CDN at ELO 2025

The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) has been at the forefront of exploring the intersection of literature and digital technology since its founding in 1999. Dedicated to the creation, preservation, and study of born-digital literary works, the ELO has cultivated a vibrant global community of artists, scholars, and technologists. 

The 25th ELO conference in Toronto in July, named "Love letters to the past and future (external link)" marked a significant milestone – bringing together voices from across disciplines to reflect on the past, engage with the present, and imagine the future of electronic literature. The opening keynote was by CDN Director Professor Scott Rettberg, founder and former leader of the ELO, reminiscing about the 25 years of the conference, under the title "It's been a long time since we rocked and rolled".

"It is useful to think of ELO as an evolving community," Rettberg explained, highlighting the events that led to ELO forming, the early days of the organisation and its artists and academics, sprinkled with archival pieces and "embarrassing anecdotes".

Celebrating 30 years of ebr

Part of the conference was a celebration of 30 years of electronic book review, one of the first literary journals to be invented online. 

In a panel (external link) moderated by Lai-Tze Fan, co-founder Joseph Tabbi, current managing editor Anna Nacher, as well as Ewan Branda and Tegan Pyke discussed its history, and launched the new design of the website, done from the ground up, managed by CDN Technologist Colin Robinson.

Earlier this summer, we celebrated Joseph Tabbi and ebr with Joefest, a seminar and exhibition to 30 years of ebr history.

Jason Nelson – an ELO maverick

This years 2025 Electronic Literature Awards was held at the ELO conference. ELO gives 4 juried awards that come with a cash prize and the esteem of the international e-lit community.

The Maverick Award was given to Professor Jason Nelson. The jury writes:

"The confusion Jason’s work sparks is a generous, friendly confusion, hilarious and serious at the same time. Throughout decades of award winning work — work appearing on screens, in quirky physical objects, and stunning visuals projected onto huge architectural spaces — Jason has accurately assessed the norms and expectations of current digital culture. Then he has set about systematically breaking those norms and frustrating those expectations. The result is insight. And laughter. Jason’s work always shows you something you hadn’t witnessed before in digital culture, and inside yourself."

The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Career Achievement Award was awarded to Bertrand Gervais, Professor in the Literary Studies Department at the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM). The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature was awarded to The Culture of Neural Networks: Synthetic Literature and Art in (not only) the Czech and Slovak Context, by Karel Piorecký and Zuzana Husárová. The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature was awarded to Espejo de Carne, by benjamin escalonilla godayol.

• Read more details about the awards on the ELO website (external link)