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.
