Announcement

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.

New Aesthetics, New Canons

Announcement

DO PEOPLE realize the enormous cultural-media changes now taking place?

One needs to step back and view the bigger picture to fully see the changes. Legacy institutions in steady decline. The rise of often-inadequate-if-not-insane upstarts.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN that a racist nonentity like Nick Fuentes, podcasting out of his mom’s basement while promoting crackpot ideas, can become a national figure?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN that the richest man on the planet buys the most effective social media tool and uses it to decide what will or will not become major news stories?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN that a once-prestigious institution like the British Film Institute comes up with a list of “100 Greatest” movies that’s 100% out-of-step with public taste– as if they’re out to deliberately marginalize/sabotage/dynamite themselves and all current established-and-approved film critics?

These signs mean there are ENORMOUS openings in the culture right now– the opportunity to rethink everything arts related. Which we’re doing in the literary field with new styles of publications, as well as changing the structure of the literary art itself. The good guys (us!) need to pre-empt the bad guys in these changes.

Stay tuned. Much is happening.

National Novel Writing Month

Announcement

THE EDITORS of New Pop Lit Karl Wenclas and Kathleen M. Crane who are also writers will be discussing the creative process and the future of writers and writing AT the Trenton Veterans Memorial Library in Trenton, Michigan this Saturday, November 19, at 2 p.m.

On being a writer: WHY should a person invest the time in what might be considered by some an outmoded art form?

There are multiple answers to that “Why?” With clarity and energy we plan to present a few of those answers.

(Advance register by calling 734-676-9777.)