deBuren

With citybooks, you can travel through Europe from the comfort of your desk chair, anytime. But, to celebrate the brand new, redesigned www.city-books.eu, citybooks really is taking you on a journey: deBuren is giving away a trip to a citybooks partner city of your choice. Do you want to start a search for the Knifemaker of Tbilisi, just like Stefan Hertmans? Do you dare brave the sweltering heat that commands the leading role in Abdelkader Benali’s journey to Skopje? Or would you rather take a ride through Bucharest in a car chauffeured by the immortal taxi driver of Ester Naomi Perquin’s Romanian citybook?

The brief is simple: just tell us why you in particular want to visit your chosen citybook city so especially. Send a text of maximum 500 words with a short biography to info@deburen.eu between Thursday 24th of May and Wednesday 20th of June 2012. Let us know why you’re the perfect candidate to visit one of the great citybook cities and win the prize!

For inspiration, visit www.city-books.eu and hear how writers like Bernard Dewulf, Joost Zwagerman, Goce Smilevski, Ester Naomi Perquin, Milena Michiko Flasar, Abdelkader Benali, Arnon Grunberg, Helen Mort, Ronelda S. Kamfer and Stefan Hertmans were inspired by the various participating cities. Alternatively, visit the group exhibition of citybooks photographers in Brussels, and see the many different ways in which they have managed to fix their host cities on film. The exhibition runs from the 25th of May 2012 until the 11th of July 2012 in De Markten, as part of the Summer of Photography.

Terms and Conditions:

• Submissions after Tuesday 19th of June 2012 at 23:59 will be considered invalid
• The brief: write a text of no more than 500 words explaining why you in particular want to visit your chosen citybook city especially
• The participating citybook cities are Bucharest, Charleroi, Chartres, Grahamstown, Graz, Lublin, Ostend, Sheffield, Skopje, Turnhout, Tibilisi, Utrecht, Venice, and Yerevan
• Include, as part of your text, your first and last name, telephone number, email address and a short biography
• The prize consists of a travel budget of 1,000 Euros. The winning participant may declare and reclaim travel expenses of up to 1,000 Euros. Supporting documents for these claims are proof of travel (plain tickets & boarding cards, train or taxi tickets, car hire receipts etc), proof of residency (hotel bills, apartment rental contract etc.) The size of the journeying party itself is relatively flexible: you could, for example, fly to Grahamstown alone or travel with a school class to Utrecht in a bus (the maximum reclaimable amount remains 1,000 Euros)
• The journey must take place between 1st of July 2012 and 31st December 2012
• The winner provides deBuren with a travel report. This report may take the form of text, photo, video or other reflective documentation. deBuren reserves the right to use this document in all of its online- and offline citybooks communication and publicity materials. More detailed agreements regarding this issue will be made personally with the winner
• The winner will be chose by deBuren, and deBuren will announce the winner on the 25th of June
• All competition participants will be notified of the competition results by email, on the 25th of June
• Further correspondence will be held only between deBuren and the winner
• Employees of deBuren and family members of employees of deBuren are not eligible to participate