Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2 Launch

On 2 May 2011, the Electronic Literature Research Group at the Department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen hosted two special events at the Bergen Public Library celebrating the launch of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2. The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2 is an international anthology of more than 60 works of electronic literature published under a Creative Commons license online and on DVD.

The publication of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1 in 2006 had a significant impact on the field of electronic literature, giving readers and educators a common set of referents in the form of a diverse collection of literary works made for digital media. The ELC, Volume 2, published in 2011, offers new digital poetry, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, multimedia documentaries, and a variety of other forms of electronic literature. The University of Bergen program in Digital Culture was one of the sponsors of the publication of the ELC 2 and will make use of it in its future courses.

To celebrate this publishing event, two events were held on Monday, 02 May 2011 in cooperation with the Bergen Public Library and the journal Vagant.

14:00-16:00 Bergen Public Library, Auditorium Presentation of the ELC 2:

Talan Memmott and Rita Raley, Editors. The editors will present the collection and briefly highlight a variety of works of electronic literature in the collection.

Editing Electronic Literature, a Roundtable Discussion Editors of the ELC 2 (Talan Memmott and Rita Raley) and the ELC 1 (Scott Rettberg and Stephanie Strickland) discussed the process of selecting and contextualizing works for the two anthologies, preparing the two online and disc editions, and distributing the collections to international audiences. Discussion will be led by Andrew Roberts, Professor of English at the University of Dundee and leader of the Poetry Beyond Text project.

19:30-21:30 Bergen Public Library, Auditorium Reading of works from the ELC 1 and 2 Featuring readings and performances from: Lexia to Perplexia by Talan Memmott (ELC 1) slippingglimpse by Stephanie Strickland, Jaramillo by Cynthia Lawsonand Paul Ryanl (ELC 2) V: Vniverse by Stephanie Strickland and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (ELC 2); Letter to Linus by William Gillespie (ELC 2); The Unknown by William Gillespie, Frank Marquardt, Scott Rettberg, and Dirk Stratton (ELC 2)

Q&A led by Audun Lindholm, editor of Vagant: Journal of Literature and Criticism.

This event was sponsored by the Bergen Public Library, the University of Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group, ELMCIP: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice, the Electronic Literature Organization, the Fulbright Foundation, the University of Bergen (Småforskmidler), and Vagant.