Exploring Speculative Local Journalism in Bricklyn, Vermont

A LEGO figure with curly red hair, wearing a suit and holding a book titled 'The Little People in Joyce's Ulysses', stands in an office setting with bookshelves and a window in the background. — Professor Brickwrighter holding a copy of her most recent publication, The Little People in Joyce’s Ulysses.
Credit: Bricklyn Eagle photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance of GPT-4o AI.

Dec. 6, 2025

by Alison Brickwrighter, Professor of English, Bricklyn University

I have often been asked by Outlanders to describe the nature of BricklynVT.com and its companion publication, The Bricklyn Eagle.

While I leave it to readers to decide for themselves what they think of the website and newspaper, let me provide some framework.

BricklynVT.com and The Bricklyn Eagle represent a genre, perhaps best described as “speculative local journalism“ — which is actually a subgenre of what is referred to as “speculative Journalism.”

Just what is speculative journalism?

In an article for The Open Notebook, science writer Shi En Kim notes that:
“Speculative journalism — a phrase that may sound like an oxymoron — uses rigorous research to extrapolate into the unknown or brings carefully selected and clearly demarcated elements of fiction to everyday honest reporting. …

“The goal is to use the hypothetical to reflect something true about current events. In an age where the news seems to be a never-ending cycle of doom, it can be a great way to cajole readers to engage with difficult topics or to rejuvenate a story gone stale. … The key to speculative journalism is to balance fiction with facts to present an argument with authority and freshness.”
— “Speculative Journalism Blends Fact and Fiction to Get to the Truth,” The Open Notebook (Sept. 13, 2022).

The BricklynVT.com project, of which I must acknowledge I am now a part, creates a fully realized fictional locale —The Tripartite Realm of Bricklyn, Vermont — reported on through the lens of its hometown newspaper, The Bricklyn Eagle.

The Eagle’s articles employ the forms and voices of real local journalism, including city-council reporting, op-eds, feature stories, sports coverage, interviews, and historical retrospectives.

The Eagle also makes use of characters and plot lines drawing from LEGO and related fantasy worlds (such as the world of the TV Simpson family).

A LEGO-themed scene depicting a smiling figure presenting a large illustration of a skyscraper topped with a donut at a meeting with other LEGO figures seated around a circular table. — Dunk Them Donuts skyscraper proposal. Credit: Bricklyn Eagle photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance of Call E-3 AI/

The Realm of Bricklyn is said to occupy a small 250-acre enclave in, Vermont. In Bricklyn you’ll find municipal departments such as the Office of the Chief Prognosticator; brick-shaped donuts baked for heritage celebrations; cameo appearances by pop-culture figures (like Kermit the Frog); and hyperlocal controversies, such as the heated debate over the construction of a new skyscraper topped with a donut-shaped revolving restaurant.

Always presented with journalistic seriousness, the effect of The Bricklyn Eagle’s reporting is to create the illusion of an active, lived-in community.

The subgenre of speculative local journalism combines the structure of community news writing with the creativity of speculative fiction.

Playbill cover of the original 1938 production of Our Town.

The cumulative effect is a narrative universe where the Bricklyn Eagle articles are the primary means of storytelling.

The result is a hybrid form that offers readers realistic institutional details, civic debates, and the miscellany of everyday life, all with the appearance (or at least the initial appearance) of being fact-based.

This subgenre places Bricklyn alongside fictional towns in literature (like Grover’s Corner in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town or Dublin in James Joyce’s Ulysses), but distinguishes itself through its documentary style, municipal realism, and continuous expansion through newly “published” news articles. ✥

Alison Brickwrighter, is a Professor of English, Bricklyn University. Her most recent book, The Little People in Joyce’s Ulysses, was published in 2024 by The Bricklyn University Press. Brickwrighter is also a regular reader of The Bricklyn Eagle.