An article in the New York Daily News a couple weeks back told of a group of writers begging Oprah Winfrey to feature contemporary (aka "living") writers in her book club again, saying that sales of contemporary fiction have fallen steadily because 1) people aren't reading as much, 2) the ones that do aren't being made aware of what's out there, and 3) Oprah's Book Club started featuring classic fiction works instead of new ones.
About 150+ writers signed an open letter from an association called Word of Mouth thanking Oprah for her help in championing the literary cause through her televised book club, and seeking her help in continuing it where new works are concerned. Signers included new and award-winning writers such as Amy Tan, M.J. Rose, and Maureen Howard.
Can Oprah singlehandedly save the literary world? I don't know. But as they say, the numbers ($) don't lie. What do you think? Read the letter and post your comments on Word Of Mouth's site. A link to Oprah's Book Club is listed in the sidebar.
1 comment:
Melanie, I think the site is awesome. In fact, I'm trying to build something similar, so I'd love to get some tips about how you got the layout so cool looking in the sidebar there!
Also, you have morning pages in there! I love morning pages - ok, so I'm a writer too. We need to chat about this!
Great stuff. AM.
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