Literary success... in excess?

Rare is the writer whose works both reach a mass audience and win highbrow acclaim. So rare, in fact, that some assume that publishing success and literary quality are incommensurable. And this goes not just for critics and readers, but writers as well. Perhaps this is why few volunteer that they’d like to sell novels at a Tom Clancy rate, or see their poems issued in the millions, by Hallmark.

Of course there are exceptions. Billy Collins, for example, one of this issue’s interviewees—when we asked, could we count him as one who thinks commercial success and literature don’t mix, he replied that we should count him as wanting to break sales records for poetry.

We know that failbetter.com isn't the Billy Collins of literary journals. We publish works that span a broad stylistic gamut, from experimental to the more mainstream, and we're not quite a household name. But we'd like to think we've achieved a measure of success precisely because we've pursued our vision. Consider some figures: the fifteen thousand-plus visitors who come to the site each month, and the more than five thousand submissions we received in the course of the past year. And as to the quality of the best of these submissions... Well, rather than have us tell you how good they are, check out this, our nineteenth issue. We think that you’ll be absorbed by our interviews with Collins and 2005 National Book Award nominee Mary Gaitskill, and that you’ll be more than impressed by the fiction of newcomers Keith Lord and Cari Luna, up-and-comer Becky Hagenston, and L.A. stalwart Lou Mathews, by the arresting images of abstractionist William Auten, and by the poems of Tara Deal, Dana Ward, Katherine Riegel, multiple-threat Sasha Frere-Jones, and New York State’s poet laureate himself, who offers a haiku that arguably one-ups Mr. Beckett. Enjoy!

Thom Didato

P.S. - While you’re at it, take a few moments to check out some of the best stuff we published last year: our 2005 Pushcart Prize nominees.