May 5th 2013
A momentous day! On this day in 2003 Winamop was launched
upon a largely uninterested world, you can follow the development of the site
by scrolling right to the bottom of the "Diary" page, or clicking
here, and see how we became the publishing
behemoth that Winamop is today...
When we began, Winamop's page style was a
jokey facsimile of Winamp's site (see this page for the
story) and it looked like this. I've found an early copy of it so you can see
it in all its glory if you click on the thumbnail.
Since then we've changed things round a little, dropped
the "British" bit, explored many more artistic avenues, stopped sending out
mops (sorry to disappoint all mop collectors) and gained a loyal band of
contributors. Thank you all! This site is nothing without you.
For this tenth birthday edition we have some special
contributions, some newcomers and some old faithfuls. It's a HUGE edition and I hope you enjoy it!
Let's get started then. One of our earliest contributors,
Wayne H.W Wolfson, is still a supporter and he has sent in some excellent
art-work with which to celebrate our anniversary.
Now to Martin Green, a most prolific contributor to the
site, who has written this special story for our birthday. It's called
Stephanie and the (wina) mop.
Captain Wozzo is a super-hero of a not so super kind. I
started his story in 2004 and have only just finished the final chapter for
this tenth birthday edition. I doubt if the effort was worth it, but if you're
under 12 you'll probably like it!
Our tame historian JH has been transcribing these 105 year
old diaries for a little while now. They concern a Swiss holiday taken by a
group of young women from the Scottish lowlands and are a fascinating little
snapshot of the time. Here's the latest episode, a very warm climb up the
Niesen.
Now to KJ Hannah Greenberg. Rosh Hashanah is the birthday,
i.e. the new year, that Jews celebrate. Here is a poem about the metamorphosis
a parent experiences when seeing her children dress in holiday finery for that
very special day.
Further into our poetry section now, with Donal Mahoney,
another very regular contributor. In this poem Donal remembers the "fire and
brimstone" sermons of Old-Time Religion.
Next we welcome back A.J. Huffman [Bio] who was last with us back in January. This time
she has three new poems for us, including the worrying Fishnet Bootie
Shorts...
Now I'm very pleased to welcome the first of our new
contributors, Christopher Mulrooney, who has written poems in Orbis, Weyfarers,
Tulane Review, and Pacific Review. Here are four of his latest.
Another new recruit joining us this time is Mary Creswell
[Bio]. Mary lives in New Zealand and
has a wry style which I like a lot.
Last but not least, it's a pleasure to welcome Andrea
Lewis to Winamop. Her poems are full of humour and empathy with the people she
observes.
Here's to the next ten years!
Ed.
Winamop was conceived on a whim, is run on a
shoestring, ignored by the many, loved by the few and has continued unabashed
since 2003.
All human life is here, experienced people,
skilled writers and rank amateurs, sometimes they hit the mark, sometimes they
belly-flop (sometimes they mix their metaphors). You pick up the pieces and
make of them what you will. Find out about us here
and about the site here.The contributor's
guidelines are here and the e-mail button
is below.
We hope to continue to maintain a showcase for new writing
which will grow as you, dear readers, augment the efforts of the in-house team.
We have over 400 unique pages so far but, quite frankly, we need more...
Have a good look around and if you feel that you'd like to
contribute in any genre, then don't be shy, send it in! The copyright remains
yours, and you could win a mop (unlikely, as I've run out).
Jump straight to a category using the buttons at the top
of the page, they work from any page. Remember, it's all free and is made from
100% natural ingredients!
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if you don't rate a page you won't get one!
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