Steve Tomasula | |
|---|---|
 Tomasula in 2006 | |
| Occupation | Author, academic |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genre | Novel, short story, criticism |
| Spouse | Maria C. Tomasula |
| Website | |
| www | |
Steve Tomasula is an American novelist, critic, short story, and essay author known for cross-genre narratives that explore conceptions of the self, especially as shaped by language and technology.
Steve Tomasula grew up along the industrial border between East Chicago and the South Side of Chicago, the locale used as the setting in his novel IN&OZ. [1] He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. [2] While working on his first novel, he taught in the Middle East. After his return, he joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he is currently a professor of English. [3] Tomasula lives with his wife, the artist Maria Tomasula, in South Bend, Indiana, and Chicago. [2]
Tomasula is the author of five novels, a collection of short fiction, and numerous essays and short stories. [4] His fiction is a hybrid of multiple genres (experimental literature, historical fiction, science writing, poetry) and is noted for its use of visual elements and nonfiction narratives. [5] His writing can be characterized as postmodern and has been called a "reinvention of the novel" for its formal inventiveness, play with language, and incorporation of visual imagery. [6] [7] Though he is mostly known for his novels, his short fiction and essays also take up similar themes, especially the depiction of the self as a construction of society. [8]
His first novel, VAS: An Opera in Flatland (with design by Stephen Farrell) is an adaptation of Edwin Abbott's 1884 novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions . [9] It uses Abbott's characters Square and Circle and the flat, two-dimensional world in which they live to critique contemporary society during the rise of genetic engineering and other body manipulations. [10] His second novel, The Book of Portraiture (with design by Robert Sedlack) is a prequel to VAS. [11] It tells the story of "portraiture" in chapters that move across several centuries, for example: a desert nomad inventing an alphabet to depict himself in words; a Renaissance painter depicting nobility; and a 20th-century security expert using surveillance cameras and data-mining techniques to compose portraits of employees. [12] [13] TOC: A New-Media Novel is a multimedia novel published on DVD then as an iPad app with a third edition as a web novel [14] (all with design by Stephen Farrell, programming by Christian Jara, and contributions from 15 other artists, composers, musicians, and animators). [15] [16] A collage of text, animation, music, and other art forms, TOC explores competing conceptions of time that shape human lives: historical time, cosmic time, geological time, personal and biological time. [17] [18] IN&OZ is an allegory of four artists (a designer, poet, composer, and photographer) and an auto mechanic. It has been compared to George Orwell's Animal Farm for its class-consciousness as it follows the story of people trying to find a way to live authentically in a world where individuality is squeezed out by mass-market thought. [19] Ascension: A Novel takes up the theme of how humans continually remake the conception of nature, and how these new conceptions shape what it means to be human. [20]
Tomasula's short fiction and essays have been included in many literary magazines, including McSweeney's , Bomb , and The Iowa Review . [21] A collection of his short fiction, Once Human: Stories (Fc2, 2013; with design by Robert Sedlack and others), gathers a number of stories that are thematically linked by conceptions of the self as it is shaped by science, technology, and cultural change. [22]
His essays on innovative and conceptual literature, body art and genetic art have appeared in journals such as The Review of Contemporary Fiction, The New Art Examiner and Leonardo. Critical volumes in which his essays have been published include The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature (Routledge, 2012); Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information (Routledge, 2012), and Musing the Mosaic (SUNY Press, 2003). [23]
He has given key-note addresses or invited readings from his fiction at numerous universities and institutions, including the Library of Congress in the U.S., [24] and, in Europe, Université Paris 8 (France), [25] Plymouth University (England), Paris Sorbonne University (France), [26] and the University of Constantine the Philosopher (Slovakia). [27]
The American Book Review described VAS: An Opera in Flatland as "a leap forward for the genre we call 'novel.'" [28] Also in the American Book Review , the literary historian Steven Moore wrote that The Book of Portraiture is "brilliant.... The overarching theme of representation and self-portraiture, from cave art to computer code, gives this novel a historical sweep that is breathtaking." [29] Bookforum described it as "a grand historical account," explaining that The Book of Portraiture "reimagines what the novel, particularly the historical novel, might mean in the digital world, and it does so with verve, gusto, and style." [30] TOC: A New-Media Novel received a gold medal, Best Book of the Year in the eLit Awards, and the Mary Shelley Award for Excellence in Fiction [31] and was described in The Huffington Post as a "brilliant time machine." [32] Tomasula's short fiction was awarded the Iowa Prize for most distinguished work published in any genre; it was also published in the 2005 Harper Collins anthology of Year's Best SF and other anthologies. [33] Tomasula's novels are the subject of numerous scholarly and critical conference panels, essays and books, including The Body of Writing: An Erotics of Contemporary American Fiction by Flore Chevaillier, [34] How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis by N. Katherine Hayles, [35] Out of Mind: Mode, Mediation, and Cognition in Twenty-First-Century Narrative by Torsa Ghosal, [36] The Moral Worlds of Contemporary Realism by Mary K. Holland, [37] Collage in Twenty-First-Century Literature in English: Art of Crisis by Wojciech Drąg, [38] and Steve Tomasula: The Art and Science of New Media Fiction by David Banash. [39] In 2011 he was named a Howard Fellow. [40]
Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which are in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length ... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.
