litforum darkening

While neglecting the blog, I got more involved in the literature forum The Fictional Woods, an offshoot of the sadly defunct themodernword.com, both of which spotlight(ed) 6 of my top ten 20th century writers (plus Gabo). I'd participated in other such fora, all the way back to Usenet (rec.arts.books), through the NYTimes Book Forum and Readerville (Salon Table Talk exiles) prior to blogging, and the still extant World Literature Forum, but TFW better fit my proclivities, my contributions being assimilating noteworthy book / writer / publisher news, adding resources that might have been included in themodernword, and maintaining a log of my own reading. Primarily, it served my purpose of finding what to read next, moreso than blogs and literary journalism (save for The Complete Review; sorry to see The Modern Novel fold up its tent). (Oddly, what with my year's best coming up, others' such seldom so serve.)

Sadly, TFW is also winding down, the cadre of regular posters dwindling. Its inexorable decline began years ago, operating largely sans admin (no new blood), excluded from external search; no other venues attract (eg reddit's r/literature too diffuse). Despite that, it remains a resource for as long as it's up (unlike prior chats being wiped clean). Last time I was without a literature forum, I started this here blog, but that was back when blogs talked with each other (and not just in comments). It may be that the form is obsolete; it may just be that people don't talk with each other so much any more (ChatGPT?! one of my first blog entries was a LLM short story written mid-90s ...). Anyway, more reason to post here more. Stay tuned.