Twitter fiction festival kicks off
2012-11-28 19:52
Paris - Twenty-nine storytelling projects from around the world are being showcased from Wednesday in the first-ever Twitter fiction festival, held over five days on the microblogging site.
The virtual event, taking place in five languages - Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish - will run from 28 November to 2 December, according to the social network's official blog.
While everyone is free to take part under the #twitterfiction hashtag, the festival's selection panel, made up of US publishing industry experts, picked 29 entries from around the world to highlight on a dedicated page, at mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/twitterfiction.
The Twitter media team's head of research and development Andrew Fitzgerald stressed the festival was "not a competition".
"There will be no winner, we just want to showcase creative storytelling," he told AFP ahead of the event.
A young American women, Elliott Holt (@elliottholt), will open the ball on Wednesday at 24:00 GMT, with a crime story that plays on the idea of a Twitter feed used as evidence.
Among the tales on offer - which come from a mix of published and novice writers - Lucy Coats (@lucycoats) from Northampton in Britain will re-tell 100 Greek myths in 100 Tweets.
London-based Faiq Muneef will be tweeting an Arabic language story called The Crying Canary from Sunday at 13:00 GMT.
From Thursday to Sunday at 09:00 GMT, @00serialTW will be unfurling a stream of tales inspired by the work of Italian writer Italo Calvino.
And Marc Capelle (@marccapelle), the head of the French journalism school ESJ, will tell the story of Marcel Lasoen (@MarcelLasoen), an elderly man using Twitter to reconnect with his family, from Thursday to Sunday at 11:00 GMT.
Bookworms can tune in using the #twitterfiction hashtag, or consult the webpage set up for the festival, at twitter.com/hashtag/twitterfiction.