Magic realism, magical realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. Magical realism is the most commonly used of the three terms and refers to literature in particular. Magic realism often refers to literature in particular, with magical or supernatural phenomena presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting, commonly found in novels and dramatic performances. In his article "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature", Luis Leal explains the difference between magic literature and magical realism, stating that, "Magical realism is not magic literature either. Its aim, unlike that of magic, is to express emotions, not to evoke them." Despite including certain magic elements, it is generally considered to be a different genre from fantasy because magical realism uses a substantial amount of realistic detail and employs magical elements to make a point about reality, while fantasy stories are often separated from reality. The two are also distinguished in that magic realism is closer to literary fiction than to fantasy, which is instead a type of genre fiction. Magical realism is often seen as an amalgamation of real and magical elements that produces a more inclusive writing form than either literary realism or fantasy.
Robert Lowell Coover was an American novelist, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. He became a proponent of electronic literature and was a founder of the Electronic Literature Organization.
Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature are usually intended to be read on digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. They cannot be easily printed, or cannot be printed at all, because elements crucial to the work cannot be carried over onto a printed version.
Richard Cory Kostelanetz is an American artist, author, and critic.
Nancy Katherine Hayles is an American postmodern literary critic, most notable for her contribution to the fields of literature and science, electronic literature, and American literature. She is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University.
Derek Alexander Beaulieu is a Canadian poet, publisher and anthologist.
Fiction Collective Two (FC2) is an author-run, not-for-profit publisher of avant-garde, experimental fiction supported in part by the University of Utah, the University of Alabama Press, Central Michigan University, Illinois State University, private contributors, arts organizations and foundations, and contest fees.
Patchwork Girl or a Modern Monster by Mary/Shelly and Herself is a work of electronic literature by American author Shelley Jackson. It was written in Storyspace and published by Eastgate Systems in 1995. It is often discussed along with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story as an important work of hypertext fiction.
Robert Polito is a poet, biographer, essayist, critic, educator, curator, and arts administrator. He received the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography in 1995 for Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson. The founding director of the New School Graduate Writing Program in New York City, he was President of the Poetry Foundation from 2013–2015, before returning to the New School as a professor of writing.
Stacey Levine is an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she attended the University of Missouri's journalism school and the University of Washington. Her fiction and criticism have appeared in numerous journals, including The Washington [D.C.] Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, Tin House, the Notre Dame Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Bookforum," The American Book Review, Nest-A Journal of Interiors, The Seattle Times, Bookforum, The Stranger, The Seattle Times, and others.
Arthur Allen Cohen was an American scholar, art critic, theologian, publisher, and author.
Clarence Major is an American poet, painter, and novelist; winner of the 2015 "Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts", presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. He was awarded the 2016 PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jennifer Natalya Fink is an American author working in experimental feminist and queer fiction. She is best known for her novels Burn, V, and The Mikvah Queen, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. Her novel, Bhopal Dance (2018), won the FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize in 2017.
&Now is traveling biennial literary festival and a publishing organization, both focused on innovative literature. The festival's main emphasis is on work that blends or crosses genres and includes a wide variety of work, such as multimedia projects, performance pieces, criti-fictional presentations, and otherwise. The festival seeks out "literary art as it is practiced today by authors who consciously treat their work as a process that is aware of its own literary and extra-literary history, that is as much about its form and materials, language, communities, and practice as it is about its subject matter." Most of the work presented by authors is considered experimental literature.
Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink was an American writer, scholar, and teacher. Writing hypermedia fiction under the pen name M.D. Coverley, she is best known for her epic hypertext novels Califia (2000) and Egypt: The Book of Going Forth by Day (2006). A pioneer born-digital writer, she is part of the first generation of electronic literature authors that arose in the 1987–1997 period. She was a founding board member and past president of the Electronic Literature Organization and the first winner of the Electronic Literature Organization Career Achievement Award, which was named in her honor. Lusebrink was professor emeritus, School of Humanities and Languages at Irvine Valley College (IVC).
Sarah Gerard is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. She worked for Bomb Magazine. She is the author of three books. The first, a novel, Binary Star, was published in 2015 by Two Dollar Radio. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and was listed as a best book of the year by NPR and Vanity Fair. It received positive reviews in GQ and The New York Times.
VAS: An Opera in Flatland is a novel by the American author Steve Tomasula with design by Stephen Farrell. It was first published in hardback in 2002, and reissued in paperback in 2004. A special “Cyborg” edition, with an audio CD was published in 2009. The novel adapts several characters and settings from Edwin A. Abbott’s novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, first published in 1884. Set at the start of the 21st century when technologies like cloning, transplants, and other body modifications were becoming common, VAS employs a wide range of historical representations of the body from family trees and eugenic charts to visual representations of genetic sequencing. Bound in a cover that resembles human skin, the novel is printed in two colors, one that resembles flesh and one that resembles blood. It explores how definitions of the body and the self both emerge from differing narratives, and tells the story of people searching for a sense of identity in a dawning post-biological future.
