The Evolution of Literary Fiction — June 27, 2026
Pelican at Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey CA
“If you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere and it can do anything.” – Alice Walker
I wrote my novel first and figured out the genre later, which is not the recommended order of doing things. But as it turns out, I may not be far off the mark, in terms of where the industry is going.
I’ve always loved literary fiction for its deeply drawn themes and characters, for its exploration of identity and study of the human condition. But I also love a page turner and that requires a plot that moves relentlessly forward. So I aimed for both. And when I went looking for a genre that would help place my novel in the marketplace, I found a term I hadn’t heard before: upmarket fiction. Or book club fiction. Blame Oprah for straddling genres to create a new one.
Upmarket fiction is claiming space between commercial plot-driven fiction and literary fiction with its poetic language and experimental structures. It bridges the two forms by aiming for a tight plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats and a broad perspective that sheds light on issues of the day.
The emergence of this new genre parallels the appearance of the term literary fiction in the 1970s and 1980s to define books like Joan Dideon’s Play it as it Lays or Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Then, as now, the market was adjusting to conglomeration of publishing houses, and the narrowing of books considered to be publishable. Literary fiction needed its own identity to build its place in the market. Now upmarket fiction like Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing is trying to save that place by taking on some of the plot pacing that makes commercial fiction sell.
Some say this is the death knell for literary fiction, but I don’t believe it is or ever will be. Literary fiction was there long before marketers coined the term and I’m guessing it will continue to evolve long after this new term of upmarket fiction is passé. Literature changes with the times, and we find ways to define it for the marketplace.
