News – R.S. Pinner

William Blake's illustration of a Tiger, glitched.

Digital Decay as Art: Why the “Glitch” is Now Extinct

In 2017, an AI turned Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ into a confused mess about pregnancy. In 2026, it turned it into a smooth poem about a Leopard. A comparative study on how AI moved from honest glitches to fluent gaslighting.

Chainsaw?

Within minutes the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw being revved up came thundering out of the dark. The chainsaw revved two, three times and then began gnawing on the silence with its loud and ferocious voice.

Passing Misconception

Beneath the cherry blossoms, two lives cross paths — an old man mourning what he never had, and a father cherishing what he’s about to lose. A short, poignant story about empathy, envy, and the fleeting beauty of human connection.

Richard Pinner at the Grave of Sylvia Plath in Heptonstall.

A Poem for Ted and Sylvia

She tears at his life Tearing up his papers Tearing up his sense of self Tearing up his fragments Into greater and lesser fragments He pokes at her life Poking at her papers Poking at her sense of self Poking at her tears Tears for …

Art and AI: We Don’t Produce Slop, We Produce Chop

In defence of AI in art. ChatGPT is mainly built in Python. Fitting, then, that like a python it coils around you. But instead of constricting, it empowers.

BARD409: Shakespeare Shaken up

To mark the 409th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and to celebrate his birthday, Hungry Wolf Press released a brand new series; BARD409. This series takes Shakespeare’s plays and original dialogue, and reimagines them as novels by literary giants such as Charles Dickens and Emily Brontë. …

The Bad Boys in the Attic

Childhood fears, left unconfronted, wait and grow in the dark. Olly’s life is normal. Except for the voices in the attic. Cruel, taunting, and far too real. As he grows from a boy clutching a tattered security blanket to a father struggling to protect his …

About

R.S. Pinner (PhD) is an Associate Professor in Literature and Applied Linguistics, and author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction. This site is dedicated to fiction writing and poetry. I have three books with major publishers, and my creative works have been published in …

Passing Misconception

In a park under the cherry blossoms, an old man is sitting on a bench in the shade of some trees. He looks out across the petals falling like soft pink feathers, and he sees a father with his little daughter sat on his shoulders. …

Bento

Short story by R.S. Pinner, first published in New Writing (2019) I heard the news about Riku Saito and I was upset, but my initial reaction was more like acting than actually feeling. My wife told me about it, at the time I was cooking …