My Imperfect Offering: A Call for Contributions

A call for contributions

I am going to try to put together a zine this year and I'm inviting you to contribute.

It will be a one-time (with the hope of more times) publication about the intersection of popular music, religion, and real life. The plan is to get it printed here in China, where I live, where printing is way cheap, and make it available when I return to the US in the summer. It will be a short print run. I'm not sure how short - pretty short.

So, what I am looking for is personal/revelatory writing about the relationship between (pop) music and religion. The only theme I have in mind is the word "sacrament," which I think is broad and vague enough to drum up some non-broad and vague stories in which pop music is somehow a tangible force, an object that actually is part of things. Not a bunch of boring "analysis." Maybe like about 400 to 1000 words, but could be more or less. I'd be looking for something you have not published before and which you can agree to not put on the internet. In fact I don't care if you want to publish it again in another print form, as long as it will not be on the internet. If you feel like you can trust me, after one year I will split all the proceeds among all contributors (after printing and mailing costs). You will probably get, like, a dollar.

PLUS (appreciated):

+ conflict / crisis + stories  + "secular" music +  religious music approached in new/interesting ways + revelatory things about human nature + particular religious tradition(s) + albums no one has heard of

MINUS (less appreciated but not totally illegal):

- Making fun of Christian music -"analysis" - Writing about being a writer - Albums made in the 21st century - Using the word "culture" - "spiritual but not religious"

A few particular things that would be welcome aside from what's mentioned above:

- Reviews of obscure albums from the 20th century

- Interviews with relatively non-famous people who have done something unique with pop music and religion

- Writing by or about priests, nuns or monks, especially if you can find any who have been in rock bands.

Please get in touch in the next few weeks if you are interested. You can email me via the link on the right-hand side of this blog.