QLD Event: Navigating Interactive Writing

Brought to you by the Games & Interactive Advisory Committee of the Australian Writers Guild, and AWG Queensland, this special evening discusses writing for interactivity.

Writing for interactivity is an exciting proposition for many. It promises a new horizon of playfulness and audience investment. What do we need to do to write stories for the first-person experience? In what ways can interactivity stretch our writing practice in general? How do we write for desktop, console, tablet, installation, wall projection, and billboard? Join our panel of games and interactive writers as they lead you through changing your mindset to stretch your writing!

Chaired by Christy Dena with Jason Nelson, Nicole Stark, Simon Groth, and Donna Hancox.

When: Thursday 4 October 7.00pm – (come early, speakers begin at 7.30 sharp)

Where: The Heritage Lounge, The Waterloo Hotel, Cnr Ann St and Commercial Road, Fortitude Valley

Cost: AWG Members $5, Guests/Non-members $10. Tickets from AWG website or on the door. [If paying at the door please bring correct change]

Cash bar available at pub prices

Christy Dena a writer-designer-director who has worked on award-winning pervasive games, film, digital and theatre projects. Her original projects have won the Interactive Media category at the AWGIE Awards; won and been shortlisted for the Digital Narrative category at the WA Premier’s Book Awards; and many others. Christy has been commissioned to create a game installation for Experimenta’s 5th International Biennial of Media Art: Recharge, and was granted Australia’s first Digital Writing Residency at The Cube from the Australian Literature Board and QUT. 

Jason Nelson creates digital poems and wondrously awkward and curiously disjointed interactive fictions. Currently he lives in the wilds of Witheren, Australia and teaches/researches at Griffith University's Queensland College of Art. You can explore his occasional madness at: secrettechnology.com. 

Nicole Stark is the proud owner of the inaugural ANZ Women in Games Award for Creative Inspiration. She’s held senior positions on a variety of shipped game titles with project sizes ranging from triple A console to indie mobile. In 2012 she moved to Noosa with her husband and four daughters and formed Disparity Games. Their most recent game Ninja Pizza Girl was nominated for an AWGIE award in 2016. 

Simon Groth is a writer and editor whose works include Infinite Blue (with Darren Groth) and Hunted Down and Other Tales (with Marcus Clarke). With if:book Australia, Simon created a series of award-winning experimental works including the 24-Hour Book, live writing events at writers festivals around the world, the 8-Word Story, and works of literary remix.

Dr Donna Hancox is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Practice at QUT. Her research investigates personal narratives and the role they play in creating social change and amplifying marginalized voices. Donna explores the affordances of interactive and immersive storytelling tools and their applications for under represented communities, an approach developed across funded research projects (with rural, remote and refugee communities). Donna is an Editor of The Writing Platform.

Conversation and Q&A followed by networking/social drinks with local writers, directors, producers and other members of the Queensland games, film, and television industries.