Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world--that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution--has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the historical record, leading papyrologist Roger S. Bagnall convincingly argues, however, that ordinary people--from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan--used writing in their daily lives far more extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently discovered in Smyrna, Bagnall presents a fascinating analysis of writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which many other local languages develop means of written expression alongside these metropolitan tongues.

In The Writing of Where, Charles Lesh examines how graffiti writers in Boston remake various spaces within and across the city. The spaces readers will encounter in this book are not just meaningful venues of writing, but also outcomes of writing itself: social spaces not just where writing happens but created because writing happens. Lesh contends that these graffiti spaces reinvent the writing landscape of the city and its public relationship with writing. Each chapter introduces readers to different writing spaces: from bold and broadly visible spots along the highway to bridge underpasses seldom seen by non-writers; from inconspicuous notebooks writers call "bibles" to freight yards and model trains; from abandoned factories to benches where writers view trains. Between each chapter, readers will find "community interludes," responses to the preceding chapters from some of the graffiti writers who worked on this project. By working closely with writers engaged in the production of these spaces, as well as drawing on work invested in questions of geography, publics, and writing, Lesh identifies new models of community engagement and articulates a framework for the spatiality of the public work of writing and writing studies.