The Drum Literary Magazine has brought together a group of established and up-and-coming Boston-based writers to produce PerambuLit, a Create-Your-Own-Adventure story for the Boston Book Festival. PerambuLit is an audio story, allowing festival-goers to experience a fictional narrative both by listening to it and by walking along its various routes. Listeners will hear the voices of the writers themselves, recorded for this project by The Drum.
The writers who collaborated on this project are:
Jenna Blum, Those Who Save Us
Daphne Kalotay, Russian Winter
Ethan Gilsdorf, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club
Catherine Elcik,"How to Be Sure You Want To Be a Farm Girl" in Carve Magazine
Becky Tuch, founding editor, The Review Review
Steven Brykman, National Lampoon, The New Yorker, Prairie Home Companion
Henriette Lazaridis Power, Editor, The Drum, Clean Monday (forthcoming)
Once listeners begin the PerambuLit story on the steps of the Boston Public Library, they will use Broadcastr's geotagging application for iPhone and Android to map the route they select for the next story segment, choosing either Boylston Street or St. James Avenue for the next leg. When they reach a decision point in the narrative, they will tap their newly chosen route, and the audio for the corresponding segment of the story will begin to play. The entire story will take no more than fifteen minutes from start to one of eight different finishes. Listeners may want to try different routes to hear all of the story's possible outcomes!
Here's how to listen:
1. Go to the steps of the Boston Public Library (Dartmouth St.).
2. Download the free Broadcastr app onto your iPhone or Android phone.
3. Open the Broadcastr app.
4. A pop up window will display, offering you the PerambuLit experience; click "yes."
5. Instructions will display, and you can begin your adventure!
PerambuLit will go LIVE on Friday, October 14th!