Writers have many scary moments in their careers — getting rejected, getting published, being reviewed — but I can’t think of anything more terrifying than a literary deathmatch.
imagine. You are an emerging writer. You take the stage and spend seven minutes reading your most exciting work to the audience and three judges. They grade you on literary merit, presentation, and what they call “intangible assets.”
Literary Deathmatch creator Adrian Todd Zuniga at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles.Credit: getty
You’re competing against another writer, and if you lose, you’re dead. If you win, you will advance to the second round. Next, you compete against well-known authors, perhaps your idols. In the end, two finalists out of four contestants go head-to-head in an insane finale that has almost nothing to do with the writing.
Maybe the writers’ desire for attention outweighs their fear of loss, or maybe they’re just good sports. Whatever the reason, the Literary Death Race has become a global phenomenon since it began in New York in 2006 and has expanded to 60 cities, including Australia. The writers’ challenge took place in Sydney, Melbourne, Bellingen and Perth, and this month in Brisbane and Bendigo, I saw this fantastic show for the first time. The winner of this event is Melina Marchetta.
The secret to Death Match’s success is largely due to the acting talents of its co-founder and host Adrian Todd Zuniga, who has just moved to Australia. los angeles store Calling him “big-eyed, skinny literati PT Barnum” is pretty accurate, and interview‘s comment, “Events like Literary Deathmatch are helping to reinvigorate the coolness of the printed word” (as much as I hate the word “coolness”).
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It helps to get celebrities on the judging panel, especially witty actors and comedians.I saw a video where one of the judges was Michael C. Hall and he was on Dexter TV drama. How terrible is it to have Dexter judge you? Luckily, no one is murdered on stage, but there is a bizarre episode in San Francisco where they all spontaneously start kissing each other. It’s that kind of show.
No one should take Literary Deathmatch too seriously, but it does a great job of promoting any lesser-known writer who has the guts to get involved.during an interview national post, Todd Zuniga said he started after attending a reading session where one writer would be brilliant, another would exceed the time limit, and another would read a blog post they shot together that afternoon. “Or we’d go to a book with a comedian and some poor fool had to follow a hilarious talk show excerpt from a memoir about his sister’s death.”
Will Literary Deathmatch be on TV? They made a pilot and it’s already been selected. There is precedent, sort of.As Thuy On mentioned in art Centerthere is a reality show called America’s Next Great Writer During the development phase, budding authors pitch their book ideas to a panel of experts, and finalists enter a “dream house,” where they must complete a draft of their book within 30 days.sounds like brother, Only all the crazy action is on the laptop.
