ANARCHIST WRITERS BLOC (AWB) - MONTREAL CHAPTER Meeting 12/7/10

ANARCHIST WRITERS BLOC (AWB) - MONTREAL CHAPTER

Meeting 12/7/10 au Vivres veggie resto overpriced juice place

7 writers present: Bruno, Layla, Yanick, Jude, Guliaume, Marie-Josée, Norman

We delved further into the last 3 propositions/suggestions, refined them, and will once again, submit them to the whole group for rapid thought and discussion.

A. To publish two anthologies of anarchist fiction: one English, one French:

1. Norman will submit the proposal to PM Press first for the English one,

and to LUX Editeur for the French one.

We will be seeking original writing from within the AWB, in both languages

and in First Nations languages. Undecided where to place the pieces written in First Nations languages

The Montreal chapter of the AWB will coordinate the project.

2. Yanick has volunteered to be Production Coordinator for both books?

Layla will help after October, 2010.

3. We will invite the 35 people currently on the AWB mail list to submit to these first two volumes.

Each will be given a max of 5 book pages, no more than 1,200 words max of text in the language

of their choice. We will cap the list at 35 writers for now. Any extra text submissions will

go onto our website. Marie-Josée will provide the graphics for the website.

Not sure who will do design and maintain the website.....

We are currently seeking designs for a LOGO for the AWB - the name still to be translated into French, eh?

There is a 2 week deadline for design submissions.

4. We will form two Reading Selection Committees to review all the submissions for each anthology.

Criteria for submissions: we discussed this at length, and came up with the following.

We are looking for pieces that:

- are anti-authoritarian

- clearly demonstrate the author's intentions

- is quality writing, well written

- holds together

- is coherent

- is intelligent

- shows us the link between the artist's statement and the piece itself

We will post all the criteria on-line in advance for everyone to read.

We will ask for an Artist Statement of one paragraph from each writer.

We will accept work that already appears online.

5. We are looking for a neutral title for the book, one that works in English and if possible, in French, too.

Please send in all suggestions. So far we have: DARMA MEETS THE DEVIL: an anthology of anarchist writing, (vol 1)

6. We want the publishers to keep the money from the sales of the book to help promote each book.

7. No MySpace, but possibly a Facebook page for the books. MJ will handle it. We want a website too, Bruno can handle the coding & hosting and MJ will do the visuals.

8. We will aim to organize a Writers of Anarchist Fiction festival for the launch of each book.

9. There are First Nations anarchist writers on the west coast of Canada, in Victoria, BC.

Norman will contact comrades in Victoria to invite them to contribute to the anthology.

Norman will also contact a new anarchist writers group in Vancouver.

10. Our production deadline: Feb, 2011.

12. We discussed the possibility of putting anarchist writers into a bus and touring north america to spread the word.

B. THE WORKSHOPS:

We are all agreed to pursue the creative writing workshop proposals from the last meeting.

C. YEAR ROUND GAMES FOR THE AWB:

We are all agreed to pursue these proposals as well, including a new one: the roundtable 'Smorgasmboard' exercise.

NEXT MEETING, Montreal chapter:

Monday, July 26, 5pm-7pm, Cafe Touski, 2361 Ontario est

FIRST AWB GAMES ENCOUNTER: Friday Aug 13. Place and time, TBA.

- norman

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Notes from MJ

1- We should post the tasks of everyone from the core on the blog, as well as the core itself being people that show up. It is simply fair.

2- Who actually posts our meeting notes on the bog? Could they do it all at the same time as sending the emails out?

3- Do we still want the launch to include the visual art happening? (thing that I did not have time to discuss at the last meeting)

4- Are we planning on launching in May since the deadline would be in February?

5-I said I would take care of the Facebook. Any final resquest before I dig in?

6-Bruno, we need to meet for the website so we get on the same page!! And we need to give ourselves a deadline!!

7- I want to emphasize on the Logo, because it is something that people will or not remember depending on its strength. People NEED to recognize it and appreciate it more than just a ``Ouh! It’s Figurative.`` I am working on some things.

8- Title: DHARMA MEETS THE DEVIL (with an H) the only thing I found was a simili-blog called dharmadevil and there isn’t much on it. For the French version: Dharma rencontre le Diable. On the website we could have Dharma in big and than meets the devil, rencontre le diable both under Dharma. Simple. We don’t need to go into language issues. It will only 1- drag us down 2- We already tackle it when we publish is frend and English. The deal with this project, I hope is not to be perfect because nothing is and as people of free will, we should choose to do what we do best: write and progress knowing very well that we all know about such issues and we do change something by having this project. THE OFFICIAL MEANING OF DHARMA:

9- I think that we would need to really set sailing for the next meeting and really pin point out the actual physical tasks that everybody needs to do and set deadlines for each tasks.

Thank you,

MJ