Boyd Sutton of Siren for "Owning Your Own Time"

Colleen Ferris Holz of Appleton for "The Gazing Ball"

Margaret Longenecker Been of Phillips for "I Am a Maker"

Arthur Kevin Rein of Waterford for "Aching for a Normal Life"

Darlene A. Buechel of Chilton for "Driven to Distraction"

Rae Brown of Milwaukee for "Death to the Cable Company"

(Judge's Comments)

Patricia Weisberg of Milwaukee for "20th Century Crusader"

Boyd Sutton of Siren for "Seasons Without Shade"

JoAnn Jones Opsahl of Merrill for "Rainbow Gardens"

Mark J. Lucius of Milwaukee for "Cake Eaters"

Diane Dryden of Shell Lake for "Houses in a Box"

James Nolan of Merrill for "Mother's Last Words"

(Judge's Comments)

Susan Engebrecht of Wausau for "Galoshes Memories"

Heidi Overson of Coon Valley for "The Teacup"

Mary Jo Balistreri of Waukesha for "Celebrating Dad"

Darlene A. Buechel of Chilton for "Christmas Crayons"

Carolyn Marquardt of Webster for "Picnics"

Peg Sherry of Madison for "Addings"

(Judge's Comments)

Sue Wentz of Portage for "Servant to the Wolf"

Barb Jensen of Portage for "Cousin Marion"

Kathleen Petrella of Walworth for "Run Lizzy Run"

Denice Ryan Martin of Dousman for "Sasha and Snow Grandpa"

(Judge's Comments)

Ramon A. Klitzke of Waukesha for "The Summer of Œ33"

Lois S. Patton of Brookfield for "The Empty Chair"

J. Birney Dibble of Eau Claire for "Vice of Fools"

Richard E. Carter of Wauwatosa for "Hand Me Down Dog"

Claudia Anderson of Whitewater for "The Player"

Dee Trein-Jucius of Salem for "I Am Number 193"

(Judge's Comments)

Julie Eger of Wautoma for "Broken Promise"

Mary Jo Balistreri of Waukesha for "Stairs to the Artist's Garden"

Ramon A. Klitzke of Waukesha for "Vigil"

Anjie Greene-Martin of Palmyra for "Photo From the Wall"

Liz Rhodebeck of Pewaukee for "Farmwife Dreaming"

Kathleen Hayes Phillips of Waukesha for "Mother and Child"

(Judge's Comments)

Audrey Yoeckel is a freelance artist, writer and musician. Her website, the Peacock Chronicle, was listed by Writers Digest, June 2003, as one of the top five "Hot Markets" in the e-zine publishers category.

Judge Yoeckel's Comments:

Judging this year's entries for the Jade Ring Contest was a very interesting experience and a real pleasure. Whether the article's focus was on perspective, information or history, each one had something unique to offer. I recognized some well-developed writing talent which is always refreshing, but makes selection difficult.

I found there were pieces that, while excellent, just did not have enough information, while others had too much. Some had weak opening statements that did not draw me in while others ended without sufficient conclusion. A few could have been better organized. Most of the titles could have been more descriptive. But overall the content was well-written and informative.

Jeanie Kezo lived in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for most of her life and has been a freelance writer since 2001. Kezo's op/ed pieces, columns and feature articles appeared in the Door County Advocate. Although she specialized in timely human interest pieces, her fiction appeared in various online publications and her work was included in an anthology, Stories of Strength, a charitable project with proceeds donated to Hurricane Katrina's victims. Kezo's most recent work involved writing interviews about local and national musicians for the Valley Planet, an entertainment newspaper in Huntsville, Alabama. Kezo lives in Huntsville.

Judge Kezo's Comments:

After much speculation, consideration and interpretation of rules, along with whatever experience and knowledge I've been able to glean along the way, I made decisions as to which entries deserve to hold award-winning status for the Jade Ring writing contest. I have to emphasize that it has been very difficult to eliminate many of these essays, and I firmly believe that they are all winners, just by having the courage and confidence to submit a piece of their writing souls, in this way. I know it is often not easy to do so. That being said, I painfully winnowed the ones that I considered the strongest examples of writing technique, that were interesting and enjoyable to read, and that still seemed to follow the contest's guidelines.

Karoleen Glenzer is president of the Central Wisconsin Reading Council. She donated her judging payment to the CWRC.

Judge Glenzer's Comments:

What a pleasure to read stories by such talented writers! I used a 6+1 Writing Traits rubric and then weaned the final winners down with criterion of "engagement" and "flow." Did I get emotionally involved in the writing? Was it understandable and easy to follow?

The honorarium your organization has offered will be used by the Central Wisconsin Reading Council to publish the winners of our last two Young Authors contests. What a win-win!!

Darlene Biese Shultz is the "Seniors Today" columnist for the Stevens Point Journal. She holds a degree in journalism and advertising and teaches fiction writing at the Lincoln Center, Stevens Point.

Judge Biese did not provide overall comments.

Peter Sherrill is President of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. Sherrill's poetry appeared in Fox Cry, Riverrun, and the Wisconsin Poets' Calendar. He edited two anthologies: Turn of the Seasons and Brown Bag Lunch. He was awarded the 2001 Jade Ring for his poem, "At the Airport Holiday Inn."

Judge Sherrill's Comments:

I was happy to see that we had 120 real poems. I mean that as a compliment. The entries were well written, clear, and all had poetic merit. This is not always the case. It was gratifying to see how many talented poets the WRWA can attract. There wasn't a dud in the bunch.

The first cut was by far the easiest. Of the 120 entries, about 20 stood out as unusually strong. For the 100 of you who didn't make the cut, here are a few suggestions:

From there, my work got much harder. It took half a dozen reads to winnow the 20 down to 11, then 9, then 7, then 6. At that point, I knew I had my winners. But to rank-order them?

I read and re-read them, shuffling the order one way and the other. I kept it up till I'd read through the finalists about two dozen times. I knew I had the order of the winners when the last four reads so no change in rank-order.

I can honestly say that any of the three prize-winners and three honorable mentions are blue-ribbon poems in their own right. It's just the nature of the beast that a contest will have a first, second and third place. The competition was keen and the quality excellent.

Michael Norman is a writer and playwright who makes his home near the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. He is the co-author with the late Beth Scott of the Haunted America series of true ghost stories including, Haunted Homeland, Haunted Heritage, Historic Haunted America, Haunted America, Haunted Heartland, and Haunted Wisconsin.

Michael also co-authored two new vocabulary books written for ages 12 and up: Wordwise and Vocabulary Guides to Enhance Your Real-World Conversations. As a playwright, he wrote several plays, including Entering the Circle: The Lives of Pioneer Farm Women for the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial with support from a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Nye and Riley Tonight!, a play based on the nineteenth century lyceum programs of Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley and humorist Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye.

Judge Norman's Comments:

I always hesitate to make generalizations in this sort of situation, so I'll call them observations instead:

All writing is rewriting.

I'm never satisfied with a piece of writing. But at some point I just give up.

So, I guess that means you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until you just give up.

Essay | Article | Nostalgia
Juvenile Short Story | Adult Short Story | Poetry