Writing, Publishing, and Bookselling in the Bay Area

The Bay Area is home to hundreds if not thousands of writers, among them some of the world’s most prominent novelists, poets, and non-fiction writers. Scores of presses, ranging from those publishing limited editions of fine press books to major publishers producing a hundred or more titles a year have found fertile ground and flourish here. While the number of independent booksellers, long the backbone of the literary scene, has dwindled, those that have withstood the assault of chain stores and electronic ordering seem to be resilient, and in recent years their numbers are increasing. What factors have created such a dynamic and diverse literary scene? How have the literary arts shaped the values and affected the daily life of the people who live here? California ICAN’s founder and Executive Director, Malcolm Margolin has been an active and highly respected participant in the Bay Area literary scene for nearly fifty years an—both on is own and with the resources and staff of California ICAN—he has been studying, interviewing, writing articles, convening meetings, and teaching courses on the past, present, and future of the literary arts in the Bay Area. Malcolm’s article “Bay Area Publishing in the 1970s” can be found at Sisyphus.