8. Literary Competition of
the international literary charity Literatenohr e.V.
(LONDON) UNDERWORLD(S)
Nothing is what it seems. The visible London is only the
tip of the iceberg that covers the bowels of the earth. Beneath the surface an
unlimited network is hidden: of pipelines and tunnels, forgotten rivers, crypts,
creatures and cellars, and the complex system of the underground. The underworld
can be seen as an enormous organism: While bones and muscles provide the system
with a structure, body fluids, nerves and bowels are serving the purpose of
exchange and disposal.
Each city has its underworld and its myths. The Phantom of the Opera haunts the catacombs of Paris, whereas crocodiles are supposed to be slithering through New York’s sewers and growing drugs, because someone flushed an alligator down the toilet and – a century later someone else let marijuana seeds follow. When many of London’s rivers were arched over in the 18th century an obese pig got lost in the cloaca maxima, the Fleet. Soon a whole species of subterranean pigs were reported to be living under London. The underworld of Vienna had a more subtle and dangerous underworld, where the missing 5.th man, the famous spy, was both hiding and guiding.
However, underworld refers not only to cities, but are used metaphorically in many ways.
Send us your
underworld-short-story and you can win a trip to the underworlds of
Berlin!
Terms
and Conditions:
Literatenohr e.V. looks forward to receiving pieces of short prose
(up to 5 pages) dealing with the subject in a very individual and innovative
style. Please send your piece and a cheque with a registration fee of £ 5- to
Dr. Katharina Rist, 9 Brightfield Road, London SE12 8 QE. You can write in
English or German. Deadline is the 15th February 2004.
The texts of all
winners will be published on http://www.literatenohr.de/ (literary
contest).
We are also
planning the edition of a German-English anthology on the
subject.
The first winner gets a trip
to Berlin’s underworlds (from London Stansted) –
7.-9. May 2004. He/she will also be introduced to a broader audience at a public reading at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Furthermore you can win 3 one-year-memberships for Literatenohr e.V, which gives you the opportunity to get cheaper literary journeys and to participate in events.