Making Literature Now [Paperback]

How does new writing emerge and find readers today? Why does one writer's work become famous while another's remains invisible?Making Literature Nowtells the stories of the creators, editors, readers, and critics who make their living by making literature itself come alive. The book shows how various conditionsincluding gender, education, business dynamics, social networks, money, and the forces of literary traditionaffect the things we can choose, or refuse, to read.

Amy Hungerford focuses her discussion on literary bestsellers as well as little-known traditional and digital literature from smaller presses, such as McSweeney's. She deftly matches the particular human stories of the makers with the impersonal structures through which literary reputation is made. Ranging from fine-grained ethnography to polemical argument, this book transforms our sense of how and why new literature appearsand disappearsin contemporary American culture.

Through fascinating case studies of people working in publishing both large and small-scale, traditional and digital, this book tells the story of how new literary work emerges and finds readers in our era of too many books.Amy Hungerfordis Dean of the Humanities and Professor of English at Yale University. I value Hungerford's value for readers and, as her reader, I pay it forward:Making Literature Nowis worth your attention. It's rare for literary criticism to bring news. ButMaking Literature Nowis that decisive book that tells you things you want to know about the circumstances and conditions of writing today, even while it guides you through theoretical issues and conflicts with a friendly and ingenious intelligence. Hungerford's brilliant portraits of editors and writers, behind-the-scenes ethnography, and pointed inquiries make this THE book from which future literary histories will be written. Part reportage, part book history, part literary criticism, part autobiographical essay,lC-