About Alphabet City
The Alphabet City series challenges us to rethink ideas central to our lives. In each volume writers and artists address single theme from many perspectives, revealing its processes and possibilities.
Alphabet City is co-published with The MIT Press and appears each October accompanied by an arts and ideas festival in Toronto.
John Knechtel director
John Knechtel founded Alphabet City in 1991. In 1994 he was tagged by Vanity Fair– “Ignore these editors at your peril”– as a leader of the avant-garde in a piece celebrating the editors of North America’s coolest small magazines. In 2002 Knechtel created NEXT MEMORY CITY, Canada’s official entry in the Venice International Architecture Biennale, with artists Michael Awad, Eve Egoyan, and David Rokeby. The show won press acclaim for its innovative interdisciplinary research into the future of the wired city. Canadian Architect called it an “intellectual and experiential landmark” of the Biennale, and OBJEKT Magazine of the Netherlands declared the exhibit “An architectural tour-de-force.”
Jennifer Harris managing editor
Jennifer Harris is associate professor of English at Mount Allison University. She works primarily in the area of American literature and culture pre-1900 as well as post-colonial literature. She has been a Fulbright scholar at NYU, and is the recipient of a SSHRC grant for her current research project. Harris has been Alphabet City's managing editor for the past seven years.
Rebecca Duclos web editor
Rebecca Duclos is a Montreal-based curator and writer. She co-founded Graphic Standards design studio with David Ross in 2003.
David Ross web designer
David Ross is a visual artist, graphic designer, and co-founder of Graphic Standards design studio in Montreal.
Kevin Finlayson, web developer
Kevin Finlayson is a web producer and founder of Dust and Mold Design studio, Montreal.