Over the past 12.5 years of Perfect Duluth Day’s existence, there haven’t been many posts that would be considered “essays.” The term is a little vague, but it’s probably understood by most that an essay is something more artistically crafted and of more substantial length than the average PDD post. Examples that come to mind from the past that would be considered essays are Laurie Viets’ “Last Place on Earth — 1983” and my own “Trespassing at UMD’s Old Main in 1992.” There are probably a dozen other examples eluding my memory, but the point in general is that there have been some essays on PDD, but not enough.

To encourage more, we’re launching a new feature called the “Saturday Essay” next week. In each installment, a local writer will share an anecdote, go on a political rant, dissect some event in popular culture or for whatever other purpose string together a healthy amount of words on some subject. Basically the hope is to do for essay writing what “Selective Focus” has done in the past year for photography on PDD.

Here is how it will work: I have already been in touch with several people who will be contributing essays for this feature. There will not be a set rotation of writers, so readers will seldom, if ever, know what’s coming the next week. The whole thing will remain flexible and evolve according to the unforeseen circumstances of the future.

If you would like to contribute an essay to this feature, shoot an email to paul @ perfectduluthday.com. You could also simply post an essay at any time, just like any other PDD post, and not bother with the process of being part of the official “Saturday Essay.” Just make sure to abide by the blogging policies.

Happy 2016!