While some authors write for themselves (we’re looking at you, Emily Dickinson), many hope to reach an audience outside themselves. Writers in the Attic can offer the first step towards that goal.
An annual publication by The Cabin, Writers in the Attic is a contest designed for writers, both emerging and established, to publish work related to a one-word theme. (Past years’ themes have included song, game, and rupture.) With submissions blind-judged by a local writer of acclaim, selected poems and fiction are published in a yearly anthology. Selected writers are also invited to a book launch party and reading celebration in late August each year.
The Cabin is now accepting submissions for the fifteenth annual Writers in the Attic writing competition. Writers are encouraged to send their work on the one-word theme, "HODGEPODGE," in any creative format they wish for example poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc.
About the Theme
We make stories and poems from what precious things we can salvage: odds and ends of our days, jumbles of memory, mishmashes of loves, griefs, fears, and joys. Give us writing that wades into life’s mess, assesses what’s left in the fridge and makes something from what only looks like nothing. Send us dispatches from moments held together with duct tape and shoelace. Give us precarious proposals, DIY adventures, and whatever’s been forgotten in the back of the desk drawer. We want your mismatched socks, your spare buttons, your hodgepodge hearts.
What is HODGEPODGE to you?
Submission Guidelines
- Writing should apply, abstractly or literally, to the theme “Hodgepodge.” Work unrelated to the theme will be disqualified.
- Keep entries under 1,500 words, please!
- Although we love that you're inspired, no photos, illustrations, or artwork.
- Submissions must be typed, Times New Roman, 12pt font, and double-spaced (if prose).
- To allow for blind-judging, leave personal information off the submission itself.
- The entry fee is subject to your interpretation.
- Send us your piece(s) by 11:59 PM on Sunday, March 15, 2026.
- Writers will be emailed in the spring as to whether or not their work was selected by the judge for publication!
Our Mission
The Cabin is a literary arts nonprofit organization in Boise, Idaho. We forge community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners. Our workshops, readings, lectures, camps, and other literary programs provoke creativity and experimentation, foster literary excellence, and inspire a love of reading and writing in children and adults alike across the Treasure Valley and beyond.
Our Commitment to Equity
The thread of who is allowed to tell their story and who is listening is no small piece of our individual and shared history, in all its prejudice and privilege, pride and oppression. The Cabin and Idaho have been part of this history. We are committed to helping shape a different future, one in which all members of our community have the opportunity to tell and hear their stories, particularly Black communities, Indigenous communities, and all other historically marginalized communities and communities of color.
Our Workshop Teaching Writer’s Handbook
Take a moment to check out our teaching writer expectations, workshop requirements, compensation model, and more! View our workshop teaching writer's handbook here!
What We're Looking For
Strong and flexible lesson plans. Cabin workshops give writers opportunities to engage with their teaching writer and one another, while also providing instruction on craft, engaging discussion, and in-class writing activities. Teaching writers are encouraged to give attendees a syllabus or overview of the class with a sense of what to expect on day one.
Single Session Classes. If this is your first time teaching a class with The Cabin, please only propose a single, 2-hour class. From there, we will gauge if it’s a good fit and can work together to see if a multi-week format is right for your workshop. Teaching writers who’ve been with us before are also welcome to teach single session workshops! We want these!
Multi-week (2 week to 6 week) genre workshops that focus on craft and readings, generative writing exercises, community-building opportunities, across genres, with core values to emphasize: inclusivity, curiosity, and creativity. If you’re planning a feedback-based workshop structure with written feedback on attendee’s writing, be sure to detail this in your proposal, along with an alternative format sans feedback for us to consider.
Writing! Cabin writing workshops are an opportunity for community members to engage in genre craft in a welcoming and inclusive space. In-class writing time is a must for any workshop proposal–no lectures please.
We're Not Looking For
Really, no lectures, please. We have not had success with workshops that feel academic in nature (e.g., discussing or assigning academic writing texts, theoretical texts, workshops built around classics, workshops on rhetoric) or workshops that are too niche (e.g., writing in translation, journalism, etc).
Send Us Your Pitches!
Our submissions window for Spring Workshop Applications will Close January 8th, 2026. We will reopen for submissions April 1-May 15 for pitching workshops to teach in fall, early winter 2026-27.