Letter to Zadie Smith
Best selling author of White Noise

Dear Zadie,

I think you are one of the most talented writers of our generation. And you have achieved the kind of literary and commercial success that many writers only dream about. But none of my friends and colleagues have ever heard of you. And likely none of my students ever will. How is it that a writer can be so successful yet so unknown among the general population today?

The answer is that fewer than one out of seven Americans went into a bookstore to buy a book last year. And according to the recent, well-publicized report from the National Endowment for the Arts, we are experiencing a precipitous decline in the number of literary readers. It is possible today to be a “successful” writer without really having any kind of impact on the general culture. Everyday – whether socially in the affluent suburbs of Westchester County, or in my inner city classroom in the Bronx – I struggle with the marginalization of the written word.

I have discovered a profound way of reversing this trend. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to use your talents to reach the six out of seven Americans who never go into a bookstore, and the vast majority of Americans who never heard of you?

We are part of the first generation of writers with the capacity to design our thoughts, to create a bold new marriage of the verbal and visual word. Someone with your talents can create books of unparalleled beauty and help launch a literary Renaissance. But as long as you continue to write in the old way, and to ignore all of the marvelous new inventions at your fingertips, you will never have the impact on society that someone with your talents might otherwise have.

Goodbye Gutenberg: How a Bronx Teacher Defied 500 Years of Tradition and Launched an Astonishing Renaissance provides the blueprint for books of the future. I don’t see how any writer living in our multimedia age could ever be completely satisfied with black words on white paper. Our generation is capable of so much more. In fact, our generation has the tools to create books more beautiful and magnificent than any age in history. The Book of Kells is but a prelude. The Hours of the Duke of Berry are but a beginning. When we rediscover the rich visual literature of the past, and open our eyes to all of the amazing new design technologies now available to us, then we shall have our Renaissance.

Warmly,

Valerie Kirschenbaum

< back to newsroom >