I have an ambitious and perhaps unreasonable proposal. I’m looking for one or more graphic-arts collaborators for a huge writing project. I’ll be up front and state that I don’t currently have a budget to pay anyone, but I think that the idea is worthy of your consideration. The story is strange yet true.

I started writing an epic poem twelve and-a-half years ago. It’s almost done, roughly 10k lines [of blank verse], and prints at 475 pages single-spaced. The story is a re-telling of Noah’s Ark, but without any Judeo-Christian God. The standard tale is a platform for what I wanted to focus on, which channels evolution, existentialism, Buddhism, and other stuff.

I’m sending this letter to many narrative graphic artists, and a similar letter to anyone with contact to documentary filmmakers, specifically those more likely to take on a project without money up front. I wouldn’t propose this if I couldn’t explain why I think there would be financial success and remuneration to illustrators and/or filmmakers involved.

Other than my writing, my family, and my day job [I teach at Community College of Rhode Island, and at the state prison], I run a business that’s just as popular as epic poems are. Last January I started SmallStock Food Strategies LLC, an edible insect company. I provide ways for everyone to try their first officially prepared insect, often a cricket. I myself have had roughly 40 kinds of insects and related “bugs,” and some of them are totally delicious. There is a market for edible insects, even if just a small one. I started being active in this subject in 2001 and have had some success over the years, including a lot of media coverage last year, which in turn got me an agent. Currently I’ve got a partner in Florida; we’ll be growing insects for the food market, meaning packaged goods on the shelves of supermarkets. Someday.

Here are the URLs to support this wacky story. My website: http://www.smallstockfoods.com includes links to the media I’ve gotten, including my appearance on The Colbert Report. The main problem is that I don’t post updates nearly often enough even though I’m doing quite a few interesting things. The same is much worse on the blog about my epic: http://returningwaves.blogspot.com/. I’m so busy doing my work and keeping the rest of my life running that I haven’t been documenting my ups and downs much. That’s one of the reasons for these letters.

If you have questions or comments I’d love to hear them. I’ll tell you just about anything you want to know and I’m open to any ideas. And if by some chance you are not interested in this idea but know someone who might be, I’d be grateful if you passed this along. This is NOT a hoax.

Thanks for your time,

Dave, in Providence

I am a Spanish teacher in Richmond, CA. I have a copy of “Blankets” in Spanish and I would like to use a portion of it in class while we are talking about identity and religion. It would require that I make copies of the section I want to use (pp. 47-65, and pp. 76-87). Would that be alright with you? I think a lot of my students would really identify with the story. Please send me an email so that I won’t be infringing if I make the copies.
Hope you are well,

- Joshua Cristantiello