Did you know that the National Book Critics Circle is sponsoring a program right now to raise the awareness of literary criticism among the general public? They are. And as part of that program, they recently interviewed Chicago Sun-Times Books editor Cheryl L. Reed at their blog. The interview itself is interesting on its own; it gets into how the Sun-Times deals with such "superfluous" stuff like book reviews in this age of shrinking newspaper readership, and other such issues. What I found most interesting, though, is Reed's admission that she prefers hiring local reviewers over out-of-town freelancers, in that locals understand what stores fellow Sun-Times readers are hanging out at, and what kinds of books are "in" at those stores...

Well, Chicago-area litbloggers, you can see what kind of opportunity this is, right? Anyway, just something I wanted to point out, for any local writers who might be able to put this information to good use. And by the way, Reed can be reached at (creed [at] suntimes.com).