Some people find winter on the Oregon Coast bleak – probably gray and chilly, probably raining; ditto, the wind. Other people find that moody scene perfect, knowing that it’s also likely to be quiet, uncrowded, and quite possibly coming with the surprise of a few rays of sun.
It was such a winter day that inspired Connie Soper to write her first poem in 20-odd years. She’d just returned to Oregon after years of living in California and found new inspiration after a visit to the beach.
The poem, January, won a spot in the North Coast Squid, the literary journal showcasing the work of writers and artists with a connection to the North Oregon Coast.
“That was the first poem I had had published in over 25 years,” said Soper, who is also the author of the guidebook, Exploring the Oregon Coast Trail. “It really meant a lot to me that that particular poem got published, because it meant something to me spending so much time at the beach in Manzanita, but also because it was the first poem I had published in a long time and it kind of got me started again.”
This year, Squid, as it is known by fans, will celebrate its 10th edition, no small feat for a literary journal in a small community in an era when publications of all sizes and subjects are vanishing.
For writers and artists on the North Coast, the literary journal is a place of possibility.
“Many first-time-published writers have told me how powerful it was to have their work selected for publication in the North Coast Squid,” said Andrew Barker, chief editor. “A lot of good writers don’t realize how good they are. Getting published in the Squid takes them to a new level of confidence in their voice and commitment to their craft.”
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The journal grew out of the Manzanita Writers’ Series founded by Vera Wildauer and Kathie Hightower in 2008 and was first published in 2012 as an insert in the North Coast Citizen, a bi-weekly newspaper.
“It was just a little tabloid with, you know, 10 pages or something; very small,” Wildauer recalled. “And then after a couple of rounds of that, the North Coast Citizen decided it wasn’t their thing anymore. And so, we decided this was too cool to give up and we would publish it ourselves, and since then, that’s what we’ve been doing.”
From an insert in a little tabloid newspaper, with submissions coming mostly from beginning artists, Squid has grown to a magazine-style publication, with 74 glossy, colored pages and a “bigger reputation” with submissions “from people who are regularly published,” Wildauer said.
The content is about half written and half art. The journal originally was published every year, but since 2017 has been published every other year. There are no advertisements. “We did a little for a while, and it just didn’t look very good and didn’t bring in that much money,” Barker said. Written submissions are curated by a panel of professional Oregon writers who, in the past, have included Brian Doyle and Oregon’s 10th poet laureate, Anis Mojgani.
“We get a huge, huge range of submissions to the Squid,” Barker said. “Fortunately, our strategy is not to have to make the decision of what goes in and what doesn’t…. Being in a small community, I know most of the writers who are submitting, so it would be hard to be completely objective.”
He added that submissions vary from those that cause him to cringe to some “that really wow me. We know who our good writers are, and they usually end up being selected by our author panel, so it kind of reinforces what I know about the quality of writers that we have in this community. It’s pretty amazing.”
To Soper, who lives part time in Manzanita, Squid is not only a source of inspiration to create, but also an opportunity to see what others have written and, for those just getting started, a look at the submission process. She’s readying to submit her own work for the 10th edition but says she also tries not to focus on the “goal of publication.”
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“I have been published in other journals and will continue to submit to them,” Soper said. “But I would not say that I write for the purpose of submitting — to Squid or any other journal. In fact … I am very good at convincing myself that my work is terrible before I even finish it. So, it is my goal to write more freely without judgment or editorial comment that can be self-defeating. Then, when I feel a poem is finished, I might try to find a suitable place for it to land. Or not. Sometimes a poem will languish on my computer waiting for the right moment to be sent off.”
The window for submissions to the North Coast Squid opens May 1 and ends May 31 and is open to artists with “strong connections” to the North Oregon Coast — defined as “either as a full-time, part-time, or former resident of Clatsop or Tillamook county; or as a frequent visitor.”
The 10th edition is scheduled for publication in October with 500 copies available at $20 each. An artists’ reception is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Hoffman Center for the Arts Gallery with 25 to 30 original artworks on display and for sale during gallery hours. A publication launch party is also planned for October — details of when and where are still in the works.
“The opening is pretty popular,” Wildauer said. “We split it up, because in the early days, people were bringing their own entourage, and it was getting a little unwieldy, so now we limit it, so we don’t get in trouble with the fire marshal.”
Even so, the evening launch party is always “packed to the gills,” Wildauer said.
“The mood is always celebratory. People are excited to have their work published and it’ll be the first time for some. We have 12 of the published folks read their piece and we typically have a cake with the cover of the magazine on it — and the artist whose image is on the cover is pretty tickled: edible art.”
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Good work!