Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar. In 2010-2011 she was a Johannes Gutenberg Fellow at the University of Mainz, Germany, where she researched the phenomenon of narrative distributed across various media. She is the author of Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory (1991), Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (2001), and Avatars of Story (2006). She has also edited Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory (1999), Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling (2004), Intermediality and Storytelling, with Marina Grishakova (2010), and together with David Herman and Manfred Jahn, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory (2005). She is presently editing the Johns Hopkins Guide to New Media and Digital Textuality with Lori Emerson and Benjamin Robertson. Her scholarly work has earned her the Prize for Independent Scholars and the Jeanne and Aldo Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literature, both from the Modern Language Association, and she has been the recipient of Guggenheim and NEA followships.Contact: http://users.frii.com/mlryan/ mailto:marilaur@gmail.com