The Pillars of ▲L† LI✞
New to ALT LIT?
Below are a number of key people and places that are essential in the understanding of Alt Lit. This is the community of ideas and its leaders.
ALT LIT GOSSIP
Alt Lit Gossip is a website dedicated to news, events and personalities within the alt lit community. It strives to support online writing and writers whose method of craft is unique in that the work is promoted primarily through the internet in a DIY manner using similar themes and channels. Alt Lit Gossip (though a gossip site) is dedicated to the dignity and respect of a growing community of writers.
TAO LIN
The crown-prince of online literature. A suave, deadpan Asian writer that frequently employs cutting edge web stunts, drug related devilishness and an effortless prose in attempt to live an existence that is anti-private. Lin is the ever-present epicenter of online literature and is imitated, exulted and loathed in equal measure.
STEVE ROGGENBUCK
Steve Roggenbuck is an internet marketing professional responsible for a number of successful literary web-hacks. His writing is rooted in flarf traditions and consists of short bursts of modern, semi-abstract realism on topics related to youth culture. He is extremely focused in his vision and ambitions with a strict adherence to non-profit based publishing. He curates Live my Lief and Lief+. In 2012 he toured around America spreading ideas and building a community of alt lit writers. He hosts a weekly radio show called Illuminati Power Hour. He is responsible for popularizing crunk, boost and frick. His style includes found texts and deliberate misspelling. He is arguably the epicentre of alt lit, serving both as its spirit and promulgating force.
POP SERIAL
Pop Serial is a print and online publication curated by Stephen Tully Dierks. It features solicited fiction and poetry and art by a number of online writers. The Pop Serial website is updated frequently and features unique stories, news, macros, art and ideas from alt lit authors. It, along with Alt Lit Gossip are the two primary sources of news and information about happenings within online lit culture.
HTML GIANT
HTML Giant is to online literature as Colombia College was to the Beats. It is an intellectual hive wherein scholarly, literary minds postulate on a variety topics both craft and reading related. It is an admired place in which thousands of would-be writers flock to frequently to admire, converse and pick fights. HTML GIANT was created by Blake Butler, a highly influential online literary mind/ Poker-lover.
BEBE ZEVA
Bebe Zeva is a young internet model that exists as a kind of online muse within the literary world. Though she is known for her modeling in national magazines like Seventeen she is closely connected to a number of online writers, chiefly Tao Lin and Timothy Willis Sanders.
JIMMY CHEN
Jimmy Chen is a San Francisco based writer known for his witty, Onion/New Yorker-esque creations involving various aspects of the online writing community. He frequently creates music, graphs, art and writing in ways that parody or satirize the unspoken tropes of online writers. Chen is a talented author, but as of 2011 has not written a novel.
FICTIONAUT
Fictionaut is a transitory publishing website that allows users with an account to post their own writing and connect with one another (i.e social media for writers). The site’s unique design showcases a number of well known online writers in a minute-to-minute feed that highlights the newest stories alongside the most popular. Generally, this is where older writers hang out and publish stuff in an alt lit way.
BLAKE BUTLER
Blake Butler is a highly influential online writer known for his dark, experimental/absurdist prose and as the founder of HTMLGIANT. He lives a straight-edge existence in Atlanta, where he writes in fiction in his childhood bedroom. Butler is a well documented insomniac.
NEW WAVE VOMIT
New Wave Vomit (NWV) is a unique online litzine that features work from established and emerging writers in a colorful, minimalist format. It’s subtext eerily plays with the idea of cultural bulimia, image obsession and the need to project one’s flawed self. It is maintained and created by a beautiful Spanish litstar named Ana C.
SAM PINK
Sam Pink is a revered author, poet and playwright. He is perhaps the most handsome writer in the online literary scene. His novel Person was met with critical acclaim by Tao Lin and HTML GIANT. His works are published by Lazy Fascist Press. Pink eats bananas in the shower and writes crude, minimalist fiction from the perspective of an indifferent male.
MUUMUU HOUSE
MUUMUU HOUSE is an online publishing site curated by Tao Lin featuring young writers who’s style and/or nature are akin to Tao’s. Notable authors include Noah Cicero, Jordan Castro, Mallory Whitten, Spencer Madsen and Marie Calloway.
MARIE CALLOWAY
A fascinating and curious force within the alt lit community, Marie Calloway broke onto the scene in 2011 with her famous ‘Adrien Brody’ story. Marie is as prolific as she is erratic and constantly presents a sexuality that is both inspiring and frightening.
XTX
XTX is one of the original pseudonymous online writers. Her fiction is bold and engaging and her first collection of stories Normally, Special was one of the most popular indie books of 2011.
ANONYMOUS WRITERS
One striking feature of alt lit is the presence of a number of online writers that hide their identity in alternative ways. This has added a strange liveliness to the online lit scene. Notable anonymous writers include XTX, Frank Hinton, Beach Sloth and Peter BD.
INTERNET POETRY
Internet Poetry is a tumblr founded by Steve Roggenbuck that features .jpgs, image macros and altered text that is a unique expression of moments and ideas within internet culture. Pieces on IP represent the spirit and humor of the alt lit community.
