PenTales started out as a small narrative experiment: We handed 20 empty notebooks to 20 friends, and asked them each to start a story. These books are now traveling the world as each storyteller passes the book on to someone new to continue their story. The last storyteller will return the completed PenTale to New York City, where the curious collection of works will be celebrated and shared with a larger audience.
103 people so far have participated in the PenTales20 experiment, including:
• New York Times’ Literary Review Critic Liesl Schillinger
• Experimental Filmmaker and Curator Jonas Mekas, (Founder of Anthology Film Archives, recipient of Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Award)
• Children’s author and illustrator Ashley Bryan (8 time winner of the American Library Coretta Scott King Book Award)
• World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Creative Director Michael Shulan
• Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman
• Novelist Katie Kitamura (The Longshot, by Simon and Schuster, 2009)
• Author and Editor of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern Sean Wilsey (Oh the Glory of It All, by Penguin, 2005. State by State: A Panoramic View of America (co-authored with Matt Weiland), 2008)
• Author and former editor at The New Yorker, contributor to London Review of Books, Vogue and McSweenys Daphne Beal (In the Land of No Right Angles, published by Vintage/Anchor in 2008) .
• Hollywood actress Greta Gerwig (Greenberg by Focus Feature Films, 2010)
• Author Lynn Greenberg (Body Broken: A Memoir, Random House)
Watch our tales travel around the globe on Google Maps! Feel free to zoom in, zoom out, and click on the icons to see who had which PenTale and when!
View PenTales20 Travels in a larger map
Did you receive a PenTale book?
If so, you have five days to follow these four steps!
1. Write or Illustrate Two Pages: Find the next free page and get creative with the empty space. The only rules are to stay within the two-page limit and engage in some way with the previous story. The first storyteller of each book will just have to be extra imaginative!
2. Sign the Author List: Write your name, date, and location on the list located in the back of the book. Take a PenTales 20 tag from the inside cover as a souvenir.
3. Pass the Torch On: Give your book to another storyteller. Share the book with someone whom you trust (i.e. a friend, relative, or complete stranger), and who you know will take on the responsibility of continuing your PenTale. Feel free to mail the book to a storyteller living abroad, or just pass the book on to your next door neighbor.
4. Email pentales@pentales.com with the following information:
a. Your book number
b. Your location
c. The next storyteller’s name and location
Many thanks for keeping us posted on your book’s progress!
102 PenTales20 Authors and counting…
PenTale 1 1. Gabriel Winer (Boerum Hill BK NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 → 2. Ed Tracy (Birmingham, UK) Oct. 4, 2009 —> 3. Will Jeffree (London UK) Nov. 2, 2009 —> 4. Kat Wojcik (East London, UK) —>
PenTale 2 1. Shavanna Miller (Williamsburg BK NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Steven (NoHo NYC) Oct. 29, 2009 —> 3. Will Carlough (Brooklyn NYC) Oct. 30, 2009 —> 4. Kate Fink (Brooklyn NYC) Oct. 31, 2009 —> 5. Marc Hanna (Manhattan NYC) —> 6. Jesse Richard (NYC) March 30, 2010 —> 7. Isabelle Pierre (NYC) July 6, 2010 —>
PenTale 3 1. Noah Wunsch (NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Greta Gerwig (Chelsea, NYC) —>
PenTale 4 1. Commissioner Robert Garafola (Upper West Side MN NYC) Sept. 29, 2009→ 2. Daria Foner (Florence Italy) Oct. 6, 2009 → 3. Danielle Gonella, (Florence Italy) Oct 31., 2009 —> 4. Kristina Furnes (Israel) Dec. 7, 2009 —>
PenTale 5 1. Prof. Karen Hornick (Upper West Side MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Fran Smith (Silver Spring MD) Oct. 1, 2009 —>
PenTale 6 1. Judith Sloan (QN NYC) Oct. 5 2009 —> LOST BOOK :(
