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Support Opium for the Arts! |
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by Todd Zuniga
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It’s been a very interesting time at Opium HQ. For starters: we’re officially — finally — a 501c3 nonprofit. It’s been a very long wait, but we couldn’t be more thrilled about this vital development.
It's been a challenge to operate at a level we're proud of during this transition, but our future is something I'm very, very excited for, and passionate about. While Opium has long punched way above its fiscal weight for years — we’ve existed for the last nine and a half years on sometimes very sparse funds — going forward, we ask you to consider donating a small gift to help keep our ambitions moving in a forward direction.
Our goals for the immediate future can be realized with your help, and we’re putting together a nine-city Literary Death Match tour with all of the proceeds going towards Opium for the Arts. Our goals:
1. The release of Opium100: A Century of Literary Humor. We’re putting together our most ambitious issue ever, morphing Opium10 into “Opium100: A Century of Literary Humor.” Our goal is to collect the stories, poems, cartoons and artwork we would’ve published had we been around for the last 100 years, the greatest “literary humor” told since 1901, plus the greatest stories, poetry, cartoons and artwork from the upcoming century. So submit your most humor-laden story, ever, whether it’s been published or not.
2. The relaunch of OpiumMagazine.com. We do so much insane/amazing stuff, and our site doesn’t reflect half of it. We’re working hard to raise money so we can team with a brilliant organization to make OpiumMagazine.com a premiere online literary magazine destination. Right now it’s pretty, but we want to move it in a multimedia direction featuring video, artwork, along with the same great stories you’ve come to expect.
3. Opium Live. Right now, Opium Live is an iTunes channel that has undergone what the business insiders term a “soft launch.” But we want it to explode in 2011. The infrastructure is largely in place, but we want this to be the future of literary magazine podcasts — and believe strongly that it can be with the proper financial support. The channel (subscribe for free) features readings, interviews, and Literary Death Match highlights, along with being a live interview series that features two 10-question interviews (with a 14-minute time limit) between artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers, all followed by an exclusive 5-minute tribute to the interviewee’s work by other artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers.
The truth is, and I know it’s a cliche: every dollar counts. So, please do consider donating now, whether it be a straight donation, subscribing to Opium Magazine, preordering Opium100, or entering our current 7-Line Story Contest.
We'll be back with updates on Sept. 14, but until then: thanks for visiting Opium. We have big, big things in store.
Todd Zuniga is Opium's founding editor, and the president of Opium for the Arts. His fiction has appeared in print and online. He lives between Paris and couches all over the United States.
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