Publishing in the last decade has become a much less vertical cultural space. It’s like the difference between NY, which has tall skyscrapers with penthouse offices at the top, and suburbia, where the hotspots are more spread out and equal. Because of the internet, it’s more possible as an outsider to get attention, to talk with whoever in the world is interested in having the same kinds of conversations. The challenge is to cut through the noise to find the people you want to talk with. PageTurn’s Future of Publishing performative lecture event last Wednesday aimed to take on how publishing is evolving in this new cultural sprawl, something the talks in part addressed. A small crowd of mostly Portland literary folks drank wine in the tall boxy white space of the Cleaners and watched a lineup of seven-minute powerpoint presentations by Dark Horse Comic’s Aaron Colter, Publishing Studio’s Matthew Stadler, Wordstock director Greg Netzer, and IPRC director Justin Hocking, and others.
