John Freeman’s been popping up with some regularity, mostly in reference to being named Granta’s new editor after Alex Clark resigned. Since the average appointment of Granta’s editors seems to be something in the range of about 2 days (okay, bit of hyperbole, there — or if you’re into tropes, actually a litote — they stay for 7-8 months), I hope Freeman hangs in a while longer. When I met him at the LA Festival of Books, back when he was merely in the lowly position of American-branch editor of Granta, he was a genuinely nice guy.
In the National Post interview, he talked about his technologically savvy vision of the future of the magazine:
“The job of an editor is very different now than it was when reading and publishing and print-based entertainment was at the centre of cultural life,” he says. “You have to work the angles: we have a Facebook page. We have a Twitter channel with 2200 followers. We’re doing video interviews with the writers who have pieces [in the magazine].”
And although he’s a passionate defender of the printed book, Freeman says he is meeting with Amazon representatives about making Granta available on the Kindle e-reader: “In the next 30 years, we have to become more digital and more international. That’s the way reading’s going.”
Also, in regards to a future issue of Granta being Canadian themed, he points out that Canada has the only non-patriarchal literary society:
“There’s so many interesting writers in Canada. It would not be very difficult to put together. It would be a snap. It my mind it’s the only matriarchal literary society,” says Freeman, with a nod to Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.”
