ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of literary clubs in the digital age, focusing in particular on how the Story Club-as-network connects to traditional publishing infrastructures, literary workshops and prizes, and online networks such as blogs and Facebook in both English and African languages. World systems approaches to the literary field have emphasized a singular, if uneven, global marketplace in which texts circulate and gain visibility and value. Pascale Casanova, for example, argues for the existence of ‘a literary universe relatively independent of the everyday world and its political divisions’ that is characterized by ‘incessant struggle and competition over the very nature of literature itself’. Shadreck Chikoti’s reputation as one of the most successful contemporary Malawian writers gave him the platform to launch the Story Club in December 2013. The Story Club’s fourth ‘congregation’ was held at Fantasia Korean Restaurant and Bar in Lilongwe’s Old Town on April 20, 2014.
