About ELO Conference

The Electronic Literature Organization’s upcoming 2016 conference takes its initiative from 2015’s The End(s) of Electronic Literature and sets its sights on what lies beyond those limitations: the future and evolution of electronic literature. Whereas The End(s) of Electronic Literature examined limitations, Next Horizons looks forward to new possibilities.ELO 2016 responds with the intentional connection, integration and expansion of electronic literature into Digital Humanities through a partnership between the Electronic Literature Organization and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, located at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia. It is at the University of Victoria that the conference will take place, from June 10 – 12, 2016.

Opportunities for Participation

The conference will feature critical papers and artistic works of electronic literature. ELO is currently seeking proposals for papers that look critically at works of electronic literature from a variety of theories and approaches, but also address special areas of interest. These areas include:

  • Games
  • Fan fiction
  • Feminist E-lit
  • Sound
  • Digital publishing
  • Preservation
  • Deep | Close reading of electronic literary works

All events will be peer-reviewed and juried by scholars and artists with expertise in the specific area related to the topic or method. Comments will be sent to all who submit a proposal or work.

Because ELO is interested in integrating digital humanities into electronic literature contexts, formats for presenting ideas include traditional concurrent sessions but also are expanded to include other modes of presentation and engagement. Formats include various forms of presentations and workshops.

Proposals for all scholarly activities must be submitted via the conference website on the submission form.

ELO also seeks innovative and experimental works of electronic literature for a festival of screenings, gallery exhibit, readings and performances and sound installations. For more information, see the submissions page.

All venues are located on the University of Victoria campus. ELO 2016 will provide basic technological needs such as computers, LCD projectors, mobile devices and mobile mounts, power cords, and cables. Specific equipment needs will to be supplied by artists. Specialized equipment must be provided by artists. ELO is not responsible for shipping costs. Proposals for all creative activities must be submitted via the conference website on the Submission Form, coming October 17.

ELO

The Electronic Literature Organization was founded in 1999 to foster and promote the reading, writing, teaching, and understanding of literature as it develops and persists in a changing digital environment. A 501c(3) non-profit organization, ELO includes writers, artists, teachers, scholars and developers.

ELO was initiated by electronic author Scott Rettberg, novelist Robert Coover and internet business leader Jeff Ballowe. Realizing the promise that electronic media offered for literature but the lack of a supporting infrastructure, the three assembled a board of directors that included writers, publishers, internet industry leaders and literary nonprofit experts, founding the organization in Chicago. In the fall of 2001, ELO moved its headquarters to the University of California, Los Angeles, where it received generous assistance from the UCLA English Department, SINAPSE  and the Design Media Arts Department. After five productive years at UCLA, ELO headquarters came to the University of Maryland, College Park. ELO was housed at and sponsored by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. The summer of 2011 marked ELO’s move to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thanks to support from the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies and The Trope Tank.

ELO has grown to be a vital part of the electronic literature community. In 2001, the Organization ran the Electronic Literature Awards program that recognized exemplary works of poetry and fiction and rewarded winners with substantial cash prizes. ELO also undertook the PAD (Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination) project from 2002 – 2005, which involved a conference, e(X)literature, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and resulted in the publications Acid-Free Bits and Born-Again Bits.

Landmark events in the organization’s short history have included the launch of an acclaimed database-driven Electronic Literature Directory maintained by scholars and visited by thousands of readers; readings and outreach events in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the Washington, D.C. area; the publication of two volumes of the Electronic Literature Collection, each with about 60 works of electronic literature and each edited by a different editorial collective; and a conference series that has run from the State of the Arts Symposium at UCLA in 2002 to the 2013 conference in Paris, Chercher le texte.