H I T O T O K I . O R G   S U B M I S S I O N   F O R M

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Send this file and a photo to submissions_nyc@hitotoki.org

What is Hitotoki?

    http://hitotoki.org

    Hitotoki is a Japanese word derived from hito ("single") and toki (time).
    Hito is also a homophone for "person" or "individual."

    Hitotoki is a website of personal, singular experiences, inseparably 
    tied to a specific place.

    It's a project that started in Tokyo in May, 2007 and is expanding 
    to other cities around the world. 

    The gist of it is:

	As people travel through the anonymity of cityspace they
	often develop brief, intimate and intense memories that 
	combine their emotions, experience and sense of place. 
	This often happens spontaneously and in places that are 
	nondescript or easily overlooked during the day-to-day 
	bustle. The end result for each individual is a private, 
	internal map of a city.

    Our goal is to illuminate these personal mappings into a greater
    whole through short narratives tied to and describing these
    spatial/emotional relationships. As the number of narratives
    increases, we hope that the site will become an alternative
    resource for looking at cities.

What do you want from me?

    Your story should be:
    * 200-500 words long
    * Focused on a single moment
    * Tied to a specific place in New York—all five boroughs are fair 
      game—and revealing something about this place
    * Enjoyable for readers who have or haven’t been to New York
    * Authored by someone who has visited or currently resides in New York

    Also:
    * An image to accompany your story (optional but recommended)
    * You can submit more than one story if you like.

    Your story should not be:
    * A review of a restaurant or cafe
    * About a generalized area of the city (i.e., write about the dog run in 
      Tompkins Square Park, not just the East Village)
    * In excess of 500 words
    * Already published elsewhere

    To give a generic example:

	Some time ago you sat with a date on a bench near the South 
	Street Seaport, looking out at the East River. Now your memory 
	is jogged whenever you see the seaport lights at night from the 
	window of a subway car passing over the Manhattan Bridge. There 
	are emotions connected with the seaport (ex: fleeting sadness 
	because you were dumped by this person soon after), and there are 
	the events and experience surrounding the connection (ex: walking 
	into the seaport mall just to use the bathroom), and there is the 
	description of the seaport (ex: a suburban mall dropped onto the 
	edge of the river).

    These three points: emotion, event, and place are the main components 
    of any one 'hitotoki.' In the above example the hitotoki is composed of 
    sadness connected via a nervous, evening stroll to use the bathroom at 
    the South Street Seaport.

Your image (photo, drawing, etc.) should be (if you have one):

    * Something that expresses the place/moment in your story.
    * At least 300 pixels wide.
    * Something you have the rights to use.
    * We'll take video or sound too!
    * If you don't have one, don't worry! We'll find one for you.

What happens next?

    1. We read your story and decide if it fits the spirit of the site.
    2. If it does, we email you. If it doesn't we email you anyway.
    3. We give it a little editorial polish if necessary. We email you 
       for approval of edits.
    4. We publish it (and email you again).

What about my rights, man?

    * You retain the rights to do whatever you want with the story for ever and ever.
    * We may republish your story in some other format in the future.
    * If this happens we will contact you for permission. By email.

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Tell us about yourself:
    Please answer as many as you can.
    We will include some or all of your answers in an
    author profile alongside your story.

    Name (pen names are also OK):

    Gender:

    Email address:
    (don't worry we'll use special sauce to shield your address from junk email)

    Web site:

    Year (or century) of birth:

    Homeland / Hometown:

    Occupation(s):

    Why New York? (in 3 to 10 words)

    Five things you like about New York:

    1.
    2.
    3.
    4.
    5.

    Five things you don't like about New York (Or, if you dislike nothing,
    describe your favorite meal in New York, please):

    1.
    2.
    3.
    4.
    5.

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Location of your story:

    Place name:
    (e.g. "The 9th Street drawbridge over the Gowanus Canal")

    Time of story (morning, afternoon, evening, late-night):

    Position on a map:
    (An address or Google Maps location.
    You can start here on Google Maps: 
    https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=new%20york%20ny

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Your story (200-500 words):

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Thank you!
- Paul, Craig, Chris and Matt
(The individuals responsible for spending ages—ages—putting this site together.)

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Send this file and your photo to submissions_nyc@hitotoki.org