Virtual Office Brings Prizewinning Global Authors Together

I'm feeling just a little smug as the Internet proves its worth more and more for writers and publishers. Those friends telling me off for frittering away time online will just have to leave me alone. It's all worth it, it is! The online television show I'm currently preparing for broadcast is just one wonderful example of how writers from all over the world can get together online to produce something extraordinary.

I'll be interviewing authors Sequoia Nagamatsu and Ovo Adagha about the One World anthology, recently released, which not only brings together the work of international authors but was also produced by them using online meeting places. Another intriguing feature of this book is that it includes winners of prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, alongside up-and-coming authors.

They will be on the Meet an Author show, which I host, and which is another example of how the Internet works alongside face-to-face book events. The show is filmed in the virtual world of Second Life, so authors from anywhere in the world can get together to be interviewed in front of an international audience. It streams live on alternate Saturdays on http://treet.tv at 10pm UK time (2pm California time) and is then available as a recording on http://slcn.tv on the Meet an Author page. I started the show because I really enjoyed it, and it's still great fun, but I've also come to realise what a fantastic way this is for authors to reach out to a global audience.

What makes the One World venture so fascinating is the way writers all over the world have used the Internet to collaborate on it. On the show Ovo Adagha and Sequoia Nagamatsu will represent the project and speak about the development of the book, thoughts on literature on the internet, globalization/equality and concepts of space and identity in virtual worlds as well as reading selections from their own work.

Here's Sequoia Nagamatsu's description of the project: 'The collection comprises stories from 23 writers from 14 countries including Pulitzer prize winner, Jhumpa Lahiri and recent MacArthur Grant recipient and Orange Prize Winner, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie and many up and coming names.. All of the writers worked in an online office to put the manuscript together, work on design, marketing and other tasks.'

The book was launched this month at the Oxford Literary Festivalat Christ Church College, Oxford and the authors are working on other events in locales around the world including outreach and presentation to high schools in America and now Second Life and online television as well. If you're on Second Life you can come to the event or go to the venue for more information http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cookie/24/136/66 If you're not on Second Life then you can see the show on the Treet TV links above.
You can find out more at: http://www.oneworldstories.com