There is no health benefit big enough to make me buy the peanut butter that you have to stir. Even if it added 3 years to my life, IT WOULD NOT BE WORTH IT

this is it everyone is responding to the version of the world they see now we all see the world in large part via our chosen portion of the functionally-infinite online sources, we are increasingly each seeing a different world

New ep of the Writerly Bites Podcast! I'm talking about how cutting one weak sentence from every paragraph in your manuscript will make your story sing. Book recommendation is Amity Gaige's HEARTWOOD: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Every year I tip my hat to Biblioasis for producing Best Canadian Essays, Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Poetry, and this year is no exception. #amreading

My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul

Thrilled to have a short story, "Hairwork", in the new issue of @redividermag.bsky.social. It's about postpartum life and loss, Victorian hair art, grief and madness: redivider.emerson.edu/hairwork/

Why I’m sitting in a parking lot of a Trader Joe’s: I tried to take the kids with me to get snacks but everyone fell asleep in the car, help

Toddler is home sick, I'm trying to manage my expectations for what I can get done today. Sometimes the day is just thinking about your novel while a kid eats a muffin on your lap.

Hosted a Halloween cookie decorating play date, everyone had a great time but I’m still recovering from having a house full of running five year olds. Fell asleep on the couch at 9pm

I'm taking on more editorial clients this fall! If you're looking for an overhaul of your novel, an edit of your short stories, or in-depth content editing, I'm your gal: blairhurley.com/editorial

To become dependent on ChapGPT is to evacuate yourself from your own life. YIKES, no thanks. I’m gonna be alive inside every damn thing I do, even and especially the ish I don’t wanna do.

I was shocked when I finally read Rip Van Winkle and learned he only goes to sleep for 20 years. Through cultural osmosis I thought he went to sleep for 100 years - did anyone else think this?

Delighted to announce that the Writerly Bites podcast is back! Look out for new episodes each week on how to make your writing better, one small step at a time. This week's episode is about re-connecting with old work: redcircle.com/shows/1fb3ce...

My two year old just poured his miso soup into his milk and Cheerios and is happily eating it. Should I be…horrified or just pleased that he’s an adventurous eater?

You know you're onto something when an idea just won't leave you alone. You find you have more and more questions about it that must be answered. It's a sign that you're writing something you need to write.

So true- language has meaning, and adopting the language the tech companies want us to is lazy journalism and writing.

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

Back to a writing routine that feels really great - a ten minute yoga routine in the morning followed by some handwriting in my notebook. It’s exciting to be working on new projects and putting my writing first in the mornings.

After 8 years of buying the fiction for libraries, I’ve decided the most sellable title, based on trends, for a book has to be The Woman’s Daughter’s Girl. I will write this and make millions.

Just got back from a big family trip to Australia. Had a wonderful time seeing the animals and the sights and family members; and now it's back to normal life and writing. I love traveling but I love the first days back almost as much.

I love how toddlers learn the simplest aspects of language simultaneously with imitation of more complex language style. My toddler is just learning to say "vacuum cleaner" but when his Legos come apart he will rest his chin in his hand and say "Oh, dear."

Interesting article on pragmatics in linguistics and how they convey the thinking mind behind expressed language: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

In Melbourne for a day longer than I planned thanks to my flight being canceled- but we’re making the most of it with additional trips to Brunetti’s for pastries and lattes

Newly Discovered Origami Patterns Put the Bloom on the Fold www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/s...

Just finished Yael van der Wouden's THE SAFEKEEP and found it riveting. A tightly coiled, restrained novel that explodes into eroticism and then historical horror — both somehow not overblown or maudlin. Such tight characterization. #amreading

I'm in Melbourne, Australia for a couple of weeks, visiting family. Happily between the biggest work obligations so I'm committing to just experiencing the trip: taking pictures, writing in my notebook, eating interesting food.

