I'm Brendan Allen, and welcome to my homepage.

I make small video games, write poetry, and increasingly combine the two into the hybrid form of game poems.

As of fall 2024, I've begun a PhD in Information at the University of Toronto. I'm currently researching how independent video game makers—especially those working within literary hybrid forms—navigate systems of material constraints, rhetorical genres, and social publication. I focus particularly on work made with constrained gamemaking tools such as Twine, Bitsy, and PuzzleScript.

Prior to moving to Canada, I worked as an assistant professor of English at Trine University from 2021 to 2024. I also hold an MFA in poetry from Temple University, an MA in English from the University of Maine, and a BA in English from the University of Kansas.

As an educator, I teach various forms of creative and academic writing. My students and I pay close attention to the myriad social, material, and rhetorical factors that influence our composing practices, especially when we write in new and/or high-stakes genres. Above all, we try not to lose sight of the fact that we're curious humans trying to do something quite difficult: represent ourselves in a form that can be recognized by another.

You can find me in a few other places on the world wide web, primarily Itch.io and Instagram.


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