“It Seems That 35 Is When It Clicks”
So The New Yorker is publishing a second list of:
20 individuals under the age of 40 whom they believe to be the most talented and important American [fiction] writers of their generation.
Lists! They are irresistible! The Observer thought this list was link-bait interesting enough for not one but three four articles. Lists ask us to take sides, to pick them apart, gloat or disparage, quibble with their selections or their terms. New Yorker Editor David Remnick either refreshingly or annoyingly acknowledges the root arbitrariness of it (life can be breezy at the top!):
“You know why we’re doing it this year? Because six months ago, I was brushing my teeth and thought, ‘God, you know, we haven’t done this in a while.”
Yet for writers who make the list there’s something very serious at stake, credibility that may provide insulation from publishers’ demands for blockbusters. Fiction editor Deborah Treisman says:
We saw at the beginning [of making the list] that a lot of the authors were falling into the 35 to 40 range. It seems that 35 is when it clicks and people really find their voice (emphasis mine). We actually have quite a few now who are younger than that.” She said one of the authors on the list was born in 1985, and does not even have a book out.
So if the list liberates some of its writers from market demands, I think this is A Good Thing. But I love the response of Sam Lipsyte (age 41):
“I wish the good people at the New Yorker would have taken into account the fact that I feel thirty-nine, tops.”
Oh, and, New Yorker - you’ve got one of my stories in your slush pile. So, you know.
