What I Make
I am an Atlanta-based playwright, poet, musician, composer, and visual artist.
As a creator of southern gothic work, my art is rooted in folklore, nature, spirituality, and history. I celebrate the minutiae. I question.
I aim to engage with the grotesque, the strange, the supernatural, and the beautiful with honesty and respect toward the earth, myths, faith practices, and cultures from the American South. Necessarily entwined with these themes is the responsibility for research and open discussions surrounding topics such as structural racism, displacement of indigenous peoples, interpersonal violence, and the church as a home to both hope and pain.
I write many pieces that are not southern gothic, but I return home to that genre and use it to describe my creative practice because aspects of the genre influence all that I do: whimsy, horror, history, deep research, long hard looks at death and other difficult topics, place as character.
Science Writing
In addition to my more creative pursuits, I also do technical writing, journalism, copy editing, science fiction writing, and public communications. I grew up reading, writing, and watching science fiction, and I have always enjoyed learning more about hard and soft sciences through coursework and lab work; attending local lectures, seminars, and panels about a wide range of sciences; listening to interviews with leading scientists, engineers, and innovators; and now also through my work as a senior writer/editor at Georgia Tech, a position I have held since 2022.
My current creative works in progress relate to science writing include: The Archivist, a postmodern epistolary YA science fiction novel; and Falling Skies, a co-written (as yet unpublished) speculative online serial.
Location
Atlanta, GA
Metropolitan Area
@bsylvester_arts