Allison Parrish

doing some random maze generation on the gameboy... in a programming language i made up, which i compiled to gameboy assembly with the compiler i wrote for it. i'm having fun and learning things!

was out of town for a little bit

I've been working on an RP2040-based Game Boy flash cartridge for a while, and the source code, schematics, production files are now online, all with copyleft licenses. The cartridge is called ABC ("Allison's Bootleg Cart") and you can find all of the materials here: contextualize.com/ (also in bio) This is by far the most complicated electronics thingy I've ever made, so there are bound to be mistakes and weirdnesses (which is why I'm calling this a "pre-release"), but I think I did pretty well in meeting my design objectives: low power use, versatility, and hackability. (The other design objective was to "learn a bunch of new stuff" which I definitely did.) I'm not selling any pre-assembled boards for the time being, but I have a handful of unpopulated PCBs and I will send you one of 'em at cost plus shipping—there's a link to my little shop doodad at the URL above. (US only, apologies!)

Join us for a virtual reading of Allison Parish's Two of Pentacles featuring guest readers Holly Melgard and John Cayley on Sunday May 18th at 4pm ET. 🎊

They're here! The first print run of Two of Pentacles by @allison.parrish has arrived. Our production assistant Kim has confirmed the books are excellent to stand on! Every copy of Two of Pentacles is uniquely shuffled like a deck of cards and printed one at a time, so every one of these books is different inside. Every copy brings new and unexpected juxtapositions of images and thoughts. Preorders are live now on our website! And if you're in NYC, don't miss the launch reading on the 26th at @woodbine.nyc , featuring guest readers charles theonia, Todd Anderson, and Nick Montfort!

💻✨📚 Meet Allison Parrish, a computer programmer, poet, and game designer whose teaching and practice address the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. According to Ars Technica, Allison's work "delight[s] everyone." She was named "Best Maker of Poetry Bots" by the Village Voice in 2016, and her zine of computer-generated poems, "Compasses," received an honorary mention in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica. Allison is the co-creator of the board game Rewordable (Clarkson Potter, 2017), and her books, chapbooks and collaborations have been published by presses such as Counterpath, Instar, Aleator, and Anteism. Her poetry has appeared in BOMB Magazine, Strange Horizons, Taper and Ninth Letter, among other publications. In 2024, she was the recipient of the Electronic Literature Organization's "Maverick" award. Allison is just out here every day doing her best. She is originally from West Bountiful, Utah and currently lives in Brooklyn. Save the date: Saturday, April 26th at Woodbine! #BookRelease #SupportSmallPress #IndieBookLaunch #IndependentPublishing #BookLaunch2025 #SmallPressBooks #IndieAuthors #LiteraryCommunity #NewBookAlert #IndieLit #NothingtoSay #Twoofpentacles #poetrybook #poetry

We said goodbye to Althea last night. The vet found a tumor under her tongue two weeks ago, and a biopsy later confirmed that the tumor could not be treated; it grew quickly and ruthlessly until she was in constant pain and no longer able to eat. She was the most puppy-like kitty I have ever known: she loved ear skritches and belly rubs (soft and warm) and learned how to do tricks (shake, stand up, both paws in my hands, high five, lie down). I never got her to wear a walking jacket, though, but she did outsmart me and steal a few treats from me while I was trying to train her to do so. She loved our morning routine; she loved to wake up early and watch the sunrise. She loved me: sometimes she would make eye contact with me across the room and start kneading the blanket she was sitting on. She taught me how to love and, more remarkable and more difficult, how to *be* loved and I am so thankful but now my whole heart is missing. She was a very good kitty, and she did a good job, and I wanted you all to know that.

here's a little video about recent progress on my custom gameboy cartridge project. i decided to add a little (optional) multicart functionality, as a treat. did I teach myself gameboy assembly language for this project? yes. yes I did. apologies for the frame rate problems in the video; i am used to working at 160x144 (also note that the cart is the same size as any other gameboy cart; it's only protruding here because of the boxy pixel housing's unusual dimensions)

summer 2024 pix

We said goodbye to Shumai last night. Shumai was an aloof princess; Shumai wanted to eat all my pasta. She was snow tufts on sunlight cheekbones and a jaw along which skritches were delicately demanded, when you were lucky. Shumai charmed one oncology team after another and faced each of her illnesses and treatments with bravery. In her last months, I think she realized how meaningful her daily rituals of care had become to us. Julian of Norwich tells us that "all manner of thing shall be well," that every moment of joy opens up within itself infinitely beyond our capacity for comprehension, and in that sense every moment of joy is as endless as the universe. Right now the pain feels equal to that. I love you forever, Shumai 💙

progress on my bootleg cart: after a bunch of bodges and coding and debugging and ripping out the voltage regulator and replacing it with a different one and some questions on the rp2040 forums, i have a cart that works well on dmg, pocket, color and gba/gba sp, holds saves, consumes just a tiiiny bit more power than a stock cartridge, and hasn't had any compatibility problems with any of the games i've flashed on it so far. working on a v0.2 board soon that will hopefully be something i can actually release!

i like the shadows that foliage casts during eclipses