HALF A MINUTE WRITING CONTEST

I'm happy to announce the start of HALF A MINUTE, a new writing contest to kick off the new year and say goodbye to the old.  Entries written by you and judged by Darin Strauss.  But first, a preamble:



This New Year's Eve, I made the mistake of getting excited for the party.  It was a Great Gatsby roaring 20's party, with Gatsby-related cocktails, a champagne toast, the promise of swing and bright lipstick and pearls I didn't have to wear ironically.  My evening was finally, after years of waiting, going to pass like this:









via Life Magazine





So, you can imagine my disappointment as my friends and I found ourselves in a pipes-exposed basement, under a non-revolving disco ball, with our cranberry vodkas in plastic cups, sort of dancing to Rihanna's S&M, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me...."



Right.  So how did this happen, we asked each other.  Was it because we were too excited?  Where did we go wrong?  How did we get here?  And not just in the puddle of beer collecting at our feet, but here, in 2012?'







Not me.

 



"2011 went by so fast," someone said, because someone always says this on New Year's Eve.  This is how the preceding year appears when it's over.   It becomes an image, a calendar in the dumpster, a slideshow of photographs, a few anecdotes worthy of being remembered and told the next year.



This is depressing, yes.  Because what happened to all those moments that, at the time, took forever?  What happened to the moment before your hairdresser spun you around so you could face the mirror?  Or when you were waiting for a realtor to check your credit?  Or when you were in the doctor's office, on the altar, at a red light, on the foul line, at the bank, in the backseat of a car, walking on stage, on Gchat, waiting for a response from that person you probably shouldn't have Gchatted?



Which leads me to the HALF A MINUTE writing
contest.



THE CONTEST:



In 30 words, write a piece about 30 seconds of 2011 that...took...for...ever.  Being suspended in a moment for all of eternity can be a terrible thing, yes, but sometimes, it's amazing. You choose.



We're not too good with numbers over here, so don't get all hung up on the exactness of those 30 seconds.








THE JUDGE:  Darin Strauss













A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a winner of the American
Library Association's Alix Award and The National Book Critics Circle
Award, the internationally-bestselling writer Darin Strauss is the
author of the novels Chang & Eng, The Real McCoy, and More Than It
Hurts You, and the NBCC-winning memoir Half a Life. These have been New
York Times Notable Books, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco
Chronicle, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and NPR Best Books of the Year,
among others. Darin has been translated into fourteen languages and
published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Associate
Professor at NYU's creative writing program.




Praise for Half a Life:




"At the center of this elegant, painful, stunningly honest memoir thrums
a question fundamental to what it means to be human: What do we do with
what we've been given?… What is truly exceptional here is watching a
writer of fine fiction probe, directly, carefully and with great
humility, the source from which his fiction springs."
—Dani Shapiro, New York Times Book Review

"A
remarkable, beyond-brave memoir that offers an intensely personal look
at the most agonizing events in the author's post-accident life… With
astounding frequency, Strauss pinpoints truths that most of us would
find indescribable."
—Stephan Lee, O, The Oprah Magazine




THE PRIZE(S):

 














Everyone who enters gets 10% off a custom built website from AE Designs! (Pricing, on average, starts at $2Gs.)  You are currently staring at an AE Design creation (this blog), but if you want to check out more wonderful creations of AE Designs click here.










First Place: You win a free copy of Half A Life by Darin Strauss & a free business card designed by AE Designs.






Second Place:  You win a $30 gift certificate to Community Bookstore in Park Slope.  A dollar for every word for every second.



Third Place:  Our eternal admiration and your piece will be posted here.





SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:



No submission fee!  To be eligible:



1) Subscribe to this blog Other Things (on the right margin) so you can be informed about future contests;



2)  Check out and "like" AE Designs Facebook page to get your 10% off a custom-built website from AE Designs. 
Reminder: everybody who enters HALF A MINUTE gets this discount, expires May 1, 2012;



3) Email your entry (no attachments please) to aespach@gmail.com by Friday, January 13 by 5pm EST.  Please put HALF A MINUTE in the subject line, and include your name somewhere in the email, though all submissions will be read blind by Darin Strauss. 





Winners will be announced and published here on Monday, January 16!  And if you have the time, check out an old post to see the winners of an earlier contest held here at Other Things.





Happy New Year,

A