Coming Soon to a City Near You: CLMP Indie Lit Fairs Go National

CLMP is pleased to announce that we have been granted an NEA Challenge Access grant to replicate our highly successful New York City Lit Mag Fair in pilot cities nationwide. This initiative is part of an effort to increase our service and impact nationally, and to widen the circle of visibility for literary publishing.

Dozens of publishers will converge on each of the cities from all over the country, with an astounding array of books and journals on hand, many with editors present to meet and greet. Discounted copies will be offered to encourage hungry readers to sample a wide variety of today's freshest literature.

CLICK ON EACH CITY TO LEARN MORE:

Houston, TX: Spring 2004		(Host: Gulf Coast)
Columbus, OH: June 3 & 4		(Host: The Kenyon Review)
Atlanta, GA: September 17 & 18		(Host: The Chattahoochee Review)
Buffalo, NY: October 1 & 2		(Hosts: Slope and Starcherone Books)
Miami, FL: November 12- 14		(Host: Miami Book Fair International)
Houston, TX: January 29, 2005		(Host: Gulf Coast)
Hudson, NY: April 16, 2005		(Hosts: Hudson Opera House, Ledig House, and Conjunctions)
Atlanta, GA: September 23-24, 2005		(Hosts: The Chattahoochee Review, Agnes Scott College, Georgia Center for the Book, and The National Endowment for the Arts)
Pittsburgh, PA: November 15, 2005		(Hosts: The Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival and The National Endowment for the Arts)
Miami, FL: November 18-20, 2005		(Host: Miami Book Fair International)

The New York City Literary Magazine Fair at Housing Works Used Book Café was founded in 2000 by editors Jenine Gordon Bockman of Literal Latté and Rebecca Wolff of Fence; to date the event has raised over $25,000 for Housing Works and connected thousands of readers and writers by raising the profile of independent literary publications. The fairs in the cities listed above will generate direct proceeds to the participating publishers.

Participating literary publishers benefit primarily through promotion and exposure to new readers. Such fairs continue to provide new opportunities for our community when other outlets for exhibition remain few and far between, prohibitively costly, or inappropriate for literary publishers.

Placing the cause and calling ahead of bottom line, literary magazines—journals, magazines, and tabloids featuring poetry, short fiction, and critical essays—provide a permanent home to many of our greatest literary voices and also serve as a necessary stepping-stone to greater fame for many writers. These publications are an enduring record of cultural activity, providing an essential alternative to the voices heard through large-scale commercial publishing. Nearly a thousand primarily nonprofit literary magazines, presses and online publishers can be found across the country, in every state, serving hundreds of unique audiences. Ultimately, they serve to connect diverse communities of readers who would remain otherwise isolated from their living literary heritage.

Currently, the fruits of independent literary publishers remain unknown to the larger public—the community of readers. The CLMP fairs bring attention to these exceptional publishers and provide readers everywhere with access to new literary voices, ensuring that America's literary heritage remains diverse and vibrant.

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