
David
Hartley
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The Generative Author
~ Prima Vista International Literary Festival, Tartu, May 2026 ~
Tuesday, 12th May: I will be AI.
I will ask for inputs and commands from the audience. I will pass those inputs through the LLM of my brain. My LLM brain will consult the memories, experiences, and anxieties it has swirling around in its storage. I will generate a new short story, projecting it live in real time to the gathered humans. They will see my mistaks, my moments of failure, my moments of triumph. By the end, a new story will have emerged from the aether.
The Hall of Love, Aparaaditehas, Tartu, as part of the 'Opening the Black Box' takeover by Frances Gene-Rowe & Erica Masserano.
Writer, Performer, Artist, Editor, Tutor
I write strange stories about strange things for strange people. I am preoccupied by animals, neurodiversity, folklore, and untapped possibilities of storytelling forms. I've performed my work within bus stations, ancient libraries, decaying edgelands, a Swedish train station, and among a forest of tattooed bodies. I have collaborated with spectral musicians, Estonian performance artists, and a plant orchestra. I'm always interested in creative partnerships. Get in touch with me below.
~ PhD Creative Writing, University of Manchester
~ Fauna (Fly on the Wall Press) - short story collection
~ Incorcisms (Arachne Press) - short(er) story collection
~ Writer-in-Residence: Tartu, Estonia, 2024: 'The Forest of Ink & Skin'
~ Lead artist: 'The Embassy of Utopia', Festival of Libraries 2024 & 2025
~ Workshop Tutor for 'Beyond the Spectrum' with Writing East Midlands
~ Editor: Obscura: New Uncanny Tales (Comma Press)
~ Former lecturer in Creative Writing, The University of Manchester
Picture: Nic Chapman











