Welcome, Annotators

"You revisit a former version of yourself through those annotations. One of the things I often enjoy is going back and looking at things that I annotated years ago to see where my brain was. It is my old self meeting my current self."
- Kameelah Janan Rasheed, artist and annotator

Welcome, to those who jot marginalia in books, use highlighters when reading, and add idiosyncratic signs of exclamation and confusion to dog-eared pages. You're an annotator.

Welcome, to those who may have written names and dates on the verso of photographs, and who now tag friends in time-stamped images shared on social media. You're an annotator.

Welcome, to the cooks who modify recipe measurements next to lists of ingredients. You're an annotator.

Welcome to the artists who graffiti walls, influencers who hashtag posts, and parents who pencil their child’s height and age on a doorjamb. You're all annotators, too.

While you may read “annotation” as an esoteric term or academic concern, I read this breadth of everyday activity as the visible and enduring expression of annotators.

We’re surrounded by text, both literal and figurative. Our world is written, and we then read and respond. Messages mark our everyday texts, subtexts, and contexts—and it is through our acts as annotators that we begin to make sense of why these messages matter. I’ve learned to interpret and interrupt our annotated world. And if that sounds familiar, or if that intrigues you, then you're very welcome here.

Reading Re/Marks is a hub for annotator commentary and community. As a complement to my book Re/Marks on Power, this publication and newsletter will document the durable traces of critique, creativity, and possibility that mark our annotated words and world.

Take a Tour

“Annotations evince a culture of reading and book use whose features both recall our current social media exchanges (e.g., sharing, texting, liking, commenting on comments) and also seem part of a lost world.”
- Andrew Stauffer, author and annotator

Reading Re/Marks is, and will always be, an openly accessible publication. The regular email newsletter and the full archive of posts will not be paywalled. Please have a look around and read about:

• Re/Marks as a type of annotation. Re/Marks are a critical form of annotation that highlight (in)justice and inscribe possibility. Regular posts will include short essays about critical and creative annotation.
• My experiences as an author, including commentary about the annotation and photograph that appears on my book's cover, the proposal I pitched three years ago when developing Re/Marks on Power, and my annual commitment to donate my book royalties. Future posts will include updates my new book, including reviews and information about events.
• Starting with STOP: For "Requesting Re/Marks #1," subscribers are invited to share a re/mark and send in pictures of annotated STOP signs. Part scavenger hunt and part group project, “Requesting Re/Marks” will be an ongoing feature of this publication.

Get Involved

Reading Re/Marks brings together, and helps to sustain, a community of readers interested in the enduring power and possibility annotation. If that includes you, please consider:

• Subscribing to Reading Re/Marks
• Recommending Reading Re/Marks to friends and colleagues
• Ordering and reading Re/Marks on Power
• Sharing examples of your re/marks

Know an annotator who should be featured in Reading Re/Marks? Send me a note!