The collection (more than twenty essays in all) includes three review-essays on the Electronic Literature Collection (volume 1), published by the ELO: “How to Think (with) Thinkertoys” by Adalaide Morris; “Letters That Matter” by John Zuern; and “Electronic Literature circa WWW (and Before)” by Chris Funkhouser. New essays on and by Douglas Barbour, Michael Barrett, Greg Betts, Christof Bruno, Charles Bernstein, Stephen Cain, Robert Creeley, Clayton Eshleman, Alan Fisher, Eduardo Kac, Hugh Kenner, Walter Benn Michaels, Jay Murphy, Janet Neigh, Soren Pold, Christopher Nolan, Jaishree Odin, Tom Raworth, Maggie O’Sullivan, Stephanie Strickland, Angela Szczepaniak, Steve Tomasula, and Eugene Thacker.

But wouldn’t it be nice to get our arms around this thing, to get a sense of the full breadth and scope of what’s called digital literature?

The 60 works in the first volume of the Electronic Literature Collection (ELC) (http://collection.eliterature.org) – edited by N. Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg and Stephanie Strickland – show the wide range of forms that exist within the genre.

The column describes the keyword index and discusses four of the pieces included in volume one of the Collection in detail.

The ELC has recently been reviewed internationally in a number of publications including a review in El Pais by Stefano Caldano, a review by Tim Wright in Realtime Arts, a review by Edward Picot in the Hyperliterature Exchange, and a review by Jesper Olsson in Svenska Dagbladet.

–Basque Cyberculture: From Digital Euskadi to Cybereuskalherria (University of Nevada: Center for Basque Studies, 2006), Andoni Alonso and Inaki Arzoz, reviewed by Loykie Lomine, with a response from Andoni Alonso;

–Biomedia (University of Minnesota Press, 2004), Eugene Thacker, reviewed by Pramod K. Nayar, with a response from Eugene Thacker;

–Applied Ethics in Internet Research (Trondheim, Norway: NTNU University Press, 2003), May Thorseth, editor, reviewed by Ted M. Coopman.

The “critical ecologies” thread includes a review of Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture and Our Public Needs.

In “end construction,” another response to Lori Emerson’s November 2005 review of Walter Benn Michaels.

“electropoetics” offers Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck on “Marie Laure-Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality”.

Plus reviews of new electronic fictions “Man in the Stretcher,” by Kenneth Bernard, and “Charlie P” by Dick Kalich.

–John F. Barber and John Carr on Anthony G. Wilhelm’s Digital Nation: Toward an Inclusive Information Society (MIT Press, 2004)

–Jessica M. Laccetti on Mari-Laure Ryan’s anthology of essays Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling (University of Nebraska Press, 2004)