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The Duane Stein Short Story Contest for Middle School/High School Students

A new and exciting feature was added to the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books! On September 1st, 2019, the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books accepted submissions for the new Duane Stein Short Story Competition for middle school and high school students.

1st place for her story “Lay Piety” is Berkeley Krell
Berkeley is a Sophomore at Waukesha West.

2nd place for her story “What Wednesday Told Me” is Addison Rahmlow
Addison is an 8th grader at Slinger Middle School

3rd place for his story “Taking a Walk” is Gavin Connell
Gavin is a Junior at Winneconne High School

This competition is in honor of Duane Stein, a beloved educator in the Waukesha School District from 1974 to 2011. Stein is well-known for his enthusiasm and encouragement in a variety of classes and in leading the Academic Decathlon Teams at Waukesha North High School and Waukesha West High School respectively.

First place $2,000
Second place $1,000
Third place $500

All winners will be announced, and awards accepted at the 2019 Southeast Wisconsin Book Festival at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha. The awards ceremony will take place during the opening reception on November 1st at 5:30 p.m. Preliminary judges for this contest will be former students of Stein’s, and the final decision will be made by Stein himself.

For further information on the competition and awards contact shortstorymatch@gmail.com.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

  • Student must be a Wisconsin resident, currently enrolled in a middle school, high school, online school, or home-schooled and under the age of 19
  • Length of story: up to 2500 words
  • Submissions must be in English
  • Any FICTION genre
  • Original, unpublished work, including online
  • Submitted as Word document (.doc), Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, one-inch margins
  • Name, address, phone number, email in the upper left-hand corner of first page
  • Page number in upper right
  • Must have THE END after story text
  • Email submissions to: shortstorymatch@gmail.com