"Don't write off the net"
by Maud | May 8th, 2003
In today's Guardian, responding to the claim that the Internet has killed writing, Ben Hammersley argues that precisely the opposite is true:
….Writing, it seems, is very much alive and well on the web.
The combination of massive potential readership, almost free publication, and the ease with which words can be put online, means that literary magazines, notoriously profit-free in printed form, are blooming across the web.
Sites such as The Simon, The Morning News and Ãœber offer daily essays. Opium Magazine has daily "humour for the deliriously captivated" and publishes reviews and feature articles. Sweet Fancy Moses is "where wit lives". Haypenny does "concept fiction for concept people", and The Black Table prints what it likes. 3am Magazine has fiction, interviews, poetry and politics. McSweeney's has both great writing and the benefit of being the online presence of the publishing empire of Dave Eggers. There are literary journals covering every genre, every style, every country and certainly every city big enough to have a scene….