MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR LITERARY FICTION

What would happen if a bunch of your favorite literary blogs got together four times a year and picked a book from obscurity, an overlooked literary gem that we'd get behind as a group and bring to your attention, flogging it ceaselessly both here and on our respective individual blogs?

Would it make any difference to you?

Would it make any difference to the author and the publisher of the book?

Would it widen a dialogue about literary fiction involving writers, bloggers, editors, journalists and - most importantly - you, the reader?

We think it will.  And so, on May 15, 2005, the LITBLOG CO-OP (that's us folks over in the lefthand column) will announce its first READ THIS! selection - and will follow it up with all sorts of interesting posts and discussions, here and elsewhere.

Until then, please feel free to drop us a line with your own ideas and suggestions!

Comments

[steven gillis]

Hello LB Coop:

Steve Gillis here. (Bio below.) So very cool what you are doing! Dan Wickett - great guy - turned me on to you. (Dan and I have done some things together in the past.) I would love to hook up, give you a chance to read my novels etc., tell you about my reading and writing program for kids. Drop me a line. That would be great. And thanks again for being such devoted champions of literature. All best - Steve barkingman@aol.com (My URL needs to be updated so ignore for now I would say.)
BIO:
Steven Gillis is the author of the novel THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING (Brook Street Press, January, 2005) Steve's first novel, WALTER FALLS, was published in 2003 and went on to be named a finalist for both the 2003 Book of the Year for Literary Fiction by ForeWord Magazine and also a finalist for the Independent Publishers Association 2004 Book of the Year; the only novel to be named a finalist for both awards. (WALTER FALLS was recently released in paperback.) Currently at work on a new novel, TEMPORARY PEOPLE, Steve's stories, articles and book reviews have appeared in many journals, including: The Beat, Gargoyle, Facets Magazine, FriGG, The Paumanok Review, Arriviste Press, The Cellar Door, Rain Taxi, Detroit Free Press and The Ann Arbor Paper. Steve teaches writing and literature at Eastern Michigan University and is the founder of 826 Michigan, a nonprofit mentoring and tutoring organization for public school students specializing in reading and writing and a chapter of Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia. All author proceeds from Steve's novels go to his 826 Michigan foundation. Steve lives in Ann Arbor with his wife Mary, and children Anna and Zach.

[Sam]

Oddly enough, I just read Walter Falls a couple weeks back when I happened to see it on the new paperbacks shelf, and I've been meaning to blog about it. Loved, loved, loved the book.

[Dan Wickett]

It also just so happens that there will be a Steve Gillis BRC (reviews of both of his books and an interview) in either late May or early June over at EWN (if I can hold to the proposed schedule I've set up).

Enjoy,

[dave munger]

Sounds like a great idea. I'm just a little curious as to how it would work. How would you agree on a book, for one thing. Is there some central arbiter of offbeat taste? Or would book selection be part of the process itself?

Are there any criteria for what qualifies as "overlooked"? Not an NYT bestseller? Not reviewed by ______ Review of Books?

[Jozef Imrich]

"To protect your rivers, protect your mountains."
-Emperor Yu of China 1600 BCE

Good luck and may the long tail dream become a reality. It is almost the Literary Equivalent of climbing the publishing Mount Everest or bringing down the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain ;-D

[Justus]

It'd be really cool if you selected a READ THIS! for books of yesteryear. READ THIS! is a great idea but there are decades worth of similar books that are even more neglected. One of the things that annoys me about most online (and print, too, but it seems magnified online) literary crap is their relentless focus on the books of today today today! That and the "established canon" are like literature's Scylla and Charybdis. Something like the awesome article on "The Story of Don Miff," written in 1886 by Virginius Dabney in the November 2004 The Believer magazine would be excellent on a quarterly basis.

