An ambitious literary magazine I'm starting...

catominor · 05-19-2011, 02:24 PM

Hello everyone,

I'm an independent publisher who enrolled in the Faith back in March, and it's led me on quite a spiritual journey to say the least. The details will have to be saved for another time, but a brief glimpse of it can be seen in the fact that I've begun learning Esperanto, and have given two of my literary journals Esperanto mottos inspired by quotes from Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha.

The first is "Arto estas egala al ago adoradon"--"Art is equal to an act of worship," inspired by a quote from Abdu'l-Baha. The second, for a minimalist literary journal, is "Gardu viajn vortojn," or "Guard your words," inspired by Baha'u'llah's famous quote, "Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech."

At any rate, I have thought about the idea that work is an act of worship and thought to myself that, if at all possible, my work should in some way reflect the Teachings. This has led me to start a project called Conmigo, a planned not-for-profit, international, multilingual, collaborative online poetry journal.

Conmigo will be co-edited by myself and Trisha Bhattacharya, a poetess from Kolkata, India I met online. We each have equal status in the journal's decision-making. Each poem submitted to the journal must be by two or more authors, each from a different country. We plan to accept poetry in a multitude of languages, and for that we will need a huge staff.

We plan to offer our website in Arabic, Danish, German, English, Esperanto, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Urdu, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Each poem we publish will ideally be translated into all of those languages, and we will ideally accept poems from many more languages.

The whole spirit behind this magazine is world unity, international cooperation, and bringing the world closer to peace through the exchange of literary ideas. I feel my whole life led up to this point--my degree in Computer Science, my subsequent change in career paths to independent publishing, and then my conversion to the Baha'i Faith. I think this magazine is my calling.

If you speak any language besides English, get in touch with me either on this board or via email--benjamin@conmigo.co . I know Spanish and Esperanto, but could always use second opinions. And feel free to talk about my idea here.

radicalspirit · 05-19-2011, 10:24 PM

How very creative of you to adapt your professional education and training into a form of art. I consider your idea and your progress with it quite artistic. I know how to verbally communicate in three Chinese dialects, but am not literate. Have you considered a Viduet? or Poetreo? (My attempts to mash the idea of Video + Poetry)

Anyway, keep us updated and let us know when you will have a Beta page

catominor · 05-22-2011, 02:46 PM

Conmigo

Hired professional translators to do the initial work... but from here on out it's gonna have to be volunteers... it was incredibly costly to do the professional translations, and put quite a hole in my bank account. I managed to sign one of the pros (the Chinese one) up as a volunteer though, and might sign another one up.

05-19-2011, 02:24 PM	#1
catominor Junior Member Joined: Apr 2011 From: Youngstown, OH Posts: 3	An ambitious literary magazine I'm starting... Hello everyone, I'm an independent publisher who enrolled in the Faith back in March, and it's led me on quite a spiritual journey to say the least. The details will have to be saved for another time, but a brief glimpse of it can be seen in the fact that I've begun learning Esperanto, and have given two of my literary journals Esperanto mottos inspired by quotes from Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha. The first is "Arto estas egala al ago adoradon"--"Art is equal to an act of worship," inspired by a quote from Abdu'l-Baha. The second, for a minimalist literary journal, is "Gardu viajn vortojn," or "Guard your words," inspired by Baha'u'llah's famous quote, "Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech." At any rate, I have thought about the idea that work is an act of worship and thought to myself that, if at all possible, my work should in some way reflect the Teachings. This has led me to start a project called Conmigo, a planned not-for-profit, international, multilingual, collaborative online poetry journal. Conmigo will be co-edited by myself and Trisha Bhattacharya, a poetess from Kolkata, India I met online. We each have equal status in the journal's decision-making. Each poem submitted to the journal must be by two or more authors, each from a different country. We plan to accept poetry in a multitude of languages, and for that we will need a huge staff. We plan to offer our website in Arabic, Danish, German, English, Esperanto, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Urdu, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Each poem we publish will ideally be translated into all of those languages, and we will ideally accept poems from many more languages. The whole spirit behind this magazine is world unity, international cooperation, and bringing the world closer to peace through the exchange of literary ideas. I feel my whole life led up to this point--my degree in Computer Science, my subsequent change in career paths to independent publishing, and then my conversion to the Baha'i Faith. I think this magazine is my calling. If you speak any language besides English, get in touch with me either on this board or via email--benjamin@conmigo.co . I know Spanish and Esperanto, but could always use second opinions. And feel free to talk about my idea here.

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05-19-2011, 10:24 PM	#2
radicalspirit Yours Truly Joined: May 2011 From: San Luis Obispo Posts: 19	How very creative of you to adapt your professional education and training into a form of art. I consider your idea and your progress with it quite artistic. I know how to verbally communicate in three Chinese dialects, but am not literate. Have you considered a Viduet? or Poetreo? (My attempts to mash the idea of Video + Poetry) Anyway, keep us updated and let us know when you will have a Beta page

05-22-2011, 02:46 PM	#3
catominor Junior Member Joined: Apr 2011 From: Youngstown, OH Posts: 3	Conmigo Hired professional translators to do the initial work... but from here on out it's gonna have to be volunteers... it was incredibly costly to do the professional translations, and put quite a hole in my bank account. I managed to sign one of the pros (the Chinese one) up as a volunteer though, and might sign another one up.