⚡new beginner’s mind interview up today with novelist Davin Malasarn today! Davin shares about writing practices, including how he cultivates a sense of security before he writes, which involves wearing a cape! which yes, is my favorite creative ritual anyone has shared yet in this series...

⚡ new beginner’s mind interview up today with memoirist Jessica Danger! I highly recommend her memoir, NO HEROIC MEASURES, just out with Santa Fe Writer’s Project! ⚡

Our Ass in Chair Collective is open to anyone this Monday, April 20th! Join us for a burst of collective energy and virtual gold stars & time to work on what you want to do. 💥 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/free-ass-i...

This interview w/ @chingin.bsky.social is a GIFT right now. Ching-In talks about how they need to be accountable to others to write at all, how they push themself to write outside of their wheelhouse, and what we need to learn from fungi 🍄 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/we-need-to...

something strange and horrible and somehow fitting that we should have a very real threat of madman civilizational destruction at the very moment when we also have humans on the dark side of the moon taking pictures that show how small, precious, and beautiful our world and existence is

Acre Books is looking for creative nonfiction broadly, including #memoir, graphic nonfiction, #essay collections, and narrative #nonfiction. For this call, we’re reading full manuscripts (no query required). Submit through our website at acre-books.com/submissions/ by April 15. #booksky 📚🖊️

Come join us at Ass in Chair Collective for your weekly dose of creative community! We’d love to cheer you on in your creative life & make some art with you. FREE meet-up is April 20th—register here to get the link. Message me with any questions! 🎉 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/ass-in-cha...

Thank you! At an event last night I said "If the word hope doesn't work for you try, 'Never fucking surrender.'" The word hope seems too sunny to a lot of people, but the heart of it as I'm interested in it is: we make the future in the present, if we show up, and that never surrender part.

Still 90 mins out and Boston crowd is massive…millions taking to the street today saying “no kings!”

This is going to be an incredible reading with @donikakelly.bsky.social! 🔥 In person for Pittsburghers or virtual for anyone to join! @madwomencarlow.bsky.social

@catherinepierce.bsky.social just casually shares SO MANY GEMS HERE. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, if you need a good prompt to get your ass outside, check this out. She’s one of our living greats💥

The Internet sucks but also contains the beauty found here:

As someone who has only recently regained the ability to write about not-my-daughter, this is. Yes. This is the thing, right here. I love these pieces.

You must say what you want. Robert Bly

my expectation of democratic senators is that they find 1/10th of the bravery of your average 70 year old lutheran lady following ICE around mpls in her subaru crosstrek

These poems.

This poem is for any writer-parent who’s ever had someone belittle their work. Some dude asked me the question in the title of the first poem after a reading 😤🤬 Thank you to Nelle for giving these poems a home ✨

more folks should know about this BS: A federal appeals court said West Virginia’s policy denying Medicaid coverage to people seeking surgical treatment for gender dysphoria is *not discriminatory* bc it bans trans-specific healthcare for cis & trans people alike ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

✨beginner’s mind interview w/ Namrata Poddar(@namratapoddar.bsky.social)⚡If you’ve been feeling intimidated by a larger project, she shares wisdom you might need + reading recs for helping us to decolonize mental health, and to explore what stillness and mindfulness means in this historic moment. ✨

Of course, other thing this chart shows is that growth of Independent + small party registrants is far outpacing either Dem or Rep. Research suggests those are likely folks who do tend to vote for one major party, but also have heterodox views & low trust in political institutions. Go persuade them!

New numbers: In the month of October, net voter registration trends turned positive for Dems in Pennsylvania. Unprecedently [in recent memory], Dem gains have outpaced Republicans every single month since then

Congratulations also to our honorable mentions and our remaining finalists! And thanks to all who submitted to this award.

As winner of the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, Tokaji will receive $1,000; a public reading in Pittsburgh, PA, with judge Jenny Johnson in Spring 2026; round-trip travel and lodging for her public reading; and publication of her winning poem in Voices from the Attic.

Congratulations to Diana Tokaji from Silver Spring, MD, winner of the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award! Her poem, “the migration of dahlia /,” was chosen out of 455 poems by 185 poets by final judge Jenny Johnson. Primary judge Kayla Sargeson drafted a slate of 13 from which Johnson chose.

Join us on April 10, 2026 for the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award Reading w/2025 judge @infullvelvet.bsky.social & 2025 winner Diana Tokaji! 7:00 p.m. EDT. Gailliot Center, 5th Floor University Commons @ Carlow, or on Zoom (RSVP: dobler2025.eventbrite.com) Free & open to the public. 📚☕🍪

So when are Republican lawmakers going to admit this president is endangering not just the U.S. but the entire globe and stop him before he does even more damage?

