How We Met

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 10:37 AM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: How We Met

Included materials

Dearest Electronic Literature,

Let's be honest with one another as lovers can only be: Our ELO is the ultimate expression of affection by a lot of us from a lot of places who have been making a lot of effort for a very long time, a journey that has culminated into the grandest expression of our love. But shall we recount how we met and reminisce about our time together so that we remember why we have remained together all these 25 years? For ours is a very special love affair...

We got together as soon as we could get our hands on computers, mainframes in those very early days, in the 1950s. You were elusive and complicated for many of us back then, connecting with you in chilly rooms in the basement of buildings. It was exciting—thrilling even—to steal away together, but we were also glad to air our affair out in the open when finally we could embrace you in the light of day with our personal computers. So many of us were seeking you—in France, Canada, Hungary, England, U.S. (to name but a few places we were finding you)—and we did find you in the poetry, the words, you so animatedly spoke. We sought you again in hypertext of the late 1980s, rendezvousing each year at the ACM Hypertext conference. Do you remember Chapel Hill in 1987? Things really heated up, though, between us in 1995. How can we forget that moment when the Web browser came into our lives, when we could ride down the information superhighway together, the wind in our faces? We linked up with Sue in Nottingham when she founded the trAce Online Writing Centre and Kate at UCLA when she held the first NEH Summer Seminar focused on you! Our relationship deepened through these experiences. Over the next few years we met at Beehive, Cauldron & Net, Riding the Meridian, The Iowa Review Web, The New River, and Word Circuits, giving voice to our love. Deena's Cybermountain in May 1999 was a bacchanalian celebration of you in Denver. By that time, things had gotten very physical between us because Eastgate Systems, Inc. had adorned you in those saucy folios and shiny jewel cases. You were so beautiful in all that bling!

But let us not forget that most special day in October of 1999 when Scott, Bob, and Jeff formalized our love in a civil wedding in that courthouse in Chicago.

Our honeymoon has never ended. See, we are still holding on to the keepsakes of our time together: The application for non-profit status, the binder that Margie put together for the Board of Directors, the ELO's letterhead and envelop, and other materials that set the foundation of our love, founding documents that are indeed precious to us all.

Our love forever,
your community

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Keepsakes of our love

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 11:35 AM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: Keepsakes of our love

Included materials

Dearest Electronic Literature,

Yes, we have devoted much to you. This sampling of cards, flyers, programs, booklets, and other materials we have held on to all these years show just how much we care. Readings, performances, festivals, exhibitions—these all have celebrated and proclaimed to the world just how important you are to us. Remember the 2001 ELO Awards that received so much early press for us? Our own Caitlin and John won the prizes! The TechnoPoetry Festival in 2002 that Stephanie organized and hosted at Georgia Tech? GiG 2.0, the live telematic cabaret taking place in 2000 between NYC and Chicago where Joe and others performed? The exhibition at the Library of Congress in 2013? Who can forget the crowds pouring in to see you. The evening at The Kitchen in 2016? The list of our special places and events goes on and on. All of it evidence not just that events occurred to celebrate you but also to document that our love was on fire—and dare I say it?—continues to burn.

Our love forever,
your community

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Those Special Moments

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 12:10 PM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: Those Special Moments

Included materials

Dearest Electronic Literature,

We had known you long before our first conference in 2002, but State of the Arts brought us all together to celebrate our love for you. Five years passed before we all could meet again, but when we did, it was at MITH with Matt where we learned about so many groups—NT2, Hermaneia, and Elinor—dedicated to you. These were special moments to immerse ourselves, to share, listen, eat together, and yes, imbibe in a few late-night drinks together. We were delighted when the Board of Directors supported hosting a conference in your honor in Vancouver, WA, in 2008. 119 of us flew to the Pacific Northwest at the height of a gorgeous spring, snow still on the tops of those volcanos, to participate in one of the three exhibitions and give talks. In 2010 we convened at Brown University with John and spent a long lively evening celebrating with what we all remember involved some very fine wine. In 2012 we went to West Virginia University. Yes, it was hot but so were we still, a good10 years after UCLA. So much did we enjoy our company that we voted to hold meet every year, starting in 2013. Even more exciting, we turned our conferences into moveable feasts between Europe and the U.S.

