As a poet and burgeoning fiction writer, I certainly am curious about just what is goin' on within American poetry and fiction. As a not-often-published-fiction-writer I am equally concerned about the growing mega-publishing-monster-corporations that really do that big fish eat little fish thang. These larger publishing conglomerates are certainly cutting down the opportunities for writers to be published by small press publishers who are often unable to compete with the stocking abilities or the purchasing ease offered through Amazon.Com and companies and other companies that have changed the way a book is marketed and purchased. Yeah! I wanna know what's the new hook up to get fiction work from the desktop or typed page to the hands of the publishers. Yeah! I wanna know what those fiction writer's whose work is being published and pushed by a biggie publishing house know.

On a less biz' side, looking toward the millienum and all, I also want to feel like I can point to changes that have occured for writers of color in America. The good, the bad, and the ugly. What are the changes to come? The good, the bad, and the ugly. I asked poet and columnist Suheir Hammad, poet and freelance writer Geoffrey Jacques and poet and publisher of Care Moore Black PressJessica CareMoore. Their responses (click here to read them) were on a personal tip, thoughtful, informative, and insightful.

This past September I attended a panel discussion "The Future Of Fiction", held at the New School here in Manhattan. The panelists of "The Future of Fiction were writers (often also poets) Sapphire author of Push and more recently Black Wings and Blind Angels, Lynn Tillman author of The Velvet Years and No Lease On Life, Heidi Julavits author upcoming with Mineral Palace, and Gerald Howard Executive Editor and Vice President of Doubleday/Broadway publishers, formerly editor at WW Norton and Viking. Howard has worked with authors Walter Mosley, Paul Auster, and Anna Castillo among others. The discussion was moderated by book critic and poet Albert Mobilio who has two books of poetry published. I've chosen some excerpts from the panelists discussions (click here to read them).

I hope that collectively these writers will shed some light for all of us on the coming millennium. I'll be talking with you again soon.