Tonight at 7 pm ET! penparentis.org/event/artifi...

"I can remember three of [his books]: a German brochure on the manuring of cabbage [...] one volume of a history of the Seven Years' War [...] and a complete course in hydrostatics." -Tolstoy, CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, AND YOUTH (trans. Michael Scammel)

Join us tomorrow evening!

not related to anything but did you know sen. dick durbin's chicago office has a voice mail option available at 312-353-4952? interesting fact.

"Remote times have a great attraction--sometimes mysteriously so--for the imagination." -Sigmund Freud, MOSES AND MONOTHEISM

While writing, I have discovered I am not fond of the word "some" and removing it from sentences is delightful. #amwriting #booksky

"Zap gremlins" is a feature in Scrivener I have stumbled upon. I do not need it. I am simply announcing that is exists. #amwriting #booksky

Join me online next Tuesday, November 11 at 7 pm ET for the @penparentis.bsky.social literary salon! I'll share a bit from my novel DREAMS UNDER GLASS and chat about AI and balancing parenting with writing. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/artificial...

On every way and reason to love the pumpkins you're seeing all over the place today.

Join Pen Parentis on November 11 in conversation with Helen Philips, Scott Elliott, David Ebenbach, and Anca L Szilágyi, discussing artificial intelligence. www.eventbrite.com/e/artificial... #writerscommunity #writing #writercommunity #parentwriter #writerparent #events #readatpenparentis

We can not WAIT to host you! This conversation — these writers!!

Seattle-area writers: apply for the Jack Straw Writers Program by 11/2! I loved my time with Jack Straw, where I developed an excellent sense of how to perform my work live and record it. This year's curator is Claudia Castro Luna.

I inadvertently got logged out of Goodreads about a month ago, and I'm proud of myself for not trying to get back in, because I've frittered away a lot of time there trying to find books I haven't read that I want to read. 🙄

For a creepy morning (not that I need more creepiness), I'm listening to the soundtrack of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.

"dare to summon the early losses / they are hosting grounds still glowing / beneath the failings of time." -from IN THE MORNING WE ARE GLASS by Andra Schwarz (trans. Caroline Wilcox Reul) #booksky #amreading #amwriting

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, “The Devil's Lamp (The Bewitched Man),” 1798, oil on canvas, 42.5 × 30.8 cm (National Gallery, London). From the play "El Hechizado por Fuerza": the priest Don Claudio believes he has been bewitched and will die if the oil if his lamp is not perpetually replenished

"dare to summon the early losses / they are hosting grounds still glowing / beneath the failings of time." -from IN THE MORNING WE ARE GLASS by Andra Schwarz (trans. Caroline Wilcox Reul) #booksky #amreading #amwriting

My beginner-friendly online class Fiction I begins in 4 weeks! If you're just starting out or would like a refresher, join us on Mondays, starting 11/17. Scholarships and payment plans are available. hugohouse.org/product/fict... #amwritingfiction

My beginner-friendly online class Fiction I begins in 4 weeks! If you're just starting out or would like a refresher, join us on Mondays, starting 11/17. Scholarships and payment plans are available. hugohouse.org/product/fict... #amwritingfiction

"It’s a strange kind of ache, longing for someone you never knew." baltimorereview.org/summer_2025/...

"Am I a pumpkin hater? Heavens, no. I love a beautiful whole pumpkin, whether all smooth and orange like a plastic jack-o’-lantern or speckled green with a warty spray of knobs."

Seattle people, don't miss this excellent event tonight! Wish I could beam myself over for it right now.

Oh. My. Goodness. So excited for this.

Save the date! I am so excited to join @penparentis.bsky.social on November 11 for their virtual literary salon. I'll be in conversation with Helen Philips, Scott Elliott, and David Ebenbach, on the topic of artificial intelligence. www.eventbrite.com/e/artificial...

I did not enjoy SATANTANGO. Recommend another Krasznahorkai to me? #translationthurs

Me, a mother, sternly: Brush your teeth. Child, a child, testily: Don't complain at me! Me, a writer, lovingly: The word is nag.

Perhaps you would like a copy of DREAMS UNDER GLASS but your local bookshop doesn't have it & you don't wish to pay for shipping. Good news: shipping is free at Bookshop today! bookshop.org/p/books/drea...

"I cannot tell you how good it feels to make sure you’re working at your intellectual edge for at least a good portion of the day!" YES! Started reading a big chonker of a history of the Habsburg Empire this morning and it felt *great.*

Me, a mother, sternly: Brush your teeth. Child, a child, testily: Don't complain at me! Me, a writer, lovingly: The word is nag.

"in the wet of wintertime wildlife comes to the houses our secrets remain our own" -Andra Schwarz, IN THE MORNING WE ARE GLASS, translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul (Zephyr Press) #poetry #womenintranslation

Perhaps you would like a copy of DREAMS UNDER GLASS but your local bookshop doesn't have it & you don't wish to pay for shipping. Good news: shipping is free at Bookshop today! bookshop.org/p/books/drea...

Three cheers for @wendyjfox.bsky.social & @electricliterature.com for championing small press books! Adding GREAT DISASTERS by @grady-chambers.bsky.social ( @tinhouse.bsky.social ) to my to-read list of books set in Chicago at the turn of the 21st century.

What about the pumpkin’s history makes the Pumpkin Spice Latte unsavory for Anca L. Szilágyi? What does it mean, symbolically, when Cinderella is to turn into a pumpkin at midnight? What did the pumpkin mean for artists, pilgrims, folklore? A broad history of the gourd of the moment.

The type of regime that uses military-style raids to tear children out of bed in the middle of the night is an authoritarian one. This is a manufactured crisis and an escalation in force and violence that is traumatizing families. Terrifying scenes in Chicago due to ICE.

Federal agents handcuffed Humboldt Park Ald. Jessie Fuentes as she confronted them at a hospital. blockclubchi.co/3Wkje5V

This makes so much sense to me. Exactly the thoughts I have been having while querying. HT @gwenda.bsky.social nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/09...

Missing my 4 pm pickle today. I'm not strictly fasting but

Anthropic settlement explainer: --look up to see if your work was included (easy) --file a claim if it was (easy) --Amount will likely be 1.5K (3K per book, split w/publisher) --Money comes between now and 2027 (in separate tranches)

Fellow authors, check to see if your book is eligible for a claim in the Anthropic settlement: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup?fbcli...

I have developed a solid practice of snacking on a garlic dill pickle around 4 pm most days.

Got a marketing email today with the subject line "A shovel won't save you this winter" 💀

Chicago, come see Peter Mountford in conversation with @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social at The Book Cellar *tomorrow*! I loved both of his novels, and I'm excited for his new story collection DETONATOR, now out from @fourwaybooks.bsky.social. www.bookcellarinc.com/peter-mountf...

Such a great episode of Curious City: www.wbez.org/curious-city...

"Thoughts trickle in and out. No one phones. I am safe but that won't last." -from WRONG NORMA by Anne Carson

Starts tomorrow, online with the Newberry Library !https://www.newberry.org/calendar/writing-fairy-tales

Does anyone have any inside track with MS Dem Party? Would love to write for some of their Special Elections coming up. DM me! TIA

"The book business may be centred in New York, but the logic is pure Las Vegas."

Sometimes you just need to play with the OED. "The psoraleas, prairie clovers and blazing stars would probably occur to all as among the most abundant of the secondary species in the vernal, estival and serotinal aspects of the prairies respectively." Minnesota Bot. Studies vol. 2 19, 1898

This Saturday in Bridgeport!

What I Like about You, Baby www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... #fridayreads