McSweeney's Contest for New Columnists

June 17, 7:50 PMSF Writing Careers ExaminerAlegria Garcia

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McSWEENY'S IS HAVING A CONTEST
FOR NEW COLUMNISTS

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McSweeney's Internet Tendency is looking for some new and fresh blood for our semi-regular columns that run as the rather disordered series of links toward the bottom of this page. In order to facilitate this search, we've decided to have a contest. Here's all the relevant information that we can think of.

1. Form and content is open. We are looking for writers and writing that are engaging and interesting, of the "we know it when we see it" variety. It would probably be a mistake to look at our current columns and try to replicate them. We love those columns, but they came about by authors simply following their own paths. Write about subject matter you're interested in, in the way you find most compelling.

2. Length is also open. In general, we find anything over 2000 words begins to be taxing on readers when read on the Internet, but if the length is justified, we're the last ones to complain.

3. Submissions should contain the following:

• a brief description of the proposed column (keep it short; just tell us where you're coming from)

• one full example column

• brief descriptions of three additional installments of your column

• a short biographical note

4. Submitting your submissions. All submissions should be both pasted into the body of an email and sent as a .doc or .rtf attachment. Please arrange the material in the order outlined in #3 above. Any submissions that fail to provide all the requested information will be ineligible for consideration. All material should be previously unpublished, including personal blogs, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever thing is invented between now and the end of the contest. There is no fee for contest submission. Submissions should be sent to columncontest@mcsweeneys.net.

5. Deadline. Submissions will be accepted until the end of the day Friday, July 10th. Winners will be announced no later than August 7th. Please include a phone number where you can be reached in case of e-mail failure.

6. Prizes. We have prizes. Cash prizes. The top three selections will each receive $500 and a one-year contract to write your column (twice a month or thereabouts) for McSweeney's Internet Tendency. We do reserve the right to choose fewer (or more) winners than our planned number of three.

7. If you have any questions that aren't answered here, please feel free to send them to columncontest@mcsweeneys.net.