(Not) The Best Christian Short Stories: Bret Lott, Editor

In fact, Lott picked such horrible selections (on some of these, the prose sounds like something straight from a young adult series) that it made me wonder whether the publisher wanted only to capture the evangelical market, rather than anyone who is near literate. The answer did lie in the publisher: WestBow is a publisher for "Christian" novels, which means they did want him to select goodie-goodie stories free of any nasty elements that might ruffle conservative feathers. Westbow even sponsored the contest that one of the included stories won, for which they promised a book contract. The question then is why Lott would agree to put his name on a collection like this - perhaps his taste is not quite as good as it seems. In the end, I guess to get a real anthology of Christian stories, you need a secular publisher to publish it.
Labels: Bret Lott
3 Comments:
I took a workshop from Lott this summer. He actually does have a good sense of story (although certainly opinionated), and is not only concerned with "morality tales." I hesitate to pick up this collection, even before reading your review. My sense is that a Chistian-market publisher, even a "risky" one like WestBow, is still too restrictive. Something like Image Journal though, is better.
I forgot to add that Lott edits the Southern Review...
I think you're right - Lott, from what I know of him, does have good writing skills, and yes, as an editor of Southern Review, generally has good taste. So I'll blame this one on the publisher. Thanks for checking out the site!
Post a Comment
<< Home