Friday, July 3, 2009

call for submissions

...from Lorette C. Luzajic....
Michael Jackson Tribute anthology
deadline August 29
Michael’s 51st bday

I’m compiling and editing an anthology of writings about Michael Jackson.

Not looking for “I pray we’ll never part/ you’re in my heart” stuff, just so we get that out of the way.

I’d like to see stuff you wrote when your heart was wrenched apart by the news of his passing. I don’t want to obsess over his death, though, to balance the stories with his life.

I’d like you to write something creative about your experience of one of the songs. I’d love you to get really open and write something interesting based on one of the songs. For example, some people have never even heard of Stranger in Moscow and yet it’s one of my favourite works. Not everything is cheesy. I could argue for the creative maturity here and contrast it with the emotional immaturity that still disturbs me. I could write about why I relate so much to Song X.

I’d like you to eulogize, philosophize, lament, theorize. Write about your experience of Michael, how his magic touched your madness. Poems, too. And again, try not to write the kind of stuff Mikey did in Dancing the Dream. I want this collection to be literary, but not snobby. Think Salon or Maissonneuve or Bust Magazine or Now or Discover or Rolling Stone if I get lucky. Or just be from the heart, but come at it from a different angle.

Absolutely zero bashings about dead pedophiles. I shy away from no topic, so feel free to discuss your thoughts intelligently. Discourse is good. But understand that I go with innocent until proven guilty, and the man was found innocent by the courts, so I have to go with that unless something else comes up. You don’t have to agree with me, but there’s no point sending bashings. Thoughtful considerations of the implications of this kind of tragedy and scandal are fine.

Humour, too, please.

There’s still plenty to say about Michael Jackson. I intend to compile it.

Previously published or posts is fine by me, as long as you can prove it’s legally ok for me to use it- ie, you own the rights, or the first publisher gives me permission.

I hope to have this project out by the end of the year, crazy I know, so get writing.

I’m so sorry that I am a woman of few means and this is a labour of love, so I can’t pay you. You will be fully credited with a bio and any websites or whatever you want. It’s a great chance to use Michael Jackson stuff that might otherwise never speak to anyone. It’s a gift to Michael, too, taking his work and impact seriously.

Please feel free to send me a note with any questions. Feel free to run something by me. To check in. Don’t worry, I’m a very friendly editor and I’m not too busy for you because this project is important to me. Like I said, it’s a labour of love, and like many of you, I have a deep, abiding, intense, sometimes upsetting relationship with Michael Jackson. I believe his reign and fall say a lot about our culture, and there were so many aspects to the story that merit pondering. And so, I want to contribute to the shrines in my own way, not just by waving an old poster at the downtown memorials- though I was there, too….

Lorette C. Luzajic
thegirlcanwrite@hotmail.com

www.thegirlcanwrite.net