LitReactor: The End of An Era

Today we are sad to announce that we have made the difficult decision to shut down LitReactor.com. As some of you may recall, this all started as an offshoot of ChuckPalahniuk.net back in 2011. Portions of that site (the workshop, columns, interviews, reviews) were growing at such a rate, that the decision was made, with Chuck’s blessing, to give all this content its own domain.

Little did we know how large a community of writers would spring up from this new entity. Writing can be a terribly lonely endeavor. But when you have peers to bounce your work off of, share your enthusiasm with, and best of all, give you feedback, you’re no longer writing into the void. That was the central premise of LitReactor, and for over 12 years, we strove to accomplish that mission. 

It hasn't always been easy. In 2017, we lost Kirk Clawes, our co-founder, technical lead, and personal long-time friend. The hit we took was, truthfully, one we never fully recovered from. Last year we attempted to right the ship with an IndieGoGo fundraiser. That kept us afloat for a time, but in the end, the task to keep the site running at the standard we have all come to expect became untenable. The decision was finally and reluctantly made to pull the plug.

So come December 31st, we will be shutting our doors. The site will no longer be accessible after that. If you’ve contributed any content over the years, and don’t have a copy of something you’ve submitted (column, workshop entry, etc), you have between now and then to grab it from the site. Unfortunately we will not be able to afford to keep all that material online for posterity. If you are currently a paying workshop member, please remember to cancel your subscription to avoid any unnecessary charges. We will try to prevent this on our end, but like we said, Kirk was the tech guy. Our last few classes will go ahead as planned, unless otherwise noted. We will also continue to interact with the community at large via our social media accounts, which will stay live. So please keep in touch. We still want to support and promote your work.

One of our favorite things about this site has been hearing from people who have gone on to realize their writing dreams, no matter how small. In fact, just the other day an author who already has three books under their belt confided in us that it all started here, on LitReactor. If that doesn’t make this all worthwhile, then we don’t know what else would.

So please, we encourage you to share your stories. Things you’ve learned… people you’ve met.. work you’ve produced and had published. 

Maybe one day we will return, bigger and better than ever, but for the foreseeable future, this is farewell. 

Thank you for everything.

—The LitReactor Team