Life in the Time of Corona
A short-story compilation
In our own little worlds for the past few weeks, there has been plenty of time to contemplate life, the universe and everything. For some of us, we love to use our private moments to make up little stories in our head and – if given the time and space – scribble these stories down onto paper or key into our devices. It provides an escape for us, a chance to share and understand what and how we are feeling in these times of social distancing. It is a chance to connect, in a disconnected world, at a creative, writing level.
We at Mana Press come to the Life in the Time of Corona project wanting to do three things:
- encourage you to be creative, and to think about the stories you would like to write
- provide a platform – an outlet - for writers of all shapes, sizes and experience to share their creations in the form of a published book, a compilation of contributors’ short stories
- for posterity’s sake, have a record of peoples’ experiences, narratives, thoughts and feelings in these times of Coronavirus and Lockdown in 2020.
We would like to offer the opportunity for writers to contribute a short story to this compilation. These short stories will be read,selected and edited for publication in a book to be published by Mana Press. The selection process will be rigorous, but also open to the breadth of writers out there. That is, we are interested in all levels of writing.
The following criteria will apply for these short story contributions to Life in the Time of Corona -
Themes: memory; isolation; life; connection; technology; community; individuality; relationships; change; imagination
Genre: whatever-you-like! Preferably fiction, but also non-fiction. Eg. biography; auto-biographical; science-fiction; essay; fantasy; historical; romance; crime
Word Limit: 500-2000 words, no more than 2000 words please!
Due date: 8th of May, 2020
File format: preferably word.docx files
Send to: email: themanapress@gmail.com
Writer details: please provide real name or pen-name if you would like these to be attached to the story if published.
Some Further Questions (hopefully answered):
Who are Mana Press?
We are a small semi-professional publishing company based in Melbourne. Our products have primarily related to tabletop gaming, but we are branching out into publishing fiction.
What happens after a story is submitted?
It is read by the Mana Press editors and a decision is made. Yes - it’s good for publication (probably with some edits from our end). No - the submitted story is not suitable for the criteria listed above. Maybe – the story requires changes from the writer before it can be read again by the editors; the story is returned to the writer with suggested changes.
What happens to the stories and the book?
We will compile the stories and publish it as an ebook - under the title of Life in the Time of Corona. We will send a copy to all contributors, with our profound thanks, and offer it for sale to others at a 'Pay what you like' cost via our website and/or amazon. We are not in this to make money, we would like to cover our costs associated with publishing the book though!
Any further questions, please contact us at: themanapress@gmail.com
Thanks and have fun writing!!!
