This morning's panel on Writing in Communities was moderated by Jeffrey Selin of the Writer's Dojo, and featured Periscope Studio's Steve Lieber and author/Rumpus founder Stephen Elliott. It was an interesting panel, by virtue of the fact that the panelists are interesting guys, but it often felt as though Lieber and Elliott were talking at cross-purposes, or as though the subject of the panel reflected so differently on their respective experiences that they probably should have been on different panels entirely. Lieber spoke at length about the community of cartoonists that makes up Periscope Studios, and the way that community has grown to become "more than the sum of its parts." Elliott was more interested in the notion of online communities—of whether online experience is any substitute for "real world" experience; of how communities can form online around books, as they have with the Rumpus' book club. (It's not officially out yet, but the McSweeney's booth at Wordstock has copies of the Rumpus book club's next, Adam Levin's 1000+ plus page The Instructions. I snagged a copy; it's charmingly designed like an old school children's hardback, and not as heavy as it looks.)
For a more detailed recap of the conversation between Lieber and Elliot, including juicy quotes, Spider-man poses, and your author forcibly inserting herself into the story, hit the jump.