There are a number of varying ideas within the community’s discussion of what it means to be a literary citizen, but here we’ve compiled several quotes which we believe best represent the concept.

Our own Advanced Creative Writing class has defined literary citizenship as the following:

The literary community is a network of people who actively and openly read and write. To engage in literary citizenship is to be a part of this community, which involves the crucial acts of buying, reading, reviewing, and promoting books in order to support aspiring and professional writers, as well as encouraging a reading culture.

Cathy Day has established some of the more widely known concepts of literary citizenship:

“A literary citizen is an aspiring writer who understands that you have to contribute to, not just expect things from, the publishing world.”

“Another way to think about Literary Citizenship: do we have an obligation to raise and address social issues in what we write?“

Bethanne Patrick’s Being a Good Literary Citizen: A Manifesto says:

“Anyone is a potential literary citizen and everyone who takes on the mantle of said citizenship should be interested in making sure excellent books of every kind continue to be available.”

Lori May considers the ecosystem of writers and our responsibility to tend it:

“Simply put, literary citizenship is a topical term for engaging in the community with the intent of giving as much as, if not more so, than we take. Our literary world is a social ecosystem that relies on others: readers, writers, editors, reviewers, publishers, booksellers, and so on. The writing and publishing world is one made of relationships. Writing itself may be a somewhat solitary activity, but once the story or poem is ‘done’ we rely on others to read, share, and publish our work. Yet there are so many levels of participation from others in this community.”

“Literary citizenship calls on our acts of giving, of giving back to the ecosystem so that we may actively ensure its sustainability.”

And Becky Tuch, in Salon, challenges the conversation and our rush to embrace literary citizenship as a term and idea:

“It’s just that in all this talk about what makes a good Literary Citizen, it seems we have missed a key step: critical reflection. Isn’t it important to ask why things are the way they are? The notion that the system ought to be challenged, that there is even a system within which all this is operating, is notably absent from discussions about being a good Literary Citizen.”