Carmen Maria Machado, 37, is the author of the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties, the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods. Born into a religious Pennsylvanian household which gave her feelings of guilt around her queer identity, she wasn’t allowed by her parents to play computer games. She is now co-editor of Critical Hits: Writers on Gaming and the Alternate Worlds We Inhabit, a collection of essays that celebrates the lasting impact of gaming and play in real and imagined worlds.
Before we start could you explain your book’s title to non-gamers?
A critical hit in a video game is a damage point. If you’re fighting a guy – punch, punch, punch – the critical hit is the super punch. It suggests the critical lens too, of course, and hit songs. I literally wrote down every video game phrase I could think of to find it – I have a file!
