Indigo's Day of Workshops

It's true, we're beginning to offer non-writing workshops for writers to help them navigate the editing and publishing worlds. Please join us on Saturday, May 15, for our first day of workshops featuring:

Breakthrough Writing Playshop
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Instructor: Susan DeFreitas
Cost: $45*
This inspiring workshop will help you break through the constraints of left brain logic and into the fascinating chaos of the deep creative or intuitive mind. We’ll incorporate a series of prompts garnered from found images and objects, quotes, Surrealist-style writing exercises, and more, drawing on layering techniques designed to unhinge habitual patterns of meaning-making and arranging, with the goal of jogging the subconscious mind into loosing its gems of association through intriguing and unexpected combinations of words and images.

All participants will leave with a series of free-writes that may serve as seeds for future pieces and creative dynamite aimed at breaking through current writing blocks.

Susan DeFreitas is a writer, editor, multimedia artist and poet who enjoys the way different art forms can influence writing. She has an interdisciplinary degree in Arts and Letters from Prescott College for the Liberal Arts and the Environment; her prose-poetry natural history (influenced by classical music) was recently published in Southwestern American Literature.

Impress Your Editor—All of Them
1–2:30 p.m.
Instructor: Kristin Thiel
Cost: $45*
If someone’s opinion is important enough for you to share your manuscript with that person, it’s equally important that you prepare your manuscript to its best before you hand it over. Learn how to ready your manuscript for your writing group. Save time and money by following a few simple tips before you hire an independent editor. Support—don’t sabotage—your manuscript before the acquisitions editor or agent finally slices open your promising box of twelve-point Times New Roman.

Kristin Thiel has been an editor for almost a decade, and sharing her own writing with other editors for longer than that. An excerpt of her writing is an example of what to do right in the reference book Don’t Sabotage Your Submission: Save Your Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A.

Publish Before You Publish
2:40–4:10 p.m.
Instructor: Andrea Deeken
Cost: $45*
If you have dreams of becoming a published author but don’t know where to start, this is the class for you. Submitting to contests and journals is a great way to begin building a platform for your writing that can easily be carried over into further publication. Learn the basics of how and why to submit, as well as the kinds of submissions to avoid. There will be time set aside for free writing and feedback. All skill levels welcome.

Andrea Deeken has studied writing for almost fifteen years and has been an editor since 2005. A veteran of submitting to contests and journals, she has won first place in writing contests sponsored by Richard Hugo House and Portland Pen and Pie. Her work has most recently appeared in The Bear Deluxe.


*Attend all three workshops for just $100. Each class is limited to nine students. All classes will be held at the Indigo office, 519 SW 3rd Ave., Fifth-floor conference room, Portland, Oregon.

Take advantage of these great prices to add to your knowledge base and to get to know our editors! Visit www.indigoediting.com for more information. E-mail workshops@indigoediting.com to register.

Spotlighted Literary Events

Oct. 17th, 6 pm: Come to the Writer's Dojo and celebrate the launch of Ink-Filled Page Red Anthology. Music, art, readings, and food galore!

Oct. 22nd, 7 pm: Visit Cornerstone Books in Boston for Thursdays Theatre of Words and Music! Featuring author Julia Glass and music by Julie Dougherty!

Oct. 24th, 2 pm: Marina Marchese will be at Pastaworks in Portland reading from her book Honeybee. Preorder signed book and stay for honey tasting!

Only Three Days Left Till Sledgehammer!

The writing contest of the century--or at least the weekend--is almost upon us.

Indigo Editing & Publications introduces a new approach to shattering writer’s block: create teams, run around Portland gathering writing prompts and write a story … all within 36 hours.

This weekend will bring the first-ever Sledgehammer writing contest. Starting at noon on Saturday, October 18, teams of writers will converge at Backspace, 115 N.W. 5th Ave. in Portland, to receive their first writing prompt and clues to further writing prompts. They’ll head out to several locations around Portland to gather all four writing prompts, and they’ll have 36 hours to write the best fiction piece they can come up with. Final submissions are due back at Backspace by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, October 19.

