Local tales sought for short story dispenser coming to Calgary's Central Library

With the touch of a button, a machine coming to Calgary's new Central Librarywill tell you a story.

Theshort story dispenser wasoriginally conceived in 2011 by aFrench publisher, Short dition, which wanted to blendold-fashioned storytelling with modern technology.

The one-metre high machine has three buttons that offer one-, three- and five-minute stories, which unfurlfrom the printing slot below so you can take the story with you.

RosemaryGriebel, the Calgary Public Library's service design lead for readers, spearheaded bringing the machine to Calgary. And she wants to fill it with local stories.

"It's the most basic, creative act for humans, is sharing stories, telling stories, and everybody has a story to tell," she told the The Homestretch on Wednesday.

"We want really compelling stories, family-oriented, so they can be funny, they can be scary but they have to fit within the character guidelines as well."

Stories can be either short fiction or poetry that must be original and not already published. Story lengthcan range from 2,600 characters for one-minutes storiesto 8,000 characters for five minutes stories.

Writers are not paid for the work unlessShort dition chooses it forinternational rotation.

Griebelsaid the library is always looking for ways to promote storytelling and writing. She's hoping the machine will attract a diverse pool of writers.

"It has to engage or make some kind of emotional connection, whether that's fear, sympathy, but also, it has to have some kind of either conflict or transformation within it," she said.

Since the library put the call out for stories on Monday, Griebel said they have already had 20 submissions and 2,000 have viewed the submission site.

The library is still looking to determine exactly where it will put the machine, butGriebelsaid they want it near Lukes caf, where families can come and grab a coffee or ice cream and share a story.

To submit a story, or ask a short story dispenser-related question, email loftonetwelve@gmail.com, with "short story dispenser" in the subject line.

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With files from The Homestretch.