We invite you to write an original essay - from 1000 to 3000 words long - in the spirit of Goodman’s "utopian essays and practical proposals."
Tell us: what is one of the pressing social and political issues of our time, and how would you address it?
The winning essay will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and will be published in Dissent. Two runner-up essays will be published on the Dissent web site and will receive $250 and a signed DVD copy of the film.
Essays should be sent in PDF or DOC format to essaycontest@paulgoodmanfilm.com by May 1, 2010.
Contest judges include Deborah Meier, MacArthur Fellow and founder of Central Park East School; Casey Blake, historian, Columbia University; and Richard Flacks, sociologist, UC Santa Barbara.
In 1960, Paul Goodman - social thinker, activist, poet and novelist - published his groundbreaking work, Growing Up Absurd. An examination of youth disaffection in our affluent but spiritually empty society, Goodman's work inspired and galvanized a burgeoning generation of '60s students and intellectuals. Forty years later, though his influence is felt throughout our culture, his books have fallen out of print and his name is all but forgotten.
Dissent and JSL Films, creator of the upcoming documentary Paul Goodman Changed My Life, encourage you to re-discover this independent radical thinker. To help guide you, we've put together a resources guide which includes samples of Goodman's works and rare video footage. Sign up above to learn more.