NEW: The US has deported a longtime Oregon firefighter who was arrested by Border Patrol while deployed at a major wildfire in Washington state. José Bertin Cruz-Estrada, separated from his family, is speaking out from Mexico for the first time: “I feel betrayed ... What am I going to do now?"

PBF!! attending this festival was one of the first things I did in portland after moving to oregon and it was an absolute dream to moderate this panel with aashna avachat and alex castellanos. already dreaming about next year 🧁📖

I'm moderating a conversation about romance, food, and FAKE DATING with two fabulous authors of YA rom-coms at the portland book festival this weekend 12:45 at the park tent — portland friends, hope to see u there 🍬📖 pdxbookfest.org/event/sweet-...

"I have an absolutely perfect Katie story" there is literally (??) no greater privilege than to receive this text from an editor

sob what a beautiful night to be an alum of new york, greatest city in the world

“I was just a maniac, saying yes to everything and feeling like I was going to be doomed at any point. … You should always bet on yourself. It always turns out well, making that investment.” wendy red star by me for @thecreativeindependent.com thecreativeindependent.com/people/visua...

what a move to drop this on the second-to-last page of your doorstop book about 20th-century whale science (compliment) (from D. Graham Burnett, The Sounding of the Whale)

truly an iconic Portland photo www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

people (me) are already calling it the literary event of 2026 www.finishinglinepress.com/product/pers...

at this point I am so sick of my own thoughts about oily sludge water ... essay to come soon 👀

paige is seriously a genius of visual poetry. if you’re in portland and have even one (1) poem bone in your body, why haven’t you registered???

realizing that if I just cut 200 words rather than writing 200 more ... the piece is done >>>>

hi

"the seed tractor sank again, no surprise" is just such a good line

find me moderating a sweet YA panel at the portland book fest on nov. 8. a dream come true, truly !!

I'm using this @thecreativeindependent.com Q&A in a class I'm teaching tonight; every time I read it I notice something new. "Having a really rigid artificial structure allows me freedom ... Having an alarm go off and saying, 'That's the end of my creative day,' that allows you to relax into it."

I don't even live in new york anymore and every adams headline still has me absolutely riveted

not my typical beat ... but when @oregonstate.edu alumni mag calls: I wrote a very fun, silly story about an alum's quest to make table saws safer. (huge thanks to my editor for publishing such sentences as "humans, like hot dogs, are good electrical conductors.") oregonstater.org/how-not-to-c...

hello it's me 😭 literary-arts.org/2025/08/meet...

tove takes something kind of twee on its surface and makes it lovely 🌳

Last fall, I attended the premiere of a film that meant a lot to me. In late January, all of its hundreds of planned screenings were canceled without explanation. For @defector.com, I went digging:

me taking a quick break from my fact-checking job to read a little bit:

me trying to figure out why kids are filling up half the block outside my parents' apartment

"We cry plastic tears, leak plastic breast milk, and ejaculate plastic semen." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

I started thinking about garlic in December, so it's thrilling to see this story out in the world 7 months later. thanks especially to Offrange mastermind @jessehirsch.bsky.social for letting this one go long & into strange corners (also, the art! 🧄) ambrook.com/offrange/cro...

“It’s a long-term nerdy project ... that hardly anyone’s ever going to stick through.” for Offrange, I talked to independent farmers who are cultivating new garlic varieties in a radical new way — by making it wilder. ambrook.com/offrange/cro...

“It’s a long-term nerdy project ... that hardly anyone’s ever going to stick through.” for Offrange, I talked to independent farmers who are cultivating new garlic varieties in a radical new way — by making it wilder. ambrook.com/offrange/cro...

tomorrow night!! i’m reading with some other smart & cool people 🖤

we spent a week in the enchantments in washington — a truly perfect place. we hiked 37 miles w/ about 13,000 ft of elevation gain and swam in every lake we could. at the beginning of the year, there were 14 federal forest service employees tending to this area; now, there is one.

catnip to me ... elisa gabbert x david lynch x big thoughts about the word "interesting" thecreativeindependent.com/essays/30-id...

write (revise) with me this summer! I'm teaching a monthlong workshop on taking your essays apart and putting them back together again. come hang 📝 literary-arts.org/event/the-ar...

@mrsslrss.bsky.social x wednesday 🥲 www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

the thing that makes me feel dizzy is that we are currently experiencing the climate consequences of decades-old emissions. the heat hasn’t even caught up with our present.

in the scheme of news this essay is now ancient, but I just got around to it and it still hits -- especially as far as its discussion of art as an accretion of individual decisions www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

still looking for ONE more kid to talk to about invisibility! so far have heard about always winning hide & seek, spying on animals in the wild, dancing like a freak without fear of judgment, among other (very brilliant) things...

~* source request! *~ for a very fun project for the New York Times for Kids, I'm interviewing kids (age 8-14) about what they'd do if they were INVISIBLE. looking for wacky, thoughtful, offbeat ideas -- if there's a kid in your life who might be up for this, pls get in touch!

"As others have noted, the brief history of David Lynch’s Weather Report offers no shortage of opportunities to be read as a performance of Lynchian tropes." —from "David Lynch as Weatherman" by Ali Raz www.thebeliever.net/logger/david...

yesterday at my college reunion I walked past a man who looked like my thesis advisor but also, in some crucial way, not like him at all. it turns out it was his twin brother.

"I finally found ... a way of thinking about art as a matter of listening and not as a matter of having something to say." I talked to the marvelous & wise A. Kendra Greene for @thecreativeindependent.com thecreativeindependent.com/people/write...

From the New Yorker: "Israeli forces have now dropped more explosives in Gaza than fell on London, Dresden and Hamburg combined during the Second World War." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

"I finally found ... a way of thinking about art as a matter of listening and not as a matter of having something to say." I talked to the marvelous & wise A. Kendra Greene for @thecreativeindependent.com thecreativeindependent.com/people/write...

personally, I do not pass the bechdel test. whenever my boyfriend goes out of town, I'm like, "did you know that I am dating the specialest boy? can I tell you eight facts about him?"

today in writing

I am once again thinking about this line from @thecreativeindependent.com interview with perfume genius thecreativeindependent.com/people/music...

ok do the gowanus canal next

Portland! I'm chatting with novelist Julia Malye about her excellent book PELICAN GIRLS next week at @powells.bsky.social on Hawthorne - come join us!

About to be Jokerfied by this blandly tossed-off statement in a piece about how the lie machines will never stop lying. Why concede that AI is "useful" in writing term papers? What is the purpose of writing assignments in education? Is AI accomplishing that purpose? www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/t...

I hate when cold calling someone for a quote actually works … phone anxiety so high I just want it to never be worthwhile

on Being a New Yorker and The Idea of Nature, for @oregonhumanities.org 🖤🥀 oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

on Being a New Yorker and The Idea of Nature, for @oregonhumanities.org 🖤🥀 oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...