by Ian Monk
First published 2018
The OuLiPo stands for ouvroir de littérature potentielle, a workshop for potential literature. This collection presents all 41 members as of 2018, making it the first English anthology to capture the group's full scope. Ian Monk assembles fiction, poetry, essays, lectures, and previously unpublished internal correspondence from the collective's history. The OuLiPo creates literature through mathematical constraints and complex structural rules. Members use these restrictions as creative springboards rather than limitations. The anthology shows how these writers and thinkers approach their craft, revealing both their serious artistic methods and their playful interactions. The collection spans the group's evolution from its founding to contemporary practice. Readers encounter the mathematical precision behind seemingly impossible narrative puzzles alongside intimate glimpses of how the members challenge each other and subvert conventional literary forms.
Genres: fiction, art, essays, anthologies, 20th-century, criticism, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: meta-fiction, unconventional-structure
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
353 pages · Hardcover · McSweeney's