Creative Guts April News!
This is a big one. We have so much news for you.
Call for Poetry for the 2026 Spring Zine! 📘
Creative Guts is pleased to announce a call for poetry for our Spring 2026 Zine, with a theme of Collaborative Curiosity. We’re seeking poems that upend the solitary and thrive on connection with other writers, works of art, and community. We will consider all explorations of collaboration and are especially interested in poems written by collaborative pairs, ekphrastic poems, erasure poems, and poems that reach outside of themselves into the collective.
Programming Committee member and poet JJ Rowan will facilitate review of submissions with members of the Creative Guts team for this edition. All accepted artists/writers will be notified by the first week of June.
ELIGIBILITY: Creatives 18 years and older, from any country, are welcome to apply with written works of poetry (up to five (5) pages of poetry, no more than one (1) poem per page).
FEE: Submission is $15 for up to five pages of poetry. As a nonprofit organization, Creative Guts relies on these modest fees to cover production costs and sustain opportunities like this for our creative community. If this fee is a barrier, please email hello@creativegutspodcast.com to request a submission waiver.
SUBMISSION: Please upload a single text document of poetry (up to five (5) pages of poetry, no more than one (1) poem per page).
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: May 15, 2026 (11:59 pm ET)
The Creative Guts Short Film Festival is Back! 🎬
For the third year, Creative Guts presents the Creative Guts Short Film Festival. Independent filmmakers from New Hampshire and beyond are invited to submit their short films to our short film festival, starting on Friday, May 1st (that’s tomorrow!).
The festival will be hosted at Red River Theatres in Concord, New Hampshire, on the evening of Thursday, July 30th. We welcome film submissions from any genre that are 15 minutes or shorter. Submissions to this festival are $15. As a nonprofit organization, Creative Guts relies on these modest fees to cover production costs and sustain opportunities like this for our creative community. If this fee is a barrier, please email hello@creativegutspodcast.com to request a submission waiver.
The spirit of this festival is to celebrate the creativity, voice, and collaboration of filmmakers. We encourage submissions from creatives of all backgrounds and at any stage in their filmmaking journey to apply. Show us your creative guts!
A jurying process will be conducted to approve selected films. Youth may submit works to the festival with a release by a parent or guardian. We strive to make our film festival as accessible as possible, and require an open caption file.
Tickets to the festival will be available for purchase through Red River Theatres website starting in June. Filmmakers of selected films will receive one free ticket to the festival.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 14, 2026
Live Podcast Recording at NHAA 🎙️
Creative Guts is excited to be working with the New Hampshire Art Association to produce another live panel podcast on women in the arts in May. This timely conversation takes place alongside May’s Sue Werner Thoresen Exhibition, which explores identity, equity, resilience, and lived experience for women and gender-diverse people in New Hampshire. Stay tuned for the panelist announcement soon!
Saturday, May 16th | 2:00pm
Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery | 136 State St, Portsmouth, NH
Tickets required | $20 for NHAA members, $25 for non-member
Join us for the dynamic discussion and see how a podcast is made!
New Board Member 📣
Creative Guts is thrilled to announce the appointment of Jayme H. Simões to our Board of Directors!
Jayme is a communicator at heart and a storyteller by instinct—someone who approaches marketing not simply as strategy, but as craft. As the founder of Louis Karno & Co., established in 1999, he has shaped the firm into a creative engine where ideas, narrative, and place intersect. Jayme’s work often lives at the intersection of culture, travel, and public life, where the tone matters as much as the message.
In 2024, he was named to NH Business Review’s New Hampshire 200, recognizing individuals whose influence has helped shape the state’s economic and cultural landscape. His leadership extends beyond his firm—he has served on the Creative Economy Task Force of the Concord Chamber of Commerce and ARTS4NH.
Welcome to the Board, Jayme!
Charitable Gaming in Hampton 🎲
From May 8th to May 21st, a portion of gaming proceeds from Aces & Eights Casino will benefit Creative Guts! This NH charitable gaming support will be vital for achieving our mission as a volunteer-run nonprofit in NH.
Aces & Eights is a Casino Room located in the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on the Boardwalk! It is open Wednesdays through Sundays in the Spring. They offer table games like Poker, Roulette, Blackjack, as well as a wide assortment of electronic slot machine games. Take a chance for charity!
Learn more at www.acesandeightscasinos.com. Thank you to Aces & Eights Casino for being our charitable gaming partner.
Luna Moth Zine Fest🎙️
Our time at the Luna Moth Zine Fest on April 18th was an absolute blast! We saw tons of familiar faces and met lots of new friends. Creativity was everywhere!
Along with selling our zines, aprons, and stickers, we also picked up some more zines for our little library! Check it out at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Studio 6.
Special thanks to Jen Kimball and Butch Laker, members of our Programming Committee, for volunteering at our table. Thank you to April Landry and all the folks who made the Luna Moth Zine fest happen.
Creative Guts will share a montage podcast episode featuring some of the creatives at the festival in the near future!
Photos left to right: Jennifer Kimball, CG Programming Committee Member; Angry Gato Designs; Butch Laker, CG Programming Committee Member; Haley Searcy Art; Nick Alexander Art; and B McCormick Art.
On the Podcast 🎧
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Joe Acone sit down with Ned Roche, ceramicist and owner of Chases Garage.
As an old friend of Joe and newer friend of Laura, Ned brings creative thinking and humor to our delightful conversation. Ned shares about Chases Garage, an auto-shop turned artist community in York, Maine, that offers classes, workshops, and studio space. We also dive into how Ned’s work, folded things, evolved; his latest endeavor: soft serve ice cream out of clay; and many silly side topics.
🎧 Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Find Ned’s work at www.nedroche.com and follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/hiprandy. Check out Chases Garage at www.chasesgarage.com and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/chasesgarage/.
Thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for sponsoring the Creative Guts Podcast!
Want to help Creative Guts make amazing things like the above stories happen? Your donation, no matter the size, will go a long way and have a great impact on the arts in our community. Support our work today!
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