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

HAPPENING TONIGHT // Vol.1 Brooklyn Serves Up Savory Bites Of Literary Culture

If you're into the Brooklyn literary scene, there's a good chance that you're already familiar with Vol.1 Brooklyn, a local blog that's picked up quite a following since it began in 2009. Vol.1 features everything from daily literature and culture links to book reviews and fiction. We particularly love Sunday Stories, an ongoing series of fiction and nonfiction pieces, and the Band Booking series, in which bands field questions about what they've been reading.

We caught up with the site's founder, Jason Diamond to ask him about Vol.1. "It was honestly just supposed to be a blog where myself and a few of my friends could talk about things we liked," he says. "Those things usually tend to be books and records, or things having to do with books and records. For some reason a lot of people started reading it, and I was also setting up reading events for the heck of it, and I thought, 'We should combine these things.'"

At Vol.1's readings, which have taken place at venues such as WORD, Brooklyn Winery and Bar Matchless, there's a good chance you'll catch a writer's work before it hits the big time. "It's awesome to watch a writer read for us from a manuscript they're working on, and then a year later they end up selling it," Diamond says. "Or when somebody tells me they wrote something for a Vol. 1 event that later ended up getting published for a really big magazine or journal. That's always really awesome." Vol.1 has also presented unique events such as The Greatest Three-Minute Food Stories and The Future of What?: A Panel on Punk in the 1990s.

It doesn't sound like Vol.1 is looking to turn a profit with its literary and culture explorations, but they wouldn't mind a little free caffeine. "If somebody would please foot the bill for all the coffee we drink to make Vol. 1 work, we'd gladly mention your product in our posts," Diamond says.

Tonight you can catch Vol.1 Brooklyn's latest literary throwdown, The Greatest 3-Minute Stories About The 90s, at Bar Matchless in Greenpoint. It will feature writers such as the Village Voice's Maura Johnston, Fluxblog's Matthew Perpetua, the Paris Review's Sadie Stein and Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of the acclaimed I Want My MTV.

-- John Ruscher

TEACHER FEATURE // Grace Bello Interviews Illustrator Yuko Shimizu for The Atlantic

We've highlighted 3rd Ward fiction teacher Grace Bello and her sidesplitting creative writing a few times, including pieces published by McSweeney's and Splitsider and adapted for the stage by Lively Productions. Now we're excited to point you towards her fascinating interview with Japanese artist and illustrator Yuko Shimizu for The Atlantic.

Bello talks with Shimizu, whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Playboy, Rolling Stone and many other publications,  about everything from the Internet and animation to her favorite illustrators and her habit of listening to WNYC while she works.

Here's Shimizu's take on trends, along with some helpful advice for aspiring artists and illustrators:

What's an art or illustration trend that you wish would go away? 

Whatever is a trend, I wish it would go away. There's always something that's very popular right now, at this moment. And a lot of people go, "Oh my God, there's a goldmine out there!" and they try to do it. And a lot of people's work starts to look the same. And those people might get work at that point, but then the trend goes away, and then the next thing comes along, and you're not in fashion anymore. I feel it's a bit sad to chase the trend -- any trend. Especially for young people who want to be illustrators, I hope they just do their own things and do not chase the trend.

Read the whole interview here.

For more of Bello's recent work we highly recommend her excellent series of interviews with comedy writers Patricia Marx, Merrill Markoe and Margaret Sanger for The Hairpin. For more of Shimizu's work, check out her website or her recent book for Gestalten.

-- John Ruscher

NEW MEMBER PROFILE // Gary Boas Explores The Cutting Edge of Science and Technology

Gary Boas at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.

Freelancer writer, editor and web content developer Gary Boas has been working remotely for years, but now you'll find him in our new top-of-the-line coworking space. "While the home office thing has its advantages, it has glaring disadvantages as well," he says. "Namely, it's totally isolating."

In the past Boas has longed to break from that isolation, but that's difficult to do when you work independently:

"I've toyed with setting up a water cooler in my house and inviting people in off the street to chat about who won American Idol or whatever," he says. "In the end I decided joining something like 3rd Ward was a much better idea."

