Literary Starbucks is a blog run by three Carleton students (2nd Laird natives Jill Poskanzer and Wilson Josephson and History major Nora Katz). It attempts to answer the question: “What would your favorite authors and characters order if they walked into a Starbucks?” We asked the editors of the blog to tell us more, and here they are in their own words:
We always work to keep our answers humorous, either by referencing plot points (Horatio looks away for a moment, and everyone in the cafe dies), peculiarities of style (e.e. cummings & Hemingway are particularly easy targets), or biographical details (Thomas Pynchon flees the scene). Inspiration struck like lightning in an English class’ lull, and the blog has sort of exploded. We passed 10,000 followers on Sunday, and have already overtaken 15,000. We are flooded with requests every day and do our best to answer them and listen to feedback.
We definitely have favorites amongst the posts. In terms of jokes, we like the Marlowe, Wordsworth, and Chopin ones best; in terms of style, we each really liked emulating a different author in the cummings, Hughes, and Collins posts, respectively. Some of our most popular ones, thought, are the Hemingway, e.e. cummings, Lemony Snicket, and Gatsby posts, with thousands of notes each.
In regards to half the inspiration, Starbucks is not paying us. Starbucks will probably never pay us. Although, we have gotten a few requests/suggestions for book offers, and in that case we would probably want to talk to Starbucks to make sure we’re not stepping on their feet, legal-wise. We get dozens of messages each day, and we take requests, but not submissions — in other words, you can tell us who you’d like to see, but we don’t accept pre-written posts. So for now, the blog is pretty stable.
As for the future, we get hundreds more followers every day, which is surreal. We have posts for some living authors, and are hoping that the ones active on social media might notice us and promote the blog! We celebrated when we hit 10,000 followers, and probably will again when we reach 25,000 — with Starbucks coffees, naturally.
If you haven’t already, check out Literary Starbucks!
Comments
Congratulations, guys!! This blog is so cool! I have been proudly showing it off to my U of M cohort. Can't wait to see what else you all come up with!