Open Pages
Your voice. Your story. Your pages.
Open Pages is a community zine made by the people of the New England North West — and that includes you! (Never heard of a zine? It’s a little homemade magazine, more on that below.) Whatever you make, write, draw, photograph or scribble, we want to put it into the Open Pages Zine. It’s free to take part, anyone can submit their artwork, and there’s no such thing as “not creative enough.”
Wait — what’s a zine?
Fair question. A zine (say it “zeen”) is a small, homemade magazine. The word is short for “magazine,” and they’ve been around since the 1930s; photocopied, stapled together, and passed from hand to hand. No publisher, no gatekeeper, no permission needed. Just people putting their ideas on a page and sharing them.
And that’s exactly why we chose this format. A zine doesn’t care if you’re a trained artist or a polished writer.
A zine can hold almost anything, too - words, pictures, collage, scribbles - so there’s a way in for everyone, whatever you like to make. That’s the whole point. Open Pages is a zine because a zine is the one kind of publication built to say “yes, you, come in.”
Why bother?
Because everyone has something worth saying, and most of us never get asked. Open Pages is your invitation.
Open Pages runs through Arts North West's Enable Arts Program, and it's here to do a few simple things: get more local voices heard, get more people making things, and build a bit of connection across our towns, one page at a time. No experience needed. No qualifications required. It's made by the community, for the community, and we genuinely can't wait to see what you come up with.
Maybe you've got a poem in a notebook you've never shown anyone. Maybe your nan tells the best stories in town and someone should write them down. Maybe you just have a strong opinion about something and a page to put it on. All of it counts here.
And there's something special about seeing your work in print. A zine is different. It's a real thing you can hold, flip through, and pass to someone else. Your piece gets ink on paper, a spot on a page, and a place on the shelf at your local library. That's worth more than just another post that disappears.
This isn't a competition and you don't need to be "an artist." You just need something you'd like to share. Put it on the page, and you become part of the story of this region, sitting alongside your neighbours, in something people will actually pick up and read. And there's a particular welcome here for people with disability. Too often the same voices get heard and the same ones get left out. Open Pages is built so that doesn't happen. Your story, your way, no gatekeepers.
When it’s happening
Open Pages comes out four times over the next two years. Each edition has its own theme to spark an idea, and its own deadline. Here’s the run of them:
Edition 1 — The View From Here - Submissions close September 2026 · Out October 2026
What does the world look like from where you stand? Your window, your street, your seat on the bus. Show us your corner of the region.
Edition 2 — If Objects Could Talk - Submissions close January 2027 · Out February 2027
The teapot, the toolbox, the thing you can’t throw out. Pick an object and tell its story, or let it tell yours.
Edition 3 — Small Things That Matter - Submissions close May 2027 · Out June 2027
The little moments that stick. A habit, a kindness, a sound, a day. Celebrate something quiet that means a lot.
Edition 4 — Bad Ideas, Great Stories - Submissions close September 2027 · Out October 2027
The plan that went sideways. The risk that didn’t pay off but made a good yarn. Tell us about a brilliant disaster.
Every piece we accept goes into the online published edition for everyone to read, and the best of them get printed and sent out across the region; to libraries, galleries, museums, theatres, and anyone with a printer who wants to run off their own copies and join in.
What can I send in?
Almost anything, as long as it connects to the theme. Send us between one and five pieces. We’re after things like:
Poetry
Short stories
Personal reflections
Essays or opinion pieces
Photography
Drawings or illustrations
Comics
Collage
Journal entries
Interviews
Reviews
Creative writing
Mixed media
Anything else you can dream up
A poem, a photo, a handwritten note, a comic strip, a single good sentence, it all helps tell the story of where we live. Got a response to something happening in your town, a review, or a hot take you need to get off your chest? That counts too.
How to take part
Fill in the online form and upload your piece through the button below.
When you submit, you choose how your name appears:
Use your full name
Use a made-up name
Stay completely anonymous
One quick tip for anything visual: send the clearest, highest-quality version you can (300 DPI if you know what that means, and don’t worry if you don’t). Sharp images have the best chance of looking great in print; blurry ones are hard to rescue once they’re printed on paper.