PenTale 7 1. Nina Kantcheva (Williamsburg BK NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Emilio Garcia (Bangkok Thailand) Oct. 8 —> 3. Julia Urrunaga (Barcelona, Spain) Nov. 5, 2009 —>
PenTale 8 1. Jonas Mekas (BK NYC) Sept. 29, 2009 —> 2. Benn Northover (London, UK) Jan. 10, 2010 —>
PenTale 9 COMPLETE AND BACK IN NEW YORK CITY
1. Liesl Schillinger (East Village MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Hadley Freeman (Upper East Side MN NYC) Sept. 29, 2009 —> 3. Katie Kitamura & Jamie Diamond (East Village MN NYC) Oct. 2, 2009 —> 4. Sean Wilsey (Nolita MN NYC) Oct. 5, 2009 —> 5. Daphne Beal (Nolita MN NYC) Oct. 10, 2009 —> 6. Laura Schechter —> 7. William Tigertt (Soho, NYC) —> 8. Atisha Paulson (LES NYC) —> 9. Brian “Pietz” Peterson (Venice CA) —>10. Angela Ledgerwood —> 11. Samara Hearsh (Sydney, Australia) Dec. 12, 2009 —> 12. Lisa Gluck (Sydney, Australia) Feb. 6 2010—> 13. Alana Bruce (Sydney, Australia) —> 14. Darragh O’Connell (Sydney, Australia) April 26, 2010
PenTale 10 1. Catherine Corman (Tribeca MN NYC) Oct. 2, 2009 —> 2. Tim Wilson (Harlem MN NYC) Oct 7, 2009 —> 3. Alan Michelson (NYC) Oct. 14, 2009 —> 4. Victoria Davidson (New Haven, CT) April 26 —> 5. Mary Corman (Lower East Side, NYC) —> 6. Jorie Waterman, (Upper East Side, NYC) —>
PenTale 11 1. Michael Shulan (Soho MN NYC) Sept. 29, 2009 —>
PenTale 12 1. Jesse Ashlock (Greenpoint BK NYC) Oct. 1, 2009 —> 2. David Amsden (Williamsburg BK NYC) Oct 12 —>
PenTale 13 1. Naomi Campbell (Brooklyn NYC), Sept. 30, 2009 —> 2. Douglas Mulkerns (Brooklyn, NYC) Oct. 10, 2009 —> 3. Richard Allen (NYC) Oct 30, 2009 —> 4. Iztiar Barrio —> 5.Helene Brandt
PenTale 14 1. Darrell Hartman (East Village MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Oliver Hartman (Lower East Side NYC)→ 3. Rudmilla Sulaymunova (NYC) Oct. 16, 2009 → 4. Abbot Street (Brooklyn NYC) Oct. 19, 2009 —> 5. Ben Kaplan (Toronto Canada) Oct. 30, 2009 —> 6. Steve Murray (Toronto Canada) Feb. 5, 2010 —> 7. Leslie Gauthier (Oakville, ON) March 1, 2010 —> 8. Adam Roth (Agoura Hills, CA) March 29, 2010 —> 9. Champoy and Rhea (Los Angeles, CA) July 28, 2010 —> 10. Drew Koshgarian (Los Angeles, CA) Aug. 4, 2010 —>
PenTale 15 1. Stephanie Ursula Hodges (Chinatown MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Marie D’Origny (Boerum Hill BK NYC) Sept. 29, 2009 —> 3. Alex Power (Soho MN NYC) Oct. 4, 2009 —> 4. Diana Odasso (Paris, France) Oct. 9, 2009→ 5. Mikael Awake (Syracuse, NY) Oct. 21, 2009 —> 6. Aaron Labaree (BK) Dec. 2009 —> 7. Peter Hlinka (BK NY) Jan.10, 2010 —> 8.Jenny Assef (BK, NY) Jan. 22, 2010 —> 9. Katie Fowley April 26, 2010 —> Michael McCanne (Berlin, Germany)
PenTale 16 1. Brit Cowan (NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Lauren Feinberg (NYC) Oct. 10, 2009 —>
PenTale 17 1. Saskia Miller (Nolita MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Orsella Reyes (East Village MN NYC) Oct. 7, 2009 —> 3. Roberto Reyes (Paris, France) Oct. 22, 2009 —> 4. Iggy Cortez (London, UK) January 27, 2010 —> 5. Caroline Craig (London) March 25, 2010 —> 6. Jeroen Black (Rotterdam, Holland) July 15, 2010 —> 7. Iain Macleod (London) July 19, 2010 —>
PenTale 18 1. Seth Herzog (Battery Park City MN NYC) Oct. 1, 2009 —> 2. Alexandra Zuckerman (East Village, NY) Dec. 24, 2009 —> 3. Ashley Bryan (Little Cranberry Island, ME) February 15, 2010 —>
PenTale 19 1. Christina Guevara (East Village MN NYC) Sept. 25, 2009 —> 2. Andrew Zsoldos (Tribeca MN NYC) Oct. 25, 2009 —> 3. Caitlin Sidwell (Washington, DC) Jan. 4, 2010 —> 4.Philip Hodges (Los Angeles, CA) Jan. 10, 2010 —> 5. Will Tauxe (Los Angeles, CA) May 1, 2010 —> 6. Karl Anton Koenigs (Berlin, Germany) —>
PenTale 20 1. Lynne Greenberg (Brooklyn Heights BK NYC) Oct. 6, 2009 —> 2. Mary Kathryn Burke (Upper East Side MN) Oct. 15, 2009 —> 3. Matt Corriel (Nanuet NY) Nov. 24 2009 —→ 4. Zach Sifuentes (Cambridge, MA) Nov. 29, 2009 —> 5. Andrew Magliozzi (Cambridge, MA) Jan. 25, 2010 —> 6. Lauryn Yeakel (Cambridge, MA) Feb. 16, 2010 —> 7. Pearl Grace (Austin, Texas) Feb. 27, 2010