Literary Opportunity for the Maryland Purple Line Light-rail Project

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is seeking literary artists to create a story to be integrated into the design and infrastructure of the future Purple Line transit corridor in suburban Washington, D.C. The Purple Line is a new, 16-mile-long light-rail line extending from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County. Construction is expected to begin in 2017 and end in 2022. The line will include 21 stations and will connect major economic centers such as Bethesda, Silver Spring, the University of Maryland College Park, and New Carrollton, as well as link the Metrorail Red, Green and Orange Lines, MARC commuter rail, Amtrak, and local bus services.

This Call to Literary Artists / Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is the first phase of a two-phase selection process to generate a pool of qualified writers who may be invited to create a story for Purple Line stations. The story will reflect the communities the line passes through and explore different kinds of journeys. It will be experienced over the course of many trips along multiple segments of the Purple Line and will evolve in people's awareness as they become familiar with using the line. The story will reward people's attention and introspection, creating a "personal space" in the experience of travelling through a busy public environment.

This call is open to all professional literary artists or literary artist teams who are U.S. citizens or have legal working status in the U.S. "Literary artist" is broadly inclusive of artists whose work involves written material and is of recognized excellence in style and expression, including writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays, scripts, lyrics, journalism, and artists whose work combines performance and literature. Literary artists invited to the subsequent Procurement phase will be expected to demonstrate quality, impact on the public, connection to the site or adjacent community, and appropriateness for the site. This is the only open call for literary artists that will be issued for the Maryland Purple Line.