As a librarian, engagement with books and literature is a huge part of my life. Because I work in a corporate archive/library, however, I’m rarely able to engage in the more public-facing parts of librarianship, including reading and discussing literature professionally. That hasn’t stopped me from reading obsessively, it just means I have to be a little more creative in finding outlets for my hobby.  

Bookhive emerged out of a desire to connect more deeply with the literature I was reading, especially the incredibly high-quality literary output of female authors in the past few years. All of the recent media coverage about women writers and literary critics has gotten me so completely engaged in what I’m reading, and lately I’ve found myself reading about reading more than ever before.

There are some great literary blogs out there, but I have always resented that mainstream media coverage of literature falls into an incredibly generic “books” category, and ends up becoming a dumping ground for everything even vaguely book-related.  Is there really such a person as a “book-lover” who wants all of that unorganized content?  The goal of Bookhive is not to compete with any of that, but instead to fill a niche as a curated and thoughtful (I hope) response to the world of literary fiction. 

Full-disclosure: I am a WASP, a woman, and a feminist, and this will naturally color my perspective. That said, if you are writing about literary fiction in 2014 and don’t cover issues of gender and race, then you aren’t doing your job.