Annual writing competition for all ages
The annual Paper Gardens competition will open for submissions on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. Paper Gardens is a creative writing program with categories in prose and poetry that accepts free entries from students ages 6 through 18.
Top submissions in each category in each age group will be honored at a celebration on Wednesday, May 6, at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg. All winning entries will be published in the book and all published authors will receive a copy of the book at the celebration.
Entry deadline is March 2, 2026. Click for more information.
The 2026 judges are Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston for prose and Richard Robbins for poetry. Paper Gardens is sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County in partnership with the Chehalem Cultural Center.
For more than three decades, the Paper Gardens project has brought together the diverse voices of Yamhill County writers and poets into a single book. This unique publication features creative submissions from children, youth and adults who live, study or work in Yamhill County.