Seat at the Table?

Obviously, there would be no literary rebellion if underground writers and ideas were acknowledged by mainstream literature. Speaking for myself, I've never wanted to exclude anyone. The idea is to have underground writers INCLUDED in the discussion.

I started out as a newsletter writer in 1992 writing book reviews, but also discussing literature from a new perspective, questioning why it couldn't be more relevant to things that were happening in the world around me. (Such as: the destruction of the working class.) Subsequent encounters with the corruption of the literary establishment radicalized my attitude toward the literary world.

It was further hardened when the ULA was formed. We began to expose some of the corruption, and received a hurricane of outrage-- not least that we supposedly had no talent, were not writers, and so on. This came from all sides.

Would I like to see good underground writers published-- by anyone? Yes! Along with publication, I want to see them given the attention they deserve.

At the same time I recognize that the system HAS to change. No, giving one group of writers a seat at the table isn't enough-- but might be a starting point, necessary leverage, to allow our advocacy to begin to change the literary world as a whole.

The idea, though, is to give all writers leverage-- every writer-- which writers by and large, except for the very connected, don't have now.