Annie Murphy reports from Lima on a literary alternative to Mexico’s lucha libre wrestling – “Lucha Libro”:

In the Peruvian version, instead of headlocks and body slams, aspiring writers compete against each other by writing short stories in front of a live audience, all for a shot at the grand prize of a publishing contract. … Each writer gets three words they have to incorporate into their story, a laptop connected to a large screen, and five minutes. Their writing – including errors, deletions, and dead ends – is projected in real time before a packed room.

Murphy says the writing ring is more forgiving than Lima’s literary establishment:

Peru is the birthplace of writers like Mario Vargas Llosa, and poet Cesar Vallejo. Yet today books are prohibitively expensive, often costing twenty or thirty dollars for a paperback. As a result, readership is low, and publishing contracts are even harder to come by than in the US. Nonetheless, the Andean country has plenty of aspiring writers, eager for a big break. “Lima is still dominated by last names, and social circles,” says Christopher Vásquez, the writer who runs Lucha Libro along with his wife, event producer Angie Silva. “This [event] is democratic, because here you come together in front of a public made up of readers, and no one knows who’s behind the mask.”