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Why Don’t Republicans Write Fiction? | Online Only | n+1

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But I couldn't find them. Among the editors, writers, and agents I surveyed, an unsurprising consensus emerged: the number of well-known American literary writers who are even rumored to be politically conservative is very, very small. One book editor told me he knew several Republican novelists, but refused to disclose their names. He agreed to forward my email, so they could contact me if they wished, but none of them did.

Recently I embarked on a monthlong hunt for Republican writers of what’s commonly called literary fiction. In America today, what’s “literary” often seems like a subset of what’s “liberal”—and yet history is full of serious writers stumping for nonliberal ideas and leaders: the Italian Futurists, T. S. Eliot, Kingsley Amis, the American novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights who joined the Communist Party during Stalin’s reign, and so on. Come on, I thought: there has to be somebody who can write a decent character-driven short story who also thinks George W. Bush is a good president. I…

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