No, but there’s this:  Many of the best writers actually do review books, sponsor readings, public forums, or, like James Laughlin, start a publishing house.  They also are not interested in wasting time, which means there must be something to it.  Esteemed essayist Conger Beasley Jr. wrote dozens of reviews, often featuring Cuban and Native writers, because he was intellectually engaged.  Think where your glory most begins and ends, to paraphrase Yeats, and say that your glory was you had such friends.

Yeats, of course, vigorously engaged in intellectual discussions of his time.  The term “literary citizen,” astute in its way, seems to my taste, however, a bit precious and misses the point.  I, myself, have done such work—not to be virtuous or a good soldier but to expand my understanding of other artists and to promote those whom I think deserve attention.

          *  Yes, review books by writers working on the edges.  Reviewing books, even those of friends—Goldbarth, Wagner, Vando, Field, etc.—allows me deeper access to their art.  I benefit.  Why do you think the preeminent poet Alice Friman took time to write a review of Kelly Cherry for my magazine?  Ms. Friman used it to more fully appreciate another fine writer.  You should do it.  Writing book reviews is writing.  Be a writer.

            * Host events for visiting writers.  Here’s a tip.  If you host readings, call on writers you already know and admire, of course, but also call on writers whose work intimidates you.  That was the case when I hosted Amiri Baraka, Claudia Rankine, and others.  Bring in writers above your station, as I did with Willis Barnstone, Luisa Valenzuela, and Yehuda Amichai.  Some of those will be your neighbors, some out-of-towners.  Get to know them.

            *  Get out of your artistic anteroom.  Visual artist, collagist and sculptor Garry Noland published a memoriam in KC Studio (2025), honoring the art curator and former gallery owner Douglas Drake.  That’s how you serve.  “As was typical of Drake,” Noland said, “he wrote the obituary for the custodian of [Kansas City’s] Westport Allen Center.”  Here we see a great visual artist, Noland, writing about an esteemed art administrator, Doug Drake, who had written a memoriam for another worker in the art world.  These are people engaged in the artistic community.

            Call it service, if you want.  By doing so, you will become what we call practiced.  Adroit.  People might think you’re a “good citizen,” but really, you are working as a writer.   People might even say of you, You’re slick.

—Robert Stewart (10/15/2025)