Boas works primarily in the sciences. "I'm an editor with a trade journal devoted to the biomedical applications of optics, for example, and the webmaster with a biomedical imaging center at Mass General Hospital in Boston," he explains.

He recently wrapped up work on a feature article about the "far-flung future" of optics technology, which he says "is probably at least slightly more interesting than it sounds. I'm looking at technologies currently being developed for military (laser weapons), automotive (self-driving cars) and organic LED (designer lighting) applications." He's also participating in National Novel Writing Month. "I'm not writing a novel, per se, but rather what I lovingly call 'my memoirs'—a collection of stories from a year I spent hobo-ing around the US, with occasional incursions into Mexico and Ireland."

On top of being able to interact with others during his work day, Boas was also attracted to our coworking space by the range of people and ideas. "I like 3rd Ward specifically for the mix of people and the variety of activities you'll find here," he says.

Want to check out some of Boas' work? Try "Photonics in Space: Optics-based instruments will help crack the mysteries of the cosmos," an amazing cover story for Photonics Spectra, or this entertain article about past ideas of what the future would look like.

-- John Ruscher

L TRAIN NOTWORK // A Pirate WiFi Network For Your Morning Commute

If you're riding the L Train between 8am and 10am any day this week, you might want to whip out your smartphone or another device with wifi capabilities. During those hours, if you're riding between Morgan Avenue and 8th Avenue, you'll be able to connect to the "L Train Notwork," a pirate wi-fi intranet that's being hosted by the creative collective WeMakeCoolSh.it.

The Notwork will include a variety of different features and content, including a live chat room/dating site, curated content from local authors, poets and visual artists, news feeds from popular websites and "a few other surprises."

3rd Ward writing teacher Robin Grearson and her fellow 1441 member Dolan Morgan will be curating poetry and prose by local writers, with new pieces appearing on the Notwork Monday through Friday.

"We like to encourage strangers to talk to each other and this seemed like a great way to do it," say the Matthew McGregor-Mento and Mark Krawczuk of WeMakeCoolSh.it. "When people ride the train during rush hour they are forced to be so close to each other but they rarely interact with each other. We wanted to give people something to talk about."

WeMakeCoolSh.it didn't get any special permission for the project, as they won't be breaking any rules. The battery-powered webserves used to create the Notwork's wi-fi hotspots will be carried onto the train and never left unattended, and everyone involved will have project descriptions to hand out to anyone who is curious. They will also be making all of the project's code available on the open source site Github so that others can experiment with their own pirate networks.

--John Ruscher

HAPPENING NOW // National Novel Writing Month

We know your secret. You're going to write the Great American Novel, aren't you? Maybe you've started a Word doc that's in a sad little folder called "Book," maybe a thin stack of papers sits next to the antique typewriter that inspired you. Well dust it off folks, it's not too late to jump on the NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) bandwagon.

Organized by Oakland nonprofit the Office of Letters and Light, the premise is simple:

You have from November 1-30 to write 50,000 words. If you create an official NaNoWriMo profile, you can track your progress, interact with other masochists and get advice about writing. If you complete your 50,000 words, you'll get a certificate. That's all, nothing crazy or fancy, just something to get your brain churning.

More food for thought: Since NaNoWriMo began in 1999, 100 or so participants have had books published.

And to get personal for a quick sec: I'm participating this year because A.) I think if I chant "NaNoWriMo," really fast for long enough, I'll gain some sort of superpower, and B.) I started a novel about six years ago, and just keep rewriting the first 15 pages over and over. NaNoWriMo says you have to start from scratch, but I'm pretty happy with my 15 pages, so I'm going to build off them. So there; if I'm doing it, so can you.

What reason can you think of not to do it? Striving for 50,000 words is a great way to get out of editor mode and into mad creative genius mode. Besides, you've only lost three days, plenty of time to get right in there and start NoWri-ting.