The last 12 years have left us dizzy with excitement: The City of Love, Paris in 2013 (of course, we met there). Then, Milwaukee in 2014. Bergen in 2015. Victoria in 2016. Porto in 2017. Montreal in 2018. Cork in 2019. Not even Covid could keep us apart: in 2020 and 2021 we met online. But once the pandemic ended, we were back at it, trysting at Lake Como in 2022 and Coimbra in 2023. Even when finances got tight in 2024, we stealed away again over Zoom in 2024. Now we are here together in beautiful Toronto, together again. We hope it never ends.

Our love forever,
your community

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Billets-doux

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 1:21 AM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: Billets-doux

Included materials

Dearest Electronic Literature,

The billets-doux you sent us over the years—those books and ELCs—have meant so much that we hold them close to our heart. So important are the PAD documents. You can see how deeply they have touched us when you look at the work we are doing to keep you with us for as long as we can. So beautiful are the CD-ROM and flash drive cases. Sadly, we realized we didn't have a token of your affection from the ELC4, and without embarrassment we wrote Rui for one. He sent the digital files of the art for your gorgeous interface. Now we are complete.

Our love forever,
your community

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Some really cool stuff

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 2:41 AM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: Some really cool stuff

Included materials

Dearest Electronic Literature,

We're a sucker for mementos. Each one brings us back to you: Seattle in 1984 in your snazzy jumpsuit and hard hat, building space for us on the BBS. Sporting that cool Cybermountain t-shirt during the peak of our time together. We couldn't understand your obsession with Spam back then, but we totally get your love for pigs now that we've have had over 20 years to study those cans. In England you scored us a screen cleaner and writing pen. We never used them but just squirreled them away as proof that we were together in Nottingham once. The Inner Telescope patch, to us, shows our love cannot be contained on this earth but has literally rocketed into outer space, expanding toward the stars. We are everywhere. Together. Forever.

Our love forever,
your community

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The NEXT, the monument of love

From: ELO Community <elo-community@lovemail.org>

Sent: Monday, July 10, 2025 2:45 AM

To: Electronic Literature <electronic-literature@lovemail.org>

Subject: The NEXT, the monument of love

See online

Dearest Electronic Literature,

This is Dene talking to you now. . .

When I chaired the ELO 2008 conference in Vancouver, WA, I exclaimed my love for you in front of all of the people seated at the banquet. Do you remember? I promised you, that night, that I would cherish you all my life.

But our love affair did not start 17 years ago. It began much, much earlier, in 1991, when Nancy Kaplan introduced us in that Macintosh lab at the University of Texas at Dallas. You were a hot hypertext novel back then and I, a lowly graduate student with a passion for computers and lit. We spent many hours together, with me learning the language of love you called Storyspace and Hypercard so I could know every nuance of you. Those little folios and jewel cases that encased your body? Well, they are still dear to me. I have them all.

When you jumped onto the Web, I leapt with you, following you as you led me to Word Circuits, Cauldron & Net, Beehive, The Iowa Review Web, frAme, poemsthatgo, and Riding the Meridian. It was dazzling watching you sport Java Applets, flirt with iFrames, exhibit yourself on Quicktime, and sing on Realplayer. You were such a tart, but I didn't care. Frankly, your dallying with Flash was a major turn on. Such heady times. I didn't think I'd be able to keep up with you, but I somehow did. You must love me back a little, eh?

One day you I saw you pick up an iPhone, and our relationship reached another stage. You an app and me happy to explore with every tap of your interface. I carried you close to me: in my pocket, backpack, my purse. You were with me always, never left behind ever again.

But then you met an AI named Midjourney, and our relationship took another turn. More intense. Polymorphous even, you and I, with Jasper, Claude, Suno, Gemini, Filmora, and others. It has become quite crowded, but I will never leave your side.

