Call for Submissions

Announcing the first La Bloga Día de los Muertos Amoxcalli-Descansos Contest:

If you don't know what El Día de los Muertos is, go here:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/muertos.html

In indigenous MesoAmerica, Amoxcalli was a little book house the Aztecs built, areas "inside temples to gather valuable manuscripts for consultation by nobles and priests." (http://www.criticasmagazine.com/article/CA6344733.html)

Descanso is the resting place of a dead person; from descansar,," the Spanish verb for "to rest." Also, a roadside memorial.

Driving through the Southwest, you'll pass an occasional small, hand-built shrine of stone or wood, adorned with flowers, ribbons and even a photo, constructed by local chicanada in memory of a deceased loved.

If you throw these definitions into a big olla, add a dab of picoso and the optional bottle of tequila añejo, ala Bloga Chef Gina MarySol Ruiz, what you come up with is possibly a week's worth of Bloga posts from our readers.

Here's your chance to get exposure for your great piece relating to el Día de los Muertos. Through Oct. 24th we will accept prose, poetry, essay, in English or Spanish or Spanglish--most anything about this indigenous/modern tradition. Fantasy, children's stories, YA, horror, serious, satirical or comical--anything you want to share.

Shorter pieces are preferred (less than 500 words), since we are the editorial staff and will base our decisions on quality and how little work is required of us.

Los Bloguistas, or Blogueros if you prefer, will still do regular contributions on the subject, along with readers' submissions, with one prizewinner featured each day.

Did I forget to mention the prizes? In addition to the ignoble honor of having your submission featured on La Bloga, since we think multiple prizes are cool, we scraped up the following:

1st prize: copy of Manuel Paul López's "Death of a Mexican and other poems" -- kinda fits, no?
2nd: "Devil Talk" (signed) -- appropriate, no?
3rd: "Moony's Road to Hell" (signed) -- hell: get it?
(Prizes mailed inside continental U.S.; otherwise, we keep it 'til you come for it.)

Guidelines:
Length: 500-words or less
Format: MSWord or RTF; 12-pt. Courier or Times
Languages: Spanish (please don't strain our work-in-progress, trilingual literacy), English, or Spanglich.
Deadline: Oct. 24th, midnight PST
E-mail submissions to: labloga@readraza.com
(Stories pasted into your E-mail; no attachments will be opened.)
Include your name and contact info and a statement that you own the rights to this work.
Judging: We'll be the judges of that. Period.

Our hope is to spread your prose or poetry out like roadside descansos, ending up on Nov. 2nd, el Día de los Muertos, with a series of amoxcalli for consultation by the nobles and priests that make up our audience.

So, shinea up that chiste, put a shine on your short story, or lucirse tu pensamiento. Your editors await.

the La Bloga staff