--Layla Schlack

OFF THE GRID // Writer Kirsten Matthew Goes Cash-Free in New Zealand

All images courtesy of Kirsten MatthewKirsten Matthew had a good thing going: She had an apartment she loved in Astoria, an adorable cat named Mariah Carey and a successful career as a freelance writer for the New York Post, New York Magazine, the Times and Page Six Magazine. But then (like all of us hopefully do) she got antsy. 

What did she come up with?

She'd move back to her native New Zealand for six months and grow all of her own food. Whatever she couldn't grow or make, she'd barter for with preserved goods or labor.

After months of making arrangements to store her New York furniture, finding a home for Mariah Carey, and lining up grants to fund her experiment, Matthew hopped on a plane for about 25 hours and began looking for a house to call homestead.

While it took almost a month for Matthew to find a cottage, she kept busy planting seedlings at her parents house and making country wine out of parsnips (Wine out of parsnips: news to us.)

The parsnip wine laboratory

Just in time for spring planting and armed with a collection of sprouts that will ideally grow into artichokes, radishes, tomatoes, peas, and eggplants, Matthew is officially moving into her home this week--as you can see from the photo way up above, it's not too bad a setup. Eventually--and to offset the temporary animal absence of Mariah Carey--she may end up with her very own chickens or goats as well.

Of course, when we say "off the grid," what we really mean is "still partly on the grid"--you can watch as Matthew updates her newfound cash-free existence on Kiwi. Apple. Kiwi. 

So no, you may not be able to hand your NY landlord a basket of veggies in place of that rent cash each month, but there are alternatives to the grind. Kirsten Matthew's just one (fine) example.

--Layla Schlack

MEMBER PURSUITS // This Sunday: Robin Grearson Reads With Her 1441 Writers Collective in Bushwick

This Sunday, October 2, 3rd Ward member Robin Grearson (who curated an awesome Bushwick Open Studios exhibition back in June) will be reading with her writers' collective, 1441, at The Bodega (24 St. Nicholas Ave) in Bushwick from 7-10pm. Select 2-for-1 drafts will be available, along with lots of literary goodness. We spoke with Grearson about 1441 and Sunday night's event.

1441 came together organically, as the group's members were all hunting for a local workshop when they found each other. "I didn't know of any, so I was thinking about trying to form one," Grearson says. "And then I ran into Mike Lala on New Year's Day at Cafe Orwell, and he told me he and a group of writers he knew wanted to do the same. So earlier this year, we all started meeting regularly, and that was how 1441 began."

"We began as a group of writers who got together to workshop each other's writing, so that is a strong element of what 1441 is about," she says. "We meet almost every week to discuss one member's work at length. We're still working out our goals as a collective. For instance, we produced a handmade journal earlier this year as a group, and we've been exchanging ideas about publishing again in the future."

In addition to Grearson and Lala, 1441 is comprised of Allyson Paty, Dolan Morgan, Eric Nelson, Joel Marino, Justin Richards and Matt Zingg. Lala and Eric Nelson are also the founders the Fireside Follies, a reading and arts series at Brooklyn Fire Proof that has featured guests such as poet Eileen Myles, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner and L Magazine editor Jonny Diamond.

Sunday night's event marks the seventh edition of The Bodega's monthly storytelling series, and in addition to all of 1441's members, five others will be reading as well: Mary Pat Kane, Emily Epstein, Natalie Jacobs, Becky Roth, and Erik Leavitt. "I'm looking forward to hearing their work," Grearson says. She also told us she'll be trying something new. "Usually I read essays, but Sunday I'm doing something a little different and reading two poems."

In addition to Sunday's reading, the next Fireside Follies event takes place on October 15, and 1441 will be hosting a book swap at the Pine Box Rock Shop on November 5, with surplus books benefiting Books Through Bars.

Grearson will also be reading at the Soda Series at the Soda Bar in Prospect Heights on November 9. She's also teaching a 3rd Ward class, Learn to Love Your Artist Statement (or at least make friends), starting in early November.

-- John Ruscher