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 2024 judges are Sindya Bhanoo for prose and Annie Lighthart for poetry. Funding partners have included The Arts Alliance, the Chehalem Cultural Center, the Kinsman Foundation, library, book and writing groups, community businesses and individuals, the Yamhill County Cultural Coalition and the Oregon Cultural Trust.