Writer, Poet and Professor
Fusing Words, Technology and Creative Expression
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (DC 2006) truly has found their creative niche 鈥斕齝ombining computation and digital poetics.听
"I write programs that write poems," Lillian-Yvonne says. "I do different kinds of computational, generative work. I work a lot with artificial intelligence text generation, creatively, to bridge poetry and technology."听
Their most recent book of poems, 鈥淭ravesty Generator,鈥� was long-listed for a prestigious 2020 National Book Award, among other honors.
For it, Lillian-Yvonne started by entering their own text about the experiences of young Black men including Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner into algorithmic programs that reshape the words, much like a foreign language translator.
鈥淲hat I was particularly interested in with this book was seeing how algorithms could be deployed to shape text that was meditating on questions of anti-Blackness and racism,鈥� they say.
Over multiple iterations, they use the technology to shape provocative new takes on the raw material. The program can generate large volumes of derivative text, which Lillian-Yvonne treats like a first draft. Then they shape the computer鈥檚 text into poems that represent a human-computer collaborative approach to poetry.
Their work is meant to challenge the reader鈥檚 idea of computer-influenced text.
鈥溾�楾ravesty Generator鈥� is a very non-narrative book because it focuses a lot on juxtapositions and associative leaps, which is the kind of writer that I am,鈥� Lillian-Yvonne says. 鈥淓ven though there are some narrative impulses, it's very much associative and surreal. For me, that's the artistry.鈥澨�
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Story by Elizabeth Speed