Either Important or Rich
Look out, it's the literati
An excerpt from Grand Rapids is in Julia Silverberg’s new project Overwrite Issue 0, accompanied by photography from the incredible Hanayo.
The new issue of Buffalo Zine is out, and I contributed a little something to it as well.
For the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Sarah Pazur wrote so very astutely about Grand Rapids and about Grand Rapids. I’m touched. (For the record, I know that the Detroit/Windsor bridge doesn’t go to Grosse Pointe, but added it as part of a scenic montage in the fictional Grosse Income because reality shows always skew locations like that. Good eye, though.)
And because it was behind the paywall of another post, here’s Katie Pruden on Grand Rapids for Public Seminar.
Below, more un-cited quotes from the literati and literate about what it’s like out there these days. For context, see this post. I’m marveling at the liberal use of the word meritocracy.
Earlier, I wasn’t quite clear about who these insights/anecdotes are from. They’re not nobodies. Every author has published at least one book in the traditional sense, and many of them teach. The others are successful agents, editors (indie and Big Five publishers, reviews), booksellers, and book publicists. By the way, I’m not talking to anyone in genres other than “literary.” That’s a whole other thing I really don’t care about. It may as well be video games.
Most responses to the first post are along the lines of: we don’t talk to each other about this stuff and wish we could, but usually, understandably, feel we can’t, because we’re a bunch of judgmental gossips in competition with one another.
Send any specific questions you have about publishing my way, and I’ll do my best at posing them to a range of in-the-know sources.