Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Wishing you joy and inspiration!


Look for details on the first ITL of '09 early next week. Also, exciting web content is in the works.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Here we are!

Hello! (Or, sut mae, as they say in Welsh.) Welcome to the Imagined Therefore Limitless blog. If you're unfamiliar with the Imagined Therefore Limitless Readers' Series, there's some introductory information to the right. ITL is not a reading group in any traditional sense. The purpose is to read out loud, to hear the sounds of language, to get away from the idea that literature exists only on a page and can only be enjoyed in solitude. Imagined Therefore Limitless is conceived as a way to explore oral literature, to plumb the limitless potential of imagination and connection made possible by stories in a wide range of forms.

My memories of bedtime stories and continued love of reading aloud inspired me to start the Imagined Therefore Limitless Readers' Series in 2008. Essentially, I wanted to hear my friends read to me. There's so much wonderful writing out in the world, and there just isn't enough time to be acquainted with it all. But I'd like to hear as much of it as I possibly can.

Fittingly enough, the first edition featured fairy tales and folk lore, with stories from Italy, Nigeria, Mexico, the Cherokee, Germany, Bulgaria, the Norse, and then some. Good tales and tasty cheese were devoured by all. This smashing success was followed up with a summertime poetry picnic, including a reading of the e.e. cummings poem "nothing false and possible is love," a line from which lends its name to this series. Then ITL got confused about which hemisphere it lives in and went into hiberation. Time to wake up!

With this little corner of the blogosphere, I hope to document the journey of the Imagined Therefore Limitless Readers' Series. From time to time, I will include my musings on the culture of reading (silently and aloud), social and political developments in literature and the arts (particularly with regard to education and publishing), and quite probably some random notes on whatever else seems intriguing. Upcoming events will, naturally, be posted. An archive of photos, videos, audio recordings, documents, memories, and stories will emerge - ideally with the cooperation of ITL participants. Comments are strongly encouraged. I would love to see this space become a digital scrapbook for a community sharing what is, perhaps, the most basic element of being human: our ability to create and tell stories.