No journey is ever straight, so why does travel writing try to be? This chapbook features any and all traveling (and writing) styles, compiled and edited by yours truly. It doesn’t have to be about a round-the-world-trip—although it can be—but any form of a journey. Did you move today? Did you walk to work, roll around in bed, change classrooms? Then you roved. Your piece has to be true, and it has to be meaningful. The rest is up to you. Send me your unstructured prose, poetry, manifestos, visual art, and ramblings. Experiment. Tell a story with your photographs. Take us on a journey of haikus. Be risky. Be honest. Be you. Submission Guidelines:
Deadline: March 15, 2015 Send via email: [email protected] |
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Does anyone (besides me) remember the adorable (and all-too-believable) commercial "The North American House Hippo"? The mythical creature stars in a 1999 Canadian public service announcement that cautions viewers to consider what they consume, and become aware of life's harsh realities.
The tone in this story immediately reminded me of the house hippo or a radio monologue. The piece is rich with irony and blatantly attacks our society's dependence of instructions and the ability to answer anything on Google. Lines such as "Either way, your child will learn to distinguish imaginary monsters from the real terrors of living and dying" and "It is perfectly natural, and your child will learn a valuable lesson about tolerance and diversity" poke fun at our over-analytic worries and expectations, especially those of parents. The moral of this story is that life lessons must be experience authentically; there are too many "ifs" and "buts" in life to plan epiphanies. People quite often say stupid stuff: it's a sad fact of humanity. Literature should hold itself to higher standards; making well-written pieces be the ultimate goal. Too often shock-value and the desire to spurn "the next big thing" detracts from artistic ability. Controversial writing opens the floodgates for others to write responses - not all of which are exceptionally written, either. And then I hang my head and wonder yet again why Snooki has a published novel, and I don't.
I can't claim to know the first thing about the recent winner of the Governor General award, or his award-winning children's novel, When Everything Looks like the Movies, beyond the excerpt's Barbara Kay has chosen to attack in her book review entitled Wasted tax dollars on a values-void novel. Harsh. I'm not going to lie: I didn't particularly like what I read. Not Raziel Ried or Barbara Kay's words. Perhaps this novel is a tad gimmicky in it's desperation for shock-value, but that is not Kay's issue. Read her article's title again: Values-void. Novel. So, she admits it: she's pissed off because Ried's work ignores society's conventional boundaries. She's not arguing against the value of piece itself. What Kay doesn't seem to get is that writing is about breaking rules. The question of whether or not this piece is actually good writing is yet to be dissected, but I think I'll leave that opinion up to me. (Now that I'm intrigued enough to pick up my own copy. Cheers Barbara!) When the little book company Brindle & Glass responded to my request for a complimentary copy of Julie Paul's new short-story collection, "The Pull of the Moon," I expected a no. After targeting Coach House Books for "The Butcher" and receiving a "we only do that for real media peoples," as well as loud silence from several other publishers I contacted, my hopes were not high.
I get that small publishers don't have time, money, or resources to ship off copies to nobodies. However, to my surprise, B&G responded with an astounding yes, they would love to assist with my non-profit essay for school. The hand-addressed package included a mint copy of the book, a recent press release to "help me out," along with a hand-written note. Furthermore, they expressed interest in reading my piece once completed. My piece - a small-town college kid, nothing close to real media. But the publishers in Brindle & Glass saw something in me the others didn't - potential. This is the kind of encouragement we need to foster new writers, publishers, media reps, and little book companies. Does anyone else remember the preliminary goal? Literature, and getting that literature out into the world, whether that means shipping off complimentary copies to sit on bookshelves in coffee shops or placing a downloadable PDF on the web. We need to support each other, by reading Canadian's works, and writing for these publishers. With inspiration still steaming off B&G's yes, I can envision a bigger and better creative writing scene in Canada then ever before. |
AlisonKarleneTravel, write, love life. Archives
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