J. Robert Lennon

It seems there's always a conference going on somewhere, offering a brush-up on skills and an opportunity to network and make new connections. Having just returned from our own conference, the Publishing Business Conference & Expo, I know how important these conferences can be to professional growth, so I want to give a shout out to a conference taking place tomorrow in our hometown of Philadelphia.

Earlier this month, Slate writer Jacob Silverman wrote that having a likable Twitter persona “epitomizes the mutual admiration society that is today’s literary culture, particularly online.”  In other words, he thinks the Internet is coddling writers and softening critics, to the detriment of Meaningful Literary Criticism.

Literary critics everywhere joined in, creating a recursive loop of criticism about criticism about criticism.