Manitoba anthology "Warpaint" offers bold and provocative storytelling

There are so many ways to tell a story.  And sometimes there's just no wrestling a story into a conventional format.

That's where ZenFri Inc. comes in. The husband and wife team of Danielle and Corey King are the founders of ZenFri Inc. This innovative publishing team is unique in that it works across all platforms, including narrative pieces, visual arts, animation and digital media. It has just released an impressive anthology called Warpaint.

Warpaint is a collection of some of the most cutting edge short stories and art. It brings together works of 15 writers and visual artists from Canada and beyond.

"We wanted to publish bold, unusual and provocative works," says Corey King. "Artistic competency is also important," he continues, "and the other thing was regional diversity. We wanted to be a small Winnipeg press that could have an international and cross-Canada flavour." He describes the collection as transgressive, outsider, irreverent and polemic.

The Kings are driven by their belief that in this digital age, one does not need to be restricted to traditional forms of expression, that stories can be told on any number of digital platforms. And they believe mixing written word and art in a single anthology works because narrative and visual works play off each other very well.

Corey King was thrilled to receive nearly 200 submissions.

Canadian contributors include writers Julianna Kozma, Andrea Beca, John Brooke, Keith Kennedy and Emily Ursuliak. The Canadian visual artists include David Hunter, Shannon Yashcheshen and Ben Clarkson. Yashcheshen and Clarkson are both Winnpeggers.

King admits that many of the works are dark, so Clarkson's contribution, an updated civil war rendering, is welcome as his work displays a playfulness.

He calls Yashcheshen's work disarmingly simple. Called Prince Charming, it is a modern spin on fairy tales. "When she invokes the fairy tale element it strongly suggests something unusual and less familiar. It makes you think about your own life."

The Warpaint project is also unique in that it is artist-run and proceeds are all shared by the contributors.

The Warpaint print edition is now available at Lulu.com and CreateSpace or digitally on Kindle or directly from ZenFri.com. It will be available on Amazon stores soon.