Literature and the Web

I was in Norwich the last 3 days, which in literary terms feels like Manchester’s twin city, there being so many connections between the writing communities from both cities. Yet the event I was down for wasn’t a literary event per se, but about how writers are responding to digital technology. The arts council commissioned a report on the “future of literature” earlier in the year, called Read:Write, and one of its authors, Chris Meade, kicked off proceedings – brandishing his shiny Sony reader as he did so.
I had my first experience of live blogging, as we heard about exciting projects such as Tim Wright’s “Oldton”, the game “Perplex City” and Alison Norrington’s “Staying Single” blog.
The event was in partnership with New Writing Partnership, Norwich’s writer development agency, whose director, Chris Gribble previously was here in Manchester at Carcanet and the Manchester Literature Festival. What came out of the event was a sense that though some writers run from digital technology, and other’s embrace it for promoting their work, the role of agencies that are there to support both readers and writers can be massively enhanced by embracing new technologies. After all, writers are desk-based much of the time as it is, so in some ways using the web either in their work, or to promote their work, through blogs, Facebook groups, or videos and podcasts, is a more natural thing than the live reading.
All of the writers speaking on Monday had used the web in different ways – but the common thread was about building communities and readership – which, when you think about it, is what writers have always done.