While Twitter is a place to share news and get closer to the people and places that matter most to you, it’s also a place for storytelling. This week, we’re celebrating the art of storytelling with the #TwitterFiction Festival, a five-day celebration of storytelling, brought to you by Penguin Random House (@PenguinRandom), the Association of American Publishers (@AmericanPublish) and @Twitter.
The festival features fiction from such renowned authors as Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood), Jackie Collins (@jackiejcollins), Lemony Snicket (@LemonySnicket) and others. It will kick off today at 9 a.m. ET with author Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) as she unravels a love story around a note that she found hidden in the Cambridge Public Library.
A total of 45 writers, including both featured authors and contest winners, have daily time slots to share their stories with readers one Tweet at a time. Writers will use a number of narrative techniques (words, of course, but also photos, videos and real-time crowd-sourcing) from multiple Twitter accounts using the #TwitterFiction hashtag.
The Festival also includes an event in New York City on Wednesday, May 13th that brings the spirit of the festival to a live audience.
#TwitterFiction Festival LIVE will be hosted by comedian Nick Turner (
@NicksTurners) and include authors Gayle Forman (
@gayleforman), Myke Cole (
@MykeCole), Anna North (
@annanorthtweets) and others creating Twitter Fiction on stage with help from the audience. Michael Arthur (
@inklines) and Mike Brun (
@mikebrun12) will bring stories to life with their illustrations and original music.
Here are the featured authors and their
#TwitterFiction previews:
Sophie Jordan (
@SoVerySophie) — A young woman’s quest to shake up her dull life on the eve of her thirtieth birthday. (5/11; 11 a.m. ET)
Matthew Dunn (
@matthewhdunn) — A thriller starring a CIA agent on the hunt for a terrorist told from multiple Twitter handles. (5/12; 9 a.m. ET)
Margaret Atwood (
@MargaretAtwood) — A story composed of words drawn from film preview copy seen on a plane. (5/13; 10 a.m. ET)
Maggie Stiefvater (
@mstiefvater) — A god and a goddess debate whether or not to end the world. (5/15; 11 a.m.)
Liz Egan (
@LizEgan) — Most commutes are mind-numbingly monotonous. Not this one. 60 minutes, 60 Tweets…for a life-changing journey, climb aboard! (5/14; 6 p.m. ET)
Lemony Snicket (
@LemonySnicket) — An amnesia-stricken author enlists help from Twitter followers to solve a mystery. (5/14; 4 p.m. ET)
Lauren Beukes (
@laurenbeukes) — Crowdsourced literary genre mash-ups created on demand. (5/14; 9 a.m. ET)
Kristan Higgins (
@Kristan_Higgins) — A 30-something woman attends Singles Night at the organic grocery store in hopes of finding The One. (5/15; 2 p.m. ET)
Katie McGarry (
@KatieMcGarry) — A chance encounter brings together a 17-year-old politician’s daughter and a tattooed drummer. (5/12; 4 p.m. ET)
Kathleen Kent (
@kathleenkent214) — Forgotten messages from the Old West from Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill, Ike Clanton and “No Les, No More” Lester Moore. (5/14; 2 p.m. ET)
Jonathan Evinson (
@JonathanEvison) — Join a character from the author’s upcoming novel on a seven-day Alaskan cruise. (5/11; 1 p.m. ET)
Jeanne Thornton (
@manwhohatesfun) — Community-powered occult mysteries starring trans-women who are detectives. (5/14; 11 a.m. ET)
Jackie Collins (
@jackiejcollins) — A beautiful, young actress. A horny, old, married producer. An accomplished and elegant wife. Who will be the winner in this triangle? (5/13; 1 p.m. ET)
Ian Doescher (
@iandoescher) — Love poetry from one Star Wars character to another, in iambic pentameter. (5/11; 4 p.m. ET)
Eric Jerome Dickey (
@ericjdickey) — A never-before-seen scene from “Tempted by Trouble”. (5/11; 2 p.m. ET)
Dennis Mahoney (
@Giganticide) — A tragic love story of a white trapper, a native maiden, and their bloodthirsty fathers. (5/12; 2 p.m.)
Congressman Steve Israel (
@BySteveIsrael) — The “Zen of Dick Cheney” reveals the inner Cheney through secret NSA recordings of his meditations. (5/13; 4 p.m. ET)
Chuck Wendig (
@ChuckWendig) — A story about tun
echnology, privacy, and vulnerability. (5/11 6 p.m. ET)
Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) — A hidden note bearing only a call number leads to a most unusual love story. (5/11; 9 a.m. ET)
Beth Cato (@BethCato) — Evocative fantasy and science fiction poems and short stories. (5/13; 2 p.m. ET)
Anna Todd (@imaginator1dx) — What would happen if a teenage boy found his favorite actress’ iPhone sitting on a desk? (5/11; 6 p.m. ET)
Abigail Tarttelin (@Abigailsbrain) — Lighthearted subversions of heteronormative gender stereotyping inspired by the We Need Diverse Books campaign and the womynists from 1994 comedy, “PCU”. (5/15; 9 a.m. ET)
You can find the full festival schedule and more details about each author’s #TwitterFiction at twitterfictionfestival.com.
