The Daily Targum - University
Issue: 12/6/04

Internet empowers amateur publishers
By Julie Compton

Literature may currently be in the hands on a few conglomerate publishing companies, but beneath its monopoly are a group of anarchist publishers determined to change the way people view literature.

A small group of listeners gathered in the basement of Demarest Hall on the College Avenue campus Thursday night to hear Karl Wenclas, public relations leader of the Underground Literary Alliance, talk about the future of publishing in America.

"Literature has been shoved into a closet in the back hallway in the house of American culture," Wenclas said. He said the goal of the ULA, which was established in 1999 as an online network that publishes the writings of amateur and underground artists, is to democratize the world of publishing by giving new writers a voice.

Major publishing companies and universities are more interested in publishing mediocre literature that sells than literature that expresses artistic creativity, he said.

Wenclas said online "blogs" and "zeens," independently published literary magazines, are giving major publishing institutions a run for their money.

"They level the playing field," Wenclas said. "Anyone can compete with the system, with the establishment, with the hierarchies. You can get your writing and ideas in front of the eyes and minds of the opinion makers of this country."

Jackie Corley, editor and publisher of local zeen Word Riot who attended the event, said she created Word Riot when she was still in college.

"I'm a nobody," Corely said. "I just started this in college and it just became a hobby that I worked really diligently at. The great thing about the Internet is that I can put up my Web site, and that's all I really need. Everything gets done by e-mail, and you can figure out how to get things published relatively cheap because the technology is available."

Wenclas said publishing conglomerates and institutions such as universities and the MFA pledge that one needs a certificate to be a writer.

"Shakespeare, Mark Twain, [Ernest] Hemingway, and [F. Scott] Fitzgerald never went through MFA programs, Wenclas said. "Writers don't have to learn anything. They don't need rules."