The advent of word processing in the 20th century revolutionized the tools available to writers, but less clear are the effects it has had on the actual writing process. How many writers embraced the new technology? Did it affect their process? How did it change our understanding of writing?

In Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing, Matthew Kirschenbaum, professor in the University of Maryland’s English department, examines how the interests and ideals of creative authorship came to coexist with the computer revolution. He will be joined onstage by famed science fiction screenwriter and novelist David Gerrold, perhaps best known for writing the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the science fiction novel When HARLIE Was One, and his Hugo and Nebula award winning novelette The Martian Child. Gerrold built his first computer in 1978 and has many tech and computer columns and articles to his credit.

Join us as Kirschenbaum and Gerrold discuss the evolution and history of word processing, the early adopters of the technology, and discuss the impact it has had on the creative process.

We are very pleased that Books, Inc. will be selling copies of Track Changes before and after the program.