Announcing Papercuts: A Party Game for the Rude and Well-Read

Attention all literary fiends, card game junkies and holiday gift-givers: Electric Literature has just gone live with a Kickstarter for Papercuts: A Party Game for the Rude and Well Read! Until now, the game was just a chimera — a whisper of a rumor of an idea — but after months of painstaking R&D (i.e. — wine, pizza & night shifts at the EL editorial offices), Papercuts is now a fully designed, ruled and playable game. All it needs now is your backing!

Here’s how the game works: the “Editor” draws a question card, and each of the other players (the “Writers”) submits an answer card. Based on whatever clever/twisted/idiosyncratic/perverted/erudite criterion suits the Editor’s mood, a winning card is chosen and a point is awarded. Pass the deck of questions, name a new Editor, and keep the fun going. Have you ever played Apples to Apples™ or Cards Against Humanity™? Then you get the gist. Things are going to get rowdy — and literary, and possibly a little crazy, but also probably mind-expanding and definitely weird. Papercuts has been exhaustively play-tested by EL staff and calibrated for maximum bookish fun.

The Kickstarter campaign, which was launched today, needs to raise $15,000 over the next month. Papercuts will then go to print and be ready by the second week of December — just in time to ship for the holiday season. Rewards include first-run sets of Papercuts, totes, t-shirts, year-round submissions to EL’s Recommended Reading, and review of your work from EL editors.

And remember — Electric Literature is a non-profit dedicated to paying writers, amplifying the power of storytelling, and ensuring that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. So support this game!