The Publishing Infrastructures of Contemporary Anglophone Literature draws on the increasing traffic between literary studies and sociological approaches to conduct a groundbreaking comparative and evaluative study of literary publishing infrastructures across Ireland, the US, and Britain. By focusing on case studies from different positions in the publishing world (local and global, independent and conglomerate, online and print), the project analyses key forces mediating Anglophone literature. We focus on the challenges facing small publishers, examining how they cultivate innovative and multicultural writing and reach audiences in the age of global publishing conglomerates and participatory web culture.
What can the social networks in which publishers are embedded tell us about the creation and canonization of contemporary writers? How do small publishers reach audiences in the age of participatory web culture, and how do their books enter broader arenas of circulation? How do literary forms and texts develop and travel, and how do they respond to the publishing environments through which they are created and circulated? The answers will, we hope, expand our understanding of contemporary publishing and how imaginative literature responds to its circumstances of production; they will also make an important contribution to improving equity of access to publication and providing models of best practice.
The project’s approach is informed by the PI’s research expertise in publishing history and contemporary literature, as well as by the PhD student’s background in translation studies. Ireland’s position as a minor literary market positioned between major centres of literary power in the US and Britain makes it an ideal case study for an analysis of the different local and global forces shaping contemporary literature. The industry exemplifies the bifurcated publishing ecology common to contemporary literary markets, with imprints of global conglomerates existing alongside small publishers.
The Irish focus is facilitated by a collaboration with the small and influential publishing house Skein Press, which will support a publication by Skein as well as informing the project’s fieldwork and case studies. Alongside Skein, the project enjoys support from several other collaborators. The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) is supporting the project’s public engagement initiatives, including the event series and accompanying podcast Books and Their Makers, which features conversations with authors, editors, publishers, agents, and translators. UCD’s Centre for Cultural Analytics, a dedicated collaborative and interdisciplinary research facility, is providing training and support in digital methodologies. The team is also collaborating with the Mary Lavin Centre for Creative Writing at UCD on a module on publishing and contemporary literature as well as a special issue of the Belfield Literary Review.
The project is supported the Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland Pathway scheme.