Ray asked Janet Fitch:

Janet, sometimes it seems that the current state of publishing is both hurting and overpopulated with bloggers and self-publishing etc. Without getting too much into predicting the future of writing in the new paradigm, might I just ask: What contemporary young writers do you like?

Janet Fitch This is such an interesting question. I don't consider a writer's age when I am reading contemporary literature, so much as the freshness of their work, the freshness of their vision. "Young writers" is sort of a marketing trap. Fiction writers often have to season like wine, cheese or hardwoods. I didn't produce White Oleander until I was 40--my first work of literary fiction. I wasn't a young writer, but I was coming into my first season as an author.

What newer voices in contemporary fiction and poetry do I like? Josh Weil's a huge new favorite. The Great Glass Sea is an incredible book. Dylan Landis and her novel in stories Rainey Royal. Nayomi Munaweera's Island of a Thousand Mirrors, on the Sri Lankan war. Jill Essbaum's debut novel Hausfrau. Mary Rakow and her flash fiction reimagining of the Bible tales, This is Why I Came--what a punch in the face. I loved Cynthia Bond's Ruby. Adam Johnson is no secret, he won the Pulitzer two years ago for The Orphanmaster's Son and this year the National Book Award for his short story collection Fortune Smiles. I love Jess Walter... Beautiful Ruins was such a pleasure. I'm enjoying the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan trilogy... And Les Plesko's posthumous No Stopping Train, about the Hungarian revolution--a revelation.

In poetry, Keetje Kuipers, Derrick Brown... I really loved Amber Tamblyn's Dark Sparkler. And Robin Coste Lewis's Voyage of the Sable Venus just won the National Book Award for poetry.... Just a few terrific newer voices...

I think the state of traditional publishing is pretty robust, as evidenced by so many great books coming out now, though the consolidation of houses and especially of book distribution outlets is in a rocky period. But my guess is they'll all find their way eventually. Blogging and self-publishing is a world unto itself--blogging a lot like reading magazines, self-publishing just too much of everything, a great seine net that captures every fish and shred of seaweed and bit of floating junk in the sea. I know people who self-publish, or publish in small cooperatives with other writers, certainly poets often create chapbooks--but generally I'd rather let the publishers curate--hooking fish individually-- and see what they come up with.

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