in-person, online, and worldwide.

Fiction Judge

Patricia Skalka made her fiction debut with publication of Death at Gills Rock (2015) and Death Stalks Door County (2014), the first of the Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries from the University of Wisconsin Press. Death in Cold Water, the third volume in the series, will be published this fall.

A Chicago native and writing instructor, Skalka is a former Reader’s Digest Staff Writer, editor, and freelancer with human interest and medical articles in national print and online publications and nonfiction books published by Random House, St. Martin’s and Rodale. She is a member of The Authors Guild of America, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Society of Midland Authors and the Chicago Writers Association.

Poetry Judge

Marilyn L. Taylor, former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin (2009 and 2010) and the city of Milwaukee (2004 and 2005), is the author of six poetry collections. Her poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, American Scholar, Measure, and Able Muse. She has taken first place in a number of poetry contests, and recently received the 2015 Margaret Reid Award, an international competition for poetry in traditional forms.