Full Name*: David A. Banks

City*: Troy

State*: New York

email*: david.adam.banks at gmail dot com

twitter*: @da_banks

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/DABanks

Instagram handle: thoriumdirigible

Why do you want an #AmtrakResidency?* [In 1,000 characters or less (including spaces)]

I want to be a part of the #AmtrakResidency insomuch as this is one of only a handful of options left to me as an author. Its good to see that someone is willing to give away a thousand dollar ticket for a couple of tweets and a blog post. I want my workspace to be funded by a tax structure written by corporations combined with ticket sales from working stiffs going back and forth on the Northeast corridor. Food is included in this trip right?

This isn’t to say that the rustbelt house I live in right now isn’t implicated in similar forms of oppression. I just like how easy it is, while onboard a massive machine, to draw such a clear and straight line between capitalist exploitation and my own creative flourishing. Here I am, on a diesel powered train thinking deep thoughts while thousands die in wars for foreign oil. Too on the nose? Let’s just stick to the fact that I will be helping you make Amtrak the Carnival Cruise line for hipsters.

How would this residency benefit your writing?* [In 1,000 characters or less (including spaces)]

This is an important question so I’m glad you asked it. However, I’m unsure whether you’re asking this because you honestly do not know how this could benefit writers, or because you’re screening for applicants that, in the words of your Social Media Director Julia Quinn, understand that this arrangement should be “mutually beneficial.” I think its great that you’re offering yet another opportunity for millennials to do what we’ve been doing since 2008: run a social media campaign for free in hopes that you’ll see fit to pay for the exact same work a year from now. I am really looking forward to advertising your services to the audience that I’ve meticulously and loving cultivated for four years. This is definitely how I want to spend my social capital. That being said, I think its important to me, as a writer, to embed my practice within intersecting structures of power so I like the idea of writing about gentrification while I gentrify an entire continental transportation system.

Upload a sample of your work* [Uploaded]

Supporting link: http://www.davidabanks.org/2014/03/11/a-sample-of-my-work/

Official Terms* [Oh, I read them. https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/442678025352536067]

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