Literary magazines, once the backbone, the pulse, and other anatomically analogous words of the American fiction world, have taken a hit in subscriptions in recent decades. Does this mean the death of fiction as we know it, or simply a critical-condition status?
Jay Baron Nicavo muses through the possible culprits of the current climate, from MFA students to power-hungry editors. In the end, he boils it down to a sort of corporate group-think mentality on the part of editors, as they scramble to find the “next big hit.” Like the movie industry, marketable fiction has succumbed to the lilting seduction of the blockbuster, and oh, what a dollar-hungry demon it is.
