Announcement

About Style

Announcement

A state of mind. An agenda. A program. A manifesto. An expression of self. An expression, perhaps, of a potential new literary movement.

WHEN’S the last time the literary world had real style?

painting by Thomas Phillips

Byron had style. Lord Byron. Sounds like the name of a WWE wrestling star.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their Lost Generation friend Ernest Hemingway had style, in their persons and prose. They influenced entire generations of American writers.

Jack Kerouac and the Beats had style. Their look, swagger, words, ideas created a cool subculture and gave business to burgeoning coffee shops, nascent venues for poetic musical talents like Bob Dylan and Patti Smith.

WHO among writers today has real style? Not affected pretentious overwrought “style” in their workshopped too-literary words. Style instead in their person, swag, attitude– a vibe projected in their look and their writing and in every part of their being.

We’re looking for style, because we know those who have it will revolutionize today’s literary scene.

ALSO: KEEP UP on what’s happening at Fast Pop Lit. Coming soon: Part IV of our “What’s Wrong with American Literature?” series.

AND– If you haven’t already, please sign the “Save the Writer!” petition to protect writers and readers. Thanks!

2024: A New Start?

Announcement

EVERY NEW YEAR is a chance for a fresh start. A do-over. An opportunity to this time get things right. Which is the attitude we’re bringing into 2024. Our goal: to punch a hole through the curtain of today’s culture and jump through it.

Only one strategy will work: totally revamped literary art. This will include a sea change in how people view fiction and poetry. New standards. New canons. The only path forward. Let’s make 2024 a year to remember.

Goodbye 2023!

Announcement

NO DOUBT 2023 was a tough year for everyone except a handful of tech billionaires who gathered enormous wealth–

— but we got through it, which is what counts. In so doing, at New Pop Lit we published a variety of sterling work, fiction and poetry both. In our admittedly biased opinion, some of the best writing to be found anywhere. Doubt this? Then click onto our “TOP OF THE POP” page and browse around. READ some of the stories and poems. They fit our goal of being readable and striking.

WHAT ELSE were we up to in 2023? For one, our “Save the Writer!” petition, which has us standing at the forefront among literary people in questioning the dubious benefits of Artificial Intelligence. If you have not yet signed the petition– you should.

WE ALSO began a new page at our site, Fast Pop Lit— a site within a site, really– for posting shorter work much faster than we can put up our longer features. Also, as a way to promote those writers we do feature at our main site. Plus, it’s as striking looking as any literary site out there– a reflection of our intention to be not just one more literary mag. Previews, interviews, commentary, satires– with much more to come. Check it out!

Then stay tuned for a lot more to come in 2024.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Announcement

ANOTHER Christmas? They have a way of sneaking up on us with all that comes with them– songs, gifts, joy, cards; how many days off from unliked jobs? Unforeseen mailings of chocolate the best part. Maybe, in this year of wars and turmoil, reflection on what this holiday is supposed to be about: Peace On Earth, not running about in shopping malls or making hurried orders care of Amazon or Walmart. The Wise Men carried gifts, but when all is said and done– guided by a star, in tune with the universe– they were likely far wiser than us.

We wish Happy Holidays to one and all!

-Karl and Kathleen

Halloween 2023

Announcement

Happy Halloween from Karl and Kathleen!

No, we don’t have any scary stories to offer this Halloween season– we figure there are already plenty of frightening tales and images this year courtesy of mass shootings, world events, and news media.

We DO invite people to read our enlightening offerings– our features, listed at our Top of the Pop page, and short poems, interviews, fiction, commentary and satires at our new-this-year Fast Pop Lit site.

The Go-To Spot

Announcement

GO!

That’s what we’re aiming for, rather ambitiously, with our Fast Pop Lit site (also linked on our menu). The idea being to quickly post new work on an instantaneous basis (almost)– to create a colorful kaleidoscope of criticism, commentary, quirkiness, satire, sneak previews, short fiction, poems, and gossip. Sometimes off-the-wall, and other times completely serious. Or utterly ridiculous.

THIS MOMENT

Our newest post at Fast Pop is a poem, “Moment (October)” by James Croal Jackson, who appeared in one of our unique print zeens, ZEENITH. (Still available at our POP SHOP.)

NEXT UP

We have coming Thursday a quick interview with Aspen Audley, who penned our current feature, “White Crane Spreads Its Wings.” After that, a Sneak Preview of our next feature; short interviews with other writers; more James Croal Jackson poetry; and a short essay about the “Worst Literary Critic Ever” (not to miss); and much more!

We aim to be all things and everything books, writing, and literature related.

The Launch of Fast Pop Lit

Announcement

Hello! Today, April 27, 2023, we announce the launch of a new literary site intended as our “botkiller” response to botbooks and AI-created poems and stories– but also as an alternative to the established alternatives to the bots and other mass-produced offerings. Meaning, the stagnant New York-London-centered status quo, which has lost all sense of connecting with ordinary readers (not to mention current non-readers) as long as they please themselves in their endless self-congratulatory “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” backslaps of how important they are, if not compelling or exciting.

We’re out to connect with EVERYBODY. Our objective with Fast Pop Lit is to provide a literary thrill ride of fiction, poetry, opinions, analysis, and surprises. We hope to provoke reaction– if such a thing be possible in the sleepy-bordering-on-comatose world of letters.

WAKE UP!

We launch the site with Two Prose Poems by Brian Pilling. DON’T MISS THEM!

(Also, please sign the “Save the Writer” petition, if you haven’t already. Thanks!)

Save the Writer Campaign

Announcement

Are writers an endangered species?

You wouldn’t think so, based on how many of us there are. But the writer has become devalued in this society. “Oh, you write?” or, “You’re a writer?”– accompanied by expressions of disbelief, dismissal, and scorn.

We’re out to change that! FIRST, by fending off the assault of billionaire-generated fake writer-substitutes c/o A.I. devices whose purpose is to make further $$$ for their plutocratic proponents by wiping out writers as a class, while flooding the market with inferior books and articles.

To promote clarity about what’s happening, we’ve begun a “Save the Writer!” petition asking for proper labeling about A.I. content. Not much of a pushback, but the minimum. A start. Please read and sign!

SECOND, we continue to develop, behind-the-scenes, new kinds of literary products. We’re not against technology– we just happen to believe words, sentences, literature are also a complex technology. The original tech, one might say.

We also believe in human deep learning, instead of billions of dollars pumped solely into deep learning of machines!

Much to come.

No Robots!

Announcement

NEW GUIDELINES CONCERNING A.I. (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) WRITERS

This is to affirm we will be accepting no literary work– fiction, nonfiction, or poetry– created with the use of an A.I. program. As the task for human writers today is difficult enough as it is, and as we enjoy the human element in art, we seek to delay the march toward artificial everything as long as possible.

YES, WE KNOW the dream of the hyper-plutocrats– billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk– is to control everything themselves from the top down and eliminate all human employees, so they can run their massive businesses strictly via robots and phone apps. To this we say: Do what you will, world, but WE at New Pop Lit Headquarters will be cooperating with this insane plan as little as possible. -K.W. and K.M.C for NPL.

p.s. New feature works by human writers ARE upcoming.