From the Writers In The Virtual Sky blog comes praise for one of the author’s favorite places for the more literary-minded in Second Life, Bookstacks, a sim that has a companion Web site.

Alas Zerbino - aka Joan Kremer - is effusive in her praise of Bookstacks, noting that it is a wonderful place for a number of things: meeting other book lovers (the island is, after all, created by two of these, Simeon Beresford and Kghia Gherardi; author cheerleading; literary performances, from one of the many performance spaces at Bookstacks; reading promotion; the first Internet radio show to discuss the literary SL; and writer’s support groups.

In-world readings are on the upswing - none other than sci-fi superstar Ursula Leguin spoke in San Francisco as well as at the Alliance Virtual Library in late February - and contests, like a recent flash fiction competition judged by the blog’s author, are also gaining ground.

How long will it be until the Booker Prize turns to SL - and other virtual spaces - to graze for talented writers? Or is there a disconnect between textual content and a virtual world?