I interviewed Alysa Liu in 2021 for NYT Kids and have been fascinated by her career arc ever since — loved this appraisal of how she got here

learned today that the kilogram was, until 2019, a cylinder of metal housed under two bell jars in a locked vault outside of paris. the kg was an actual object called le grand k. other countries had to borrow it to figure out how much a kilogram weighed. www.atlasobscura.com/places/le-gr...

a banner year for oregon literary fellowships: brilliant friends @jeremyklemin.bsky.social @devonfredericksen.bsky.social @jasonsepac.bsky.social all fellows in the same class?? literary-arts.org/2026/02/olf-...

I love the olympics, the two weeks during which I become the world's leading expert in every Sport that exists, I love Sport

right now, snowpack in the northwest is the lowest it's been since 1981. we're about a week out from a new record. we need rain badly — what snow there is on the ground isn't saturated — but we need snow even more.

I'll follow Byard down any rabbit hole, but ESPECIALLY this one. a must-read!

this list of "approved witnesses" on the application for my irish passport says a lot about the types of jobs the irish people value... "speech therapist" and "engineer" alongside the usual suspects "cop" and "lawyer"

@ninaperrotta.bsky.social alerted me that gowanus canal essay made the lit hub daily newsletter yesterday 😭 lithub.com/lit-hub-dail...

huge thanks to @cherilucasrowlands.com for citing my essay in this week's Longreads Top 5: "Like the fish, it seems to emerge from nothing."

"Its reputation as a poisonous place eventually gave way to a surreal, dream-like quality of legend, as though if you fell in, you’d emerge with some dark superpower." @k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...

it's so embarrassing that the websites of actual federal agencies have to refer to the "one, big, beautiful bill." also who copy edited that. have some questions about the commas.

re-reading a draft two weeks later to find it is merely bad, as opposed to Mythically Bad… great feeling

if u are in the mood to read about how we are extincting the night sky (and also about insomnia, the surveillance state, and Birds) ........ may I recommend this @elvia-wilk.bsky.social essay nyra.nyc/articles/the...

I don't really believe in *the new year,* my least favorite holiday, but I do believe in assessing where you've been and where you're going ... so in that spirit, a belated 2025 recap

brilliant pal @cooperdart.bsky.social on [conceptual art] for @dintywmoore.bsky.social !!! brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/s...

meanwhile i DO believe in the sentient slime in the gowanus canal … everyone gets the cryptid they need to see in the world.

Got my new copy of @orionmagazine.bsky.social and am thrilled to be in this issue with writers I know and love like @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social @k-e-c.bsky.social and J. Drew Lanham. Can’t wait to dig in!

for @trailsmag.net I wrote about what happens when the work of Forest Service rangers becomes the work of volunteers on public lands. thanks to @sidehilling.bsky.social for the PHOTOS and @ryan.trailsmag.net for shepherding this one into print 🌄

worth pointing out how we first came to know this. In populations affected by measles, deaths from other infections are elevated for YEARS afterward. So scientists started comparing blood samples and looking for antibodies.

!!!!!! nymag.com/intelligence...

need a word or expression for the deep desire for in-person experiences and interactions in direct response to the AI-ification of ... everything. like how we talked about "skin hunger" during the pandemic, except for all of life.

just another day realizing I'm writing a feature that boils down to how the only certainty in life is the absolute impossibility of knowing anything for sure

happy thanksgiving & happy anniversary to the most correct blog www.newyorker.com/culture/kitc...

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

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...