Authors' and Contributors' Bios
This book was created by faculty, staff, and students working in the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver. Each were responsible for specific duties, but in the end they undertook whatever tasks were needed to complete the book by deadline. While the book was in production, they worked on the development of the Electronic Literature Organization's archives and its Repository, handling the creation of the metadata for the 2500 works added to the site. One of them, Kathleen Zoller, received funding from WSU's Undergraduate Summer Mini-Grant to reconstitute The Progressive Dinner Party originally created by Margie Luesebrink and Carolyn Guertin and published in Jennifer Ley's Riding the Meridian in 1999. They also spent late fall 2019 preparing for the demonstration they are giving with Dene Grigar at the Modern Language Association's 2020 conference in Seattle, WA. In sum, we followed the "best practices and better understanding how authorship and contributorship models emerge in heterogeneous teams of students, faculty, staff, #alt-ac roles, librarians, programmers, and community partners," as argued by Aaron Mauro et al.
Dene Grigar is Director of the Electronic Literature Lab and Professor and Director of the Creative Media & Digital Technology Program at Washington State University Vancouver. Her research focuses on the creation, curation, preservation, and criticism of Electronic Literature, specifically building multimedial environments and experiences for live performance, installations, and curated spaces; desktop computers; and mobile media devices. She has authored 14 media works, such as “Curlew" (with Greg Philbrook, 2014), "A Villager's Tale" (with Brett Oppegaard, 2011), the "24-Hour Micro-Elit Project" (2009), When Ghosts Will Die (with Steve Gibson, 2005), "Fallow Field: A Story in Two Parts” (2004), and “The Jungfrau Tapes: A Conversation with Diana Slattery about The Glide Project” (2004), as well as over 50 scholarly articles. She also curates exhibits of electronic literature and media art, mounting shows at the British Computer Society, the Library of Congress and for the Modern Language Association, ACM Hypertext, among other venues. With Stuart Moulthrop (U of Wisconsin Milwaukee) she is the recipient of a 2013 NEH Start Up grant for Pathfinders. She served as President of the Electronic Literature Organization from 2013-2019 and remains on its Board of Directors as the organization's preservationist. Her website is located at http://nouspace.net/dene.
Nicholas Schiller is the Associate Director of the Electronic Literature Lab and a member of the library faculty at Washington State University Vancouver. He is also on faculty with the Creative Media & Digital Culture program where he teaches information structure. In the lab, Nicholas works with metadata describing our archival materials and also with the technology infrastructure. He has published and presented on a variety of topics including current efforts to preserve and archive early works of electronic literature, metaphor and structure in information literacy instruction, and learning in video games as a model for library instruction. His current research involves developing taxonomy to describe outmoded digital storage formats. He is a previous contributor to the ACRL Tech-Connect blog.
Holly Slocum is the Project Manager for the Electronic Literature Lab. She has a B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a focus in user experience design and front-end web development. Her recent projects include design and development for the journal The Digital Review and the reconstitution of the journal frAme, published by trAce Online Writing Centre, 1999-2001. She currently serves as the Coordinator for the Electronic Literature Organization.
Kathleen Zoller is an Undergraduate Researcher working in the Electronic Literature Lab. She is pursuing a B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a focus in game studies and animation. She gained much experience working with multimedia book development on the Scalar platform when she wrote The Progressive Dinner Party Restored, which covered another preservation project she undertook during the Summer of 2019. Through that project she also became familiar with using Rhizome's Webrecorder tool for preserving electronic literature.
Moneca Roath was an Undergraduate Researcher for the Electronic Literature Lab. She completed her B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a minor in Psychology in Spring 2020. Moneca has a focus on video production and content creation, and recently developed videos for the Vancouver Parks Foundation, as well as all the Traversal videos featured in this book. When she is not at school/work, she is out traveling with friends or family, and is always ready for an adventure.
Mariah Gwin was the Games Research Assistant for the Electronic Literature Lab. She completed her B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture, as well as a B.A. in English with a certificate in Professional Writing in Spring of 2020. With the Electronic Literature Lab she presented at several conferences, including MLA 2020 and Implementing New Knowledge Environments, a Digital Humanities conference.
