The alternate/alternative HYP collaborative encyclopaedia (AHCE), available online and of open access, invites everyone to participate in a collective creative writing novel-in-mosaic. Within the fictional Winepunk Universe (please see the chronology), everyone is invited to write and submit original ‘encyclopaedic entries’ texts, from nano to micro story, in the form of chronicle, obituary, news, or downright flash fiction in any of the five HYP project languages: Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, and Galician.

These entries will be curated, to assure compliance with the Author’s Submission guidelines and the project framework, translated in at least one of the other languages of the project, and published in the AHCE, under a Creative Commons license, for dissemination of the authors, their work, and the HYP project, at regional, national, European and global levels. In addition, they will be cross-referenced, through tags, forming a true collective narrative.

Creative Writing Framework

Winepunk is a science fiction subgenre in Alternate and Alternative History, developed by Invicta Imaginaria, an informal Portuguese creative collective. The foundations for the Winepunk subgenre, rooted in the regional Northern Portugal traditions and culture, depart from the episode of civil war that opposed Oporto and Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, in 1919, which lasted only three weeks. These twenty-five days were filled with events from the tragic to the rocambolesque, and ended with the victory of the Republican South, led by the Lisbon government, over the Monarchy of the North, led by the city of Oporto. And slowly those days and the war were forgotten, with many present-day Portuguese unaware of this historical event. In particular, this war took place in a period very similar, in many aspects, to the present day. It was during the 1918 influenza pandemic, with fighters that had both the experience and trauma of the First World War, in a climate of political and ideological polarization and exacerbated nationalism. Fear, fake, or suppressed news, hate speech, and the plethora of advances in science and technology, are mismatched by the swiftness of Education and social structures to respond to continuous turmoil.

The alternate universe developed by Invicta Imaginaria in 2013 proposes two divergences, an historical and a technological one, and establishes a network between Portuguese History and Culture and other European countries (e.g., Spain and France) and non-European regions (e.g., the Americas and Northern Africa). It provides space to grow historically, culturally, and creatively, as alternate universes usually do, as they attract writers that add new features to the canon through novel fictional stories.

Being Co-creator as a HYP Author

This co-creator trait is what is called upon in HYP, which aims for a more communal and familiar approach, involving the entirety of prospective audiences, namely the non-specialised public. The Winepunk Universe, where fuel shortage forces the Northerners to resource to Port wine as biofuel, has historical detail that involve several European and non-European countries, which are both mostly forgotten and interesting to spark motivation for anyone to explore European collective memory historical details, that were often preserved in local archives or familiar narratives and records.

Not only can individuals be co-creators of this universe through writing entries to the AHCE, but families and communities can also explore together creative writing, history, and culture, both their own and the ones of those around them. Additionally, the collections and repositories of the MHNC-UP can be resourced as inspiration as well, binding the authors’ work with a reputed institution. Additionally, the contributors, and audience are encouraged to act as collaborative curators, i.e., to add details to archives or documents that are the inspiration for the entries, and connect entries, be it between already-published entries, or by contributing with new ones.

Inclusiveness and Participation

Moreover, to include participants that may face literacy challenges, there is the possibility to submit AHCE entries through audios, that will be transcribed and added to the written entries. The audio aspect will also be incorporated in most of the AHCE, within the possibilities of the project, so that visually and literate impaired users/authors can access the contents.  For maximum dissemination purposes, the audio entries will be in English and Portuguese. The visual design and webdesign of the HYP encyclopaedia also took in consideration colours that provide an equal aesthetic experience among the participants, a colour palette with a focus in pastels, greys, and  black and white.

The right to privacy of all entries will be fully respected (e.g., the contributors can request for the family name to be altered in the references, indicating only the public aspects, with the real name only available to the U. PORTO for curatorial and validation purposes).

HYP invites everyone for a creative adventure that will last way beyond the space and time of its writing, connecting generations and countries.

Join us, in the writing of all lifetimes!

Authors Guidelines

Author(s) should follow the submission guidelines and checklist:

□ The creative writing entries must be original;

□ The creative writing entries must respect the Winepunk Universe concepts and chronology and have at least one connection element with the Winepunk Universe. Reference(s) to the MHNC-UP’s collections, within this framework is/are encouraged, though not mandatory;

□ The following types of entries are accepted: individual (creative writing solely based in Winepunk elements); familial (individual or collaborative contributions based in material and immaterial records of a specific family); communal (institutional, associative, or other type of communal archives and record-based entries); regional and national (institutional archives, collections, or records as inspiration for the entries);

□ The entries format and template are as follow: entry length ten to one thousand words if the submission is written, or between one minute to ten, if the submission is audio; at least one mandatory Winepunk Universe element inclusion (or allusion to the Winepunk Universe and its chronology); with references (link, doc, etc) and/or original records regarding the historical facts that inspired the entry;

□ The entries should be in one of the following languages: Portuguese, English, French, Galician, or Spanish.

Special Ukrainian Section

We invite all displaced Ukrainians, in particular the Ukrainian communities in Portugal, Spain, and France, to participate in HYP for the development of an Ukrainian Winepunk Section of the HYP encyclopaedia.

Notwithstanding the particular focus in Portugal, Spain, and France, the Winepunk Chronology included, since its publication in 2013, historical and cultural elements from that period of other countries (e.g., Morocco), with emphasis in Eastern Europe aspects (e.g., calling attention to the foundation of the Communist International, 6 March, 1919; the inclusion of the historical figure of Mechnikov) that easily overlaps with Ukraine’s history of interaction with Russia and other European countries in the 20th Century. The Brest-Litovski Treaty, in 1918, would have assured Ukraine’s independence of the Soviet Union (as well as of other countries that were under the Imperial Russian governance, such as Finland or Poland), but after the end of World War I, Ukraine got involved in the Russian Civil War and ended up annexed to Russian territory. Nevertheless, during the early twenties, Ukrainian language and culture flourished as independent from Russian language and culture.

The inclusion of a special Ukraine section in the encyclopaedia, open to all Ukrainian, will allow for the Ukrainian community to present, through familial and communal records and stories, the independent features of early 20th century Ukrainian culture, and to explore the common features they have with other European countries’ cultural heritage.

Though the encyclopaedia entries must be submitted in one of five languages (Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Galician), the participants of the Ukrainian Winepunk entries can upload their entry in Ukrainian, as a pdf, and after curation, it will be available in the entry site. This will allow for the Ukrainian participants to compile the Ukrainian Winepunk Section in their native language.