American Experimental Fiction: CFP
American Literature Association: Experimental Literature CFP
The Jonathan Bayliss Society invites proposals for a roundtable on American experimental fiction. Beginning at least as early as Moby-Dick, American experimental fiction flourishes in the work of Stein, Burroughs, Pynchon, Gass, and Bayliss, and continues today with such writers as Giannina Braschi, Karen Russell, Colson Whitehead, Lance Olsen, and Mark Danielewski. Such writers disrupt conventions of genre, style, syntax, diction, propriety, narrative form, page layout, and much more. We are interested in American Literature Association papers devoted to particular works or authors as well as more wide-ranging or theoretical approaches to the topic. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words along with your academic affiliation (if any) and a brief biographical note to Gary Grieve-Carlson at grieveca@lvc.edu by January 25, 2025.
Experimental American Novels
Experimental American Authors
- Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874): Three Lives, The Making of Americans, Tender Buttons
- William S. Burroughs (February 5, 1914): Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer
- Thomas Pynchon (May 8, 1937): V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity’s Rainbow
- William H. Gass (July 30, 1924): Omensetter’s Luck, The Tunnel, Middle C
- John Bayliss (November 11, 1919): The White Knight, The Lady of the Sea, The New Apocalypse
- Giannina Braschi (February 5, 1953): Yo-Yo Boing!, United States of Banana, PUTINOIKA
- Karen Russell (July 10, 1981): Swamplandia!, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Vampires in the Lemon Grove
- Colson Whitehead (November 6, 1969): The Intuitionist, The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys
- Lance Olsen (October 14, 1956): Nietzsche’s Kisses, Theories of Forgetting, Dreamlives of De Chirico
- Mark Z. Danielewski (March 5, 1966): House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, The Familiar
Experimental Writing Resources
Books about Experimental Literature
- Aldama, Frederick Luis, editor. Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
- Cowart, David. Thomas Pynchon and the Novel of Visions. Louisiana State University Press, 2012.
- Dydo, Ulla E., with William Rice. Gertrude Stein: The Language That Rises: 1923-1934. Northwestern University Press, 2003.
- Flynn, Kevin Tracy, editor. The Gist of GLOUCESTER: A Jonathan Bayliss Companion. 2010.
- Gibbons, Alison. Multimodality, Cognition, and Experimental Literature. Routledge, 2012.
- Giles, Paul. The Global Remapping of American Literature. Princeton University Press, 2011.
- La Torre Lagares, Elidio. Hyperglossia and the Novel: The Production of (Non)Space. Routledge, 2025.
- Maus, Derek C. Understanding Colson Whitehead. University of South Carolina Press, 2014.
- Murphy, Timothy S. Wising Up the Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs. University of California Press, 1997.
- Renker, Elizabeth. Strike through the Mask: Herman Melville and the Scene of Writing. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
- Saltzman, Arthur M. The Metafictional Muse: The Works of Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, and William H. Gass. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982.
- Starre, Alexander. Metamedia: American Book Fictions and Literary Print Culture after Digitization. University of Iowa Press, 2015.
Legacy Societies of Experimental American Authors
1. The Don DeLillo Society
- Tagline: “Facilitating the exchange of ideas regarding the political and philosophical systems of DeLillo’s fiction.”
- Website: delillosociety.wordpress.com
2. The International David Foster Wallace Society
- Tagline: “Dedicated to the study of the life and work of David Foster Wallace and the promotion of rigorous intellectual inquiry.”
- Website: dfwsociety.org
3. The Ezra Pound Society
- Tagline: “Promoting the study of Pound’s work and the development of Modernist poetics.”
- Website: ezrapoundsociety.org
4. The William Gaddis Society
- Tagline: “Celebrating the demanding, polyphonic, and encyclopedic novels of a master of American maximalism.”
- Website: williamgaddis.org
5. The Gertrude Stein Society
- Tagline: “Advocating for Stein’s ongoing importance to experimental poetics and philosophies of language.”
- Website: americanliteratureassociation.org (Hosted via the ALA)
These lists were AI generated.