[Jozef Imrich]

I just czeched (sic) out the literary superstars at the top of the mountain ;-P http://www.stormsillustration.com/L&C-1.html

[Ed]

Dave: I'll let Mark chronicle the process of how the LBC goes about deciding on books. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of information coming in the next week. But I will say that a process has been ironed out. Nearly every book is fair game and, in fact, it's just possible that a book choice might indeed be reviewed by a major outlet. But we're here to pinpoint the gems that often fall by the wayside.

Justus: Great idea. And in fact we've discussed something along those lines as a possibility.

[Justus]

It just occurred to me (having last night read J.M. Barrie's script for Peter Pan) that you could do the same thing for plays as well. Although in that case I suppose you could probably pick the current Pulitzer winner and it would still count as "under represented" in comparison to most books :)

[Kevin Wignall]

No books to suggest (and frankly, if you good people can't find four unsung books per year...) but it's a great idea, and I'll definitely read whatever you come up with.

[john updike]

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/tl399/

[Maureen Saringer]

Hi there,

Just read about this in Publisher's Lunch email newsletter. What a great idea. My only hope is that you can garner some adv. dollars so you can afford to do a push-email newsletter...none of us will remember to check back in. We need that "push". Good luck.

[Lauren Baratz-Logsted]

Is it possible to suggest titles? Despite the nearly overwhelming self-serving desire to put my own titles forward, I'd like to humbly recommend "The Autobiography of God," by Julius Lester, and "The Pleasure Was Mine." Of the 104 books I've read so far this year, they are both surpremely worthy novels, neither of which is getting much play thus far in the conventional literary press.

[Lauren Baratz-Logsted]

Is it possible to suggest titles? Despite the nearly overwhelming self-serving desire to put my own titles forward, I'd like to humbly recommend "The Autobiography of God," by Julius Lester, and "The Pleasure Was Mine." Of the 104 books I've read so far this year, they are both surpremely worthy novels, neither of which is getting much play thus far in the conventional literary press.

[Darby]

Neat.

[Mad Max]

"Can lit-blogs make a difference?" You're about to show us, quite emphatically, that there can be an indisputably affirmative answer to that question. Congratulations. Let us know how/what we can do to help (other than adding you to our blogrolls, which I suspect is happening at record speed)...

[Shandy Casteel]

I would be game to throw in some change if you put up a donation button.

[Jory Des Jardins]

I like this idea very much, though I am curious--like the fella above--as to how you plan to carry this out. God, my reading group can't even come to a consensus!

Still, I'm curious to read works selected by this community rather than the obscure selections from the questionable literary monoliths

[Karin]

What's your criteria for how old a book should be? I think Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell is an overlooked book, but it came out in the 1990s.

[david]

Count me in, this is a fantastic idea.

Even though I don't run a litblog, I'll flog as well as part of my 52 Books 52 Weeks or Book Notes features on Largehearted Boy.

[Don Linn]

We're delighted you guys are doing this. Small and independent presses produce scads of gems every season that are simply lost in the noise.

It's great that you're making some noise on their behalf.

[shauna]

Rock solid!

Literary journals -- print and online alike -- would love your fond attentions, should you be interested.

[booksquare]

Maureen, I won't speak for the group, but there are a few way to "push" information to people, including the RSS feed (see the link in the left column to syndicate the site); whenever there are updates, they're fed to you. I live for RSS feeds. Email newsletters can be done with minimal cost, though some effort is required.

[Dan Wickett]

The only cost to do an email newsletter that I can see is time. People sign up for it, you add them to a list and when you want to send something out, you do so. There are things like NotifyList that probably speeds up the process and makes it look cleaner - but speaking as one who does nary a thing but send out information via email (including material on lit journals Shauna), it's more a matter of effort than cost.

Enjoy,

[Kirk]

I think this is a wonderful idea, and hope it helps any worthy title you all decide on. I'd like to nominate Our Napoleon in Rags, a new novel by the writer Kirby Gann; it just came out from independent press Ig Publishing. The author has a website, too, with more info: http://www.kirbygann.net/work1.htm