$500 prizes and weeklong writing residencies await 1st place winners of the Council for Wisconsin Writers 55th annual writers contest for work published in 2019. Honorable Mention recipients will receive $50 prizes and writing residencies.
Jan. 31, 2020, is the deadline for entering the contest.
Wisconsin writers may submit work published during the 2019 calendar year in the following categories:
- Book-length fiction,
- Book-length nonfiction,
- Book-length poetry,
- Short fiction,
- Short nonfiction,
- Children’s literature,
- A set of five poems, two of which must have been published in the contest year,
- Young Writers Award.
First-place winners in all categories except the Young Writers Award will receive $500 and a one-week writer’s residency at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point WI. Honorable mention recipients will receive $50 and a one-week writer’s residency at the Painted Forest Study Center in Valton WI.
The Young Writers Award recognizes Wisconsin high school students who excel at the craft of creative writing. The category includes poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, journalism, humor and drama. The first-place prize is $250. Honorable-mention winner will receive $50.
Award recipients will be recognized and celebrated at CWW’s Awards Banquet in May.
Entries for all categories must be postmarked no later than Jan. 31, 2020. Writers who enter must be current Wisconsin residents.
The entry fee for all contests except the Young Writers Award is $25. There is no fee for Young Writers Award entries. CWW membership is not required to enter.
Members in good standing are entitled to one free entry. Out-of-state judges will make the selections, except for the Young Writers contest. That category will be judged by the CWW Board of Directors.
The recipient of the Christopher Latham Sholes Award, which is awarded in alternate years with the Council’s Major Achievement Award, will also be presented. The Sholes award is named for Christopher Latham Sholes who is credited with inventing the first practical typewriter, and is awarded to an individual or organization for outstanding encouragement of Wisconsin writers. The Sholes Award recipient will be selected by the CWW Board of Directors and will receive $500.
Awards will be presented at CWW’s Annual Awards Banquet on May 9, 2020, at The Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee.
Specific guidelines, entry forms, and important additional information for each award category are on the CWW website.
Please address general questions about the contest to CWW Publicity/Blog Manager Jerrianne Hayslett at jerrianneh@gmail.com. Questions about individual contest categories should be addressed to the category co-chair. Co-chairs are listed with their contact information on the 2019 Entry Forms section of the CWW website.