I continued playing in academic orchestra through my sophomore year of college (became too expensive when I transferred to a school that would not provide the instrument) and wrote at my own leisure on the side, taking some advanced language arts courses in high school, beginning school as a philosophy and journalism major before changing to a business major when transferring schools, all the while peppering accounting and economics curriculum with the odd course in creative fiction and journalism.
After college I combined my passions, writing about music, which eventually led to writing about business, a much more lucrative side-gig that translated what I lived 9-5 Monday through Friday. I eventually diversified, writing culture, lifestyle, and music articles that paid decent enough. Now that I'm a place where I know how to write well enough about the subject at hand to put a little extra something in my pockets (crossing that $1/word barrier feels great!), I've been kind of yearning to get back writing for writing sakes. So I've been looking through stacks of literary journals to find where I can try my hand with the poetry, essays, and memoirs I left behind years ago.
I was browsing through McSweeny's website and clicked on a link titled A Converge of Convergences: Contest, thinking I could brush up on some decent prose and fiction. The contest instead pitted abstract pairings of photos, paintings, cartoons, and other visuals against one another, a medium I realized I never appreciated as much as I should have. My favorites might be the The 19th Century Roots of Rosie Jetson and Shinto Ghraib.
George Madoffton
Submitted by Errol Morris*
- - - -
Barack O'Zimmerman
Submitted by Leon Hilton**
- - - -
Guston's Web
Submitted by Chris Ware
- - - -
See all the contest entries here.