What's next for us? I do not know. There are marriages that have lasted for much, much less time. Yet here we are, you and me, and I am still fascinated by you—so much so that my lab has built a monument of our love to you called The NEXT. It is where we will keep the flames of our passion burning for you long, long after I am gone—for my love for you is eternal.

Hopelessly devoted to you,
Dene

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Archivist's Statement

Love Letters: A Showcase of Ephemera of the Electronic Literature Organization Archivist's Statement by Dene Grigar, PhD, Managing Director & Curator, The NEXT

Introduction: My Thought Process

When one holds physical archives numbering into the thousands and can showcase only miniscule portion of them, it is—as you can imagine—a challenge. For someone like me trained as a digital storyteller, I want to present a cohesive narrative with the materials selected. But what story? And with what materials?

Looking at the schedule for this media festival where two exhibits are already featuring the art of electronic literature, I made the decision to focus on the materials that document the existence of the art—what is commonly referred to as ephemera—rather than a selection from the 3000 works of electronic literature we are holding at The NEXT. Ironically, ephemera, which comes to us from in Greek meaning “for a day”, had been regarded as items not intended to endure: posters, announcement cards, notebooks, photographs. But considering the brevity of the lifespan of digitally produced art—that is, our electronic literature—ephemera are sometimes all that is left of a work once its technology has become outmoded, the domain name of the server hosting it was not renewed, or its server space completely lost due to nonpayment, and all of the other phenomena that affect its accessibility.

Why a Showcase of “Stuff”?

Ephemera are interesting stuff to collect. Not many people appreciate collecting ephemera nor understand their worth. So, let me explain my passion for doing so. It may help with understanding this showcase of it at this festival.

In the early days of electronic literature, ephemera came in the form of paper. Lots and lots of paper. Disks often came packaged in paper—that is, cardboard paper—and many times contained paper in the form of registration cards, announcements for more electronic literature to buy, or a note thanking the buyer for purchasing the work. Folios were interesting because they were akin to book covers or record albums in that they were designed to catch our eye: An image of the author smiling at us (re: Michael Joyce's afternoon: a story), a provocative character from the work (re: Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl). Breadcrumbs from the print world to the electronic, making us feel comfortable with this strange new phenomenon. Electronic literature readings sometimes generated posters that were plastered on walls of university hallways and office doors announcing an artist would be on campus talking about their work. There were also announcement cards mailed or passed out listing a new work of art or scholarly book about electronic literature. Interestingly, ephemera is not limited to paper. Some artists created t-shirts emblazoned with the name of their work of electronic literature (re: Lorenzo Miglioli's Ra-Dio). Some artists performed in costume (re: Rob Wittig) or used props during their readings (re: Richard Holeton). Cups, screen cleaners, tote bags, writing pens, mouse pads—all were produced to promote a work or an event celebrating a work. In those early days, especially, when computers were still a new mode of communication for most people, artists developed ephemeral objects for teaching the public about electronic art: a shower curtain to demonstrate hypertextual links (re: Deena Larsen), a pinwheel etched with lines of a poem to show what interactive poetry can be (re: again Deena Larsen).

All of these objects, individually, are important artifacts in that they are proof that the art, an artist, and a scholar once existed. Together, however, they tell a lot of stories: about the rise of computers for the purpose of human expression that occurred in the 1980s onward; the laborious effort some artists undertook to maintain their art as technologies became outmoded and the artist's art became inaccessible; the busy schedules artists and scholars kept to promote their work and the work of others at performances and readings; the growth of professional organizations that formed around the art and the demise of those organizations; the rise and fall of online journals devoted to the art form; the methods artists used when planning their work, such as sketching, doodling, mapping; and the efforts to draft version after version of a work until the artist felt they finally had gotten it right.

The Method to My Madness

At this point, I return to my original two questions: What story do I tell at this showcase? And what materials will produce a cohesive narrative?