The winning piece will be selected by judge Jan Underwood, 2005 winner of the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest for Day Shift Werewolf. The victorious team takes home the prize package worth over $3,000 and will be scheduled to read during Wordstock, held November 8 and 9 at the Portland Convention Center.

Prizes include a bike tour of Hawaii, writing classes, writing community memberships, books, gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, T-shirts, editing services and much more! The winning piece will be distributed in print at Wordstock and online at www.indigoediting.com/sledgehammer.

Participant registration is open to individuals as well as teams. Register online at www.indigoediting.com/sledgehammer or in person as late as noon on October 18. Cost is $20/individual or $75/team. Open to all ages. Participants 12 and under will receive free feedback on their story, courtesy of Indigo Editing & Publications.

Through the Sledgehammer writing contest, we support writing as a team activity, foster love for the beautiful city of Portland and its small businesses and thrive through cooperative creativity among people and across the arts.

Writers to your marks. Get set. Bang!

Sledgehammer Writing Contest

Let Indigo shatter your writer's block!

When: October 18, 12 p.m. to October 19, 11:59 p.m.

How the Contest Works: Teams of writers converge in downtown Portland at noon on Saturday, October 18 to receive their first writing prompt and clues to further writing prompts. They head out to several locations around Portland to gather all four writing prompts, and have thirty-six hours to write the best fiction piece they can come up with. Final submissions are due back at the original location by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, October 19.

The winning team’s story will be published in a pamphlet to be distributed at Wordstock and available for download on our Web site. The winning team will also have opportunities to read their story at local literary venues, including Wordstock, and will win a stellar prize package.

Through the Sledgehammer writing contest, we support writing as a team activity, foster love for the beautiful city of Portland and its small businesses, and thrive through cooperative creativity among people and across the arts.

Writers, register now!
Sledgehammer FAQs
Thank you to our sponsors!

Last Week to Submit to the Ink-Filled Page

Call for Submissions

The Ink-Filled Page is accepting fiction and nonfiction submissions as well as art pieces through the end of August.

The Ink-Filled Page is a quarterly literary journal produced by Indigo Editing, LLC. The journal is published online quarterly, and we print an anthology annually. We operate primarily off of donations of time and money. To sponsor an anthology or to get involved, e-mail info@indigoediting.com.

Selected authors and artists will receive a complimentary copy of the annual anthology. Authors will also receive professional editing services on the selected story.

Fiction submissions can be short stories or novel excerpts, and the nonfiction section is open to personal narratives and essays. While all genres are welcome, special interests include travel, multicultural themes, feminism, and magical realism.

Limit submissions to 5,000 words, one submission per candidate. Authors who submit more than one piece will not be considered.

Submissions will be accepted via our online submission form through August 31.

All work must be original and unpublished by any other literary publication. Simultaneous submissions are accepted on the condition that you notify us immediately upon acceptance by another publication. By submitting your work to the Ink-Filled Page, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

For best results, read our publication by downloading the most recent issue or buying the 2007 anthology before you submit.

Welcome, Leah and Megan!

Indigo Editing welcomes the two most recent additions to our team, Leah Gibson-Blackfeather as our marketing and editorial assistant and Megan Wellman as our editorial assistant.

Leah has had an obsessive passion for words since she was very young; she is prone to three a.m. breakouts of creativity which cause her to lose valuable sleep. She is currently a staff writer/proofreader for her school's liberal publication and in the process of developing a freelance writing and editing career to slide into after graduating next spring. Leah has recently become involved in Ooligan Press, which has led to her a disastrous addiction to the smell, feel, and general presentation of books; it has all gone downhill from there. She can now be found in the aisles of Powell's blue room on any given day, madly molesting the spines of books.

Megan’s love for words began underneath the branches of her grandparents’ oak tree, where she devoured book after book. A handful of years later, Megan earned her BA in English literature from Western Washington University. After graduation she decided to turn her obsession with reading into a career and began working as an editorial assistant at Illumination Arts Publishing Company in Bellevue, Washington. Currently, Megan is a graduate student in the publishing program at Portland State University. She will graduate this fall. Although her literary tastes have changed from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Jane Eyre, Megan still visits the oak tree from time to time.