Held May 4, 2012 at MIT.

Mainstream and avant-garde poets and fiction writers have been exploring the literary potential of the computer for decades, creating work that goes far beyond today's e-books. The creators of electronic literature have developed new interface methods, new techniques for collaboration, and new ways of linking language, computing, and other media elements. How has electronic literature influenced other media, including the Web and the book? What are the implications of having literary projects in the digital sphere alongside other forms of communication and art? 

Symposium

This forum concludes a day-long symposium on the future of the book. Register at futurebook.mit.edu.

Speakers

Katherine Hayles is professor in the literature program at Duke University. Her books include Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary (2008) and My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts (2005).

Nick Montfort is associate professor of digital media at MIT and president of the Electronic Literature Organization, now based at MIT. His books include Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction (2003).

Rita Raley is associate professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara where she directs Transcriptions, a research and pedagogic initiative on literature and the culture of information. Her most recent publications include the co-edited Electronic Literature Collection, volume 2.

Moderator:

David Thorburn is professor of literature and director of the Communications Forum at MIT. His publications include the co-edited (with Henry Jenkins) volume, Rethinking Media Change (2003).