Electronic Literature Organization

Founded by Scott Rettberg, Robert Coover, and Jeff Ballowe, the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) was established in Chicago in 1999 with Ballowe as its first president and Rettberg serving as executive director.[1][4][5] During this period the ELO made the decision to embrace, along with hypertext narrative and fiction, emerging forms of electronic-based literary works, including interactive narrative, net poetry, and others, all under the "electronic literature" moniker.[6] Supported early on through sponsorships from dot.com businesses, it realigned with academia following the dot.com crash, moving to UCLA under the guidance of noted media theorist N. Katherine Hayles.[1] Its first conference, "State of the Arts", was held at UCLA in 2002. Marjorie Luesebrink, the electronic literature artist writing under the name M. D. Coverley, took over as the ELO's second president at this time.

In 2006, the ELO achieved a major milestone when it published its first anthology, and one of the first major anthologies of electronic literary works, the Electronic Literature Collection: Volume 1.[7][1]

In 2006, upon the departure of Hayles from UCLA to Duke University, the ELO moved to the University of Maryland, College Park where it was supported by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities under the direction of Digital Humanities scholar Matthew Kirschenbaum, with literary scholar Joseph Tabbi serving as President.[1] Under Tabbi's leadership, the Organization developed the Consortium on Electronic Literature (CELL), "an open access, non-commercial resource offering centralized access to literary databases, archives, and institutional programs in the literary arts and scholarship, with a focus on electronic literature."[8]

In 2010 the ELO moved to MIT under the leadership of then-President Nick Montfort (2010–2013) and later Dene Grigar (2013–2019).[1] This period is marked by the publication of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volumes 2 and 3, as well as the Pathfinders project, produced by Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop.

In recent years, the ELO has greatly expanded its activities and international reach, holding conferences and festivals in Paris (2013), Bergen, Norway (2015), Victoria, B.C. (2016), and Cork, Ireland (2019). It has also held exhibits, readings, and performances at venues and events like the Library of Congress, the Modern Language Association, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Society of Literature, Science and the Arts, and the International Symposium on Electronic Art. A book series, Electronic Literature, edited by Helen Burgess, Dene Grigar, Maria Mencia, and Rui Torres, is published by Bloomsbury Academic. Partnerships with and affiliations to the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) and New Media Consortium (NMC) have also been established.[2]

In July 2017, the ELO moved its headquarters to Washington State University Vancouver.[1]

The Electronic Literature Organization awards a number of prizes for creative work and critical scholarship in the field of electronic literature.[9]

The ELO awards three prizes:

1. The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature
2. The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature
3. The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Career Achievement Award

Each year, the public are invited to submit nominations, with final recipients then selected by a panel of experts.

The ELO hosts an annual gathering for scholars and artists called the Electronic Literature Organization Conference & Media Arts Festival. It is considered one of the major international conferences for new media scholars, artists and practitioners. The conference is typically referred to in the shorthand ELO2018, ELO2019 etc. The ELO conference has been running since 2008, where it was first held in Vancouver, Washington.[18] The conference is typically held in the summer months.

The activities of the Electronic Literature Organization include:

• A book series published by Bloomsbury Academic Press, entitled "Electronic Literature".
• The Electronic Literature Directory, a listing of electronic works and their authors.
• The Electronic Literature Collection, an edited anthology of electronic literature. The first volume was released under a Creative Commons license in 2006.
• Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination (PAD) project to archive notable and threatened works.
• The Electronic Literature Awards for creative and scholarly activities.
• Readings, symposia and other outreach events such as the MACHINE series (since 2004) to publicise electronic literature.
• Management of the Turbulence.org archives.[23]

• Official website
• Electronic Literature Directory

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