Robert Arellano (born July 12, 1969) is an American author, musician and educator from

Talent, Oregon Talent is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. The population was 6,282 at the 2020 census. History A. P. Tallent, an East Tennessee native who settled in Oregon in the 1870s, platted the city in the 1880s. He wanted to name it ''Wa ...

. His literary production includes pioneering work in electronic publishing, graphic-novel editions for

Soft Skull Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent So ...

Counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, and five novels published by

Akashic Books Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's ''The Fuck Up'' in 1997, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series, Chris Abani's Black ...

. His guitar-playing for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is featured on 'I See a Darkness', which Pitchfork magazine named one of the Top 10 albums of the 1990s, and since the 1980s he has been writing and recording songs for solo projects and his group Havanarama.

Life

Arellano was born in 1969 and raised in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

. After earning both Bachelor (1991) and Masters (1994) degrees from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, he taught for a decade on Brown's Literary Arts faculty. In 1993 he used

Storyspace Storyspace is a software program for creating, editing, and reading hypertext fiction. It can also be used for writing and organizing fiction and non-fiction intended for print. Maintained and distributed by Eastgate Systems, the software is availa ...

to publish the Internet's first hyperzine, ''LSD-50'', on a Gopher server. In 1996, Sonicnet serialized his groundbreaking hypertext novel ''Sunshine ’69'' on the World Wide Web. Arellano is a founding member of the Literary Advisory Board of the

Electronic Literature Organization The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is a nonprofit organization "established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature". It hosts annual conferences, awards annual prizes for works of a ...

and founding director of the Center for Emerging Media and Digital Arts at

Southern Oregon University Southern Oregon University (SOU) is a public university in Ashland, Oregon. It was founded in 1872 as the Ashland Academy, has been in its current location since 1926, and was known by nine other names before assuming its current name in 1997.Kre ...

. He has been awarded the Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction (2014) and a Rockefeller Foundation Literary Arts Fellowship (2016). His most recent novel, ''Havana Libre'', about the 1997 terrorist bombings of tourist destinations in Cuba, was published by Akashic Books in 2017. In 2012, Akashic published his novel ''Curse the Names'' about a reporter living and working in

Los Alamos, New Mexico Los Alamos is an census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is recognized as the development and creation place of the atomic bomb—the primary objective of the Manhattan Project by Los Alamos National Labora ...

; and in 2010 his novel ''Havana Lunar'' was a finalist for an

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

, nominated by the Mystery Writers of America. He has published fiction and essays in ''

Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...

'', '' The Believer'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

'', and ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

''.

Works

*As Bobby Rabyd, ''LSD-50'' (1993) *As Bobby Rabyd, ''Sunshine 69'' (1996) :: the World Wide Web's first

interactive novel '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

, Sunshine 69 * ''Fast Eddie: King of the Bees'' (2001) *As Eddy Arellano, ''Dead in Desemboque: Historias de Amor y Sangre!'' (2008) :: collaboration with artists

William Schaff William J. Schaff Jr. is an artist and musician based in Warren, Rhode Island and Oakland, California. He is known for artwork for the bands Okkervil River, Songs: Ohia, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. "An electric ...

, Richard Schuler, and Alec Thibodeau on a graphic-novel tribute to Mexican comic books * ''Don Dimaio of La Plata'' (2004), * ''Havana Lunar'' ::Nominated for a 2010

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

by the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

, * ''Curse the Names'', (2012) * ''Havana Libre'', (2017)

Music

As Bob Arellano, he has played guitar with

Will Oldham Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Flophouse, Palace Br ...

(a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) on the albums I See a Darkness, More Revery, and

Joya Joya may refer to: * ''Joyà'', a Cirque du Soleil show in Riviera Maya, Mexico * ''Joya'' (album), a 1997 album by Will Oldham * Joya (drink), a Mexican fruit soda brand owned by The Coca-Cola Company * Joya (singer), a R&B singer * Joya, India, ...

as well as in performance and on recordings with Papa M (

David Pajo David Pajo (born June 25, 1968) is an American alternative rock musician. He has played a wide variety of music, loosely fitting into several other genres such as hardcore punk, math rock, post-rock, electronica, folk rock and indie pop. Though ...

), Jodie Jean Marston, the Pathetics and Havanarama. In March of 2000, Arellano organized an international music exchange in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

and

Pinar del Rio, Cuba Pinar may refer to: * Pınar, Turkish feminine given name * Píñar, municipality located in the province of Granada, Spain * Pinar del Río, a city of Cuba * Pinar del Río Province, a province of Cuba * Pinar, Albania, village in Tirana County, ...

called "Rock the Blockade"Havanarama - Rock The Blockade: 2000 Incorruptible (CD) at Discogs
/ref> featuring Cuban performers in concert with Will Oldham, Papa M, Speed to Roam, and Havanarama.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arellano, Robert 1969 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American online publication editors American mystery writers Brown University alumni Brown University faculty Writers from Summit, New Jersey Southern Oregon University faculty Musicians from Summit, New Jersey 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New Jersey Novelists from Oregon People from Talent, Oregon Electronic literature writers

Life

Works

Music

See also

References