Greg Philbrook is a graduate of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program and now works as the program's technical and instructional technician. In this position, he manages the program’s computer labs and web server, heads student workshops, and collaborates with faculty on numerous projects. As a developer, he has built both the preservation catalog for the Electronic Literature Lab and the program’s inventory system, worked with Dene Grigar on “Curlew,” and created the interface for “Sound Spheres” with John Barber. He has also served as the technical support at exhibits curated by Dene at the Library of Congress, Electronic Literature Organization conferences, and Digital Humanities Summer Institute in Victoria, B.C.
John Barber convenes with The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver. His scholarship, teaching, and creative endeavors combine digital media art, Digital Humanities, and sound. Barber feels that such practice-based research discovers and puts into action new knowledge. His radio and sound art are broadcast and exhibited internationally. His publications appear in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Digital Studies, ebr, Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, Leonardo, MATLIT (Materialities of Literature), Scholarly Research and Communication, and elsewhere. Barber curates The Brautigan Library, a collection of unpublished manuscripts, and was featured on This American Life.
Will Luers, a digital media artist and writer, has been on faculty in the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University Vancouver since the fall of 2010. In 2008, he was invited to the university as an artist-in-residence to work with students on location-based media projects. At the CMDC, he teaches "Digital Publishing," “Multimedia Authoring”, “Advanced Multimedia Authoring”, and “Digital Storytelling.” His current research and artistic interest is in designing and publishing multimedia books as mobile apps. In general, his interests are in the proliferating forms and expressive possibilities of web-based and digital cinema, including database documentaries, multimedia hypertext, networked video, and locative storytelling. In 2010, he was awarded the The Vectors-NEH Summer Fellowship to work on his database documentary, The Father Divine Project. His video art has been selected for the Media Arts Show at the 2010 and 2008 ELO Conferences.
Dene Grigar is Director of the Electronic Literature Lab and Professor and Director of the Creative Media & Digital Technology Program at Washington State University Vancouver. Her research focuses on the creation, curation, preservation, and criticism of Electronic Literature, specifically building multimedial environments and experiences for live performance, installations, and curated spaces; desktop computers; and mobile media devices. She has authored 14 media works, such as “Curlew" (with Greg Philbrook, 2014), "A Villager's Tale" (with Brett Oppegaard, 2011), the "24-Hour Micro-Elit Project" (2009), When Ghosts Will Die (with Steve Gibson, 2005), "Fallow Field: A Story in Two Parts” (2004), and “The Jungfrau Tapes: A Conversation with Diana Slattery about The Glide Project” (2004), as well as over 50 scholarly articles. She also curates exhibits of electronic literature and media art, mounting shows at the British Computer Society, the Library of Congress and for the Modern Language Association, ACM Hypertext, among other venues. With Stuart Moulthrop (U of Wisconsin Milwaukee) she is the recipient of a 2013 NEH Start Up grant for Pathfinders. She served as President of the Electronic Literature Organization from 2013-2019 and remains on its Board of Directors as the organization's preservationist. Her website is located at http://nouspace.net/dene.
Nicholas Schiller is the Associate Director of the Electronic Literature Lab and a member of the library faculty at Washington State University Vancouver. He is also on faculty with the Creative Media & Digital Culture program where he teaches information structure. In the lab, Nicholas works with metadata describing our archival materials and also with the technology infrastructure. He has published and presented on a variety of topics including current efforts to preserve and archive early works of electronic literature, metaphor and structure in information literacy instruction, and learning in video games as a model for library instruction. His current research involves developing taxonomy to describe outmoded digital storage formats. He is a previous contributor to the ACRL Tech-Connect blog.
Holly Slocum is the Project Manager for the Electronic Literature Lab. She has a B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a focus in user experience design and front-end web development. Her recent projects include design and development for the journal The Digital Review and the reconstitution of the journal frAme, published by trAce Online Writing Centre, 1999-2001. She currently serves as the Coordinator for the Electronic Literature Organization.
