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Saskatchewan Writer Tackles BC Literary Form

Posted by Daniel on Jan 12, 2011 - 5 comments

Don Britt is a Saskatchewan writer (and, one is tempted to think, a masochist) who has set himself the task of writing 24 three-day novels in a year. A three-day novel is, as the name suggests, a novel that is written in three days. Mr. Britt, in what he calls "the ultimate act of writing insanity", intends to finish two dozen of these literary gems by November 2011.
You can follow his progress here.
I mention Mr. Britt's quest because even he may not know that the three-day novel is the only literary form invented right here in British Columbia. It was dreamt up by a gaggle of literary types sitting around a beer parlour table in Vancouver in 1978. The gaggle included Stephen Osborne, co-founder of Pulp Press (now Arsenal Pulp Press), the small publisher which ended up sponsoring the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest for many years -- it usually takes place over the Labour Day weekend -- and publishing the winning entries.
Why 3 days instead of two or seven and a half? I have no idea. But I do know that since 2004 the contest has been run as an independent company, whose website is here.

Labels: ARTS, BOOKS, LITERATURE
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