We are excited this month to present three pieces that contribute to a richer understanding of the evolution and current state of electronic literature, and highlights the diversity of e-lit, including works outside the English language.
Roberta Iadevaia’s essay is a thought-provoking analysis of the origins of Italian electronic literature and its relationship to literary traditions and contemporary aesthetics. It begins by describing the recent surge in critical attention to Italian e-lit, reviewing differing approaches of two recent essays that aim to reconstruct the history of the genre, which began with Nanni Balestrini’s works and Enrico Colombini’s Italian textual adventures.
We also have two interviews from Rob Wittig that share a common focus on the experience of participating in collaborative storytelling–or “Netprov”. In Wittig’s interview with Johannah Rodgers, Johannah describes her involvement with Netprov, beginning with her participation in the Monstrous Weather netprov at the 2017 Electronic Literature Conference in Porto. She discusses the freedom of the Netprov writing prompts, the use of constraints in her writing, and the immediate feedback she received from others in response to her work.
Wittig’s second interview is with J †Johnson, a writer and artist who found their way into the world of Netprov through the Electronic Literature Organization community, where they met Rob Wittig and Mark Marino. In this wide-ranging discussion, Wittig and Johnson reminisce over their shared experience with the anarchic netprov community, its evolution over the last decade, their views on e-lit, and reminisce about netprov works like the All Time High project, a real-time collaborative storytelling experience which took place in 2014.
What emerges from these discussions is a sense of the dynamic nature of e-lit and its potential to push the boundaries of traditional literary and aesthetic forms to engage with new audiences and modes of communication.
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ebr is planning a special two-part Gathering (in April and May) on AI pedagogy and creative practice. This Gathering will be open to submissions beyond the typical academic essay, so please send your informal essays, ripostes, interviews, AI tools or art reviews, transcribed panel discussions or videos (videos require a brief text introduction).
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The deadline for Issue 03: Counter-Works of The Digital Review, edited by Carlota Salvador Megias and Ian Hatcher, has been extended for two more weeks. Please read the call for works here. Submissions are NOW DUE Wednesday, March 15th, 2023. Submit using this form.
– Jason Lajoie
Editor, EBR