Writer Edmond Caldwell: Radically Different

Writer Edmond Caldwell riffs on the future of publishing. Read his story "Entrancing!" (a publishing satire) in the latest issue of nthWORD.

What's the craziest thing you've done while pursuing your craft?

I gave up a tenure-track position as an English Lit academic. Fiction was always my first love but I had been blocked for years. Finally, right when I was supposed to be revising my dissertation for publication, the draft of a novel popped out. I knew then that I would never waste my breath on academic literary criticism again. Apart from missing my wonderful students I've never looked back.

What are your thoughts on freedom of expression?

I think it's useless if you don't exercise it, and most of the time people in this culture - writers included - don't. Of course we live in a capitalist society where there's 'market censorship,' but there are also, due in large part to the internet, many venues for the expression of oppositional cultures. So far, to my mind, these have not been sufficiently taken advantage of, because self-censorship and conformism still prevail. Most of the lit-blogosphere and the online publishing scene is a reflection of the dominant culture, albeit often with a superficially "alt/underground" twist. Alt is conformism in hipster gear, Underground is the mainstream reversed in the mirror. We have to go further.

What are your thoughts on the future of publishing?

Publishing won't have a future that is meaningful unless there's writing to publish that really matters. Ultimately, however, we know none of this exists in isolation. To have a radically different mode of publishing will require, as its basis, a radically different mode of sociality, of relating to each other. Countless millions of potential poets are rendered mute by the conditions of their existence. How would the conversation change if they could suddenly sing?

Image by webtreats

posted by nthWORD at 4:18 AM