LITERARY FICTION

What is literary fiction, anyway? In the book trade it sometimes seems to mean “serious writing that doesn’t sell very well, unless it’s by [insert unjustly famous writer here], and then we call it that to make him feel good.” In my experience it is just good writing with characters worth spending time with, that is not explicitly in a genre such as mystery,  sci fi,  romance,  vampires, or any of the myriad combinations of those things. Literary fiction then — or, as I like to call it, Fiction — is what I like best as an editor. Working on these books, among others, was a privilege and a blast.