Today, on International Women's Day, I, a human woman, want you to know there is a type of sea cucumber called the Headless Chicken Monster

I wrote a book! It's trickling out, already in some bookstores. And I'm doing a bunch of events for it (see below). More info on book in alt text.

🥚Egg-citing news for Jackie and Shadow fans!!! The bald eagle couple welcomed a new egg — a hopeful turnaround after ravens destroyed their first two eggs last month. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Anyone else had their life changed by a Reddit thread? A bunch of strangers fixed my plantar fasciitis. I adore them and I don’t even know them.

Today’s Beginner’s Mind interview is with late poet, teacher, seeker, and my dear friend, Bobbie Ogletree. She shared a mantra I love: “If you want to do something, it’s “hell yeah.” If you don’t want to do it, it’s “hell no.” She said, “That’s it. That’s your mantra now.”

“Decades! I’d say a large portion of the book was written over the past five or six years, but more than a few of them are older than my children. My oldest turns twenty-five this year.” Debut poet and author of Mele, Kalehua Kim, on the time spent writing her book. Read on: at.pw.org/KalehuaKim

Catherine Pierce (@catherinepierce.bsky.social) is guest hosting this Monday’s Ass in Chair Collective! Feb 2nd 12-1 EST. She’ll be sharing inspiration with us AND giving away copies of her new memoir, Foxes for Everybody, & a generative writing session! Join us! 🎉🎉

The next two Mondays are the first weeks Erinn Batykefer and I are taking OFF since we started Ass in Chair Collective – but we’ll be back on Jan 5th to keep us all going through winter ❄️ Get on the list for the January and join us! ❄️⚡️

Do you write poetry? Are you looking to join a poetry group? I'd love to have you apply to join my January - April poetry workshop offered through @brownbaglit.bsky.social. Read more here and reach out with any questions: chloeyelenamiller.substack.com/p/poetry-on-...

Tomorrow, Mon Dec 15th at 12 EST: Ass in Chair is free! & we'll have some giveaways. Hope to see you there to cheer you on with your creative work💥

💥🌱new beginner’s mind interview up today with badass creativity facilitator Catherine LaSota on the power of limiting your assumptions, approaching your creative practice as a relationship, and being your own daddy💥🌱 ALSO: listen to her podcast, Feed the Art, if you're a writer or creative!

This Monday Nov 17th: it’s our FREE monthly meet-up! Come join Erinn Batykefer & the Ass in Chair Collective crew to steal time for your creative self alone/together! (on zoom 12-1 EST) ❤️🪑

Ryan Rose Weaver shares a rich window into her mindfulness and creative practices in this beginner’s mind interview. If you don’t know her and her awesome community on substack, In Tending, let this be your introduction! 🙏🏼🌱 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/conscious-...

This helped me today. Small Kindnesses, by Danusha Laméris

Had a great conversation with @abbyhiggs.bsky.social about my new book, GRAPHIC RAGE!

It's hard to overstate how fully engaged Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are in this ICE madness. There are neighborhood watch alerts, spontaneous crowds gathering outside schools at pick up & drop off plus madly blowing whistles and honking car horns, this city is fighting back and hard.

Margot Kahn truly lives out the ethos of beginner’s mind in her writing and her life (she opened a bakery! she hosts a podcast about ferries with her son!) Read on & channel some of that potent beginner’s mind energy for yourself.🌲 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/i-have-time

Kid 1, side 2 #NoKings

🪐a new beginner’s mind interview is up with Jeanna Kadlec (@jeannakadlec.bsky.social), who writes the New York Times featured newsletter, astrology for writers 🪐 IF YOU DON'T KNOW JEANNA AND HER WISDOM, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/inspiratio...

New interview up with author and environmental writer Christina Rivera (@crivera.bsky.social) on opening and shutting her "subconscious door," holding suffering and grief, and the sparkle of beginner's mind 🌊 SO MANY GEMS IN HERE! 💎💎 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/befriendin...

We’re so excited to introduce the FALL SLATE of 🪑THE ASS IN CHAIR COLLECTIVE! 🪑 Sign up at the link in the post to join us for some accountability, community & ass jokes 🎉🔗 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/fall-slate...

Such a rich interview w/ Cassie Pruyn ✨ If you haven’t read her book, LENA, and you need some queer/lesbian love poems or immersive poems that transmute grief, you know what to do. emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/trust-the-...

In the rush of September, in a time of violence and division, telling our stories and making art matters. Believing you are good enough matters because we just can’t give up. So, here’s a pep talk for you from me. 🩵

This is less about what you do or don’t say both Charlie Kirk than it is about being alive, together, in a time and place that cares about far too few of our lives. thewhitepages.net/p/how-do-you...