1 week Ago By Editorial Board
The Enterprise-Record is accepting applications to be a North State Voices columnist for 2025. North State Voices started more than 20 years ago and has continued as one of the most popular features in our newspaper each Thursday. This is our first competition for “new” writers since late 2022; in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the feature, we brought back several former Voices writers for a victory lap in 2024.
The year is almost up, so it’s time to start recruiting some new contributors. Here’s how it works: Each Thursday, we publish one of our four North State Voices columnists on our Opinion page, meaning each columnist writes 13 columns per year. Columnists are paid a small stipend for their contributions.
We’re looking for people who are good writers, with the ability to tell stories with a personal touch that will be embraced by our readers. We want your words on things that impact your life on a day-to-day (or, even year-to-year) basis. We really don’t need more viewpoints on Washington or Donald Trump or international politics — we have plenty of those elsewhere on our Opinion pages, from a variety of sources.
(That’s not to say we wouldn’t listen if you have a particularly powerful personal story about how something on that level has impacted your life, but, generally speaking, we’re more interested in real-life, first-person stories.) We’ll also note that, historically, applicants who weren’t selected their first go-round have ended up being chosen in later years. If you’ve applied in the past and weren’t chosen as one of the top four, please keep trying.
(Believe us when we say there have been a lot of tough decisions through the years, and some years we get more entries than other years.) To apply, put together a cover letter, telling us a little about yourself and why you want to be a North State Voices columnist. You’ll also need to submit two sample columns — approximately 600 words apiece — as well as at least three other column topics you’d like to tackle during the year.
You can email your submission to [email protected]. Just write “North State Voices” in the subject line and send the entry as straight text; please, no attachments.
You can also mail it to us at P.O. Box 9, Chico, 95927.
Your deadline is Tuesday, Dec. 3. Winners will be notified in mid-December and should be ready to hit the ground running as we’ll publish the first of the 2025 North State Voices on Jan.
2. We’re also looking for community members who would like to serve on our panel of judges. You can contact us at voices@chicoer.
com if you’re interested. On another note, we’re also seeking applicants from readers who may be interested in serving on our editorial board as a community member in 2025. This is a non-paying volunteer position giving citizens the opportunity to sit in on our weekly editorial board meetings as we discuss topics (and positions) for future editorials, including our weekly Hits and Misses.
If you’re interested in serving as a community member of our editorial board in 2025, please send an email to editor Mike Wolcott at [email protected] by Nov 22. He’ll send you the next steps in the process from there.
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