Brooklyn Lit Life Series

Written Nerd just launched Brooklyn Lit Life, an ongoing series about, well, literary life in Brooklyn.

Her first piece is an interview with Johnny Temple, co-founder and publisher of Akashic Books and a member of Girls Against Boys.

It’s an interesting interview (Johnny’s the first person from Brooklyn I’ve heard talk sensibly about the Atlantic Yards project) and I like what he has to say about the ideal Brooklyn bookstore would avoid:

I think the thing to avoid is a literary snobbishness that you sometimes see in the New York publishing world – again, tying back to this issue of making literature more accessible. A great, public-spirited Brooklyn bookstore would steer clear of anything smacking of snooty New York snobbishness. Literature needs to be yanked down from the ivory tower. I don’t think people need to be super well educated to appreciate a good book, a good novel. Obviously they need to be able to read and think critically, but I think a lot more people do that than the publishing industry recognizes. Multiculturalism is important to the future of publishing, not just for spirit of equality it embodies, but because publishing needs the energy, a new spirit, new approaches.