Seems as if there’s something magic in the air this month: maybe it’s May Madness reaching fever pitch? Or something.
…aaaaaaaanyway, here at PN headquarters we have two exciting news-bits to share, the first being that our Beta version has been shortlisted in the first ever UK competition to find the best new examples of popular Digital Fiction! As the University of Bangor says about the competition:
The Opening Up Digital Fiction Writing Competition, run by Sheffield Hallam University and Bangor University, and part of the AHRC-funded Reading Digital Fiction project, is awarding prizes to winners in the categories of Judges’ Prize, People’s Choice, Student Prize and Children’s Story Prize.
The public is invited to the event, to take place at 7pm in the Main Arts Lecture Theatre, College Road, Bangor. Event details can be found here. All are welcome to read and vote on the People’s Choice shortlist by visiting our competition website.
Digital fictions are different to e-books and are known as ‘born digital’, as they would lose some of their form and meaning if they were removed from the digital medium.
Digital fictions require the reader to interact with the narrative throughout the reading experience. This may include hyperlinks, moving images, mini-games or sound effects. In many digital fictions, the reader has a role in constructing the narrative by controlling a character’s journey through the story.
As if that wasn’t enough for fabbo news for one month, Perpetual Nomads has also found its way into the Keynote given by the talented Carolyn Guertin at “Digital Narratives Around the World: A Symposium on the Global Encounters of Computing and Storytelling”. In her talk, Carolyn outlined:
“…how transmedia is a transcultural phenomena and…how literary transmedia is being used as a cultural framework for small screen digital storytelling that uses storyworlds to reflect glocal realities.”
We’re chuffed too that Jess Laccetti, one of our lovely Inanimate Alice boffins, tweet-documented some of Carolyn’s Keynote here (thanks, Jess!):
Look @InanimateAlice @katepullinger: @carolyn_guertin talking about perpetual nomads @dreamingmethods pic.twitter.com/lDMMiqQmfx
— Jessica Laccetti (@JessL) May 18, 2017
The Last Gas Station=different fm Perpetual Nomads #yegdigitalnarratives @AstridEnsslin @carolyn_guertin https://t.co/6SF9YruJau
— Jessica Laccetti (@JessL) May 18, 2017