Marjorie C. Luesebrink (1943-2023), who published under the pen name, M. D. Coverley, pioneered forms of digital storytelling over her lifetime and contributed to the field of electronic literature for over 30 years. She served as the Electronic Literature Organization's second President and is credited, with N. Katherine Hayles, for establishing the academic sponsorship of ELO at UCLA in the early 2000s. In 2016 she established the ELO’s The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Career Achievement Award, and in 2018, she began donating her works and personal archives to The NEXT, establishing The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection. A retrospective of her work was held in The NEXT in 2021 and included in the Recovery Hub for American Women Writers the following year. She continued to serve on the ELO Board until her death.
The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection features 68 works from her personal collection, including 27 of 30 of her own creation. Visitors will find versions of her two major hypertext novels Califia and Egypt: The Book of Going Forth by Day. It also contains electronic literature published by other artists, including Deena Larsen, Shelley Jackson, Bill Bly, Jim Andrews, Stephanie Strickland, Michael Joyce, and others, dating back to 1990.
The artist died on October 4, 2023, and was memorialized at the ELO Salon on November 14 of that year. Sixty-seven members of the electronic literature community from across the world attended via Zoom. The event has been captured on two videos: The first, entitled Commemorative Video, features talks and performances that highlight the artist’s contributions to the field; the second, Community Remembrances Video, memories of the artist by those who worked with her over the years.
In Spring of 2018, Margie Luesebrink transferred the collection (digital and physical materials) to the Electronic Literature Lab. Physical materials have since been held at the ELL. The digital materials were held in the ELO Repository at the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab, later moved to the ELO server in 2019.
