Where are all of the Christian literary fiction writers?

Genre fiction is incredibly popular these days. Genres as diverse as young adult fantasy, amish romance, thriller/suspense, women's, and historical fiction are booming. We've talked about "noir fiction"— another genre— before on this blog. These are great— for those who prefer these kinds of fiction, it's an amazing time to be a reader.

By and large, however, genre fiction books are quite different from literary fiction. While many books in the very large category of genre fiction are well-written and delightful to read, and many of them will certainly stand the test of time, they don't match up to the label "literary" (which itself is a subjective term, granted, but there are some understood parameters).

Yet, for whatever reason, literary fiction is far less frequently found these days. A quick glance at the best-seller lists from a recent week shows that the top-selling fiction fall into genres including romance, erotic, thriller, fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. Only one title on one top-10 list (out of four) listed a general/literary fiction title. Now, top-10 lists don't tell the whole story, for sure— but I can't remember the last general or literary fiction novel that had the sort of buzz that the genre fiction books get these days.

Moreover, Christian literary fiction seems as elusive as ever. Again, the best-selling titles among Christian books are in genres such as romance, historical, prophecy, and Amish fiction. There is also the (troubling) trend among Christian writers of presenting fictitious works as if they are non-fiction, or are some sort of "parable" — not just in the Left Behind series or The Shack, but other prominent works, too.

Where is the literary fiction from Christian authors? Where are the authors writing literary fiction?

We want to publish good, literary fiction from Christians (see our FAQ for more information about the kind of fiction we want to publish). If you've been hiding your literary fiction manuscript in a drawer, because you don't think any publishers are interested in literary works these days— pull it out! We'd love to hear from you.