Contest: Writer in Residence at the Mall of America

I just found a crazy opportunity for writers. The Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, is having its 25th anniversary. To celebrate, the Mall is looking for a writer in residence to capture the spirit of the space. The chosen writer will spend four days in the Mall in order to experience it fully. The writer will also receive free room and board as well as a generous honorarium. (However, the Mall doesn’t specify how much it considers “generous” to be, so who knows how much the winner will be paid in the end.)

If this sounds interesting to you, head over to the program’s application page and check out the full contest rules. The contest is open to legal residents of the U.S. and is closes on March 10, 2017.

I’ll admit that for me, malls seem to be a part of 1980’s and 1990’s Americana. Maybe it is just that I am no longer at the age when I hang out in malls, so I consider shopping centers nostalgic. They are part of the United States as it once was. I imagine that spending so much concentrated time in a mall will be an experience unto itself for the writer in residence.

Regardless, if you end up winning the contest, you’ll have to let us all know how it goes! I’m certainly curious about the details.

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Image Attribution: James Patterson, “Mall of America Interior,” 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BloomingtonMN_MallOfAmericaInterior.jpg.