Kriti Festival Call for Submissions
June 11 - 14, 2009, Chicago
Guests of Honor: Amitava Kumar and Bapsi Sidhwa
DesiLit is pleased to welcome submissions to its upcoming festival of arts and literature, to be held in Chicago, June 11 - 14. Submissions are welcome in the following areas:
- literature (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, drama)
- film
- music
- dance
We are not currently planning on a visual arts component (although if you live in Chicago and would be interested in curating such an exhibition, please do get in touch with us.)
If your work is selected, you'll be invited to serve on panels and/or give a reading/screen a film/give a performance/etc. At this time, we do not know what our final budget will be, but panelists will receive free festival registration, and if there are funds remaining after expenses, a share of the proceeds towards reimbursing their travel expenses. We'll also do our best to help you find crash space in Chicago with local volunteers if needed.
To have your work considered please send an electronic sample to info@desilit.org, with the subject line: KRITI SUB [title of work / your name], following these guidelines:
- a brief bio, PLUS one of the following
- literature sample (up to 20 pages)
- film sample (up to 20 minutes; if you want to send a longer film,
be aware that we may only view the first 20 minutes)
- music sample (up to 20 minutes)
- dance sample (up to 20 minutes)
For large sound/graphic files, we STRONGLY prefer that you host the work on your own site and send us a pointer to the URL. If you wish to submit in multiple genres, please submit each sample separately.
For a sample of our 2005 panelists, please visit our website (http://www.desilit.org/kriti2005.html#program). If you have any questions, please send those as well to info@desilit.org.
DEADLINE: May 1, 2009 (but sooner is better)
More Festival Info
If you live in Chicago, we can definitely use your help in planning and running the festival! We need both folks who can come to monthly planning meetings in the next few months, and people who are available to help out at the festival weekend itself. No experience needed! Volunteers will receive complimentary registration -- our planning meetings are also a lot of fun. :-) We usually meet at my home in Bucktown (near North Ave. and Damen, convenient both to the Blue line and 90/94), and figure things out over a yummy meal. And even if you can't make every meeting, we welcome your input on our planning mailing list!
If interested in helping us out, please join our planning list here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/desilit-kriti/.
And if you're just interested in attending and want to get occasional festival updates as planning progresses, be sure you're on our general DesiLit mailing list -- stop by our website and enter your e-mail address in the box provided: http://www.desilit.org/.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write to me. Thanks!
- Mary Anne Mohanraj
NOTE: Kriti 2009 is co-sponsored by Roosevelt University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and will be held at their two campuses, in the Loop and West Loop, Chicago.