A blog carnival

As this may be new for some of you, let’s start with some definitions.

Carnival

-noun
1. a traveling amusement show, having sideshows, rides, etc.
2. any merrymaking, revelry, or festival, as a program of sports or entertainment: a winter carnival.

Blog

–noun
1. a web site containing the writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites.

Blog Carnival

-noun
1. a collection of various online journal postings on a specific topic

But definitions can only take you so far; to get further, you need…blogs. Here’s what the If:Book blog has to say about Blog Carnivals:

A blog carnival is like a roving journal, a rotating showcase of interesting writing from around the blogosphere within a particular discipline. Individual bloggers volunteer to host a carnival on their personal blog, acting as chief editor for that edition. It falls to them to collect noteworthy items, and to sort through suggestions from the community, many of which are direct submissions from authors. On the appointed date (carnivals generally keep to a regular schedule) the carnival gets published and the community is treated to a richly annotated feast of new writing in the field.

A richly annotated feast of new writing on the field. To see what this means, have a look at previous editions of the > Language > Place blog carnival, a traveling show – started by Dorothee Lang – that brings together “international perspectives on language and place”:

#1. Dorothee Lang at Virtual Notes

#2. Nicolette Wong at Meditations in an Emergency

#3. Michael J. Solender at Not From Here, Are You

#4. Jean Morris at Tasting Rhubarb

It’s a deceptively simple list, a collection of links. Behind it lies a rich compilation of stories and images, a box of assorted chocolates filled with nuggets of various colours, flavours, shapes and wrappings.

The next edition of this carnival will be hosted here, in these pages. Submissions are open until March 20th, and the edition will go online beginning of April. Do send your contribution, your little nugget, to me at langplace AT gmail DOT com. More details about the submission can be found here.

I’ll leave the last word to the author of the If:Book blog:

If blogs in cyberspace are like the single-cell organism in the primordial porridge, might the carnival be a form of multi-cell life?