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Exploring the Potential of Poetry in Games

Poetic art installation at the Memorial Art Gallery, NY. (Photo by Hudson Graves on Unsplash.)

Recently, I had the delightful experience of joining Syd (aka thechosengiraffe) for an interview on her stream (available to watch here). Together, we played Minecraft and discussed game development, poetry, and the writing life. Syd is a wonderful interviewer and her skills led us in a fantastic conversation.

One of the questions asked by the chat was whether or not I would ever consider blending poetry into one of the games I make — and I answered that I had not considered it. As much as I love both poetry and games, I didn’t have any concepts that made sense to me. And I also could not come up with many examples of games that incorporate poetry on the spot.

After the interview ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about the question. What games did I know off that included poetry? I found a few examples that specifically comprised either an interactive poem or the use of actual poetry in the gameplay.

Continue reading on Infinite White Space…

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TWELVE Honored with an Elgin Award

Twelve: Poems Inspired by the Brothers Grimm - poetry book

I’m chuffed and honored and gobsmacked to announce that TWELVE, my short collection of prose poetry, has placed second in the Elgin Awards. I’m so grateful the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) for giving my strange little collection of prose poetry some love.

When I started writing the poem “The First Sister,” I had no idea that this would turn into a series of poems, but each of the women in “Twelve Dancing Princesses” called out to me with their own stories to be told.

As I continued returning to these women over the years, with their words taking on the shape of prose poetry, I had no idea that this collection would ever find a home. And I’m so grateful to Holly Walrath and Interstellar Flight Press for taking a chance and publishing this little book (of which I’m so proud).

I am so honored to be included among so many amazing poets, who also received awards:

Book Award Winners

    • First Place The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee (JABberwocky Literary Agency, 2020)
    • Second Place  A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2020)
    • Third Place (tie) Mary Shelley Makes a Monster by Octavia Cade (Aqueduct Press, 2019)
    • Third Place (tie) A Route Obscure and Lonely by LindaAnn LoSchiavo (The Wapshott Press, 2020)

Chapbook Award Winners

    • First Place Otherwheres by Akua Lezli Hope (ArtFarm Press, 2020)
    • Second Place Twelve: Poems Inspired by the Brothers Grimm Tale by Andrea Blythe (Interstellar Flight Press, 2020)
    • Third Place Manifest by Terese Mason Pierre (Gap Riot Press, 2020)

Learn more about the Elgin Winners and view a complete list of nominees on the SFPA website.

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Escaping to the Woods: A 2021 Writing Retreat

A couple of weeks ago, I escaped from the routines of my everyday life and disappeared into the woods for four days. As the video above explains, the intention of the trip was to shape a small writing retreat for myself. I packed up some pens, notebooks, my laptop, and printouts of a poetry project (along with some books and art and mediation supplies).

The goals of the retreat were low-key:

  1. Disconnect from social media, the internet, and other distractions that fill my time with mental clutter.
  2. Rest, relax, and rejuvenate through reading, walking among the trees, and meditation.
  3. Write or create things, if I feel so inclined.

Continue reading “Escaping to the Woods: A 2021 Writing Retreat”