A Literary Life in America
Richard Kostelanetz P.O. Box 444 Prince St. New York, NY 10012-0008, rkostelanetz@bigfoot.com A LITERARY LIFE IN AMERICA: PROFESSIONAL MEMOIRS, 1968-2000 Išve not shied away from writing about hidden practices, incongruities, and obstacles in my professional world, too many of them unnecessary; and so if only to instruct aspirants about the realities of a literary life, Išve collected some of those writings here, scarcely expiring my examinations of the subject. Because Išve been a fulltime writer, moderately prominent since my mid-twenties, and have done many kinds of work while lacking an agent, Išve dealt directly with a lot more people and have had more experience than most of my peers. These essays tell the truth, often in the face of contrary pieties and deceptions. Most of these essays have appeared in print before, often in magazines long forgotten, sometimes in books that are no longer generally available; others are new here. Critical Writing for American Magazines (1968, 1974) The Copyright Czar (1974) The Beginning of The End (1978) A Book That Will Never Happen (1978) On Anthologies (1987) Teaching and the "Nonstandard" Writer (1990) Personal Experience at the National Endowment for the Arts (1987) Personal Experience at the National Endowment for the Humanities (1987) The Institutionalization of Ignorance (1993) How an NEA Grant to Me Was Reduced and Nearly Killed (1998) Sloppy "Scholarship" (1997) Thoughts on Being Canonized, Sort Of (1997) Preconditions for Poetic Revolution (1997) Chasing a University Chair in the South (1998) The Trouble with University Presses (1998) Victims of Literary Bullying (1998) Letters to a Nouveau Riche Professor (1998) Remembering "Reactions and Alternatives" (1998) On Still Being a Widely Published Unpublished Author (1998) Ethics in Editing Anthologies (1999) Publishers wishing to consider a preliminary manuscript are advised to contact the author at the address at the top of this page.