Books Features

Literary Lions unite to form online writing group

By M&C News Jun 17, 2007, 12:07 GMT

One of the many things publishers have been taking notice of is the ever-present population of the literary blogger. Even at the recent Book Expo of America that was held in New York, publishers were discussing bloggers and their impact on the spread of literary events. Thousands of blogs have been erected over the past several years, and many have even united to form groups, where they link together and share ideas, or even compete in writing contests.

Recently, there has been a new writers’ club constructed, called The Shameless Lions Writing Circle, started by Seamus Kearney. Why lions of all things, do you ask? As Kearney states on his blog, “The lions in the writing circle were born as part of a public exhibition in 2004 in Lyon, France: "60 lions, 60 places, 60 artists".

What makes this group unique is that each member has ‘adopted’ a lion to place onto their blog. Permission had to be granted by the organizers of the exhibition, Emma Productions/La Biennale des Lions, provided that the use is intended for networking purposes, and all members have to agree to non-commercial practices. There are 48 members in this group, including yours truly. Each member was asked to ‘name’ their lion and place the photos into the sidebars of their blogs.

I named mine Johnny Cash. Click to see why. Kearney has also expressed interest in possibly expanding the club to more than 48 members, perhaps creating a ‘friends’ of the lions section. As he said, “Let a lion roar about your writing!”

For more information on The Shameless Writing Circle, or if you just want to see some Lovely Literary Lions, click here.