James A. Michener Fiction Series

If you listened to some people, you would think the audience for serious fiction was disappearing faster than the glaciers in the Andes. We've all read the articles about how fiction lists are being cut by the big New York houses, how everything is being dictated by the bottom line, how readers are abandoning books for scintillating evenings surfing the Web.

While there is some truth to this, there is a good amount of sifting and winnowing that needs to be done. One of the more painful aspects of the present climate, however, is that the writers most adversely affected are not first-time novelists, who publishers are still willing to roll the dice on, but the authors of seven, eight, ten books. These are often writers at the peak of their powers, with names you've heard of, who are being dropped, not because they didn't sell, but because they didn't sell enough. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that the danger is that real cultural treasures are being lost.

As serious as the situation is, it also presents the University of Texas Press with a golden opportunity. With the launch of the Michener Fiction Series, we will publish three original works of fiction each year, all by celebrated, prize-winning authors. The three novels we offer this year could not be more different in terms of content or tone: an arresting vision of Commodore Perry's visit to Japan, told through Japanese eyes; a graceful and witty romance involving the training of a seeing-eye-dog; and a dark comedy narrated by a deranged husband with a mind much too cluttered with the detritus of pop culture and the mass media.

What this series is about is the sustaining of careers. We are dubbing it the Michener Fiction Series for a number of reasons. James Michener had close connections with the University of Texas, most notably in the creation of the Michener Center for Writers. Throughout his life he subsidized writers, young and old; sometimes it was done publicly, sometimes on the sly. He was also one of the first to sound the alarm over the potentially dangerous effects of the conglomerates. He remains the poster-child for the sustained career, publishing books through five decades.

But most importantly, he was an optimist. "Just put the books on the shelves," he used to tell me. "Do that and anything can happen."

That, quite simply, is our intention.

—James Magnuson, series editor, Director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas at Austin