Writers Beg Oprah to Bag the Classics

Posted on April 22, 2005

A group of writers is imploring Oprah Winfrey to ditch the classics and go back to picking new authors for her Oprah's Book Club. The group of women authors (men are also allowed to join) is called Word of Mouth. The group penned a letter to Oprah in hopes of reinstating her Book Club's pick of contemporary authors (she only picks classics now).

The letter said: "Book Club members stopped buying new fiction, and this changed the face of American publishing." It thanked Winfrey for her contribution to book sales and asked her to "consider focusing, once again, on contemporary writers in your book club".
The 158 writers who signed the letter included Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri and Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club.

So why did Oprah stop picking contemporary authors and switch to dead ones? She never said, but we have the answer in two words: Jonathan Franzen.