Hello! I’m Erin Roberts! I’m a speculative fiction, game, and script writer who primarily writes about worlds that don’t yet (quite) exist – visions of the almost future, sideways glimpses into magic realms, quick trips into the land of the horrifyingly possible. I am also fascinated by people who embody one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics: nice is different than good and love creating stories filled with sympathetic monsters.
On the gaming and interactive side of things, I build worlds, develop lore, and write adventures for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) across systems. In 2023, I was selected as a Diana Jones Award Emerging Game Designer, and contributed to the Nebula Award finalist and silver ENnie award-winner for Best Adventure, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (D&D), writing an adventure set in Godsbreath, a new location created as an homage/love letter to the Black experience in the US South.
My recent credits include Dungeons & Dragons: Forge Your Quest, an interactive audio adventure for Yoto, worldbuilding and mechanics for The Academy of the Reclamation in Lost Omens: Rival Academies, the mission “Dead Quiet” for The Triangle Agency, the fiction compilation Godsrain Prophecies (a collection of what-if flash fiction pieces featuring the deaths of many of the gods in Paizo’s Golarion setting), and my work as one of the writers for Foundry VTT’s Ember setting and campaign. I’ve also been part of the script writing team for several seasons of the long-form audio narrative exergame Zombies, Run!, and created/coded two interactive fiction pieces.
I am a graduate of the Odyssey Writers Workshop and hold an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. I’m proud to have been awarded the Speculative Literature Foundation’s 2017 Diverse Worlds Grant and Diverse Writers Grant and a 2019 Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and been selected to attend Hedgebrook in 2022 and Storyknife in 2023 as a Writer in Residence. I’ve also had the honor of having one of my stories, “Sour Milk Girls,” included in the Best Science Fiction of the Year, vol. 4, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2019, and the Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019.
And finally, I enjoy talking and teaching about writing – I’m one of the hosts of the weekly writing advice podcast Writing Excuses alongside Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and DongWon Song. You can also check out my upcoming appearances here to see if any catch your fancy, check out my latest on Bluesky at @nirele, or pressure me to write my newsletter already by signing up for it here.
