The training layer: a meta-aggregator / electronic book review
electronic book review
https://electronicbookreview.com/
theoretical interlocutorField history and indexes of electronic, generative and computational literatureactive
The archive's reading. The journal meets the question in specific essays: Deena Larsen's 'Electronic Literature and Wikipedia: A Call to Action' holds that 'If electronic literature does not exist in Wikipedia, it does not exist for AI or search engines either', #186's persistence criterion stated from within electronic literature; its machine-writing thread (Stuart Moulthrop on the poetics of large language models, Brian Lennon's 'The Prompt as Practice', Davin Heckman's 'AI: A Matter of Significance') is criticism of machine composition, the wing #1543 names. Many of its threads since 1996 do not touch a machine reader.
| Relation to this census | theoretical interlocutor |
|---|---|
| Record type | journal |
| The question it answers | criticism: what do specific essays in the field say about machine writing and about electronic literature's existence for AI? |
| Kind | a peer-reviewed diamond open access journal of critical writing |
| Operator | the digital literary network; Editor in Chief Joseph Tabbi (University of Bergen); founding publisher Mark Amerika; supported by the Center for Digital Narrative, University of Bergen, among others |
| Evidence | journal |
| Unit of record | a publication (article, essay, review or interview) filed in a thread such as machine-writing, electropoetics or writing under constraint |
| What it records | critical writing on the digital future of literature, theory, criticism and the arts, in threads from 1996 onward; the current machine-writing thread carries essays on large language models and prompting |
| In the layer | not recorded as holdings in training; its own essay by Deena Larsen (30 June 2026) argues that electronic literature absent from Wikipedia 'does not exist for AI or search engines either' |
| Under whose name | each publication is listed with its author or authors and date; thread editors are credited by name and period |
| Found and read back | a site search; publications listed by thread with the latest post |
| What the apparatus makes from it | not recorded |
| Method | peer-reviewed editorial publication, organised in threads with named thread editors |
| Coverage | geography: international editorial and advisory boards; period: threads launched from 1996 (Writing Postfeminism, fall 1996; Critical Ecologies, winter 1996/97); publications to 1 October 2026 |
| Count | value: not stated in the saved sources; as_of: 2026-11-01 |
| Holdings | threads including machine-writing, electropoetics, writing under constraint, technocapitalism, critical ecologies, first person; publications dated 1 October 2026 on the home page, among them Davin Heckman, 'AI: A Matter of Significance', and Stuart Moulthrop on the poetics of large language models |
| Stated limits | 'ebr does not charge APCs or submission charges.'; licensed CC BY-ND 4.0: no derivatives |
| Data access | free online (diamond open access); site search; newsletter and subscription |
| Licence | 'ebr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.' |
| Lifecycle | state: active; detail: publications dated 1 October 2026 on the home page; an ebr@30 page in the navigation |
| Version and time | latest_publications: 2026-10-01; larsen_essay: 2026-06-30; earliest_thread: 1996; read: 2026-11-01 |
| Founded | not stated; the oldest thread credits run from 1996 (Writing Postfeminism, fall 1996; Critical Ecologies, winter 1996/97) |
What its record can settle
- what critical writing ebr has published in a thread, by whom and when
- who edits each thread and since when
- what the electronic literature field is writing about AI and LLMs (the machine-writing thread)
What it cannot settle
- whether any ebr text is in a training corpus or a model
- how many publications it holds (not stated)
- the creative works it discusses, held elsewhere
Kept apart
- NOT a review of e-books: a journal of critical writing on literature, theory, criticism and the arts
- NOT an archive of electronic literature works: it publishes criticism
- NOT a training corpus
- NOT one undifferentiated account of machine readers: its bearing on this census is in specific essays
Relations
- neighbour: Electronic Literature Collection (ebr lists the Electronic Literature Organization, publisher of the ELC, among its support and affiliations)
- neighbour: CELL Project: Consortium on Electronic Literature (ebr lists the Consortium for Electronic Literature (CELL) among its support and affiliations)
Evidence
- self_description (the resource's own statement):
electronic book review is a peer-reviewed diamond open access journal of critical writing produced and published by the digital literary network.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - scope (the resource's own statement):
ebr ’s editors are particularly interested in critically savvy, in-depth work addressing the digital future of literature, theory, criticism, and the arts.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - issn (the resource's own statement):
ISSN: 1553-1139
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - editor (the resource's own statement):
Editor in Chief: Joseph Tabbi ( University of Bergen )
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - founding_publisher (the resource's own statement):
Founding Publisher: Mark Amerika
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - support_cdn (the resource's own statement):
Center for Digital Narrative, University of Bergen
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - support_elo (the resource's own statement):
Electronic Literature Organization Consortium for Electronic Literature (CELL)
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - no_apc (the resource's own statement):
ebr does not charge APCs or submission charges.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - thread_ecologies (the resource's own statement):
Critical Ecologies was launched by Cary Wolfe and Joseph Tabbi in the winter of 1996/97.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - thread_postfeminism (the resource's own statement):
Writing Postfeminism was guest edited by Elizabeth Joyce and Gay Lynn Crossley in the fall of 1996.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - thread_electropoetics (the resource's own statement):
Electropoetics began in the Spring of 1997 with a special issue edited by Joel Felix.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - license (the resource's own statement):
ebr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://electronicbookreview.com/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 cfbe42b7d020972d… - machine_writing (the resource's own statement):
AI: A Matter of Significance by Davin Heckman 01-Oct-2026
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - moulthrop (the resource's own statement):
In this article, Stuart Moulthrop approaches the poetics of large language models through his lived teaching experience.
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - larsen (the resource's own statement):
If electronic literature does not exist in Wikipedia, it does not exist for AI or search engines either. Larsen issues an urgent call for writers, scholars, and readers to become Wikipedia editors before the field disappears into algorithmic silence.
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - larsen_date (the resource's own statement):
Electronic Literature and Wikipedia: A Call to Action by Deena Larsen 30-Jun-2026
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - lennon (the resource's own statement):
The word "prompt" carries three histories at once: the teacher's assignment, the command line's blinking caret, and the natural-language input to a large language model.
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - threads (the resource's own statement):
machine-writing fictions present first person technocapitalism writing (post)feminism electropoetics internet nation critical ecologies web arts end construction image + narrative music/sound/noise writing under constraint enfolded
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - ebr30 (the resource's own statement):
ebr@30
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - lennon_title (the resource's own statement):
The Prompt as Practice by Brian Lennon
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac… - moulthrop_title (the resource's own statement):
Movie Laughed in Sprocket-Language, or: a Night at the Chatbot by Stuart Moulthrop
https://electronicbookreview.com/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 873b45571d236dac…
Unchecked
the ebr@30 page, the publications archive and the individual essays (only home-page summaries saved); the founding date of the journal itself; the number of publications
Cite: Lee Sharks, ed. "electronic book review." The training layer: a meta-aggregator, traininglayerliterature.org, compiled 2026-11-01. https://www.traininglayerliterature.org/aggregators/ebr