United Airlines offers first and business class passengers in-flight literary perks

Last summer at a writers' workshop in Oregon, US, the novelists Anthony Doerr, Karen Russell and Elissa Schappell were chatting over cocktails when they realised they had all published work in the same magazine. It wasn't one of the usual literary outlets, like The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines.

Since its first issue hit plane cabins a year and a half ago, Rhapsody has published original works by literary stars like Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Amy Bloom, Emma Straub and Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction two weeks ago.

As airlines try to distinguish their high-end service with luxuries like private sleeping chambers, showers, butler service and meals from five-star chefs, United Airlines is offering a more cerebral amenity to its first-class and business-class passengers: elegant prose by prominent novelists.

An airline might seem like an odd literary patron. But as publishers and writers look for new ways to reach readers in a shaky retail climate, many have formed corporate alliances with transit companies, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Amtrak, that provide a captive audience.

Some of Rhapsody's contributing writers say they were lured by the promise of free airfare and luxury accommodations provided by United, as well as exposure to an elite audience of some 2 million first-class and business-class travellers.

In addition to offering travel perks, the magazine pays well and gives writers freedom, within reason, to choose their subject matter and write with style. Certain genres of flight stories are off limits, naturally: no plane crashes or woeful tales of lost luggage or rude flight attendants, and nothing too risqué.

"We're not going to have someone write about joining the mile-high club," said Jordan Heller, editor-in-chief of Rhapsody. "Despite those restrictions, we've managed to come up with a lot of high-minded literary content."