Author Description

Rebooting Electronic Literature is an open-source, multimedia book that documents seven pre-web works of electronic literature held in the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL) library at Washington State University Vancouver. They were also among the first computer-based works of literature to be sold commercially in the U.S. Due to their availability through commercial distribution, these works were influential in shaping literary theory and criticism currently used today to discuss born digital writing. To date, none have been migrated to a more contemporary format and only two--AMNESIA and its name was Penelope--have been emulated for access by a contemporary public. Thus, these are works in danger of becoming inaccessible to the public because they were produced on and for computer platforms that today are obsolete. In developing the project, we aim to provide information helpful to scholars. Written and produced by the ELL Team the book features 85,000 words of artist biographies, descriptions of media, and critical essays; 350 photos of artists, works, and their original packaging; and 55 videos of artist readings and interviews and Live Stream Traversals.