Paper Gardens is an annual creative writing contest sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, Oregon. Writers who live, work or go to school in Yamhill County are invited to submit original poetry or prose. Prose categories are fiction or creative non-fiction. Poetry categories are traditional, free verse, haiku/tanka, and poetry of place-Oregon. Judges' selections are published in the Paper Gardens anthology. All published writers receive a copy of the book and are recognized at the book release celebration hosted by the Chehalem Cultural Center.
Paper Gardens began publishing in 1993 with William Stafford as the first Paper Gardens Judge. Ursula Le Guinn, Brian Doyle, Joe Wilkins, Kim Stafford as well as other Oregon Poet Laureates and Oregon Book Award Finalists have judged previous anthologies. The 2025 judges are Kari Luna for prose and Carolyn Martin for poetry. Funding partners have included The Arts Alliance, the Chehalem Cultural Center, the Kinsman Foundation, The Give A Little Foundation, library, book and writing groups, community businesses and individuals, the Yamhill County Cultural Coalition and the Oregon Cultural Trust.
Paper Gardens is an annual creative writing contest sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, Oregon. Writers who live, work or go to school in Yamhill County are invited to submit original poetry or prose. Prose categories are fiction or creative non-fiction. Poetry categories are traditional, free verse, haiku/tanka, and poetry of place-Oregon. Judges' selections are published in the Paper Gardens anthology. All published writers receive a copy of the book and are recognized at the book release celebration hosted by the Chehalem Cultural Center on May 6, 2025.
2025 Paper Gardens Submission deadline: March 2
Paper Gardens will only accept submissions that follow these guidelines:
· Submissions: (1 prose or 1 poem) with the title on the page but no name or personal information. Make the title of each entry the file name of the document. Example: rosesarered.docx. Judges see no personal information and selections are based on the merit of the literary work. Paper Gardens does not accept previously published work. Paper Gardens team members may make copy editing changes at their discretion to entries selected for publication. Significant editing that affects content will be agreed upon by the author and Paper Gardens Team.
· Format: 12 point Times New Roman, black font. Entries can be submitted in other languages with an English translation.
· Limit: Prose: Up to 1000 words; Poetry: Up to 40 lines
· Students: No entry fee, up to 4 submissions per author, prose and/or poetry. Each submission is 1 prose or 1 poem. When creating the Submittable account, use teacher, parent or personal email, not the student's school email.
Paper Gardens is an annual creative writing contest sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, Oregon. Writers who live, work or go to school in Yamhill County are invited to submit original poetry or prose. Prose categories are fiction or creative non-fiction. Poetry categories are traditional, free verse, haiku/tanka, and poetry of place-Oregon. Judges' selections are published in the Paper Gardens anthology. All published writers receive a copy of the book and are recognized at the book release celebration hosted by the Chehalem Cultural Center on May 6, 2025.
2025 Paper Gardens Submission deadline: March 2
Paper Gardens will only accept submissions that follow these guidelines:
· Submissions: (1 prose or 1 poem) with the title on the page but no name or personal information. Make the title of each entry the file name of the document. Example: rosesarered.docx. Judges see no personal information and selections are based on the merit of the literary work. Paper Gardens does not accept previously published work. Paper Gardens team members may make copy editing changes at their discretion to entries selected for publication. Significant editing that affects content will be agreed upon by the author and Paper Gardens Team.
· Format: 12 point Times New Roman, black font. Entries can be submitted in other languages with an English translation.
· Limit: Prose: Up to 1000; Poetry: Up to 40 lines
· Adults: $4 entry fee for 1 poem or 1 prose submission. Up to 4 submissions per author, prose and/or poetry, one file per submission.