Portland - Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Algorithm: What A.I. Means for Creative Writers
Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Algorithm: What A.I. Means for Creative Writers
Details:
Mechanics’ Hall and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance present a crucial and timely panel conversation on Artificial Intelligence and its relation to creative writing. The panel will be moderated by journalist Peter Andrey Smith , whose work is published in Outside , The New York Times Magazine , Wired , among others. Peter recently moderated a panel on A.I. and the law at UC Berkeley. Panelists include: Brandon Keim Julie Kingsley Mahsan Nourani Tim Queeney Bryan Wiggins Independent bookseller, Kelly's Books to Go , will highlight recommended reading at the event.
, a freelance reporter in Portland, has covered science and technology for Undark Magazine, IEEE Spectrum, and WNYC Radiolab, among other national outlets.
Brandon Keim
is a freelance journalist specializing in science, nature, and animals. His latest book,
Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human Worl
d
, is about animal personhood — knowing them as thinking, feeling beings — and our relationships to wild animals and to nature. His first book,
The Eye of the Sandpiper
, was published in 2017. He’s written three issue-length treatments for
National Geographic
:
Inside Animal Minds, Secrets of Animal Communication
, and
The Genius of Dogs
. His work has appeared in publications including
The
New York Times
,
The Atlantic
, WIRED, and
Nautilus
, where he is presently a contributing editor.
Julie Kingsley
is the co-founder of The Manuscript Academy and co-host of the Manuscript Academy podcast - top twenty best publishing podcasts, Book Hub 2024. Her novel
The Space Between You and Me
, Islandport Press 2024, was optioned for film by Neo Studios, and is the 2025 Gold Medal winner in the Best First Book, Juvenile-Young Adult category for this year’s IPPY Awards.
Mahsan Nourani
, Ph.D., Computer Science is a Research Assistant Professor at Khoury College of Computer Science at Northeastern University and a member of The Roux Institute and Khoury Visualization Lab. Her interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), social sciences, and psychology. She studies people's interactions with and understanding of AI/ML systems, specifically those used for AI-assisted decision-making.
Tim Queeney
is the author of
Rope – How A Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization
(St. Martin’s Press, August 2025) and the former editor of
Ocean Navigator
magazine. Tim’s writing has appeared in
Professional Mariner, American History
, and
Aviation History
. He has had short stories published in the crime anthology
Landfall
,
Best New England Crime Stories 2018
and in the speculative fiction anthology
A Land Without Mirrors
. Tim lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife and a rescue dog named Frankie. A lifelong sailor, he has taught celestial navigation, radar navigation and coastal piloting both ashore and at sea aboard tall ships—where he tied plenty of knots and handled many a rope.
Bryan Wiggins
is the Maine-based author of the HarperCollins-published novel
Autumn Imago
and the award-winning self-published novel
The Corpse Bloom
. As a former brand strategist, he brings a marketer’s focus to shaping and sharing the heart of a story in his novel explorations of the nature of family.
PARKING & TRANSPORTATION
The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by
routes 1, 7, 8, and 9B
.
Parking is available at the
Arts District Garage
, which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.
ACCESSIBILITY
To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step. There is a wheelchair-accessible elevator and a ramp available upon request.
If you need accessibility accommodations/questions please contact us at