Currently reading a novel that makes me wonder if the author has a true contempt for their own characters — or perhaps they're just seeing the characters with such clear-eyed honesty that it can feel contemptuous. Do we need to love everyone we write? I think empathetic understanding is enough.

Great class with a bunch of talented novelists last night. We talked among other things about rest and productivity — how living life for a while can enrich our writing.

Reading Susan Choi's FLASHLIGHT and it's a pleasure to sink into her sentences — sometimes like teasing out a knot but always worth it to discover the layers and folds of meaning within every moment.

One way to tell if you've got too many mannerisms, hand movements, sighs, and the like in a scene: Have your friends act out just the physicality of a scene. If they're all doubled over laughing by the end, you know what you did.

Over a week of vacation I devoured and was deeply charmed by Anne Patchett's TOM LAKE — theatre, stability, love, farming, Our Town — and now I'm thrilled to be picking up Susan Choi's latest, FLASHLIGHT. I thought TRUST EXERCISE was mind-blowing.

Great week back in my home state of Massachusetts, on the beach finding quahogs and poking around the whaling museum, connecting my kids to New England. Now it’s back to writing and life a little more refreshed.

So what are you doing for your art today? I’m writing one new scene of a new story, trying to figure out what’s central to the conflict. #amwriting

Almost all of my books are currently packed while we navigate a move. Had a moment of panic when I realized all my library holds had yet to come in and I had finished every book in my house. Then discovered a book I'd bought and stashed in a drawer and forgotten — phew!

Do I write, or play with my kid who is home sick today? Do I let her watch stuff or play with her or make her sit quietly and stare at a wall? Parenting/writing decisions are never easy.

Writing a new short story and it's wonderful to be getting obsessive about the world I'm curious about. Digging deep into medieval anchorites (monks and nuns who walled themselves into cells for a lifetime of prayer and isolation). Fun stuff.

Morning, writers. I'm resolving to do a little hand-writing today. It's a treat to open up my notebook after a while away and discover half-finished stories in there that I've forgotten. #amwriting

Handed in some novel pages. It's hard to believe I can and should take a little break, let the well of my creativity fill up again. We're pushed to be creators creating so constantly that I don't know what to do with myself.

Handed in some novel pages. Ever hopeful that this will be the draft that really sings. #amwriting

So much weird wonderful creativity on display at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival yesterday! #tcaf

Wonderful memories and reflections from a host of talented writers about the irreplaceable Edmund White: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/b...

Edmund White, Pioneer of Queer Literature, Is Dead at 85 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/a...

Saddened to hear of the loss of the legendary Edmund White. A masterful storyteller and literary revolutionary, Edmund White was also an incredibly generous teacher, always giving with his time and his assistance and his helpful, insightful advice. A true legend. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Only watched the first half of The Brutalist last night because that’s how I watch everything as a toddler parent, but it had a beauty and hunger and ugliness already - such a thrill to watch a movie truly interested in its characters.

Morning light: the novel calls, I’ve got choral music playing, it’s time for that special quietness of mind that writing requires

Trying to finish a novel revision while moving house, while my 20-month-old systematically unpacks every open box I have packed, makes this month feel like I'm on hard mode

Got to speak on an alumni author panel with writers I’ve admired and shared work with for fifteen(!) years. So exciting to see their novels coming out this year - ONE-STAR ROMANCE by Laura Hankin, SWEET FURY by Sash Bischoff, AFTERTASTE by Daria Lavelle. All stunning, all deliciously fun reads.

Still working my way sentence by sentence through my novel revision, asking if I absolutely need every sentence. It's a slow process but the effort results in a much tighter manuscript. #amwriting #novelwriting

Whew, brutal

Had a great writing session with some students this week — so inspiring to hear what everyone was working on. It's a nice idea to sit down for a writing session with a concrete goal you state beforehand — and no worries if your writing takes you somewhere else in the session. #amwriting #writingtips