The past weekend's Literary Writers Conference at The New School, coordinated by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and co-sponsored by The New School Writing Program, Sobel & Weber Associates, Donadio & Olson, and the National Book Foundation, was attended by about 200 writers seeking advice on managing a literary career. Thursday evening's opening panel included Jonathan Burnham of HarperCollins, Morgan Entrekin of Grove/Atlantic, Jonathan Galassi of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Sonny Mehta of Knopf, and moderated by Sara Nelson, Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly, a lively exchange about the literary novel's present and future. Most impressive was to see these representatives of the biggest presses in the United States reiterate their support of publishing quality fiction in the face of the countless rumors of its demise. Panelists over the next couple of days included writers Jill Bialosky, Alan Burdick, Rachel Sherman, Amanda Stern, and Jonathan Lethem, as well as editors Brigid Hughes (A Public Space) and Joanna Yas (Open City).



To finish off the conference, after two days of nuts-and-bolts discussions of working with an agent, working with an editor, how to approach lit mags, etc., we decided to focus the last panel more on literature than on career, so we assembled a wonderful quartet: novelists Christopher Sorrentino, National Book Award Finalist in 2004; Lynne Tillman, a National Book Critics Circle Finalist; Monique Truong, a New York Public Library Young Lions Awardee; and poet Cole Swensen, National Book Award Finalist in 2004. Happy to say that we went over our 1 1/2 hour allotment, and could have gone on listening to the four of them talk about what they have been reading and why, what makes good literature, the thrill of writing when you turn out stuff you are happy with, and other aspects of the writing life.



Recommended today: Recent books by the four members of my panel on Saturday. Chris Sorrentino's Trance, Lynne Tillman's American Genius: A Comedy, Monique Truong's The Book of Salt, and Cole Swensen's Goest. After reading these four books, if you don't think American writers are producing great work, you should think again.