Kathleen Zoller is an Undergraduate Researcher working in the Electronic Literature Lab. She is pursuing a B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a focus in game studies and animation. She gained much experience working with multimedia book development on the Scalar platform when she wrote The Progressive Dinner Party Restored, which covered another preservation project she undertook during the Summer of 2019. Through that project she also became familiar with using Rhizome's Webrecorder tool for preserving electronic literature.
Moneca Roath was an Undergraduate Researcher for the Electronic Literature Lab. She completed her B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture with a minor in Psychology in Spring 2020. Moneca has a focus on video production and content creation, and recently developed videos for the Vancouver Parks Foundation, as well as all the Traversal videos featured in this book. When she is not at school/work, she is out traveling with friends or family, and is always ready for an adventure.
Mariah Gwin was the Games Research Assistant for the Electronic Literature Lab. She completed her B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture, as well as a B.A. in English with a certificate in Professional Writing in Spring of 2020. With the Electronic Literature Lab she presented at several conferences, including MLA 2020 and Implementing New Knowledge Environments, a Digital Humanities conference.
Greg Philbrook is a graduate of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program and now works as the program's technical and instructional technician. In this position, he manages the program’s computer labs and web server, heads student workshops, and collaborates with faculty on numerous projects. As a developer, he has built both the preservation catalog for the Electronic Literature Lab and the program’s inventory system, worked with Dene Grigar on “Curlew,” and created the interface for “Sound Spheres” with John Barber. He has also served as the technical support at exhibits curated by Dene at the Library of Congress, Electronic Literature Organization conferences, and Digital Humanities Summer Institute in Victoria, B.C.
John Barber convenes with The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver. His scholarship, teaching, and creative endeavors combine digital media art, Digital Humanities, and sound. Barber feels that such practice-based research discovers and puts into action new knowledge. His radio and sound art are broadcast and exhibited internationally. His publications appear in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Digital Studies, ebr, Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, Leonardo, MATLIT (Materialities of Literature), Scholarly Research and Communication, and elsewhere. Barber curates The Brautigan Library, a collection of unpublished manuscripts, and was featured on This American Life.
Will Luers, a digital media artist and writer, has been on faculty in the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University Vancouver since the fall of 2010. In 2008, he was invited to the university as an artist-in-residence to work with students on location-based media projects. At the CMDC, he teaches "Digital Publishing," “Multimedia Authoring”, “Advanced Multimedia Authoring”, and “Digital Storytelling.” His current research and artistic interest is in designing and publishing multimedia books as mobile apps. In general, his interests are in the proliferating forms and expressive possibilities of web-based and digital cinema, including database documentaries, multimedia hypertext, networked video, and locative storytelling. In 2010, he was awarded the The Vectors-NEH Summer Fellowship to work on his database documentary, The Father Divine Project. His video art has been selected for the Media Arts Show at the 2010 and 2008 ELO Conferences.
Guest Authors
Raine Koskimaa, PhD, is a Professor of Contemporary Culture Studies at the University of Jyvaskyla and Vice Director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies. He conducts research in the fields of game studies, digital literature, transmedia storytelling and digital culture. He is the co-founder of the Cybertext Yearbook (2000-2010) and the author of Digital Literature: From Text to Hypertext and Beyond (2000). Koskimaa has published widely, especially on digital culture and digital literature, and his writings have been translated to several languages. He is a long time member of the ELO Literary Advisory Board. His current research interests are eSports, games and transmedia, and, time and temporality in digital fiction.
Mark Bernstein is founder and Chief Scientist of Eastgate Systems. After spent his early career as a chemical engineer, he turned his attention to hypertext. He programmed HyperGate, a hypertext authoring system for the Macintosh that predated Apple's HyperCard, and published several early hypertext narratives on that platform, including his own The Election of 1912 (1988, with Erin Sweeney), Robert DiChiara's A Sucker in Spades (1988), and Sarah Smith's King of Space (1991). After seeing a presentation for Riverrun Ltd's Storyspace software program at Hypertext '87, Bernstein licensed it and published Micahel Joyce's afternoon, a story, which attracted interest in hypertext fiction from the mainstream publishing industry and gave way to 47 other titles Bernstein's company sold commercially. He is also responsible for developing Storyspace for Windows, the Eastgate Web Squirrel, and Tinderbox.
