E-Lit Competition Winners
E-Lit Competition
Electronic literature (E-Lit) is born-digital, made on the computer and read on the computer so that its computational processes are part of its poetics. From Flash poetry to augmented reality, interactive fiction to hypertext, games to Netprov, electronic literature encompasses a wide variety of efforts to employ new media to create literary art.
Each year we run a student competition in electronic literature: student winners earn a cash prize and showcase their work at the annual DH Showcase in May. Details about the 2027 competition will be posted early in the spring.
2026 Competition
Winner
Em Teaze, "My Father's House"
Graduate student in the MFA program in Creative Writing, Poetry (English and Comparative Literature Department)
This project is made from two major components: the book object---which I would like to give to you in person next week if possible, and a website---designed to act as an extension of the book and a lens to read it through (contains an archive of past iterations of the project; this is a work in progress). The body of the book can be read here (and is attached below, though this link allows you access to the archived versions of the project---of which I am working on adding to the website as well). The book object has been designed to be transmodal, the QR codes allow access to Google Maps Street Views of my father’s house from 2007 to 2023. In addition to the street views are reimaginings of my father’s house via poems designed to be interactive floorplans. In order to read the poems, you must traverse the page as you would in a stranger’s house. By interacting with both the floorplan poems and the Street View maps places the reader of the book into the home, to create a picture of what the home is, and our relationship to it. The book further features analyses of several artist books and creative projects that utilize the page, the book as an object, and maintain an attention to their material forms as a way to envision the home on multiple scales (meso/macro). In these analyses, I reimagine Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space in conversation with critical media infrastructure studies to consider the ways in which the house operates as an infrastructure and reveals our relationships to the house. Expanding on Bachelard’s concept of the poetics of space---by considering the material form of the book we can move beyond the language of the poem in order to physically embody the home, our memories of it.
The jurors say:
“This project makes expert use of a multitude of modalities, and blends scholarship and creative prose to fantastically maneuver through the years-long impacts of a hoarder and their growing hoard. Traversing this work is captivating in that it requires the reader to directly confront the headwinds of a disorder and its cascading repercussions on all who it touches.”
“‘My Father’s House’ draws on multiple genres and mediums to consider the subject of home as both personal and psychic space. It works prismatically in its approach, using visuals, critical texts, and poetry. The work is affecting, intellectually rigorous, and fully realized.”
“‘My Father’s House’ is a rich meditation on infrastructure, textuality, and physical space. It’s a poignant reflection on the hoarder father, weaving together a number of digital literary text from concrete poetry to using Google Street view. The topography of time, of physical space, and of the page all used to tell this tale make for a powerful reflection. Deeply personal and yet formally experimental, such a terrific tangle.”
“‘My Father’s House’ is a powerful and moving inquiry into questions, histories and futures of the book. Bringing together analog traditions, digital forms, and the temporal and geographic indexicality of google maps street views of the titular father’s house at different points in the narrator's personal history, the author weaves together formal inquiry and experimentation with a poignant personal narrative.”
Honorable Mention — It’s a tie!!
Paul Nguyen and Dolphin "Tue" Tran, "Weave Our Tapestry"
Undergraduate students in Computer Science
Living among diverse communities, we often overlook and quickly conclude one’s situation without understanding a holistic picture of their stories. Each individual carries unique stories and knowledge that shaped every version of themselves and the version we see in the presence. Beyond the lack of common ground, we shy away from unfamiliar and uncomfortable information. We fail to open our minds to new knowledge and stick with what we are comfortable with, preconceived notions and personal interpretations. These significantly contribute to establishing biases, misunderstanding, misconceptions, and a lack of empathy. To bridge the gap, we introduce a platform where one can engage and learn how one’s perspective is shaped through cultural stories, from myths to folks. Through the wildest to the most surreal texts, each story influences a culture in many different ways. It explains how a belief is shaped. It reveals how certain practices and celebrations are formed. It shows how one’s culture evolves over time. This library-style platform is designed to be accessible for users across ages and backgrounds with an ultimate goal of weaving unique narratives into a space where empathy and cross-cultural understanding can be fostered through engaging storytelling. See also their GitHub repository.
The jurors say:
“Impressive foundation for an ongoing project with tremendous potential. I was especially drawn to this project’s ability to create community and connection through storytelling. The cultural tales currently uploaded to this project such as “Legend of White Snake” and “Mae Nak Phra Khanong” are beautiful illustrations of community and culture that emphasize how we can connect through deeper understanding of each other.”
“I really loved this piece. It’s a novel project for collecting and for celebrating folklore. Something about the use of the retro Windows desktop is also very evocative of a digital folklore of the interface. This piece deserves celebration.”
“Weave Our Tapestry” is a vision of how we might identify similarities in and build bridges through our unique stories.
“As either speculative digital design project or functional community-sourced cultural story platform, Weave Our Tapestry is an antidote to the supercharged polarization of our contemporary political moment. Rendered in the nostalgic aesthetic of Windows 95, the work references a more innocent time in our digital-political history even as it suggests that, through the sharing of cultural stories, we might come to understand and accept one another better in the present.”
Luca DaVersa, "A Paramount Success" (unpublished Twine story)
Undergraduate student in English and Comparative Literature
"A Paramount Success" is an unfolding story that follows a recently disgraced actress, Leslie Roth, as she relives some of the defining moments of her life amidst the death of her precious career. The story evolves each time you play the Twine game, so there are lots of layers to explore!
The jurors say:
“A Paramount Success is a charming work of interactive literature. Masterfully blending the aesthetics of digital and Hollywood nostalgia, the work leverages the advanced capabilities of the twine platform to explore the very contemporary politics of cancel culture.”
“Superb use of Twine capabilities to create a seamlessly unfolding plot line, which itself is engrossing and timely.”
“I was intrigued by the story. The vine platform worked well to suggest narrative parallels and create a sense of irony.”
“ ‘A Paramount Success’ offers a compelling story, and the vine platform worked well to suggest narrative parallels and create a sense of irony.”
Previous Competition Winners
First Place: Jon Tobias, "Execution_Line.Py" and Kasside Sahagun-Escalante, “Qui[lt]ck.Resp.on(:off)se.C-Ode info.png”
Honorable Mentions: Vide Sale-Reed, “Bread and Circuits” and Em Teaze, “From Me to You”
First Place: Robert Lang and Rachel Noe, “A Fine Madness”
Honorable Mentions: Marian Cuevas, "vivre" and Milagros Vilaplana, "Border Waters"
No competition was held this year.
First Place: Brent Ameneyro, “Luck”
Honorable Mention: Abigail Hora, "Not to Me" and Bilal Mohamed, “Lost Inside: A Digital Inquiry”
The competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
First Place: Jared Zeiders, “Ofermod V.2.2.6”
Honorable Mention: Brenda Taulbee, “Sensational Silence: Against Erasure”
First Place: Adrian Belmes, “Recursion”
Honorable Mentions: Marine Bernard, “NovaCorp” and Katie Chestnut, “Medusa’s Laughter”
First Place: Valorie Ruiz, “Brujerías”
Honorable Mention: Kristin Herr, "Blork the 60-Second Pet!"
First Place: Riley Wilson, “Driving Alone at Night”
Honorable Mention: Mariana Best, “Brave New Readers”
