Penguin Random House, Twitter and AAP Launch Second Annual TwitterFiction Festival

Posted on January 10, 2014

Twitter, the Association of American Publishers and Penguin Random House have announced the launch of the second annual #TwitterFiction Festival which will take place from March 12-16, 2014. The call for public entries is open now. Many top authors have already signed up to participate, including Jim Gaffigan (Penguin Random House), Gail Carriger (Hachette), David Javerbaum (Simon & Schuster), Sara Farizan (Algonquin Young Readers), Julie Kagawa (Harlequin), Alexander McCall Smith (Penguin Random House), Liz Fremantle (Simon & Schuster), Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books), Brad Meltzer (Hachette) and Bernie Su (Simon & Schuster).

Participants will create experimental fiction as Tweets. The festival offers emerging authors a chance to participate with bestselling authors through a competition, which is now open. Entries may be submitted submitted through February 5, with judging by a panel of publishing executives from AAP member organizations.

The week long festival will kick of on March 12th with an event in This year, #TwitterFiction Festival kicks off with an event March 12th in New York City. The event will feature live and digital performances that will be streamed live globally.

Twitter is an enthusiastic co-sponsor of the event. Andrew Fitzgerald, Media Partnerships at Twitter, had this to say of the event: "The Twitter Fiction Festival is a great way for authors of any level to use Twitter to bring the art of storytelling to life. The real-time nature of the platform and brevity of Tweets make Twitter a perfect companion for weaving together fictional stories in 140 character spurts."

Christine McNamara of Penguin Random House said, "We're excited to work with AAP, Twitter and authors across numerous publishers to add a digital twist to storytelling. The #TwitterFiction Festival celebrates storytelling - it's a great way for writers and readers to connect through original new material and also gives the public an opportunity to share their own stories with the community."

It sounds like a lot of fun. If you want to participate, be sure to get your entry in quickly. The entry form can be found at: twitterfictionfestival.com.