self publishing

New Pop Lit Loves Women!

Pop Lit Fiction

THERE’S NO DOUBT this is the decade of the woman writer. The majority of students in writing programs today are women. The majority of writers self-publishing via zines and ebooks are women. Of the National Book Foundation’s recent “5 Under 35” award selections, all five are women.

Far be it for New Pop Lit to neglect a trend. We’ll be presenting several talented writers in coming weeks who just happen to be women. We’re not being politically correct. We just go for the best.

First up is internationally-published writer Julie Parks with “Bigger Lies”— a stark urban tale about a boy with scams and dreams in Latvia.

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In keeping with this week’s theme, at the All-Time American Writers Tournament we have a short essay about a renowned woman writer: “The Mary Gaitskill Problem.”

mariedenisevillersself-portrait

If you’re not keeping up with New Pop Lit, you’re not keeping up.
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(Paintings: “Woman with Black Cravat” by Modigliani; Self Portrait by Marie-Denise Villers.)

 

Literature and the Underground

Feature

THIS WEEK we briefly explore the subculture of literature with our long-overdue final installment of Hyper-Talents of the New Literary Age, in which we examine a diverse array of personalities from Bob Dylan to Aaron Cometbus, on up to underground writers of now– who create work just a tad rougher, wilder, and real than standard refined “literary” writing.

Accompanying the essay is a new story by one of our favorite zine writers, fishspit. The story is titled, “I Was a Juvenile Delinquent– Now I’m Just a Delinquent.”

Even the title wouldn’t make it through an MFA program!

Them teachers weren’t the sharpest set of educators. You had to be pretty doltish to wind up down there . . . nobody with an ounce of spirit, a dram of intelligence, would put up with that kind of horror-show. We were a regular freak show . . . the teachers were about as intelligent as carnies.

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(ONGOING at one of our blogs is the All-Time American Writers Tournament. The latest news there is an appreciation of a prominent American author by Samuel Stevens. Don’t miss a post!)

Interview with Jana DeLeon

Announcement

We continue our series of interviews with master storytellers this week with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jana DeLeon. Her Miss Fortune Mysteries series features Fortune Redding, a CIA vixen hitwoman working the unpredictable Bayou backwoods… and looking for love!

Jana gives us the skinny on both traditional and self-publishing; her writing process; and engaging readers. Enjoy the interview here!

 

The best thing about indie publishing is it pays the lion’s share of profit to the artist, and that’s the way it should be. Non-compete clauses would have to be eliminated. I believe they are restraint of trade. No publisher should be able to limit an author’s ability to make a living, and the vast majority of traditionally published authors are not making enough money to support a family.

Interview with Elizabeth S. Craig

Announcement

Happy New Year readers!

We’re starting things off with an interview from an author who has mastered the art of self-publishing and working with traditional publishers: Elizabeth S. Craig.

Elizabeth shares some of the knowledge she’s learned from her publishing experience, including the importance of genre in writing and what challenges authors should expect from both forms of publishing. She also fills us in on upcoming books. Enjoy!

Shear Trouble