I’m a bit late in reporting this news, but after the New Yorker’s “20 under 40” list—which, in my estimation, included some great people, like Chris Adrian, one of my favorite writers, and Salvatore Scibona—Dzanc Books led the way in coming up with an “alterative list.” Here’s how: “we invited our voters to name four authors for consideration, splitting their votes between two that are associated with their publishing interests and two they favor independently.  The only other parameters given to the voters were that these writers needed to be North American, and had to have published at least one book with an independent publishing house…We then compiled the votes, tallied the score, and had a second round of votes for those authors who made the first cut.  Through this purely democratic process, we have compiled a list of twenty authors we find representative of the best talents at work in literary fiction today…” Needless to say, I was hugely honored and surprised and thrilled to be included on this list—thank you, dear voters!

Lists are always kind of impossible, each with their own virtues and flaws. They’re an easy thing to knock, but then again they get us all talking and making alternate lists and then alternate lists for the alternate lists—and, in the end, that seems like a good thing.

Hate lists? Love lists? Who do you think is a “Writer to Watch?”