Bibliofemme News

Oprah's Book club began on her talk show in 1996, an Oprah Book Club logo on a novel's cover helped many of the books she picked to sell more than a million copies.

In 2001, Oprah picked The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen as the book club's monthly choice. However Franzen publicly objected to his novel been chosen as he feared it might affect his reputation in literary circles. He later said he regretted voicing his reservations.

Winfrey suspended the club in April 2002, saying she would only make occasional recommendations because, "It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share."

Relaunched in June 2003, the club now picks classics such as John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" and Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" rather than new books.

The open letter signed by 158 authors said "There's a widely-held belief that the landscape of literary fiction is now a gloomy place," It said fiction sales began to plummet when the The Oprah Winfrey Book Club went off the air in 2002 and stopped featuring contemporary authors.

Among those signing the letter were Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri and Amy Tan, author of "The Joy Luck Club." Several male authors also signed.

The letter expressed thanks for Winfrey's contribution to book sales and asked her to "consider focusing, once again, on contemporary writers in your book club."

"The readers need you. And we, the writers, need you," it said. "Oprah Winfrey, we wish you'd come back."

A spokeswoman for Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions, poured cold water on the idea. "There are no plans to change the focus of the book club at this time," she said.

The letter and a list of signatures can be found at http://wordofmouthwriters.org.

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