North Coast Squid 8th Edition

The Hoffman Center for the Arts will publish the 8th edition of The North Coast Squid in October 2021 and invites submissions of writing and art from May 1 to May 31.

The 72-page literary magazine showcases the work of writers and artists who live on the North Oregon Coast or have a strong connection to the region. The magazine includes works of poetry, nonfiction, including memoir, and fiction.

As in previous years, submissions will be selected for publication based on blind judging by noted authors and poets: Margaret Chula for poetry; Apricot Irving for nonfiction; and Deb Vanasse for fiction.

Chula lived in Japan for 12 years where she taught creative writing and has published seven collections of poetry. She now lives in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to teach and give workshops at universities, poetry societies and Zen centers.

Irving is the author of The Gospel of Trees, a lyrical meditation on ecology, loss, and the tangled history of missions in Haiti, winner of the 2019 Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and Literary Arts Creative Nonfiction Fellowship. She lives in the Columbia River Gorge.

Vanasse is the author of more than a dozen books, many of them set in Alaska. Her works for children include six picture books and two young adult novels. After thirty-six years in Alaska, Vanasse now lives on the north Oregon coast.

Artwork and photographs, selected for publication by the Squid editorial team, will be used throughout the magazine and on its cover.

A $3 fee is charged for submissions in each category except “Young Writers” (18 and under) which is free. Please review the full guidelines and submit here.

Between now and the submission deadline, writers can hone their skills at the Hoffman Center’s Writing Lounge, held online on alternate Tuesday mornings, and through Community Writes, which showcases short pieces of fiction, nonfiction and memoir. A writing workshop, The Devil is in the Details, will be held April 24.

Past issues of the North Coast Squid can be purchased for $10 at the Hoffman Gallery, Manzanita News and Espresso, and Cloud and Leaf Bookstore.

Questions? Contact the Squid staff at [email protected]