Speak to Strangers minisite

We’ve built a dedicated minisite for Speak to Strangers to ensure it has a life beyond the WordPress site, and to collate all the elements of the project it all its different forms, including the blog, book and follow-on projects in Manchester and Birmingham.

Enjoy!

http://speaktostrangers.co.uk/

Typewriter by Rachel Cherry

New website!

I’m thrilled to announce I now have a lovely website, which I hope brings together all the elements of my writing, my projects and my blogging. It will be updated regularly with news and information about my work. Thanks to Mathew Hanratty, Rachel Cherry Photography and Henry Simmonds for making it possible.

Please visit www.gemmaseltzer.co.uk and let me know what you think.

Image by Rachel Cherry (http://rachelcherry.co.uk)

Speak to Strangers: the book!

The blog you see here has been re-crafted into a book by Penned in the Margins. It’s been a fascinating process, working out how an online project can be presented on the printed page.

We’ve stripped the idea to its essential parts, keeping only the 100 blogs; removing all the maps and tags. You can see all the extra elements on this website, but we liked the white space around each story for the book. The cover has been designed by artist Henry Simmonds and is looking very good indeed.

London is a city full of strangers and Gemma Seltzer wants to meet them all.

Originally conceived as a daily fiction blog, Speak to Strangers is a funny, provocative and elegant series of one hundred hundred-word stories, which chart a journey across the city through its inhabitants.

“Fantastic, evocative miniature masterpieces” – Josie Long

Speak to Strangers is now available to buy from Penned in the Margins. Click here for further information.

And in conclusion…

Scrolls of each blog post were made and given away during the 100th day of the project – 10 March 2010 – at a live event as part of London Word Festival.

photograph by Jenna Foxton (www.jennafoxton.com)

And now it’s all over! What fun I’ve had talking to the marvellous folk of this fair city. I ventured far and wide and to west London once. I spoke to a couple of kids and lots of shop assistants. I met strangers in cafes and on trains, pubs and offices and a couple of people just wandering around.

Please keep reading the blog, speaking to strangers and adding your own hundred-word stories for the site. Right here in fact.

Finally, thank you to everyone who advised, supported and contributed to this project. It’s been a real pleasure.