Creative (R)evolution of Philadelphia (NeMLA)
Philadelphia
Organization: NeMLA
Event: NeMLA
This creative session seeks writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction who address Philadelphia’s past, present, and future creative evolution, revolution, and devolution in their work.
ABSTRACT
As one of America’s oldest cities, Philadelphia has experienced drastic changes many times over, often celebrated or maligned by its creative class in music, literature, and performing arts.
The home of America’s first theater and a notorious open air drug market, the first free lending library and a staggering murder rate, it straddles the line between the greatest offerings of an urban environment and the worst of mass humanity. Under a new mayor, the first female leader in the city’s history, Philadelphians are experiencing a glimmer of hope amidst post-Covid devastation. Known equally as a blue collar city, a sports town, and for one of the country’s highest concentrations of colleges, Philly has always been diverse and complex. A city of immigrants with global reach, it is composed of tight knit neighborhoods stretching back generations.
All of these changes are documented, challenged, and celebrated by Philly’s long-standing writing community. This creative session seeks writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction to share their work that focuses on Philadelphia and how it has evolved, devolved, or revolved or still might in the future. Considerations might include how the city represents itself internally to locals and externally to the world; characters, language, and beliefs unique to the City of Brotherly Love; or speculative approaches to Philadelphia’s evolution. Of particular interest are voices less heard in the mainstream, including those of new immigrants to the city, writers outside the academy, and emerging voices challenging the city’s self-identity.
Please submit stories, poems, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction essays, scripts, or multi-genre creative work that highlight this complexity to Maureen McVeigh Trainor at mmcveigh@wcupa.edu
Include a brief (100 words) bio and abstract (up to 200 words) with your creative work.
Proposals are due by September 30, 2024.
Maureen McVeigh Trainor