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https://alexperez.substack.com/p/the-ideal-literary-editor
'My ideal literary editor is someone interested in all of America and wants to read as many different American stories as possible. There are hundreds of different Americas, and I want them represented in the books I read. I want urban stories and suburban stories; I want to read about rural folks and southerners and even the annoying rich people on the Upper East Side; I want to know what’s going on in Native American reservations and the inner city and every American locale in between. This is a selfish desire, because I’m genuinely interested in America and its people; I think tons of readers—and writers—have the same desire, but they’re not currently being served by the mainstream literary marketplace. We want to know what’s happening outside the big cities and the “cultural” centers over-represented in literary fiction. It’s a massive, beautiful, strange, infuriating country, and I want to know all about it. ...
The ideal literary editor is drawn to American messiness and rejects the bubbles. He understands that America is the land of Elvis Presley and James Brown and Ralph Ellison and Dusty Rhodes and Bob Dylan and Barry Hannah and Joan Didion and Tonya Harding and Dennis Rodman and so many other messy, unclassifiable freaks. He understands that America’s magic comes from its messiness, and any to attempt to constrain it, is pure folly. ...'
Go to the link to read the whole, magnificent thing.
'My ideal literary editor is someone interested in all of America and wants to read as many different American stories as possible. There are hundreds of different Americas, and I want them represented in the books I read. I want urban stories and suburban stories; I want to read about rural folks and southerners and even the annoying rich people on the Upper East Side; I want to know what’s going on in Native American reservations and the inner city and every American locale in between. This is a selfish desire, because I’m genuinely interested in America and its people; I think tons of readers—and writers—have the same desire, but they’re not currently being served by the mainstream literary marketplace. We want to know what’s happening outside the big cities and the “cultural” centers over-represented in literary fiction. It’s a massive, beautiful, strange, infuriating country, and I want to know all about it. ...
The ideal literary editor is drawn to American messiness and rejects the bubbles. He understands that America is the land of Elvis Presley and James Brown and Ralph Ellison and Dusty Rhodes and Bob Dylan and Barry Hannah and Joan Didion and Tonya Harding and Dennis Rodman and so many other messy, unclassifiable freaks. He understands that America’s magic comes from its messiness, and any to attempt to constrain it, is pure folly. ...'
Go to the link to read the whole, magnificent thing.
