30 Covers, 30 Days 2011: Day 30
Man alive! It is the very last day of 30 Covers, 30 Days, if you can believe it. It’s been an incredible month, full of gripping synopses, evocative covers, and some spirited discussion, both here and in our forums. Thank you so much to all of our Wrimos, our designers, and, of course, the magnanimous, magnificent John Gall. Today’s final cover was created in 24 hours by the impressive Laurie Rosenwald:
The Sandwich Technique by knittingkneedle
Above a Burger King in South London, The Lewisham School of Language welcomes a new class of students wishing to learn English as a second language.
Meet Raj Puri, a twenty nine year old Pakistani-born, and proud first generation British citizen. He loves fish and chips, football, and Princess Diana; his dream is to meet Ian Beale from EastEnders. On the plus side, the class he teaches is dirt-cheap but apparently, when it comes to basic conversational English, you really do get what you pay for.
The students, including a Korean divorcee, a cantankerous seventy-five-year-old Polish builder, an African refugee and a glamorous mail order bride, all have their different reasons for studying English, and indeed, vastly different reasons for leaving their homeland but they are all the same in their isolation from the country they inhabit — hindered and hidden behind that very large barrier of language.
Raj’s methods are unorthodox, his pronunciation and grasp of basic grammar is poor, but over ten weeks, through terribly written essays and an overdose of British soap operas, both the students and Raj learn something — if not how to pass their end of year exams — about struggles that transcend language, about prejudice, friendship and what it means to be a citizen of the world.
A designer, animator and illustrator, Laurie Rosenwald also does humor writing, as well as writing which is only marginally funny.
Her design studio, rosenworld, doesn’t exist. In spite of this, rosenworld.com was launched in 1995.
She’s done many drawings for the New Yorker, the New York Times and other fine publications, taught graphic design at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, and NYU, and has held her iconoclastic creativity workshop, ‘How to Make Mistakes on Purpose’ (or ‘What to Do when it’s too Late to get Burrs on your Pants and Invent Velcro All Over Again’) for corporations, conferences and schools all over the world, from Stockholm to Starbucks Creative Camp.
She’s very proud of ‘David’s Diary,’ an animated application created for the iPhone, iPad and Android, made in collaboration with the brilliant writer David Sedaris, who had this to say about her work: “I have to say I was completely blown away. Let me add that I NEVER use that phrase.” Laurie appeared in the pivotal role of ‘Woman’ on The Sopranos. Really. Season Five, Episode One. She claims to have won all the usual awards.
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