How do we define a style that many see as elitist, pretentious, and irrelevant?
What does the term “literary fiction” mean? What makes a story or essay or novel literary instead of … something else?
That’s a question I’ve been pondering for some time now. Lately, a series of pieces appearing online have attempted to get at an answer.
Continue reading “What makes fiction literary?”Reading for pleasure is down. What’s a writer to do?
As a kid growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I remember public service announcements interrupting my Saturday-morning cartoon time to tell me about an organization called Reading Is Fundamental. RIF is still around, and still working to promote literary among children in the U.S., but judging from a recent study of American’s reading habits, fewer people in this country are reading for pleasure than they were two decades ago.
According to this study, “reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years–raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less.”
Continue reading “How do we make reading fun again?”
Andy writes! 