The face of American literacy is changing.
The National Endowments for the Arts reports that the number of Americans who claimed they read novels, poems, or plays has increased by 3.5% since 2002; granted, the vast majority are not necessarily reading “high literature,” but the fact that more people are putting down their copy of Us Weekly and actually reading something instead of looking at photos of Brittany Spear’s new babybump is something of an improvement.
President Obama, who not only represents much needed change in the administration, reads––and not only that, he reads what many experts consider falls under the high, glittery parasol of literary fiction. If people fawn over what Michelle Obama wears, consider then what the effect of Obama’s literary bully pulpit can accomplish. Hopefully (and there’s a lot of hope when speaking about the Obama presidency), the guy can catch a break and find the time to read amidst two wars, climate change, and the economic crisis.
The current economic crisis has also affected the publishing world. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has indefinitely stopped new acquisitions. The little-talked about Black Wednesday (of course literary people will be so dramatic about their Wednesday) consisted of firings in Random House, Simon and Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Thomas Nelson all. And yet, publishers can find the money to give million-dollar advances for celebrity books; giving $7 to Seinfeld, $14 million to the aforementioned Ex-Mrs. K-Fed, and $11 to the Caribou Queen, Sarah Palin. The current major publishing model doesn’t work and literary-conscious people are now turning their eyes to independent publishers. Susan Straight, in her undergaduate fiction workshop, urged her students to submit their work to independent publishers because, as she said, “Not only are you chances a lot higher, but those other guys aren’t going to be around for much longer.”
And where does that leave Audeamus? Hopefully writers in the UC-system can find some refuge in Audeamus, because as our pool of submitters are slightly smaller, we can devote more time to submissions than say suits in a board room. And we don’t only publish literature either, because it’s out mantra to consider accepting “anything reproducible on paper.” So within the covers of an issue of the journal, there will be not only fiction and poetry, but also research, essays, and artwork. In effect, we’re luring the literary-minded person to read the paper on the development of genetically modified crops and the scientific to read about the origin of butterflies. Audeamus likes to stand a few centimeters too close to people’s bubble of comfort, in order to be able to offer something new and unexpected. That would be nice right now, something new and unexpected, to match the times.
