A wide-ranging anthology of experimental writing—prose, poetry, and hybrid—from its most significant practitioners and innovators
 
A variety of names have been used to describe fiction, poetry, and hybrid writing that explore new forms and challenges mainstream traditions. Those phrases include experimental, conceptual, avant-garde, hybrid, surfiction, fusion, radical, slip-stream, avant-pop, postmodern, self-conscious, innovative, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing, alternative, and anti- or new literature. Conceptualisms: The Anthology of Prose, Poetry, Visual, Found, E- & Hybrid Writing as Contemporary Art is the first major anthology of writing that offers readers an overview of this other tradition as it lives in the early decades of the 21st century.

Featuring over 100 pieces from more than 90 authors, this anthology offers a plethora of aesthetics and approaches to a wide variety subjects. Editor Steve Tomasula has gathered poems, prose, and hybrid pieces that all challenge our understanding of what literature means. Intended as a collection of the most exciting and bold literary work being made today, Tomasula has put a spotlight on the many possibilities available to writers and readers wishing for a glimpse of literature’s future.

Readers will recognize authors who have shaped contemporary writing, as among them Lydia Davis, Charles Bernstein, Jonathan Safran Foer, Shelley Jackson, Nathaniel Mackey, David Foster Wallace, and Claudia Rankine. Even seasoned readers will find authors, and responses to the canon, not yet encountered. Conceptualisms is a book of ideas for writers, teachers and scholars, as well as readers who wonder how many ways literature can live.

The text features headnotes to chapters on themes such as sound writing, electronic literature, found text, and other forms, offering accessible introductions for readers new to this work. An online companion presents statements about the work and biographies of the authors in addition to audio, video, and electronic writing that can’t be presented in print. Visit www.conceptualisms.info to read more.
 

Contributions by: Joe Amato, David Antin, John Ashbery, Susan Bee, Caroline Bergvall, Kate Bernheimer, Charles Bernstein, Ralph M. Berry, Alan Bigelow, Christian Bök, Kyle Boltin, Amaranth Borsuk, Jenny Boully, Brad Bouse, Mez Breeze, Blake Butler, David Buuck, Douglas Cape, J.R. Carpenter, John Cayley, David Clark, Robert Coover, Roderick Coover, Lucy Corin, Mark Z. Danielewski, Lydia Davis, Debra Di Blasi, Lesley Dill, Johanna Drucker, Rikki Ducornet, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Craig Dworkin, Brian Evenson, Percival Everett, Kass Fleisher, Jonathan Safran Foer, William Gass, Valeriy Gerlovin, Rimma Gerlovina, Noah Eli Gordon, Tim Gutherie, Carla Harryman, Nicola Harwood, Lyn Hejinian, Lily Hoang, Susan Howe, Jason Huff, Matt Huynh, Shelley Jackson, David Jhave Johnston, Eduardo Kac, Bhanu Kapil, Douglas Kearney, Hank Lazer, Nam Le, Stacey Levine, Thomas Loh, Nathaniel Mackey, Ben Marcus, Michael Martone, Carole Maso, Harry Mathews, Steve McCaffery, Richard McGuire, Michael Mejia, David Melnick, Nick Montfort, Harryette Mullen, R. Henry Nigl, Lance Olsen, Patrik Ouredník, Bob Perelman, Giles Perring, Tom Phillips, Vanessa Place, Salvador Plascencia, Niels Plenge, Claudia Rankine, Graham Rawle, Scott Rettberg, Frank Rogaczewski, George Saunders, Leslie Scalapino, Davis Schneiderman, Lee Siegel, Matt Smith, Steven Ross Smith, Anna Joy Springer, Stephanie Strickland, Cole Swensen, Illya Szilak, Nick Thurston, Lynne Tillman, Cyril Tsiboulski, Deb Olin Unferth, Fred Wah, David Foster Wallace, Bessie Wapp, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jin Zhang