Karen Loeb

Do you enjoy the talents of fellow Wisconsinites? Are you one to heed to the call of pen and page? Wisconsin People & Ideas has an annual poetry and fiction contest, and the magazine has just announced the 2016 winners. This year, Eau Claire’s own Karen Loeb took home first place in the poetry category with her work “In the Science Museum.” This isn’t Loeb’s first gold medal in the contest: In 2014, she won first place in the fiction category with her short story “The Walk to Makino.” And Loeb, an emeritus professor of English at UW-Eau Claire, wasn’t the only writer representing the Chippewa Valley this year. Olivia Sitter of Eau Claire got an honorable mention in fiction with “Mercy Mercy,” while UWEC English professor B.J. Hollars judged the fiction category.  If you’d like a chance to submit your writing and represent the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin People & Ideas will soon be accepting submissions for next year’s contest. The window for entries opens Sept. 1 and closes Dec. 1. All Wisconsin residents 18 or older are eligible. Prizes include up to $500, publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a weeklong residency at the Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point, and the opportunity to read your work at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison. For more information on the winners and the contest itself, visit wisconsinacademy.org/content/writing-contests.