''Electronic Book Review'' (''ebr'') is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal with emphasis on the digital. Founded in 1995 by

Joseph Tabbi Joseph Tabbi (May 4, 1960) is a US literary scholar and theorist, notable for his contributions to the fields of American literature and electronic literature. He was the first scholar granted access to the archives of the reclusive novelist Willia ...

and

Mark Amerika Mark Amerika (born 1960, Miami, Florida) is an American artist, theorist, novelist and professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado. He is a graduate of the Literary Arts program at Brown University, where he received his MFA ...

, the journal was one of the first to devote a lasting web presence to the discussion of literature, theory, criticism, and the arts.

Overview

Since its inception, ''ebr'' has highlighted works characterized by innovation, resistance to genre, and creative use of emerging (electronic and web-specific) media. In 1996, ''

Details Detail(s) or The Detail(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''Details'' (film), a 2003 Swedish film * ''The Details'' (film), a 2011 American film * ''The Detail'', a Canadian television series * "The Detail" (''The Wire''), a television epis ...

'' referred to the journal as "a new mecca for cutting-edge fiction and criticism." Initially managed in DIY fashion by contributing writers and programmers, by 1997 Anne Burdick joined the staff as design director, later bringing on Ewan Branda for the redesign. Writing in ''Deep Sites: Intelligent Innovation in Contemporary Web Design'', Max Bruinsma characterizes ''ebr'' as "an interesting web of critical debates on electronic textuality, cyberculture, and the value of digital design literacy for scholarship and critical writing on the web." Its emphasis on the materiality of text extended to early experiments with form on the site itself, including "glosses," in which comments by a guest curator appear embedded in existing articles, and the "weave" function, which allowed for fluid rearrangement of content "like a virtual loom that weaves different patterns each time you choose a different perspective." ''ebr'' has received institutional support or affiliation from University of Illinois at Chicago, The Center for Literary Computing at West Virginia University, University of Colorado at Boulder, the Department of English, Art Center College of Design at Pasadena, University of Stavanger, the

Electronic Literature Organization The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is a nonprofit organization "established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature". It hosts annual conferences, awards annual prizes for works of ...

, and the Consortium on Electronic Literature (CELL). The journal has also enjoyed a long association with distributed literary networks such as Alt-X and the Open Humanities Press, the latter "an international, scholar-led open access publishing collective whose mission is to make leading works of contemporary critical thought available worldwide." ''ebr'' is currently edited by Joseph Tabbi, recipient of the ELO/N. Katherine Hayles Award in 2018 for Critical Writing in the field of Electronic Literature.

Books and collaboration

In conjunction with a trilogy of essay collections from MIT Press, ''ebr'' published a thread reproducing a portion of the essays while also expanding, critiquing, and responding to the print content. The "First Person" thread exists as an accompaniment to the collections ''First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game'', ''Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media'', and ''Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives'' by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin.

Contributors

Notable contributors include: *

Marjorie Perloff Marjorie Perloff (born September 28, 1931) is an Austrian-born poetry scholar and critic in the United States. Early life Perloff was born Gabriele Mintz into a secularized Jewish family in Vienna. The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany exacer ...

Joseph McElroy Joseph Prince McElroy (born August 21, 1930) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as ''Women and Men''. Personal background McElroy was born on August 21, 1930, in Brookl ...

J. Hillis Miller Joseph Hillis Miller Jr. (March 5, 1928 – February 7, 2021) was an American literary critic and scholar who advanced theories of literary deconstruction. He was part of the Yale School along with scholars including Paul de Man, Jacques Derrid ...

* Stephanie Strickland *Matthew Kirschenbaum *Florian Cramer * Michael Bérubé *Cary Wolfe *

N. Katherine Hayles Nancy Katherine Hayles (born December 16, 1943) is an American postmodern literary critic, most notable for her contribution to the fields of literature and science, electronic literature, and American literature. She is the James B. Duke Dist ...

McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark (born 1961) is an Australian-born writer and scholar. Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, and the Situationist International. Her best known works are ''A Hacker Manifesto'' and '' Gamer Th ...

John Cayley John Howland Cayley (born 1956) is a Canadian pioneer of writing in digital media as well as a theorist of the practice, a poet, and a Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University (from 2007). Education After moving to the United Kingdom in ...

*Nick Montfort * Charles Bernstein

References

{{reflist * * * * Cultural journals Literary magazines published in the United States Publications established in 1995 Open Humanities Press academic journals

Overview

Books and collaboration

Contributors

See also

References