Announcing The Punters' Page!

And the first-ever Writers' Cup

Dear Republic,

Today is the launch of a new section — The Punters’ Page! It is dedicated to games and lotsa fun shtuff on literary and cultural themes — and, as far as I know, there’s nothing really like it anywhere.

The first event in The Punters’ Page is The Writers’ Cup. It’s a single-elimination tournament of 16 top fiction writers. Here is the bracket:

Here is how it works. There are a few components, so bear with me.

First, there is The Joust. Every week one writer is pitted against another. Anyone is free to vote, either in the comments to The Punters’ Page post created for that contest or in the comments to the accompanying Note. You just type in the name of the writer you think is better and whichever writer wins advances to the next round.

Then, there is The Speculation. You may fill out a bracket guessing how you think the tournament will unfold. The bracket-filler with the most points at the end of the tournament gets $500, second place gets $300, third place gets $100. Anybody may fill out a bracket, but you can only win money if you are a paid subscriber of The Republic of Letters. More detailed rules — and scoring — to follow in a separate post. For now, just write to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Bracket” in the subject if you wish to receive an official bracket.

Then, there is The Agitation. Once a Joust is announced, anybody may write in advocating for one writer as opposed to another (negative campaigning permitted). ROL will accept at least one piece on behalf of each writer in a given Joust and pay at least $25 per accepted piece.

Capiche?

Capiche.

The first Joust is maybe a warm-up round. It’s Percival Everett v. Ocean Vuong.

Voting for that round will open on Monday, September 15 and close at midnight on Saturday, September 20.

Anybody wishing to submit a piece for The Agitation, please write to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Agitation: Everett” or “Agitation: Vuong” in the subject line, as appropriate. ROL will start choosing what pieces it wants to run on September 14, so consider that a deadline. It’s likely that opposing pieces will run in the same post, so aim to keep your piece to under 1500 words.

Again, anybody who would like a bracket, you may write at any time to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Bracket” in the subject but you are only eligible for cash prizes if you a paid subscriber to The Republic of Letters.

Just so you know, I’ve been deliberately kind of basic in terms of choosing the writers who’ve qualified for The Cup. It’s meant to reflect, like, the general consensus towards literary writers. I’ve restricted eligibility to writers who have had a major work of fiction published in the last five years and who are, roughly speaking, towards the peak of their careers. There are expected to be still more imaginative contests in the bright future of The Punters’ Page.

We intend to keep to a schedule of one Joust a week and to announce the winner of the first-ever Writers’ Cup in early November.

There are several other forthcoming contests, but this is already a lot for one post.

Punters, Agitators, Speculators, Jousters, best of luck!

-ROL