It was a eureka moment. I was walking down Irving Street in Manhattan at the time. Going through my mind was a well-worn train of thought that went like this: “I feel that I am a passive spectator to the huge structural changes taking place in the arts and media. I want to change the way writers interact with their audiences. And I want to give writers a better stake in the fruits of their labor because it often seems that the value of writing is being priced out of the market place. And then there’s connecting the writers of today with the young writers of tomorrow. We need to do more of it, and in a more systematic way. But how?” And that’s when it came to me. There’s no literary coast guard to call on; start swimming or stop complaining. As it happened, I was walking with Lucas Wittmann, my fellow producer of a year-long speaking series at the Players Club. He agreed; let’s bring together the team behind the series and start a literary non-profit – one that breaks new ground for writers in its aims and reach. Two weeks later, on a sultry summer afternoon, six of us […]