Books
The Worldbuilding Workshop: Teaching Critical Thinking through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play
Cambridge: MIT Press. 2025.
More at: MIT Press
More at: https://www.theworldbuildingworkshop.com
Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers
London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2018.
More at: Bloomsbury Academic
More at: https://www.collaborativeworldbuilding.com/
Creative Writing Innovations: Breaking Boundaries in the Creative Writing Classroom
Co-edited with Michael Dean Clark and Joe Rein. London: Bloomsbury. 2017.
More at: Bloomsbury Academic
Creative Writing in the Digital Age: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy.
Co-edited with Michael Dean Clark and Joe Rein. London: Bloomsbury. 2015.
More at: Bloomsbury Academic
Invited Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Worlds of Possibility: Tabletop Roleplaying Open Gaming Licenses Meet Interactive Fiction.” Humanities. Special Issue: Electronic Literature and Game Narrative, Guest Editor Stuart Moulthrop. Vol, 15, Iss 3.
Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/15/3/44
“Transmedia Storytelling, Immersive Storyworlds, and Virtual Reality.”
Frameless: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/frameless/vol2/iss1/5
“Can the Professor Come Out and Play? Establishing Critical Gaming Groups for Faculty.”
Video Games and Learning in Higher Education. Special issue of On the Horizon. Vol. 24 Iss: 1, pp.29 – 33. 2016.
Available at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/OTH-08-2015-0049/full/html
“The Place of Videogames in the Digital Humanities.”
Video Games and Learning in Higher Education. Special issue of On the Horizon. Vol. 24 Iss: 1, pp.34 – 37. 2016
Available at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/OTH-08-2015-0050/full/html
Book Chapters
“Digging In: Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing Research.” Andrea Delgado, Juan Carlos Reyes, and Chris Scheidler, co-authors. Seeking Our Places: Innovations in Creative Writing Studies Research, Methodologies, and Practices. Eds. Jonathan Udelson and Benjamin Ristow. London: Bloomsbury. 2026.
“Creative Writing as Narrative Design.” Workshopping in the Twenty-first Century: Practical Strategies for the Modern Era. Eds. Marshall Moore, Adrian Markle, Sam Meekings. London: Bloomsbury. 2025.
“Kill this Game!: Pedagogical Principles.” Owen Gottlieb, co-author. Roll For Learning: Micro TTRPGs to Use in the Classroom. Eds. Camilla Zamboni, Matthew Farber, William Merchant. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. 2024.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding: Bridging Critical Thinking and Creative Production.” Imaginative Teaching. Ed. Amy Ash, Michael Dean Clark, Christopher Crew. London: Bloomsbury. Under contract.
“Playing in the Ashes: Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Role-Playing Games.” Apocalypse and After: The Genesis of the Post-Apocalyptic. Ed. George Sieg. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. Under contract.
“Structures of Play: Literacies, Games, and Creative Writing.” Exploding the Castle: Seeking to Shape the Future of Games in Education. Eds. Stephen Slota and Michael Young. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Oct 2017.
“Genre Fiction, and Games, and Fanfiction! Oh My!: Competing Realities in Creative Writing Classes.” Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught?: Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy. Eds. Stephanie Vanderslice and Rebecca Manery. London: Bloomsbury. July
“Steampunk Rochester: An Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Creative Writing Project.” Breaking Boundaries: Innovative Approaches to Creative Writing. Eds. Michael Dean Clark, Trent Hergenrader, and Joe Rein. London: Bloomsbury. Feb 2017.
“Studying Creative Writing at Today’s College or University: What Should I Expect and What Skills Should I Bring.” Studying Creative Writing. Ed. Stephanie Vanderslice. Cambridge, UK: Creative Writing Studies. 2016.
“Immersive Learning: Using Role-Playing Games to Teach Creative Writing, Literature, and History.” Teacher Pioneers: Visions from the Edge of the Map. Ed. Caro Williams. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. 2016.
“Game Spaces: Videogames as Story-Generating Systems for Fiction Writers.” Creative Writing in the Digital Age. Eds. Michael Dean Clark, Trent Hergenrader, and Joe Rein. London: Bloomsbury. Mar 2015.
“Exploring Imaginary Maps: Collaborative World Building in Fiction Writing Classes.” Building Literate Connections through Videogames and Virtual Worlds. Eds. Hannah Gerber and Sandra Houston. Boston: Sense, Sept 2014.
“From Meaning to Experience: Teaching Fiction Writing with Digital RPGs.” Dungeons, Dragons and Digital Denizens: Digital Role-playing Games. Eds. Gerald Voorhees, Joshua Call, and Katie Whitlock. New York: Continuum, Feb 2012. 304-23. Print.
Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
“The Force Will Be with You… Always: Studying the Star Wars Transmedia Storyworld.”
2019 Connected Learning Summit Proceedings. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. 2020.
“When You Play the Game of Thrones… Everyone Wins!: Fanfiction and Role-Playing Games for Fiction Writers.”
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society Conference 12.0. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. June 2017.
“Steampunk Rochester.” Steve Jacobs, Jessica Lieberman co-authors.
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society Conference 11.0. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. 2016.
“Dense Worlds, Deep Characters: Role-Playing Games, World Building, and Creative Writing.”
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society 10.0 Conference. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. Dec 2014.
“A World Filled with Darkness, Dungeons, and Dragons: Using Analog Role Playing Game Creation to Enhance Literature and Writing Instruction in High School English Classes.” Kip Glazer, co-author.
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society 10.0 Conference. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. Dec 2014.
“Narrative Potential of Tabletop Role-Playing Games.”
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society 9.0 Conference. Pittsburg: ETC Press. Feb 2014.
