Call for Submissions: MVOD Volume 3

The University Writing Program presents our third annual call for submissions for a publication in connection with DU IMPACT 2025’s One Book, One DU:

MANY VOICES, ONE DU Volume 3 Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way, the 2018–19 One Book, One DU selection, is an aspiring chef ’s moving account of finding her way—in the kitchen and beyond—after a tragic accident destroys her sense of smell. Not just a recovery memoir, Molly Birnbaum researches the mechanics of smell and its connection to taste, memory, attraction, and more, which invites readers to view intellectual inquiry as a personal endeavor.

Inspired by this common reading, we invite all members of the DU community—undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, staff, and faculty—to write a story in response to the following prompt: Consider something you take for granted and what it might mean to lose it. It can be physical or metaphorical, concrete or abstract, tangible or intangible, personal or cultural, weighty or whimsical.

Tell a story that illustrates your connection to what you fear losing and considers the implications of this potential loss. Alternatively, what is something you’ve already lost and what has that loss meant to you?

(see reverse for more information)

Submission Deadline: Saturday December 1sty 10pm e-mail: OneBook@du.edu visit du.edu/onebook

visit du.edu/writing

Prompt:

As an aspiring chef, Molly Birnbaum paid particular attention to the scents of the kitchen, trusting smells to signal when a dish was perfectly cooked or seasoned just right. The neurological process of smell itself, however, never seemed to cross her mind: “It was a movement too complicated, too miniscule, and entirely too invisible for me to notice, let alone to care about.” When a tragic accident severs the neural connections between her nose and the area of her brain responsible for scent perception, she struggles to understand and articulate the extent of her loss: I suddenly lived in an unimaginable world. One where my memories of scent were impossible to bring back. One where my loss was almost impossible to describe. I struggled with it. I avoided it. I didn’t know who I was without my sense of smell.

This sudden loss prompts a journey of investigation, reflection, and recovery. Immersing herself in olfactory research—and its connections to taste, memory, security, and romance—Birnbaum develops a deeper appreciation for what she had once taken for granted.

We invite you to begin a similar process of investigation and reflection. Consider something you take for granted and what it might mean to lose it. It can be physical or metaphorical, concrete or abstract, tangible or intangible, personal or cultural, weighty or whimsical. Tell a story that illustrates your connection to what you fear losing and considers the implications of this potential loss. Alternatively, what is something you’ve already lost and what has that loss meant to you?

Tips: •

It can be physical (like smell) or metaphorical (like “voice”), concrete (a physical feature) or abstract (a defining personality trait), tangible (a favorite article of clothing or lucky trinket) or intangible (a connection to a person), personal (a pet or ability to participate in an activity) or cultural (a local monument or group visibility).

• This doesn’t need to be a “profound” loss; in fact, something “small” or whimsical might well yield a more interesting story. The tone doesn’t need to match Birnbaum’s, either. This story is an opportunity to play with and establish your unique voice.

• You can use any number of narrative devices to render this story—characterization, dialogue, imagery, figurative language, scene setting, exposition, etc.

• One pleasure of Birnbaum’s writing is her use of rich detail. We tend to emphasize visual cues in narrative writing, but be inspired by Season to Taste—try to include a range of sensory details.

We welcome responses to the prompt from all members of the DU community—undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, staff, and faculty. And because stories come to us in many forms, we want to celebrate the many print genres in which they are told: nonfiction essays, poetry, photographic essays, graphic arts, etc.

Submitting:

Please e-mail your response to the prompt to OneBook@du.edu by end of day on Saturday December 1st, 2018. We are happy to address any questions or concerns you may have about the prompt and the publication of Many Voices, One DU. Selected authors will work with an editorial team during the Winter 2019 quarter. The book will be launched in May 2019.

In your e-mail, please indicate your affiliation with the University of Denver (e.g., staff, alumni, graduate student, undergraduate student, or faculty) and include the title of your submission.

To view previous issues of Many Voices, One DU, please visit: www.issuu.com/DU_Writing_Program/docs/mvod2017 www.issuu.com/DU_Writing_Program/docs/mvod2018