Literary activism is a form of protest and critique aimed at corporate publishing houses and the literary fiction/nonfiction which they publish. The progenitors of literary activism are the members of the Underground Literary Alliance

Underground Literary Alliance

The Underground Literary Alliance is a Philadelphia-based and internationally membered group of writers, zinesters and DIY writers. They seek to expose what they see as the corruption and insularity in the American book-publishing establishment while providing alternative avenues for writers who...

. This group of writers is notorious for its protests, which has included making formal complaints against Guggenheim

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

grants given to already-wealthy authors, crashing New York literary readings, and maintaining a website which reports weekly on the perceived corruption and lack of integrity of the current literary world.