A Knock at the Door

Annex Arts is launching its newly published book,  A Knock at the Door, four separate stories written by 25 authors during the time of Quarantine. 

About the project

Initiated during Summer 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions limited our programming and people were hungry for ways to engage in the arts, the Pass-it-On Collaborative Novella was a project in which the multiple authors were assigned numbers drawn from a hat and then wrote a chapter when it was their turn. Following the chapters by the writers before them, authors then passed their work off to the writers after them. Author and Castine resident, Johanna Sweet, led the way, sending out assignments to each of the writers.

It was a fun and crazy project, you never knew what you would be served by the writer before you, and you had four days to advance the story and complete your chapter before handing it over to the next writer.

Our writers worked on the novellas from June to August 2020, some of the tenser months of the pandemic. People from varied careers and backgrounds contributed to this project and did wonderful work.

EDITING & PRODUCTION

 Johanna Sweet edited and maintained all the stories as they passed through the hands of different authors, giving them life and structure. Todd Nelson and Mark Rickerby tore through the texts to harmonize the structural and grammatical stylings of 25 writers. Molly Dwyer Blake’s design made the book beautiful. Kelly Carmody painted the mysterious cover image while in residence at Annex Arts in 2018.  

 This book and the collaborative project that produced it were made possible by a generous grant from Humanitas, a non-profit organization that promotes “peace and love in the human family–one story at a time.”

Authors

Ren Albon, Emily Baer, Maggie Baker, Casey Bernard, Jenny Bicks, Barbara Cooper, Ceane & Bryan Corbett, Kristy Cunnane, Heidi Daub, Abby Dunham, Gale Eaton, Marianne Lee, Charlotte Alston Legg, William Light, Jack Mankiewicz, John Mankiewicz, Dabney McKenzie, Debbie Neve, Sally Piper, Kathryn Resenbrink,  Jacob Simmons, Johanna Sweet, Eve Stwertka, Debbie Weil, Goody-B Wiseman. Learn about the authors.