On the Latest Threat to Literary Culture’s Fragile Ecosystem: Donald Trump

There’s an ongoing crisis in book publishing. I mean, there are many, but corporate consolidation is a threat to anyone who cares about books. When there are fewer publishers, both large and small, there are fewer jobs, fewer opportunities for new voices to break out, fewer places where writers can be nurtured throughout their careers, and fewer places willing to take risks on ideas that diverge from the mainstream.

Now I watch the small arts organizations that have managed to survive facing a new struggle after the National Endowment for the Arts sent out emails at 10pm on Friday night announcing that a majority of NEA grants have been cut off. Small publishers like Transit Books, Deep Vellum, Milkweed Editions, Feminist Press and a variety of university presses were affected by the NEA cuts, plus literary magazines like n+1, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, One Story, ZYZZYVA, and Electric Lit. As a result four literary arts NEA staffers have resigned. It’s difficult not to see these cuts to the arts as a further descent into fascism for America. And then that overwhelming feeling strikes once again.

I’ve written a lot about being a Type 1 diabetic who watched in horror as other American diabetics died from lack of access to insulin, but it bears repeating. I was appalled to look at GoFundMe in 2017 and see how many people could not afford their life-sustaining medication due to ever-increasing prices from big pharmaceutical companies even though the patent for insulin was sold for $1 a century ago. I still felt immense guilt that I could not singlehandedly help all of the people in trouble, even though I know it was a systemic problem that one individual, or even a few individuals, couldn’t fix. This moment feels the same. I need insulin to live. But I need books and culture, too.

Back in 2015 I worked at Kickstarter in literary outreach and helped McSweeney’s to launch its campaign to raise $150,000. The campaign was more than successful and it was wonderful, but I soon realized that one-time donations only go so far. They can bail you out of a crisis (and this is indeed, a crisis) but subscriptions and grants are the key to long-term sustainability. If government grants have all but disappeared, how do we create an environment where literary culture can still thrive? We can’t start a crowdfunding campaign for all of the presses affected and then just hope for the best. Sure, we can start ordering books and magazines from the affected presses (I started a thread here), but what else?

“One of the things we’re doing at the Center for the Art of Translation is to give everyone on staff $150 to identify a favorite press or two affected by these recent NEA award terminations to purchase books from or to donate to these publishers,” says Michael Holtmann, the President of the Center for the Art of Translation | Two Lines Press. Holtmann also stresses that there are things individuals can do that don’t involve spending money: “You can sign up for a newsletter as a show of support, you can call out beloved books you already own on social media, you can talk to friends and relatives about the NEA-funded presses that mean the most to you. And you can absolutely contact your Members of Congress to remind them that the literary arts are a crucial part of American cultural and economic life.”

Mark Krotov, publisher and co-editor of n+1, offers another solution beyond the obvious actions that individuals can take: “One thing I’ve noticed—at least at n+1—is how much harder it’s become to convince publishers to advertise in print or even online… If a publisher is reading this and wondering how they can support magazines caught in the Trump Administration’s crossfire, I’d recommend evaluating their ad budgets!”

Corporate publishers are always complaining that money is tight and then spending eight figures on an advance for a James Patterson and Mr. Beast collab. Krotov’s pitch to the Big Five (and beyond) to advertise their books in literary magazines feels like a win for readers and publishers alike. It’s not a definitive solution, but it’s one that doesn’t involve readers desperately scrounging for extra change so their favorite publications can survive. And perhaps such advertising can help a very plugged in lit mag audience discover new books.

It’s a dark time in America when culture of all kinds is devalued and discarded. We need indie presses and literary magazines for a thriving—or even just doing sorta okay—literary ecosystem (we also need local libraries and independent bookstores). We need that healthy ecosystem because literature is its own kind of lifeblood, and we can’t let a vampiric, wealth-hoarding government run by monsters and idiots take it away from us. So PRH ad sales, if you’re reading this, maybe take out an ad or two?