Ed has a very interesting piece up about his recent discussion with David Kipen, Director of Literature for the NEA. Kipen was giving a talk about the NEA's Big Read project which is apparently touting The Maltese Falcon as the book we all should be reading. (I had no idea this was funded by the NEA - I guess I've been hiding under a rock or something.)

Ed had some ideas about what he thinks the NEA should be spending money on. Here's a bit:

I then begin to outline to him a very simple idea. If newspapers were dying and reading was “at risk,� why not have the NEA sponsor an online book site that would function very much like the WPA Federal Writers Project? A place where emerging critics hustling from newspaper to newspaper could find a place to hone their thoughts about literature. A place that could subsidize current print critics, litbloggers, literary podcasters, and other parties. Something that would involve hard editing and encouragement. Essays that were just as committed to novels in translation, small presses, genre, and the like as they were the latest volume from John Updike. Not only would such a site be a training ground for emerging critics, but it would also be a place for freelancers to go when the newspaper markets dried up. Why not put the money in the hands of the impassioned and the thoughtful?

What I like about Ed's site and the projects he works on is that he is always pushing the envelope of what the lit blogosphere can do - and he thinks it can do a lot, something I wholeheartedly agree with him. As I continued to read his post I was quite surprised to see a mention of a site that publisher/editor Nan Talese is apparently working on to review titles for young people. (It's going to be called "The Review.) I haven't heard beans about this project but since we are nearing the start date for Guys Lit Wire I thought it was very interesting to see what Talese is planning. Here's a bit from a write-up last November:

The site would feature 20 to 25 reviews a week of 800 words or less. "I think the best book reviews are the ones in People magazine and Entertainment Weekly," she says.

Rather than rely on advertising, she hopes publishers themselves will be willing to fund the site. "It is in their interest to get the news of books abroad, especially to a younger generation that does not read newspapers, whose book coverage is shrinking anyway," she says.

As Ed points out, it's interesting to see that Talese is looking for publisher funding. That always makes me nervous as I have been the recipient (along with many bloggers) of hundreds of books that publishers think we should be writing about. If Talese is depending on the pubs to pay the bills then she might find herself only writing about the books they want her to review which will exclude a lot of innovative stuff and likely make the site very heavy on the Gossip Girls type titles. (Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here.) We'll have to wait and see how this one turns out although the fact that Ed met someone at the Kipen presentation who was affiliated with the site but completely unaware of the lit blogosphere does not bode well.

I have to wonder how that is even possible anymore in literary circles, but there you go.

As for Guys Lit Wire, the review site for teenage boys that I'm working on, we are buzzing right along and could probably launch on May 1st but I'm going to hold off until June 1st as originally planned so everyone has plenty of time to get their ducks in a row. (And I will give major kudos to our designer Sarah Stevenson right now because what she is doing is amazing.) There are 23 scheduled lit bloggers who will each post on a specific day Mon - Fri each month. (The schedule is set through the end of the year, so we are dedicated to keeping the posting updated.) The idea there is that readers will have ever changing content and perspective which I think will help a lot in gaining some credibility with our audience. Some posts on tap for June include reviews of titles about writing comics, apocalyptic fiction, time travel titles, some sports fiction and a look at Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot. We are purposely reviewing old books and brand new, as well as YA titles and those written for adults that we think work well for teen audiences. Kelly Fineman is going to be covering a poetry title each month, Jules is writing about illustrated books that art lovers might have missed and over the summer we have posts planned on Ray Bradbury's screenplay for Moby Dick which is due out from Sub Press, multiple titles from David Almond and hopefully a look at filmmaker Alex Cox's new book due out this fall from Soft Skull. Everyone will also be dropping as they like with links to interesting articles or reviews elsewhere that we think our readers might enjoy. I'm sure I'll be linking to past reviews at Bookslut like my current one on Guy Gavriel Kay's excellent Ysabel.

Guys Lit Wire is not seeking funding from any publishers because we have successfully spread the work around among so many different participants that none of us are going to be overburdened. In other words, we are keeping individual commitment low, allowing us to reduce the overhead to nothing and get it up and running relatively quickly. If publishers want to send ARCs to individual bloggers they can do that - but only through contacting them directly. I'm just here to make sure the site runs and the good content continues as scheduled, otherwise we are spread (literally) from one corner of the country to the other (with occasional contributions from Europe - hey Tanita!) and making review decisions on our own.

This is a big huge cooperative effort requiring just a little bit of work from each of us. So far, it has come together in an incredibly easy and impressive way and I am 100% confident that we will be showing the lit blogosphere a new model for how to create a functioning site with multiple contributors of enormously varied backgrounds who all work together for a common goal. The book choices are our own, the opinions belong to each individual and we promise - I swear - to post regular daily content. (Excluding the weekends of course.)

I look forward to seeing what Nan Talese is going to do; in the meantime, get ready for a wholly independent, non corporate sponsored, recommendation web site for teenage boys in June. It's going to be wicked cool and will prove yet again that lit blogosphere is the place for innovative, fearless, fascinating literary conversation.

And yes, if you're wondering, I'm really loving my life right now.