“Gaming, World Building, and Narrative: Using Role-Playing Games to Teach Fiction Writing.”
Proceedings for the Games+Learning+Society 7.0 Conference. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. Sept 2012.
Articles
“Making Space for Creative Writing Research in the Academy.” Journal of Creative Writing Studies. Vol. 1 : Iss. 1, pp. 1-7. 2016
Conference Presentations and Workshops
“Worldbuilding, Critical Thinking, and Empathy.” Serious Play Conference. Rochester, NY. August 2025.
“Kill This Game! A Micro TTRPG to Teach Game Design.” With Owen Gottlieb. Serious Play Conference. Rochester, NY. August 2025.
“Playful yet Rigorous: World-Building in the Creative Writing Classroom.” AWP Conference, Los Angeles, CA. March 2025.
“Teaching Critical Thinking and Empathy Through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play.” Innovative Pedagogy Forum. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Troy, NY. April 2024.
“Worldbuilding and Critical Thinking.” Gameful Learning Symposium, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Troy, NY. May 2023
“Refracting Freytag’s Pyramid: Aleatory Elements and Interactive Fiction to Teach Narrative Design.” Narrascope Conference on Interactive Fiction. Rochester, NY. June 2024
“‘Oh, the Humanity!’: Games, Play, and the Humanities in a STEM-Focused World: Plenary Panel.” Frontiers in Playful Learning, Storrs, CT. June 2022.
“Narrative Design Workshop.” Frontiers in Playful Learning, Storrs, CT. June 2022.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding.” Frontiers in Playful Learning, Storrs, CT. June 2022.“Speculative Fiction, Genre, and World-building in the Creative Writing Classroom.” AWP Conference, Portland, OR. March 2019.
“The Force Will Be With You…Always: Studying the Star Wars Transmedia Storyworld.” Connected Learning Summit. Boston, MA. August 2018.
“Transmedia Storytelling and Creative Writing.” Creative Writing Studies Conference. Black Mountain, NC. November 2017.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding.” Digital Media and Learning (DML) Conference. Irvine, CA. October 2017.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers.” Electronic Literature Organization Conference, Porto, Portugal. July 2017.
“The Invention of Creative Writing.” AWP Conference, Washington, DC. February 2017.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding.” Creative Writing Studies Conference, Asheville, NC. Sept 2016.
“When You Play the Game of Thrones…Everyone Wins! Fanfiction and Role-Playing Games in Creative Writing Classes.” Games+Learning+Society Conference, Madison, WI. August 2016.
“Experiencing the Buffalo State Insane Asylum: A 3D Reconstruction and Game Narrative.” With Shaun Foster and Lisa Hermsen. New Media Consortium Conference. Rochester, NY. June 2016.
“Steampunk Rochester: An Interdisciplinary Project Based on Local History.” New Media Consortium Conference. Rochester, NY. June 2016.
“Collaborative Worldbuilding: Bridging Critical Thinking and Creative Practice with Digital Tools.” AWP Conference, Los Angeles, CA. March 2016.
“Experiencing the Buffalo State Insane Asylum: A 3D Reconstruction and Game Narrative.” CUNY Games Festival. New York, NY. January 2016.
“Collaborative World Building in Creative Writing Classes.” Creative Writing and Innovative Pedagogies Conference. University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO. Oct 2015.
“Steampunk Rochester.” With Steve Jacobs. Games+Learning+Society Conference 11.0. Madison, WI. June 2015.
“Collaborative World Building: Bridging Critical Thinking and Creative Practice with Digital Tools.” AWP Conference. Minneapolis, MN. April 2015.
“Collaborative World Building in Networked Classrooms.” Electronic Literature Organization Conference. Milwaukee, WI. June 2014.
“Dense Worlds, Deep Characters: Role-Playing Games, World Building, and Creative Writing.” Games+Learning+Society Conference 10.0. Madison, WI. June 2014.
“A World Filled with Darkness, Dungeons, and Dragons: Using Analog Role Playing Game Creation to Enhance Literature and Writing Instruction in High School English Classes.” Games+Learning+Society Conference 10.0. Madison, WI. June 2014.
“How to Use Analog Games as Writing Instructional Tools.” California Association of Teachers of English. With Kip Glazer. Malibu, CA. February 2014.
“Teaching Fiction Writing with Role-Playing Games.” CUNY Games Festival. New York, NY. January 2014.
“Narrative Potential of Tabletop Role-Playing Games.” Games+Learning+Society Conference 9.0. Madison, WI. June 2013.
“Build Me a World: World Building, Emergent Narratives, and Environmental Storytelling.” AWP Conference. Chicago, IL. February 2012.
“Units of Meaning: Videogame Criticism, Literary Analysis, Effective Pedagogy.” Midwest MLA Conference. St. Louis, MO. November 2011.
“Playing in Character: Role-Playing Games and Character Development.” Midwest MLA Conference. St. Louis, MO. November 2011.
“Gaming, World Building, and Narrative: Using Role-Playing Games to Teach Fiction Writing.” Games+Learning+Society Conference 7.0. Madison, WI. June 2011.
“Leveling Up: Using Video Games as Teaching Tools in Introductory Writing Courses.” Second Annual UWM First-Year Composition Professional Development Conference. Milwaukee, WI. May 2010.
“Broken Bodies, Broken Worlds: Varieties of Dystopia in the Works of Paolo Bacigalupi.” Fifth Annual UW-Madison Graduate Student Conference in Language and Literature, Liminal Literature: Borders and Genre. Madison, WI. Feb. 2009.
“Introducing Technology into the Composition Classroom: Some Assumptions and Suggested Practices.” First-Year Composition Graduate Student Conference Presented by UWM and Marquette University. Milwaukee, WI. Dec. 2008.