By Linda Kim
The Center for Book Culture is a nonprofit organization that aims
to provide critical coverage and recognition to innovative contemporary
writers who are typically ignored by critics and academia. Dalkey
Archive Press and two magazine publications, the Review of Contemporary
Fiction and CONTEXT magazine,are run by the Center. The website is
the newest part of the organization's efforts to bring lesser known
authors out into the critical literary world.
The Center for Book Culture website offers a variety of resources
for both writers and readers of modern fiction. All Dalkey Archive
books are available for purchase through the site's catalog for readers.
Interviews with authors of these books are also posted on the site,
and authors' email addresses are also available for internet users
to communicate with them personally. Information about paper submissions
and contributions to the two magazine publications of the Center is
also on the site. Internet users can either order a subscription to
the magazines on the website or access web versions of published issues
directly through the site.
Teachers and instructors of literature can find valuable resources
in the form of casebook studies available on the website. Lists of
Dalkey Archive books are split into various categories, like Modern
British Literature, or under themes in fiction, like Coming of Age,
for the convenience of teachers who are looking for books to use in
their classes. Information about internship programs through the Center
are also available on the website.
One of the great things that the internet has allowed people to do
is to bring recognition and more widespread public knowledge of lesser-known
topics and works. We have seen this happen with art and film; literature
is no exception. The website of the Center for Book Culture is a good
start. Readers and writers can find intelligent discussion about modern
and contemporary works unlike those found in mainstream venues. Some
expansions that the Center can make to its website are discussion
boards where fellow internet users can actively communicate with each
other or with other writers about the Dalkey Archive books and a forum
for amateur writers to display their works or toss around their new
ideas. Making the website more interactive would be an excellent development
for the Center for both readers and writers of experimental and avant-garde
literature. The possibilities of the internet allow for communities
to develop around such lesser known topics out of the mainstream.