Call For Volunteers: Help Create Giant Puppets For The PEN World Voices Festival

Processional Art Workshop's "Bibliobats"

This year's PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which runs from April 30 through May 6, features an amazing array of participants, including Salman Rushdie, Colson Whitehead, Margaret Atwood, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet. And guess what? You can join them.

The internationally acclaimed Processional Art Workshop, whose work you might have seen in the annual Village Halloween Parade, and the PEN American Center, the nonprofit organization that presents the annual literary festival, are looking for volunteers to help craft huge "bibliomorphic" puppets and other literature-inspired props. These "bibliomorphic" creations will be featured in the Parade of Illuminations, the festival's opening celebration at the High Line on April 30, as well as in ongoing performance throughout the week.

Want in? From April 21 through May 2 artists Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles will be leading workshops where volunteers can help "translate the sensual anatomy of bindings, folios, paper and print into bibliomorphic puppets and performing objects." All you have to do is fill out the volunteer form. No experience is necessary, and kids ages 10+ can help out as well if accompanied by an adult.

Below is the full schedule of workshops, which all take place at the Westbeth Center for the Arts. We can't wait to see the amazing puppets that you help create:

• Saturday, April 21: Noon–6pm
• Sunday, April 22: Noon–6pm
• Wednesday, April 25: 2–8pm
• Thursday, April 26: 2–8pm
• Friday, April 27: 2–8pm
• Saturday, April 28: Noon–6pm
• Sunday, April 29: Noon–6pm
• Tuesday, May 1: 2–8pm
• Wednesday, May 2: 2–8pm

-- John Ruscher

Call for Entries: Write the Worst Sentence In 25 Words or Less

Though we usually prefer applauding a job well done, sometimes when a job is done so poorly we have to stop and take notice. We don't think we're the only ones who enjoy contests like the Literary Review's annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The last winner was Snow Falling on Cedars author David Guterson for his fifth novel, Ed King, a modern interpretation of Oedipus that apparently uses one too many coy metaphors like "back door" and "front parlour." Guterson even bested Haruki Murakami's embarrassing comparison of "a freshly made ear and a freshly made vagina" in 1Q84.

But we digress.

The point is, we're equally excited for the Lyette Lyon contest--AKA the worst sentence written in 25 words or less. This one's an open call: Meaning you can either create your own terrible ode to the English language or nominate a particularly egregious sentence born from someone else's ill-fated pen. 

Last year's Lyette Lyon winner was a woman by the name of Judy Dean--and her entry went a little something like this:

"The red hot sun rose in the cold blue sky."

Here's contest founder Adam Cadre explaining their choice for the crown:

"First, you’ve got the eyeroll that comes from the ham-handed contrast between ‘red hot’ and ‘cold blue’ — and then a second later you realize that ‘red hot’ actually means a temperature of about 1000 kelvin, and is therefore hilariously inadequate as a descriptor of the sun, a gigantic nuclear furnace with a core temperature of roughly ten million kelvin. Intentionally writing a sentence that seems unintentionally bad is hard; writing one that suggests an author going for hyperbole and accidentally winding up with woeful understatement is masterful."

Meanwhile, we've got ourselves a couple more favorites--one being Jordan Brown's:

"The detective could smell the murder on the knife."

And then this little gem courtesy of James Gilker:

"A wind was blowing from east to west, as if it were the sun, blowing instead of shining."

Think you can down take those nightmarish (but kind of perfect) passages of prose? You have until April 15th to submit your sentence. On the other hand, if you'd actually like to write something not terrible, take a quick glance at some of our writing classes; we swear you won't end up in Lyette Lyon's Hall of Shame.

-- Perrin Drumm

Call For Entries // Triple Canopy Seeks Proposals From Writers And Artists

Digital collage with hand-rendered elements from "Origin, Departure," by Alyssa Pheobus & Murad Khan Mumtaz, commissioned through Triple Canopy's 2010 call for proposals.

Interested in publishing your writing or art as something more than just another cookie-cutter web article or blog post? How about submitting a proposal to Triple Canopy, the innovative online journal that we highlighted back in the fall? They've issued their third annual call for proposals and will be accepting applications until February 13 at midnight.

Along with the chance to be featured in an exciting and cutting-edge cultural journal, accepted proposals will get 3-6 months of artistic, editorial and technical support, an honorarium of up to $300, the option of presenting the project in a reading, workshop or discussion, and the opportunity to be featured in Triple Canopy's annual print publication, Invalid Format.

Sounds great, you say? We agree--but you've got work to do. So figure out which of these six project areas your idea falls into and submit away:  

- Research Work: A place for research projects outside academia, such as this piece about former NYC mayor John Lindsay.

- Immaterial Literature: Creative writing such as Tan Lin's The Patio and the Index, Ish Klein's poem Like on the Subject of the Icebreak or Joshua Cohen's Thirty-Six Shades of Prussian Blue.

- Internet as Material: Artwork that uses the Internet as "raw or appropriated material, comparable to acrylic paint or magazine clippings," such as Ellie Ga's A Hole to See the Ocean Through.

- Thinking Through Images: Analysis of popular media and fine art "from nineteenth-century paintings to Internet memes to documentation of current events," such as Ed Park and Rachel Aviv's Only Connect.

- New Media Reporting: an outlet for in-depth multimedia journalism, such as Brian Rosa & Ben Phelps-Rohrs' Tours and Detours: Walking the Ninth Ward.

- New Programming: Exhibitions, panel discussions, performances, film screenings and other events "that examine the intersection of culture, politics, and technology," such as Group Theory's BARTLEBY. A Rereading.

-- John Ruscher

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS // Hand-Typed, Letter-Pressed Journal Harlequin Creature Seeks All Kinds Of Print Media

 

There are tons of literary and cultural journals out there asking for submissions, but you won't find many that'll treat your work with the same level of hands-on care as Harlequin Creature. The journal's cover is crafted by letter press, and every page of every copy is hand-typed on a vintage typewriter. No photocopying or inkjets here. The Harlequin Creature crew produces each copy of their journals through "typing bees," where Smith Coronas, Underwoods and Royals bang away and carefully placed keystrokes forge every letter.

After selling out of their first issue, which came out back in the fall, Harlequin Creature is looking for submissions for the followup. They welcome "any printable media is welcome, i.e. prose, poetry, sheet music, collage work, etc.," and are asking for prose between 500 and 1,500 words and no more than 3 poems. The deadline is February 10, or January 13 if you'd like them to return your piece with suggested changes by January 27.

For a little more info on the spirit of Harlequin Creature, here's a quote from their website:

this is a journal sure to be unconventional in today's overwhelmingly digital age, and i think, at the same time, very much in touch with a nostalgia for an earlier era, when the factories of pittsburgh and detroit were still bumpin' and steel was in. with a circle of friends that spans from los angeles to new york, every single journal is hand typed on high quality paper, and the covers will all be set by a heavy, centuries old letter press in ann arbor, michigan. each copy is then hand bound, and a limited number include artwork by a featured artist.

Check out some more images of their first issue and army of typewriters after the jump.

-- John Ruscher