As prescribed methods of literary creation are interrogated, exciting work often comes to the forefront, paired with new questions of legitimacy. There is a growing tension between the fruits of the standardized marketplace and that which can be accomplished when working amongst one’s peers. The digital age, however, has provided new avenues for publication, collaboration, and content curation that challenge more traditional models. Writers and readers alike tend to pour over lists such as “Top 40 Writers Under 40,” look at vanity presses with disdain, and declare a scandal if and when the Pulitzer Prize committee refuses to award said prize in a given year-what will we read then, if anything? This notion is cultivated and sustained by the marketplace, which includes publishers and consumers, making it difficult for authors to break out of that singular mold. There is a deep-seated mystique around the “Author” in the literary field. For a full list of posts in this series, visit the main Push Me, Pull You page. This is the third entry in Act I of Push Me, Pull You, the Center’s series on (co-)authorship.
