{{Short description|Literary festival}} '''&Now''' is a traveling biennial [[literary festival]] and a publishing organization, both focused on innovative literature. The festival's main emphasis is on [[Creative work|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."<ref name=&Now>{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Madeeha|title=&NOW 2012 {{!}} New Writing in Paris: Exchanges and Cross-Fertilizations|url=http://andnowfestival.com/|work=&NOW 2012|publisher=&Now|accessdate=29 June 2012}}</ref> Most of the work presented by authors is considered [[experimental literature]].<ref name=Wittig>{{cite web|last=Wittig|first=Rob|title=&Now Conference Review|url=http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/wuc/festivarian|work=Writing Under Constraint|publisher=Electronic Book Review|accessdate=29 June 2012|archive-date=10 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110004248/http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/wuc/festivarian|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Festival Information== Most of the presentations are readings and panels focused on literature.<ref name="Madera">{{cite web|last=Madera|first=John|title=&Now Conference: A Conference of Innovate Writing & the Literary Arts|url=http://bigother.com/2009/10/21/now-conference-a-conference-of-innovate-writing-the-literary-arts/|work=Big Other|date=21 October 2009 |accessdate=29 June 2012}}</ref> The main population in attendance is made up of writers, performers and intermedia artists, alongside undergraduate and graduate student writers and scholars doing research on contemporary literatures. Most participants visit from the US, Mexico, and Northern Europe.

Members of the executive board are currently Dimitri Anastasopoulos, Sylvie Bauer, Amina Cain, Antoine Cazé, Jeffrey DeShell, Rebecca Goodman, Christina Milletti, [[Martin Nakell]], [[Davis Schneiderman]] Co-director: &Now Books, Elisabeth Sheffield, Anna Joy Springer, Anne-Laure Tissut, and Steve Tomasula, Conference Founder.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Madeeha|title=About &Now|url=http://andnowfestival.com/about-now.html|work=&Now 2012|publisher=&Now|accessdate=29 June 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130117112852/http://andnowfestival.com/about-now.html|archivedate=17 January 2013}}</ref>

==History of the festival==

===University of Notre Dame=== The &Now Conference of Innovative Writing & the Literary Arts was founded in 2004 at the [[University of Notre Dame]] by Steve Tomasula, and featured keynote speakers [[Stephanie Strickland]], [[Lydia Davis]], [[Stacey Levine]], [[Joe Amato (poet)]], and [[Debra Di Blasi]].

===Lake Forest College=== In April, 2006, [[Lake Forest College]] hosted the &Now Festival. The leading keynote speaker was [[William H. Gass]].<ref name=Messinger>{{cite web|last=Messinger|first=Jonathon|title=Finnegan's quake|url=http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/books/40709/finnegans-quake|work=Time-Out Chicago|publisher=Time Out Chicago Partners LLLP|accessdate=29 June 2012}}</ref>

===Chapman University=== In April, 2008, the festival was held at [[Chapman University]]. The featured speakers at this festival included [[Steve Katz (writer)|Steve Katz]], [[Stacey Levine]], Wendy Walker, Tom Lafarge, [[Ishmael Reed]], FC2 Flash Reading, Steve Tomasula, and [[David Antin]].

===University at Buffalo=== The festival was hosted at [[University at Buffalo]] in October 2009, and was the first festival to be hosted annually. Notable contributors included [[Rikki Ducornet]], [[Percival Everett]], [[Nathaniel Mackey]], and [[Jorge Volpi]].

===University of California, San Diego=== The [[University of California, San Diego]] hosted the fifth &Now Festival in October, 2011. The featured speakers included [[Rae Armantrout]], [[Ricardo Dominguez (professor)|Ricardo Domínguez]], Cathy Gere, Bhanu Kapil, [[Carole Maso]], Miranda Mellis, [[Vanessa Place]], [[V.S. Ramachandran]], Connie Samaras, [[Davis Schneiderman]], Roberto Tejada, and [[Steve Tomasula]].

===University of Paris=== The sixth &Now festival took place at [[University of Paris-Sorbonne]] and [[Paris Diderot University]] in June, 2012. The featured guest speakers were [[Ben Marcus]] and [[Robert Coover]].

=== University of Colorado Boulder === The seventh &NOW took place at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://andnow2013.sched.com/|title=&NOW Schedule|website=andnow2013.sched.com|access-date=2017-06-05}}</ref> The keynote speakers were [[Lynne Tillman]] and [[Percival Everett.]]

===CalArts=== The eighth NOW festival was held at the [[California Institute of the Arts]] in March 2015. The keynote speaker was [[M. NourbeSe Philip]] and the organizing committee was Tisa Bryant, [[Douglas Kearney]], [[Maggie Nelson]], Janet Sarbanes, Mady Schutzman, Matias Viegener, and Christine Wertheim.

==&NOW Books==

&NOW Books, an imprint of [[Lake Forest College]], was founded in 2004 by [[Davis Schneiderman]] and Steve Tomasula and serves as the publishing arm of the &Now Festival. &NOW Books released its first anthology, "The &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing," in 2009, and Volume II of the awards is set to be released in October 2012.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Madeeha|title=&Now Books|url=http://andnowfestival.com/now-books.html|work=&Now 2012|publisher=&Now|accessdate=29 June 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130116202428/http://andnowfestival.com/now-books.html|archivedate=16 January 2013}}</ref> &NOW Books also publishes the first books of all of the winners of The Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer's Residency Prize,<ref name="Lake Forest College">{{cite web|title=&Now Books|url=http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/english/press/andnow/|work=Lake Forest College English Department|publisher=Lake Forest College|accessdate=29 June 2012|archive-date=8 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808150456/http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/english/press/andnow/|url-status=dead}}</ref> edited by Joshua Corey.

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== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://andnowfestival.com/ &Now Festival Homepage]

{{DEFAULTSORT:andNOW Festival}} [[Category:Literary festivals in the United States]]