Influence retains its “everywhere and nowhere” status in literary studies. Although it remains a building block of critical investigation (relations among authors, discourses, or events) and of critical practice (footnoting, documenting sources, embedding arguments in larger debates), it rarely rises to the level of explicit discussion. When it does, it often takes the form of criticisms of the work of Harold Bloom, even though the perceived shortcomings of his work have long been well rehearsed. 1 The rise of intertextuality as an alternative to Bloomian influence provided a way out for those who saw Bloom’s theories as too old-fashioned or embarrassing, yet decades after The Anxiety of Influence, influence rather than intertextuality poses the more interesting theoretical and practical challenges. 2 The goal of this special issue is to set out those challenges and to provide answers to them. I owe a special thanks to Marshall Brown and the advisory board of Modern Language