Week Three (Tuesday, 2/2/21 – Monday, 2/8/21)
Fortune, on a whim, has bestowed you the chance to win some fine treasure this week. Four randomly selected submissions will receive a $25 gift card from The Seminary Co-op, Bookshop.org, Build Coffee, or Plein Air Café (your choice).
Let’s go back in time one day to the tale of Alatiel, the seventh story of the second day of Bocaccio’s Decameron. Alatiel, a Babylonian princess, is shipwrecked on the voyage to her strategic wedding to a king on the other end of the Islamic world. She and her ladies run aground at Majorca, where a local nobleman notices her otherworldly beauty and offers to show her a good time. Yet they barely have a chance to settle into their affair before the gentleman’s brother steals Alatiel away. Not long after the abduction, a pair of her captor’s sailors throw their master overboard and begin to fight over which one of them will be the next to kidnap the princess. Her beauty becomes a torturous curse as a series of nine men from all over the Mediterranean, many of them with languages and religions Alatiel has never known, try to make her theirs through bloodshed, treachery, and the sheer force of obsession. Alatiel survives, again and again, with a daring spirit and a willingness to adapt, and, in the end, Fortune relents. Alatiel is raised to her rightful station as queen, having explained away her four years lost at sea with a humble story of linguistic study and hospitable nuns.
For a chance to win some treasure, take Alatiel’s déjà-vu as inspiration and explore what happens when time loops in on itself or repeats. A certain comedy classic starring Chicago’s own Bill Murray may also serve as inspiration, as well as the recent explosion of Groundhog Day-esque plots, including Russian Doll, Palm Springs, I May Destroy You, and lockdown life in general. Is there any logic, wisdom, or love to be found when you keep living the same events over and over? Is there any escape?
Remember: this site is dedicated to storytelling, but you needn’t limit yourself to the traditional prose narrative. We welcome photo series, videos, music and other audio work, visual stories, poetry, and anything else in standard shareable formats. The target length for a narrative submission is 200-1000 words. For other formats, consider what it means to present a bite-sized portion of your art, something that takes only a few minutes of your audience’s precious time. Head over to the Submit page when you’re ready to upload your contribution.
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