Millennial Moods

IN A RECENT PIECE for Dirt, Greta Rainbow positioned small presses as the future of literature. Yet this new literary world struggles to be born: the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, an organization that has had a massive impact on small presses and literary magazines, have left the future of American publishing uncertain, with some institutions scaling back and many unsure about their long term viability. Joyland Editions, emerging from a national magazine staffed by approximately 15 people, promises to deliver “books that do not fit into the traditional publishing landscape.” This project comes at a time when the traditional publishing landscape is experiencing its own destabilizing blows: the introduction of artificial intelligence into every facet of life has left writers and editors wondering about the value of their skill sets in the face of a populace that has either abandoned literacy or had it stolen from them. The first book from this new imprint, Information Age by Cora Lewis, follows a millennial Brooklynite protagonist grinding away as a journalist in the last days of the so-called Third Industrial Revolution.