Collects the results of a literary experiment in which a best-selling or popular author wrote a short fictional prose story about an object on eBay, raising its value; the profit from the objects sale then went to charity.
Please note: In the spirit of discovery that the book promotes, this product has two different jackets (pink or blue) pictured above. The customer will be shipped at random and will not be able to specify one jacket or the other.
100 EXTRAORDINARY STORIES ABOUT ORDINARY THINGS
SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS: A Literary and Economic Experiment
Can a great story transform a worthless trinket into a significant object? The Significant Objects project set out to answer that question once and for all, by recruiting a highly impressive crew of creative writers to invent stories about an unimpressive menagerie of items rescued from thrift stores and yard sales.
That secondhand flotsam definitely becomes more valuable: sold on eBay, objectsoriginally picked up for a buck or sosold for thousands of dollars in total making the project a sensation in the literary blogosphere along the way.
But something else happened, too: The stories created were astonishing, a cavalcade of surprising responses to the challenge of manufacturing significance. Who would have believed that random junk could inspire so much imagination?
The founders of the Significant Objects project, thats who. This book collects 100 of the finest tales from this unprecedented creative experiment; youll never look at a thrift-store curiosity the same way again.
FEATURING ORIGINAL STORIES BY: Chris Adrian Rob Agredo Kurt Andersen Rachel Axler Rob Baedeker Nicholson BakerRosecrans BaldwinMatthew BattlesCharles BaxterKate BernheimerSusanna BreslinKevin BrockmeierMatt BrownBlake ButlerMeg CabotTim CarvellPatrick CatesDan ChaonSusanna DanielAdam DaviesKathryn DavisMatthew De AbaituaStaceyD'ErasmoHelen DeWittDoug DorstMark DotyBen EhrenreichMark FrauenfelderAmy FusselmanWilliam GibsonMyla GoldbergBen GreenmanJason GroteJim HanasJennifer Michael HechtSheila HetiChristine HillDara HornShelley JacksonHeidi JulavitsBen KatchorMatt KlamWayne KoestenbaumJosh KramerKathryn KuitenbrouwerNeil LaButeVictor LaValleJ. Robert LennonJonathan LethemTodd LevinLaura LippmanMimi LipsonRobert LopezJoe LyonsSarah MangusoMerrill MarkoeTom McCarthyMiranda MellisLydia MilletMaud NewtonAnnie NocentiStephen OConnorStewart ONanJenny OffillGary PanterEd ParkJames ParkerBenjamin PercyMark Jude PoirierPadgett PowellBob PowersTodd PruzanDan ReinesNathaniel RichPeter RockLucinda RosenfeldGreg RowlandLuc SanteR.K. ScherToni SchlesingerMatthew SharpeJim ShepardDavid ShieldsMarisa SilverCurtis SittenfeldBruce SterlingScarlett ThomasJeff TurrentineDeb Olin UnferthTom VanderbiltMatthew J. WellsJoe WenderothMargaret WertheimColleen WerthmannColson WhiteheadCarl WilsonCintra WilsonSari WilsonDouglas WolkJohn Wray
Full color throughout