After a robust fall edition, SHARK REEF’s spring issue is now available online. Featuring the work of writers from Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan Island, it’s a diverse collection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

The volume features excerpts from four books in progress, one of them a young adult novel; a tale about leaving the family home as an adult; the memoir of a young woman trying to untangle the difficulties of growing up as an albino; and a book about people who work with their hands.

The edition has work by poets Judith Miller, Anita Leigh Holladay, Oak Boesky, JoEllen Moldoff and John Sangster; fiction by Cady Chapman Davies, Weyshawn Koons, Richard Carter and Kip Greenthal; and nonfiction by Iris Graville and Chrys Buckley.

SHARK REEF, which can be viewed at www.sharkreef.org, is a project of the Lopez Writers Guild.

Co-editor for the spring edition was Janet Thomas, San Juan Island author of “The Battle for Seattle: The Story Behind and Beyond the WTO Demonstrations,” published in 2000. An excerpt of Janet’s recent, not-yet-published book, “The Dogs of Dharamsala: On the Trail of the Dalai Lama,” appeared in the fall 2007 issue.

“What a great resource for writer and reader alike,” commented Thomas. “SHARK REEF’s commitment to local writers and the fine art of writing is a real gift in these sound-bite times.”

Lorna Reese, editor and co-founder of SHARK REEF, said, “Our reason for being is to give serious San Juan Islands writers an opportunity to publish their work, to get it out there in the world. And it’s working. The response from local writers was so good this time we needed to establish limits on the number of words and the number of submissions. You can find them on the website. We are also asking writers not to submit if their work is featured in the previous issue, to just skip one issue.”

SHARK REEF publishes two issues a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Submission deadlines are June 30 and December 31. They consider solicited and unsolicited material, published previously or unpublished fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry and dramatic writing.

Each edition showcases the work of a local artist. The spring issue features monoprints in various media by JoEllen Moldoff from Orcas Island. Moldoff was co-editor of the fall 2007 issue.

Earlier issues of SHARK REEF can be found in the archives section of the website. Submission deadline for the fall 2008 issue is June 30. See the website for submission guidelines.