We need to ban all private prisons stat. If the government needs to lock someone up, they do it themselves, out of the for-profit system.

Thanks, Vonnegut. 💜

Short/flash fiction, CNF, other strange things under 1k words. www.matchbooklitmag.com/guidelines Dare you.

It's here! We hope you love the May/June issue!

"I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that’s the job of art." ~ Andre Dubus III

Turns out a Navy willing to execute civilians in boats in the Caribbean to produce snuff films for the president is a Navy willing to let the FBI director treat a tomb as a fun frolic

I think it's easy to think these things just happen, or they take a few weeks (or maybe even a couple of months) to bring together. I have watched @erikstrobl.bsky.social spend YEARS working on this through nights and weekends, committed, devoted. A deeply impressive feat. Congrats!

"I’m more than happy to give a hungry man a sandwich once a year and then brag to my friends about it as long as he doesn’t sit down anywhere in my line of sight to eat it. Same goes for hungry women because I’m also a feminist."

Trump pillages US treasury to pay his private militia dog soldiers

Kevin Morris, a researcher at the Brennan Center for Justice, said that Alito’s claim is “simply not factual,” and that the turnout gap had “exploded” over the last three years. trib.al/8N53FLm

now thats an anecdote with a punch, from Gillian Tett www.ft.com/content/c0ae...

Democracy in America (2026)

In today's Friday Five Q&A, I talk with @thedrevlow.bsky.social about his new book, "Trash Poems for Trash People," his role as @mrbullbull.bsky.social EIC, and the writers who most influence him. andrewcareaga.com/2026/05/08/f... #WritingCommunity

“The unique thing about writers is that they write.” ~ Margaret Atwood

By my count, we are still at 10 sheriffs who have been arrested in 2026, with the footnote that one sheriff has now been arrested twice.

Seeking a Creative Nonfiction Associate Editor (or two)! Associate CNF Editors Wanted! JMWW applications are open until June 14th.

“Sunlight has to travel 93 million miles to reach the Earth, but none of those miles go through the Strait of Hormuz,” says @billmckibben.bsky.social. “That makes it a very appealing alternative, especially now that it’s cheaper than burning coal and gas and oil.”

Wyoming lawmakers say tight new restrictions on abortion are needed to grow the state's population. Demographers and others say economic conditions are more to blame for an exodus of young people. n.pr/4uo77E0

It was going to be a strictly Christian revolution, but a new kind of Christianity, based exclusively upon hatred of its enemies and never mentioning love. — Upton Sinclair, Dragon Harvest, describing fascism in the U.S. in the 1940s

Me if I had them.

"The writer’s gaze should be direct and should not aim to slavishly record reality but to x-ray it, to see its inner workings." ~ Robin Hemley / @rhemley.bsky.social

Same energy:

Today, the day of the Met Gala, the unionized workers of the Met posted this image to their Instagram. www.instagram.com/p/DX64ioYjecG/

You can order pills from overseas clinics and mutual aid groups. *Possessing* mifepristone is not a crime (except in Louisiana). I'm not saying I have some but I am saying if you are someone who can get pregnant or knows people who can, order some now. www.plancpills.org

Hello fellow travellers, strugglers and stragglers, submissions are now open for our July issue until June 25th! As always we're seeking those lesser told stories, the experiences hard to find words for, the pain that was and often still is, and the bitter beauty that follows. heroinchic.weebly.com

I love how this poem moves from funny to serious I've seen this. The bar in Belfast International Airport. We heard the alarm, could smell the smoke & sat on & finished our pints. I have witnessed the second half of the poem too. It's time to pour our pints on the fire #Poetry #Poemoftheday

Chinese researchers have created a bamboo-based plastic as strong as petroleum-based plastics, which can fully biodegrade in soil in just 2 months phys.org/news/2025-10...

A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. A blue whale’s heart is the size of a room. And the essay? The essay is the vessel that holds it all. 🪺 In her latest piece, Zoë Stark examines the beginning and the finality of the end. Step into the slipstream here: buff.ly/vPENH9f

Supreme Court Overturns ‘Right v. Wrong’ https://theonion.com/supreme-court-overturns-right-v-wrong-1819573211/

Charlottesville used bookstore’s got game

About last night’s scrambling from gun fire at White House reporters dinner .. Rep Jamie Raskin (D-MD) makes a critical point on CNN: “This is happening in schools across the country.. the kids have no resources to process their trauma”

“An invisible landscape conditions the visible one” ― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Smoking Girl (self-portrait) by Tove Jansson, 1940 Oil painting Private collection #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Having fluency with a word shows some amount of care and consideration for what it represents. We are willing to grapple with killing millions, but not with men killing their wives.

When I know it's definitely a trap, but I'm going anyway.

Billie Little had worked for Thomson Reuters for about two decades. She was fired after questioning whether federal immigration agents unlawfully used their products. n.pr/3Ovl8k8

"Walsh shows us that we can control how we hold our grief, so grief won’t keep hold of us." This time last year, we published @dianegotauthor.bsky.social's review of @caseymulliganwalsh.bsky.social's THE FULL CATASTROPHE. Find it in the archives: buff.ly/7ybJrib

It's been so interesting to watch this unfold. Barnes & Noble and other big book chains shut indies down in the the 1990s (and on) and then Amazon came along and ate up all the book market share. Now people tired of big corporations are creating demand for more indies

That Yale report on what's wrong with U.S. college saw some trees (high cost, unfair admission, etc.) but missed the forest: the 60-year right-wing crusade to undermine higher ed, from slashing budgets to stifling speech How to really fix college. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/yale...

Writers who don’t read. I just don’t get it. How can you be a writer if you don’t? That’s like saying, I’m a composer but I don’t listen to music, or a painter who doesn’t have time or care to look at art. Read more: writingincurves.substack.com/p/reading-fo...

Ah hell, thank you @icooper435.bsky.social for such a fantastic (and so clever!) review of Teen Queen Training!!! I appreciate your time reading my work so, so much ❤️ thediagram.com/26_1/rev_mah...

Cover reveal for our newest Field Guide, releasing in September 2026, The RMP Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay, edited by @heidiczerwiec.bsky.social & @artichokeheart.bsky.social! Thanks to Pamela Callahan for more amazing crow artwork! Book details here: rosemetalpress.com/cover-reveal...

In January, Aliya Rahman was on her way to a doctor’s appointment when ICE agents smashed the glass out of her car windows, pulled her out of her car, and hauled her down the street by her arms and legs. Now, Rahman plans to ensure her ordeal comes at a cost to the agency that harmed her.

Your instructor for Writing the Younger Self May 7 - May 28 (Thursdays 11 AM - 1 PM CST) Info here: jilltalbot.net/register/p/w... #writingclass #literaryessay #cnf #amwriting #flashessay

"Secret Shadows" Egg Tempera Created 2015 By Scottish Painter Colin Fraser (b. 1956) #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

"Free speech wins!" Renea Gamble said as she made her way out of the courtroom Wednesday. Fairhope, Ala cops arrested Gamble, who was holding a "No Dick-Tator" sign at a #NoKings protest in October, for refusing to remove her inflatable penis costume. ✊️🇺🇸

Inhuman concentration camps are already active in the USA, complete with inhuman conditions, torture, and a spiraling death rate. This is what Trump has done to America. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...