Advent 2019 / What will happen on December 21st, 2019

Dear readers: you may notice that this year, we've chosen to forgo our advent calendar. Instead, we'll be doing our usual weekly posts and focusing our attention on the run-up to What Happened on December 21st, 2019, an exercise in attention. 

Remember 2018's What Happened On June 21st project? That day that 250 or so of us decided to write about "what happened" on that day? Well, we're doing it again, this time on the winter solstice, December 21, 2019, and we'd like to invite you to join us to write about what happens this December 21st.

To participate, all you have to do is write about what happens on that day.

Anyone can play. You, your ten-year-old kid, the whole family, your grade school class, your chess team: whoever. If you'd like to receive three reminders (day before and day of and day after), put your name in on the I'm Interested form.

If you wrote for us last time, we'll send you one email about this to invite you to participate again, should you want to. If not, ignore it or send it to someone who might.

December 21st is our friend Paul Hurh's birthday, so there's that. It's also a Saturday, so there's that. It's the shortest day of the year, as you probably know. It's ten days before the end of the year. So there's that. Four days before Christmas, if you celebrate it. Four days left in the advent calendar (if you use one).

What will happen? What will you notice happening? What will happen to you? To those you love? To those you don't know?

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What Happened on June 21st, 2018? Click through to read all of those posts archived in the previously linked page. Or you could also read the curated digital version of 25 of them that we released last summer (also available at that link as a free download). You might consider tuning into our podcast Talkaday, in which Dorian Rolston interviews some of those writers about the nature of attention and day-writing and the day as a literary unit. You might also want to cruise through to Brian Blanchfield's writing about Bernadette Mayer's Midwinter Day. Her fantastic book is one of the major achievements of day-writing, and we'd recommend giving it a read (maybe on that day, maybe before).

We'll be back in touch here with more info, but in the meantime, spread the word. Sign up on the I'm Interested form and we'll remind you. And prepare to pay attention. Maybe hatch a plan for how you want to pay attention. Start your training montage now.

You're interested? What's the url to let us know? It's here, one more time.