Literary salons, often hosted by women, recognise readers and writers are part of a community, not a supply and demand relationship. From Madame Geoffrin in the Enlightenment to Gertrude Stein in the 1920s, literary conversations have flourished free from preconceived and prescribed notions about what  constitutes ‘writing’. They revere a use of words which causes pause and a gasp of connection. Fingerprint Editions will be opening its salon shortly.