"My interest in literary art, in imaginative and poetic writing, really came about at the same time I was learning about the power and possibilities of computing. Some of my first computer programs, and certainly my first substantial ones, were also pieces of creative writing and vice versa," said Nick Montfort who will read for the Program on Thursday March 12th. Bill Corbett, the Program's Director of Student Writing activities asked Nick a few questions about his writing background and his current work. Nick answered as follows.
"Early on - in middle school - I was writing programs that produced things to read and that worked with language in particular ways. And I was getting interested in novels (science-fiction, at that time) as I was developing an interest in longer-form computer games. So I didn't really feel like either a writer who found the computer or a programmer who discovered writing: these two interests of mine, if they are two different interests, developed together.
The only creative writing courses I've taken were at Boston University, when I did a one-year MA in creative writing (poetry) - a wonderful experience. Of course, workshop courses offer the freedom to do this sort of work (within the appropriate genre) and to discuss that work in an open-ended way with a group. I've never had a computer course like that, although I value the ways of thinking that I managed to develop thanks to computer science courses.
I would characterize my work as imaginative, poetic digital writing, which includes creating various sorts of computer programs (poetry generators, pieces of interactive fiction) along with more conventional texts. My writing practice treats words and letters as susceptible to computation. Some of the phrases associated with these sorts of forms and practices are 'electronic literature' and 'digital poetry.' You will also hear the term 'oulipian' used to refer to one aspect of my work, which grows from different sorts of literary and mathematical constraints."
When asked about contemporary writers who inspire him, Nick named "friends such as Christian Bök and William Gillespie along with many more august writers: Coover, DeLillo, Mathews, and Roubaud are a few who are on my mind just now. In digital writing specifically, I have to name Stephanie Strickland and Stuart Moulthrop, who, in addition to being my mentors, are terrifyingly good at creating digital systems of words."