made this cute little flyer for my arts collective ☺️

Here it is, my 243rd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

ICE just chased everyone off the public road by the Broadview facility. They yelled for people to move and immediately began firing gas into the crowd, which included legal observers, press, and medics.

my little assistant baker waiting for a treat ❤️

come get spooky with me! 🎃 this October, I'm teaching a one-day class at @storystudiochicago.bsky.social on haunted house stories. we're going to write, make maps, and scare each other silly www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/clas...

The homogenisation and consolidation of buisinesses and brands has led to the erosion of the midlist, the indie movie or band or comic. There's a real sense of "I'll only try media that's already popular / famous," and I'm begging you to look for the weird shit, the experimental, the niche.

a must-read essay on publishing. I'll add: after my book sold, my editor left, and the new editor was out on leave in the months around publication, so it just got lost in the shuffle, despite being longlisted for The Story Prize. I often wonder what might have been had circumstances been different

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

so much of the writing life is just waiting. waiting to hear back on submissions. waiting for magazines to reopen. waiting for people to respond to your emails. usually I can just ignore it, but today...today I feel the wait

A bit of James Baldwin today: "I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain"

As you cancel streaming services, here is a casual reminder that only 16% of Americans read for pleasure anymore, and your local library has hundreds or thousands of books you haven't read. They would love to see you stop by and renew your library card.

just submitted one of the biggest applications of my life. fingers crossed for me! 🤞

my application to write the next season of our reality if selected for this role, I will: - recast everyone in power - throw DJT and co. in jail in the first episode - change the tone from horror show to crowd pleaser - devote entire episodes to science education thank you for your consideration

it would be extremely funny if this led Disney to panic sell assets like Hulu, etc. and break up the media conglomerate they’ve been creating

Blue iguana climbs back from the brink. Grand Cayman’s blue iguana, once down to fewer than 25 individuals, now numbers more than 1,000 in the wild. Captive breeding, habitat restoration and community engagement reversed what was nearly a Caribbean extinction. CNN buff.ly/GKiJpcz #ShareGoodNewsToo

Whatever you do, please don’t stop reading. Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own. Just. Keep. Reading.

it feels absolutely wild to be co-founding an arts collective with everything going on right now, but I truly believe art is liberation! we need spaces where we can express ourselves, where we can learn, grow, and create as a community. please help spread the word 🙏 www.nightjarartscollective.com

I long for the day when Meta disappears into obscurity

a canceled streaming subscription is easily converted to several spec fic magazine subs on patreon and similar services, some are as low as 1-2 bucks. the more you know.

ICYMI: I have an essay about Stand and Deliver in the Teachers issue of @bwdr.bsky.social, where I talk about high school, seeing a Bolivian onscreen for the first time, becoming a teacher, the state of education, Latinx representation in Hollywood & more www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/09/16/s...

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing. These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

that feeling when you just barely squeak in under a deadline and start questioning every decision you've ever made 😅

celebratory birb! 🪶

Here are some nice mushrooms

Today is “drag and tag,” tagging sharks with drag queens while raising money for LGBQT+ youth organizations in Florida! www.scientificamerican.com/article/drag...

I hereby declare that all people on Bluesky deserve a treat. A massage. A walk in the woods. A big ole piece of apple pie. Maybe a hot bath with lavender bath salts. A day off work. To sit in front of a lake & do nothing. Another massage. We are going through a lot and our bodies need some care.

New today on the site! Our 'Teachers' issue continues, with @ruthjoffre.bsky.social on STAND AND DELIVER (🎨 by @studioralston.bsky.social)

my partner just confused Laura Dern and Lena Dunham ☠️

it's here! my first ever piece of film criticism!!! with thanks to the amazing editors at @bwdr.bsky.social for giving this essay a home www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/09/16/s...

When journalism was cool. And risked everything to challenge power.

At a time where it feels like we're losing, we need to remember our victories that not only have happened in the past, but continue to exist today. Thus I give you, California Condor 926 of the SoCal flock. Great grandchild of Condor # 1. We as humanity can still do good things. #birds

dinner prep

coming soon in @bwdr.bsky.social: an essay on the film Stand and Deliver and what it meant to me, as a Bolivian American kid who went on to become a teacher, to see a Bolivian teacher and Latinx students on screen (+ what it says about Hollywood that I've rarely seen this since)

✨ that just got paid for a personal essay feeling ✨

Kind of weird how Roberts declared the VRA preclearance to rest on dated and unfair assumptions about the South and within 15 years the former Confederate states will have effectively eliminated almost every black district within those states.

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔 on.ft.com/3K05vhS

This week has been a long year. But you know what to do. 😍

me [lying face down on the floor]: ladies and gentlemen, the weakened

live your life such that when an owl decides it's willing to be your neighbor you can build it a little house and become its best human friend

I have learned so many things about the internet today that I did not want to know

last night as i was trying to wind down for bed i had a unified theory of what the fuck just happened, and i wrote it down, and filed it under "well, i can't talk about this on main without sounding insane until and unless the perp gets caught and is provably a groyper" anyways, great news! (1/X)

if you think a white supremacist is more deserving of empathy than victims of a school shooting, if you think some governor's presidential ambitions are worth more than trans lives, if you think a machine producing automated slop is more important than saving the planet, you're part of the problem

We’ve reached our goal! A colossal thanks to everyone who’s backed us and shared. Your support makes this all possible. Thank you! Late pledges are up for one week with new rewards, and we hope to hit stretch goals so we can add even more issues and stories next year.

so excited to announce I have a new story called "Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush" forthcoming in @podcastle.org! it's about a woman with the ability to transform into extinct species and what she learns about the self, love, nature, and the porousness of the body while navigating climate grief

A majority of Brazil's Supreme Court judges have voted to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of plotting to overturn the 2022 election. https://cnn.it/3VIY1Cn

Mornin' 🎬 #filmsky #moviesky #cinema

NEW: We got access to Jeffrey Epstein’s personal Yahoo inbox — more than 18,000 emails. It shows Epstein’s world in his own words: an unfiltered look at how his operation worked, who enabled it, and how Ghislaine Maxwell stayed at the center of it all.

The response to this piece has been incredible. Huge thanks to all the translators and localizers who shared their stories. I'm now planning the next two editions: First, if you're a healthcare worker—a nurse, therapist, tech, admin, doctor—and AI has impacted your job, I'd love to hear from you.

Only 40 days have passed since Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were tragically killed by an unhinged Trump supporter, yet this story has largely faded from national awareness. We must not allow that to happen.

Simply the best slide I have ever seen in a powerpoint presentation care of @premeemohamed.com’s talk at @banffcentre.bsky.social re: Putting the Science in Science Fiction