(It was created by writer and teacher Santiago Llach as a team competition, to encourage daily writing during mandatory social isolation)
In the absence of professional sport, Argentina held a “Writing World Cup”
Ivana Soto was crowned champion in the midst of the quarantine brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind her came Elena Vinelli and Josefina Gómez, in second and third place respectively. But what was the focus of their lockdown-era tournament? The “Writing World Cup” held in Argentina, an invention of the writer and teacher Santiago Llach.
What did this “World Cup” consist of? Between March 23rd and April 5th, teams were formed and registered on Santiago Llach’s website, and had to write a work of fiction with a minimum of 3,000 characters, to be shared via Google Drive with the competition organizers. Themes were suggested to guide participants, but the subject matter, genre and style were left up to them.
Not everything was a free-for-all. In order to keep the writers on their toes, a league table based on the teams’ efficiency was introduced. For example, if a player did not write, his team lost points. The idea, naturally, was that the participants write every day, as a way to pass the time in isolation.
“It is a system that aims above all to create habits and to facilitate a method among peers that helps them to advance their writing. It also works as a competition, and if you do not write every day, it hurts the team, which is a strong incentive to write. So it is a kind of method to lose one’s fear of the blank page, and to confront writer’s block,” Llach explained in a note provided to Clarín newspaper.
By the rules of the ‘World Cup’ each team had to choose a text produced by one of its members, for a jury to pick a winner. As a prize, the winners and their teams were awarded a free three-month subscription to Pez Banana, Llach´s Book Club whose name pays homage to the short story by J.D. Salinger.
The “world champion” story, “La casa” by Ivana Soto, and the second and third prize entries, can be read here. The final selection was made by a prestigious jury, made up of Leila Guerriero, Alejandro Zambra and Luis Chaves.Around 2,250 people from all over the world found a way to make their quarantine days more bearable thanks to the “Writing World Cup“. Llach’s project helped to alleviate the psychological pressure of confinement, physical inertia, altered routine and anxiety caused by uncertainty in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. In a playful way, the passion for writing and creation opened a window in these times of isolation.
