Once Upon A Deadline...
Writers. Start your laptops.
If writing is a reply to life, the deadline is life itself. That‘s the premise of Once Upon a Deadline, a writing marathon that celebrates laptop literature all over the globe.
At the beginning of the day each writer is equipped with a laptop computer, a bagged lunch and a “minder” - a volunteer whose sole duty is to lead their assigned charge from one writing pit-stop to another. The writers themselves have no idea where they‘re going next; they must simply trust that their minders will get them there. At the end of the day these long-distance scribes read their work in front of a pensive audience in a literary “happening” we like to call the Read-Off. That, they know about ahead of time.
Their mission: in no more than 1,200 arresting words, deliver an original tale that captures the mood of their metropolis and the people that swarm therein. A panel of esteemed judges determines the winner, the audience picks their favorite and prizes are doled out accordingly. A deadline met and a day well spent, indeed.