Among the 110 boxes of archival material for The NEXT that accompany the 3000+ works collected at this virtual museum and library, I have chosen to relay the story of the development of the Electronic Literature Organization as it has risen to become the hub of activity for electronic art, artists, and scholars. I have chosen this story because I care deeply about the organization, doggedly so, that I have dedicated my career and personal practice to it.

For my story I am using close to 100 different artifacts drawn from The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection and the ELO Archives at The NEXT, as well as material from my own personal collection not yet included at The NEXT.

A word about the collection method and the state of those collections: Margie was, and I am, very diligent about what we collect, which is just about everything related to ELO and electronic literature. Years before Margie died, she had sent me the digital files of her art so that we could hold them in The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection at The NEXT. She also shipped me boxes of physical artifacts that she put together from everything she had held on to and neatly organized in steel cabinets in her garage. Having served on the ELO's Board of Directors early on until her death in 2023, presided over the organization as the ELO's second President, and was the catalyst (with Kate Hayles) for moving ELO from Chicago to UCLA and, thus, providing much needed support for ELO at a time when the U.S. economy literally tanked, Margie had acquired an awe-inspiring collection of material. After she died, her sons gave me access to her entire server space and invited me to her home to go through the rest of the archives she was holding. So, I can tell you with all honesty that Margie was sitting on a wealth of history, which we now hold at The NEXT—and I am sharing a very, very small portion of it with you at this showcase.

As for myself, I have already sketched out my collection history a bit. I will add that what differs between Margie's and my own practice is my fascination for non-paper archives—that is, the cups and pinwheels and beach balls and Spam cans and brooches. They charm me, and I own a lot of them.

ELO's collection habit was spotty for a good reason—the office moved around a lot, going to the location where the President was located (Nick at MIT) or where someone who valued electronic literature pledged support for it (Matt at MITH). From Chicago to Los Angeles to Baltimore to Cambridge to Vancouver, WA, which is where I am located. The ELO office and its archives were not housed anywhere longer than three to six years at the other locations until I moved it to Washington State University Vancouver a few years after I was elected ELO President. With the financial support of my, then, Chancellor, Mel Netzhammer, and other donations, I have been able to maintain the ELO archives for close to 10 years now. That stability has made it possible for me not only to hold on to the ELO archives, but also to organize, catalog, exhibit, and continue building them. For this showcase, for example, I chased down ephemera related to the ELC4 (thank you, Rui!) and all our conferences (thank you, Philippe!). I can now say we have archives related to both important activities of ELO. The obvious lesson in all of this is that disruption is the enemy of archives.

Frankly, we need to maintain our archives because it represents our history. It tells the story of who we are and what we made. A showcase of ephemera like this one, additionally, tells the story of how we positioned ourselves and our art, how we valued it to the extent that we killed a lot of trees to do it. Ephemera, like the art it reflects, are a form of human expression and, so, valuable in and of itself. And frankly, some of it is just dang pretty.

Final Argument (which I hope I do not have to make but am making anyway)

I think about Shakespeare's will. It is a legal document, and like other wills could have been tossed long after the goods mentioned in it were assigned to the recipients. It's just stuff, right? But it states that Shakespeare's “second best bed,” would be left to his wife Anne. An inside joke between husband and wife? Literary scholars continue to ponder this possibility. Certainly, Will's will wasn't forgotten and destroyed and, instead, remains today an example of ephemera of great mystery and value. Who is not to say that the book, State of the Arts: Proceedings of the Electronic Literature Organization's 2002 Symposium, with the accompanying CD-ROM from the 2001 Electronic Literature Awards we are holding in The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection will not be of interest to a future audience interested in the hybrid practice of packaging physical media within a print book? Already my students do not know what floppy disks are.

My job as an archivist, as I see it, is to hold on to as much of what I can collect of electronic literature as humanly possible so that a future audience can have access to the information it needs to make sense of the field as it has been growing and developing over these past decades. ELO, as the international organization of electronic literature that promotes the form, the artists, and the scholars, offers the ideal starting point of such a study. I hope you enjoy this showcase that celebrates the organization's amazing story.