AI and Literature (1)

By Way of Introduction

This is a new series about AI and Literature: The creation of literature, its production, its distribution, its sales, its engagement by readers.

Each week I provide a new observation, interpretation, or new approach to conceptualizing or addressing both problematics and possibilities at the nexus between literature (in particular, novels) and AI.

I am a reasonably rare breed: I'm both a critically acclaimed novelist and a social scientist. I’m the author of Norwegian by Night, The Girl in Green, American by Day, Radio Life, Quiet Time (an Audible Original) and How to Find Your Way in the Dark as well as the forthcoming The Curse of Pietro Houdini. My work has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award (twice), the Strand Magazine Critic's Award for Best First Novel, the American Bookseller's Association's Indie Choice Award, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Norwegian by Night won the CWA John Creasey Dagger Award for best first crime novel, an eDunnit Award and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award. How to Find Your Way in the Dark was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in two categories and a New York Times Best Mystery of 2021.

In my other life, I was a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA), Georgetown (MA) and I earned a Ph.D. summa cum laude in international relations from The Graduate Institute in Geneva with post-graduate work at Oxford. I’m currently connected to numerous peace and security research and policy centers in North America, Europe and Africa, and I worked with the United Nations in Geneva for over a decade. A New Englander, I have lived abroad for over twenty-five years in Israel, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Norway and Spain.

These days I am mostly a novelist and I know that AI is going to be big. Very big. Printing press and telegraph and internet big. And I think it needs to be seen and understood from multiple perspectives to be understood.

My feeling is that peer-reviewed work is going to be years behind this topic and the industry itself (writers, publishers, booksellers, readers) have no time to waste. Diving in with serious thought now (thought that is measured and judgements that are grounded) is better than waiting for the dust to settle because the world as we know it is not beneath the dust storm anymore: it is the dust storm.

Please share this, follow, and otherwise stay tuned. If you care about the future of novels and their impact on the world — and you know you do — this is for you.

— Dr. Derek B. Miller