This is the first issue of Stranger than Fiction. All work in this publication will be drawn from work read as part of the Stranger than Fiction Challenge issued at the Last Wednesday Series Reading and Open Mic in the Twisted pepper in Dublin, (www.bodytonicmusic.com/twistedpepper) Last Wednesday Series Reading and Open Mic in Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook in Brooklyn (www.rockysullivans.com) , the Chapters and Verse Goes to London reading and open mic on the Last Sunday of Each month in the Hammersmith Ram in London (www.hammersmithram.co.you) and the Chapters and Verse Cyber Showcase which will link include and reach people who can’t make it to the open mic.
The Stranger than Fiction Challenge will take something from fact, and challenge the writers to write a poem or a story on it. This could be a specific in a newspaper or magazine, a hot topic of the day, a street sign or an advertisement. The challenge will be given at the open mic event, and the reader will have until the next monthly event to write a poem or some flash fiction on the topic.
We will aim to produce the work exactly as read, and, while opinions expressed will not necessarily reflect those of Seven Towers Agency, or any of the attendees or participants in the events, they will reflect our commitment to freedom of speech and expression, whoch is a fundamental component of all open mics.
This issue features the challenge given in the January Open Mic – which was to write something on the topic of ‘Unions’.
Click below to access the contributions, published in alphabetical order, by the of the writer in PDF Format.
POLITICAL WASTELAND by Roger Hudson
and
Strike by Phil Lynch
The Challenge issued in February for the march Open Mic was to take story relating to horseracing and to write a poem using only the words in that story, or to take a headline from a horseracing story and use that as the basis of a piece of short fiction, including the headline in the body of the story also, in a manner that makes sense. So watch this space in April 2011 for the results of this challenge.
The Frozen Mic 