The Lit Mag Goes Mobile: "Electric Literature" Debuts Short Fiction for Your iPhone

In lieu of a longer reflection today, I'd like to draw your attention to some big news for poetry and lit, the mobile web, and this blog: Electric Literature has announced the creation of a bi-monthly electronic literary magazine.

The big news is that Electric Literature will be the first lit mag to be published to the iPhone, but I think the real gem here is that the publication will cross a number of media: there will be print, e-book [with a Kindle version specifically as well], and iPhone versions, with different pricing to subscribe to different versions of the mag.

This kind of cross-platform innovation really captures the zeitgeist of the literary world right now, which is why they're able to attract big name authors like Michael Cunningham. They lay out their whole raison d'etre in the About section of their site. [This is where they also, unfortunately, assert that the project will only include short fiction, at least for now. Here at PT we'll keep our fingers crossed for a poetry equivalent to come along soon!]

The makers of Electric Literature seem pretty confident that this is the direction most publications will be moving in the future, and I tend to agree, especially since they include the [albeit, more expensive] option of a print version. What do you think? Is this a portent of a mobile lit movement to come? Sound off in the comments.