The Literary Life of AI: Output Through the Years
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Hanover Suite A – Mezzanine
PARKING
Download a map here.
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Co-editors and poets LILLIAN-YVONNE BERTRAM and NICK MONTFORT discuss the long-awaited anthology Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Writing, 1953-2023, spanning seven decades before artificial intelligence was even coined. Called an intriguing collection “for those who didn’t know they needed it,” Al Filreis, of the University of Pennsylvania, says one should be “amazed at the range of ideas represented here: machine unlearning, the art of nonwords, and systems that know mysteries.” Thoughtfully selected, introduced, and edited, they intend to correct the omission of its long-held history. Output offers different types of creative writing, including humor, conversations, prose, and letters designed to be readable. It includes examples of powerful and principled rhetorical generation along with story generation systems based on cognitive research. These poets have curated “a thoughtful and thought-provoking throughline of the achievements and possibilities for human–machine collaborations in the textual arts,” states Dan Rockmore, editor of What Are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious. Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is most recently the author of the poetry book Negative Money. They direct the creative writing MFA at the University of Maryland. Nick Montfort is a poet and programmer whose work includes ten computer-generated books — in print from seven presses. He lives in New York City and is on the faculty at MIT and the University of Bergen. Wendy Queen is the Chief Transformation Officer at Johns Hopkins University Press and the Director of Project MUSE.
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Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is the author of Travesty Generator, a book of computational poetry longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. Their other poetry books include How Narrow My Escapes, Personal Science, a slice from the cake made of air, and But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise. Their most recent full-length poetry book, Negative Money, was published in 2023. Their chapbook, written with AI, is called A Black Story May Contain Sensitive Content and won the 2023 Diagram/New Michigan chapbook contest. They direct the MFA in creative writing program at the University of Maryland and are a 2024 Foundation for Contemporary Arts poetry grant recipient and a 2024 Deutsch Foundation Ruby’s Grant recipient. They are co-editors with Nick Montfort of the recently released anthology Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953-2023.
www.lillianyvonnebertram.com
Instagram: @lillianyvonnebertram
Nick Montfort uses computation to develop literary art. His work includes ten computer-generated books (in print from seven presses), the collaborations The Deletionist and Sea and Spar Between, and Memory Slam: Batch-Era Text Generation. Among Montfort’s MIT Press books are The Future and two co-edited volumes, The New Media Reader and Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953–2023. He’s a professor of digital media at MIT and principal investigator in the University of Bergen’s Center for Digital Narrative. He directs a lab/studio, The Trope Tank, and lives in New York City.
https://nickm.com
BlueSky: @docmofo.bsky.social
Mastodon: @ni******@ma******.social
Wendy Queen is Chief Transformation Officer of Johns Hopkins University Press and the Director of Project MUSE. She is also a UBALT alum.
Muse.jhu.edu
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CityLit Project in partnership with Lord Baltimore Hotel and Red Emma’s present CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future. This celebration of the arts showcases a bevy of leading poets and writers on April 5, 2025. We’re talking fiction, nonfiction, poetry galore, and ways to up the ante on your craft.
Download the CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future flyer.