The Big Conversation

A Note from K.D. Battle

Early in 2026, I moderated a conversation about building literary community, with a specific focus on tangible practices that readers could apply to their own lives. I love in In Defense of Food when Michael Pollan lays out the main takeaways on the first page, so here’s a TL;DR of how to build literary community in your backyard, no matter where you are in the world.

1. If you build it, they will come. Shine your light to whatever capacity you can.
2. Find the writers, find the artists. Haunt libraries, coffee shops, bookstores.
3. Reach out to people—tell a writer that you liked hearing their work or make friends with an independent bookstore owner. Be vulnerable: Make connections.
4. Pay it forward. Share your wins with your communities, in more ways than one.

Now, I welcome you into the long-form wisdom of an easy conversation between writers and teachers, all of whom have wide-ranging experience in both our industry and our craft. While most folks featured in this piece are currently writing from Western Michigan, our community building experiences range from coast to coast—from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine, and even Islamabad, Pakistan—and we’ve all started over from scratch somewhere new at least once. Our intention was to make this conversation useful as a collection of examples from our lived experience, so as we say in workshop, “take what sticks,” and leave the rest to marinate in your subconscious until you need it.