The Totem Project: A Reader Challenge

In collaboration with contemporary artist Don Swartzentruber, Half-Drunk Muse would like to extend an invitation/challenge to our readers. Don's Totem Triptychs, a collection of thirty-six themed panels, explore a variety of social issues through surreal artwork. Don is interested in soliciting reader responses to these works—poems, prose poems, narratives, or brief essays inspired by the Triptychs (but with their own authoritative voice).

HDM's readers are invited to participate in this ekphrastic challenge. Below you will find panels from six Triptychs, linked back to Don's site, where you can view the full Triptych in greater detail. You are invited to write a poem in response to the triptych and submit it to HDM (follow the guidelines at the end of this page). HDM will work with Don to select the best responses, and these will be published in the Summer 2006 issue of HDM as well as on the Totem Triptych website. In addition, selected works will be displayed with the Triptychs in future exhibitions of the collection and they will be eligible for consideration in HDM's 2006 Penny Jar Prize.

For more information on Don's work, and to view other collections, please visit his website at http://www.swartzentruber.com/.

The Triptychs

Submission Guidelines

Editor's Note: Submissions for the Totem Project closed on June 15. However, our regular poetry submissions are always open; please see our submissions guidelines for more information.