New Formalisms and Literary Theory is a conversation that began between Linda Tredennick and myself, but it is also an on-going conversation into which we stumbled, to which we listened for a while, and one which we felt needed to be formalized (pun intended). This collection aims to share this conversation. It is our goal, with the help of our contributors, to trace the beginnings of New Formalism and to sketch how it, too – much like our branch of its conversation – began to grow, reach out, and theorize itself, long before it shared in our conversation or before we participated in its.