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PREVIEWPORT.COM UNVEILS 'WRITERS' FORUM' FEATURE
Literary Entertainment Site Adds Unique Feature That Enables Writers and Readers to Interact Online.First Topic: "The Summer Writing Conference Experience"
PreviewPort.com, the literary entertainment site launched last month at BookExpo America, has announced the addition of a regular new feature called "The Writers' Forum." Part interactive event, part essay, and part guide, "The Writers' Forum" is a unique space designed to provide PreviewPort's authors and readers a way to explore and discuss a variety of issues key to the literary community."The Writers' Forum is reminiscent of the tradition of the literary circle-a place where writers and readers can meet and exchange ideas," according to PreviewPort.com co-founder Susan Bergman, author of the memoir "Anonymity" (Farrar Straus & Giroux) and editor of the literary anthology "Martyrs" (HarperCollins). "In effect, our Writers' Forum feature is an online literary salon."
Located in the "Community" area of the PreviewPort.com site, The Writers' Forum is a dynamic, unfolding event - Internet-style. It features three elements: A keynote essay, a guide and a discussion area.
The essay is a personal story by a writer on a literary topic. For the first Writers' Forum, on "The Summer Writing Conference Experience," Caroline Kraus writes about attending a workshop with best-selling author Hope Edelman ("Motherless Daughters") at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
In the guide, PreviewPort.com will supply useful reference information about the topic - in this case, a guide to the major writing conferences, including contact information and updates about this year's instructors and events.
In the discussion area, visitors to the Web site are invited to respond to the essay or the topic in general, by posting a 300-400 word essay of their own.
"There's a mystique to the summer writing conference," Bergman said, "and we want to look beyond that, to ask what the value of these programs really is for aspiring writers. This is exactly the kind of multi-dimensional theme we plan to explore regularly in The Writers' Forum, which we see as just one more distinguishing aspect of PreviewPort."
Bergman also noted that PreviewPort distinguishes itself from other e-publishing and literary web sites in that "we are providing our readers with an editorial filter for the best literary content available." Rather than offering a platform for all emerging writers, PreviewPort's focus has been on leading and established authors. PreviewPort endorses the role of the book publisher and the literary magazine in seeking out the very best writing, and works with these traditional platforms to make their content accessible to a readership that increasingly shops and browses online.
PreviewPort.com is an online literary community that serves authors, publishers and readers by hosting unique interactive author web sites, partnering with traditional publishers to preview books, and hosting literary events and a comprehensive national literary calendar. PreviewPort.com's mission is to become the preferred port of entry to the world of writers and great books.