“First Time Out” by Ida Bettis Fogle and “Spider’s Song” by Mike Robertson have been selected as the runners up in the Tribune’s LED Writing Contest! Our judges, Aarik Danielsen and Jennifer McCauley, selected these works from among many great submissions.

Congratulations to our two very talented runners up!

Ida Bettis Fogle is a resident of Columbia, Missouri, a city with a thriving arts community. She has been writing poetry since childhood, and makes it a habit to read at least one poem every day. In the past few years, she has diversified her writing portfolio to include short fiction and memoir pieces, as well as a novel in progress. Her writing has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies, most recently “Eternal as a Weed: Tales of Ozark Experience” and “Well Versed.” She blogs at Nomadic Noesis (thedamari.wordpress.com.)

Mike Robertson, a retired programmer, has written over a hundred short stories and poems of various lengths. Some have won minor awards and are included in online compilations of short fiction.

His books include Butterfly Woman, a collection of short stories; The Lazlo Mission, a novel; and a novella, Natural Boy.

Mike is also a musician and electronic music composer. He continues writing in short bursts and is currently working on a series of detective stories set in the heartland of Missouri.

You can find some of his essays and links to his books at http://mgrobertsonhimself.blogspot.com/

Our gracious host, Makes Scents, has awarded these runners up with a gift card and a reed diffuser of their (very apropos) Old Book Smell. So congratulations Ida and Mike! Thank you for sharing your writing with us, and thanks to Makes Scents for celebrating local writers!