Letters

News for Members

JANE ELDER TO RETIRE

After ten years at the helm of the Wisconsin Academy, executive director Jane Elder will be retiring. Her last day will be December 1, 2021. In preparation for her departure, the Academy Board has engaged a search firm to help identify a diverse pool of well-qualified candidates and to ensure the Academy is positioned for a bright future. We will send an update to all members when we have more details about the new executive director.

GIVE THE GIFT OF IDEAS

Share your love of Wisconsin ideas with a Wisconsin Academy gift membership—which includes a year subscription to Wisconsin People & Ideas. Membership makes the perfect holiday gift. To purchase a gift membership, visit wisconsinacademy.org/membership today.

FICTION & POETRY CONTESTS OPEN SOON

Our next Fiction & Poetry Contests will be accepting submissions January 15 to March 15, 2022. The contest is open to all Wisconsin residents and students age 18 and older. Contest winners in both the fiction and poetry categories receive awards of $500 to $100, publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas (read the 2021 prizewinning works in this issue), and a reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival. For more details, visit wisconsinacademy.org/contests.

JAMES WATROUS GALLERY NOW OPEN

After being closed for eighteen months, the James Watrous Gallery in Overture Center for the Arts is once again open to the public with a retrospective exhibit of the work of printmaker Jack Damer. Note: all visitors to the Overture Center must present proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test along with a matching photo ID. Face masks are required throughout the building.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We want to hear from our members. Please send feedback and comments about Academy programs and publications to editor@ wisconsinacademy.org.

Letters

I have entered the fiction contest that you have sponsored several times. When Jerry Apps was advertised as being a judge a while back, I thought I had a good chance of maybe placing. I know Jerry, and thought I had a story that he would like. But I didn’t win. And that got me thinking, Did Jerry actually see my story?

So I wrote you a letter and you were honest in saying, “We do have a preliminary screening process wherein I and another judge (both of us with years of literary experience) pare down the pile of submissions of 100 or so stories before they are passed along to the lead judge.”

I’m a story teller, not a literary writer. I don’t know if my story was pared down before Jerry Apps got to see it, but I do know that what you think is good and what Jerry Apps thinks is good are not the same. No two people can see a story the same way.

If a writer spends $20 to enter a contest, his or her entry should be seen by the advertised, final judge. I really like Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine. But, because of the way you conduct the writing contest, I cannot be part of it in the future.

John R. Mutter, Jr., Shawano

The Editor Responds:

I see your perspective on the “objectivity” of the contest and your desire to have your writings seen by the lead judge. However, most of our lead judges—busy writers themselves—don’t have the time to read 100 stories (or in the case of the poetry contest 700 poems). You’d be hard pressed to find a writing contest out there in which the lead judge reads every single submission themselves.

Our preliminary screeners—me being one of them—take seriously our role in finding the best works to forward on to final judging. However, being humans, we do carry our own prejudices and preconceived notions about what makes for a good story or poem. I understand your point about what you feel is misrepresentation on the part of the contest judging and of course respect your decision not to participate. In the meantime, keep on writing.