History
The Underground Literary Alliance has its roots in the independent zine scene that flourished in the 1990s. The founders of the group were zinesters who connected with each other through A Reader's Guide to the Underground Press or through other underground writers. These founders, and their zines, were: Karl Wenclas, New Philistine; Michael Jackman, inspector 18; Steve Kostecke, Seoul in Slices; Joe Smith, The Die; Ann Sterzinger, Bottle-Fed; and Doug Bassett, a literary theorist. The six of them met in Hoboken, New Jersey, in October, 2000, in order to launch the group and commence their activism by signing a statement of protest against a Guggenheim grant given to Rick Moody, an already-wealthy writer. The text of the statement read as follows:
We the undersigned protest the year 2000 Guggenheim grant to well-known author Rick Moody, because it exemplifies the practice of giving financial assistance to already successful and affluent writers, well-connected, who clearly don’t need the help—while other writers abjectly struggle—and because this runs counter to the implicit charitable purpose behind the tax-exempt status of a foundation like John Simon Guggenheim.
In addition to the six who met in Hoboken, this protest was later signed by over 30 other zinesters. It was also sent out to approximately 300 of the American lit world’s biggest-named writers, editors, and agents—but none of them signed.
Since its founding, the ULA has constantly engaged in its own brand of “literary activism” which has gained the group a notoriety for exposing what they see as corruption in the American literary world and for harshly criticizing corporate-promulgated literary fiction.
Current ULA members include Patrick Simonelli, editor of litvision.org, Leopold McGinnis, author of Game Quest, Tom Hendricks, creator of the Zine Hall of Fame, and poet Frank Walsh.
The ULA launched its own independent press in 2006.
As of December 1, 2010, the Underground Literary Alliance appeared disbanded, with no viable webpage. Co-founder Steve Kostecke died in April 2011.
Read more about this topic: Underground Literary Alliance
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—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)