New Era -> New Reading -> New Writing!
The ULA was (is?) the “Underground Literary Alliance,” the world’s only literary activist group and literary “folk writing” promoter. And OYB is the home for ULA PRESS titles. I’m the publisher and ULAP is a special-mission co-op imprint of OYB.
An astounding line of 8 rare, unprecedented novels is now available for just $5 each!
You know the Occupy Wall Street movement, right? There’s also a Occupy Writers petition. Sadly, they’re a bunch of 1%-er phonies. We of the ULA have been pushing the cause of literature for the 99% since 2000. Many of the folks signing the OW petition have often acted AGAINST the 99%! Indeed, the whole things says one thing while doing its opposite. It’s a pitiful case of unabashed co-option, a pile-on of Establishment types. Of course, any artist-type would say they’re for freedom: who wouldn’t? But their ranks are enslaved and they admit no alternative. And no one oppresses like the oppressed, eh? To admit an alternative would be to say that maybe they didn’t have to suffer through an MFA themselves! That they didn’t have to take teacher-assistant scutwork. We of the ULA say OPEN THE MARKET.
As proof of OUR bonafides, here’s our website. Yeah, it’s old; yeah we’re a ruin of a group today; the Depression has been especially hard on us indies. No sinecures on the street. Yeah, it’s not pretend. But our history is pretty cool! If anyone today can top it, I’d love to hear about it!
So, have you “been there, done that” in your reading? Here’s a truly fresh alternative to the status quo crop of MFA-writers that academia cranks out, with their fruitless obsession with “craft” and endless “polish” that results in work of little impact today…and only encourages out-of-touch preciousness and irrelevance.
The ULA is candid, exciting, rough, ready, and on the front line of straight-up writing.
Did you know that truly indy writing is NOT reviewed or taught? It is said by the System to not even exist. Anthologies of “new writers” never include non-academics. Do you know that quality isn’t what determines whether a book is reviewed? Instead it’s ad budget and distribution contract. If you’re not plugged in, you’re shut out. How does that compute in the Internet Age? IT DOESN’T! The literary market is IN THE TANK as a result. They’re missing the boat!
Well, the ULA delivers. With ZERO budget!
Do you know that folk writing is still not considered to exist as well—because “folk” are defined by many as being illiterate. Heck, they’re already POST-literate, is what they really are.
The Establishment still pretends that the Net hasn’t happened. Or that zeening never happened. That literature didn’t liberate itself long ago. They still use the old ways, the agents, the professors, the big deal. While the Net works FAST and SMALL and DIRECT. Watch out, Rupert!
Did you know that bigtime NYC editor Bob Gottleib (formerly boss of The New Yorker) said there are no undiscovered geniuses toiling away in the hinterlands. He thought he was being funny—and he was serious. He was saying “As if!” We’re trying to wake up folks like him. Well, we’re trying to out-compete them, is more like it. What a David and Goliath story!
I also offer here a variety of other ULA-related zeens, books and media of note. It’s all meant for anyone interested in truly independent culture of enduring value.
The ULA is an informal bunch of readers, writers and publishers who are both making things happen themselves and rabblerousing against the System (the Man!) to uplift the level of literature.
We make noise exposing the conflicts of interest as Lit insiders give their well-heeled friends the gov’t and/or tax-free funding that should go to needy writers. –Which media like the NYTimes, Wash Post, Boston Globe, Guardian UK and many others have followed up on.
And we publish the neglected and ignored work of important outsider/folk/DIY writers.
Is anyone thirsty for relevant new literature? I am! So let’s look at what we have and see what we’re missing, why not.
A main problem is that Lit has become defined as what NYC and universities create and promote through standard channels.
The next problem is that ever-fewer care about the “cover your butt” NYC/Uni worldview. Also: their work sucks. It’s insular, it’s niche-ified; it’s meant as fluff for whiling away the time in a pose; it’s all about style.
We say that Lit is meant to inspire and to be relevant and to help us see our world clearly, as only Lit can.
What’s missing is: nonacademically supported work from outside of NYC that has a sense of heart to it.
What’s missing is truly indy work, with no strings attached (no grants, no identity group to please, no formalized career path).
Three decades ago seems like the last time that Lit generally did a wide range of real work. We’ve had bright moments since, though. The zeen movement of the 90’s was a HUGE shot in the arm—yet it’s still nearly entirely ignored by Literati. The small/indy/DIY/DTP press revolution that picked up major speed in the 80’s got a few boxes of amazing work put out…and ignored. (Review media STILL use archaic rules unrepentantly unrelated to merit.)
Another problem is that the NYC/Uni Lit Machine works just like that: a well-oiled machine, with every part fitting and no questions asked. Patronage is dispensed in precisely a feudal way. The omerta is on.
Thank heavens regular people can still join their voices and work together to make their own wild noise and be heard. –Just not via any of the usual channels.
When you write a letter by yourself or publish a book with a small press, you’re ignored, squashed like a bug. You have ZERO hope. Your merit matters not a whit. In fact, it works against you.
The ULA was formed to give a voice to hinterlands folk, zinesters, the uncredentialed, the disenfranchised, the offshored, the lifelong woodshedders who’ve developed their craft instead of their career. (There’s never time for both.) We’re experienced. We’ve been there, done that, see how it works.
Furthermore, we’re starting to think that there are better places to sell books than bookstores. So many have given up on their birthright. Right now, literature is presented mostly to MFA types of people. But if we could reach 1% of regular gung-ho indy people out there, we’d really expand the market for literature. Once upon a time, lit appealed to people of adventure. Today’s lit scene has basically ZERO contact with the real world in any sense! It’s insulated and isolated.
Lit-types today are almost ENTIRELY academics. The writers of the ULA PRESS have all tasted definite sweat-of-the-brow. They’ve been homeless, out of work, have been foreclosed on, lost the family home, been on welfare, been custodians.
One of my heroes, John Bennett, is a windowwasher, has been for decades—and a fully engaged Beat-era writer, poet, and publisher. Totally neglected by the literati, that I can tell.
Jack Saunders was a janitor but he just got fired for conduct unbecoming the position—for blogging, that is, for writing. (He doesn’t have a blog. He started posting fiction online when the Net first came on, in about 1995. Oh, I put it up for him! He’s had a simple website ever since.)
Wild Bill Blackolive is a true folk hero—and is on SSI and takes care of his elderly mother on the coast of Texas.
“Writing from teachers” isn’t necessarily bad at all. There’s just more out there. So you need a job while you’re a writer—there are other jobs that have inspired people. Why don’t we hear from them? They’ve sure been writing hard. The ULA is busting things WIDE open.
(Ever wonder why there’s folk art and folk music but not folk writing? Well, there IS folk writing! It just hasn’t been allowed out ’til now. We broke it free.)
The ULA has outposts across the fruited plain but it is based out of blue-collar Philly, on the edge of Gotham, a cheap train away from pestering the elite. And we’ve done so many times. We’ve gotten national media attention dozens of times now. We’re close to breaking through. Well, we are through.
The NYC/Uni lit scene is dead. Everyone involved with it is bored, looking for something-anything with a spark. They’re ready to jump. The unofficial hinterlands clearly offers the only hope.
So…when you write in AND MENTION THE ULA you are heard. When you affiliate your media effort with the ULA you get attention.
We have no dues and no rules. Everyone is still independently doing their own thing. You’re on the bus or you’re not. We carpool.
We publish and ally ourselves with several zeens, blogs, presses and websites.
And I’ve started the ULA PRESS to give a coherent “on the warpath” impact to books that deserve to stand out. I also promote other books and media in the OYB vein. It all works together. Far better than it works alone.
