Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Look at this shit. #AbolishICE

peeping this late-inning Guardians run production

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

When poets debate whether metaphor itself perpetuates harm, every image becomes an ethical choice. @philipmetres.bsky.social's DISPATCHES FROM THE LAND OF ERASURE captures these heated conversations, changing how we approach poems that engage cultural difference. press.umich.edu/Books/D/Disp...

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

we interrupt your timeline to share news that our first ever comic book goes to press on Monday. 👀 Lake Erie League ISSUE #1 debut drops in print and online at #CleanWaterFest. September 20, 2025.

Trump illegally froze 1,800 NIH medical research grants, Congress’ watchdog says ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/06/r...

Come to Cleveland

Spread the word

Anyone who gives credence to the GOP's debt/deficit rhetoric talk after they voted to explode the deficit to give tax cuts to the rich is a villain or a fool. This is just a war on humanitarian aid and public broadcasting. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Late to the game but: Toni Morrison George Saunders Zadie Smith Italo Calvino Maggie Nelson Chris Bachelder Ali Smith Donald Barthelme WG Sebald Hanif Abdurraqib

My cartoon for this weekend’s @theguardian.com books.

David Brooks's latest article contains basic errors that are easily debunked with a 10-second Google (as I did below). I can understand a Substack article misstating e.g. a famous novel's publication year (Ragtime was 75 not 74) but the NYT can't even check? countercraft.substack.com/p/the-foreve...

Ohio's food banks are strained as it is. Huge cuts to the safety net signed into law in recent days could overwhelm them, the director of a Columbus food bank said last week ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/07/a...

Hard to fathom what ICE under Donald Trump with three times the funding can do.

Trump and the Republican Congress literally just took health care and food from struggling families to give a TRILLION dollars to the top 1% over the next decade. They own that now.

“They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony?” Fiction by Donald Barthelme, from 1974.

Tuesday evening reminder: Write the book. Make the zine. Pack the shelves. Fill the world with so many stories they'll never be able to silence us all.

Just 15 years ago Chicago newspapers had robust books coverage written by full-time, salaried staff. Now they have GPT hallucinations edited by no one.

Ali Black Denne Michele Norris @thedennemichele.bsky.social Hilary Plum Wednesday 7PM Loganberry Books @literarycleveland.bsky.social Could not be more excited about this lineup. Get tickets now. www.litcleveland.org/events-progr...

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

Every few weeks I have to show another student, colleague, or university admin that LLMs are hallucination machines with no ability to determine truth value or accuracy -- and they're getting worse. Most people (including academics!) simply do not know this. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/t...

NIH, NSF, NASA, NEA, NEH If it funds thought it’s under attack

Along with many other nonprofit arts organizations, we learned last night that our grant from the National Endowment for the Arts—$40,000 toward the publication of our books in 2025—has been terminated. While this news was not unexpected, its message was chilling.

Heck yes @reasie.bsky.social

Last week I was invited to participate in an informal debate on "the political crisis in higher education" with my colleague Michael Clune. Here's what I said. benmauk.substack.com/p/the-crisis...

Media copies of this Dawn Powell novel, set in Ohio, should any Powell-loving critics want to cover. The latest in @beltpublishing.bsky.social's Revivals series. Shoot an email to [email protected]

NEW: A little-known firm with investors linked to JD Vance, Elon Musk and Trump could get a piece of the federal expense card system — and its hundreds of millions in fees. “This goes against all the normal contracting safeguards,” one expert said. By @chrisbing.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro

ALA is deeply concerned by reports that IMLS is sending notices to libraries claiming to cancel grants that are required by law. This harmful action will disrupt libraries' ability to serve their communities. Tell Congress to protect library funding: bit.ly/CallCongressForLibraries #ForOurLibraries

The Cuyahoga County Public Library's annual Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry, curated by Diane Kendig for National Poetry Month, begins today! Sign up here to receive a daily poem via email. cuyahogalibrary.org/services/mak...

“These machines don’t listen to understand; they listen to do an operation, to perform a task, to produce an outcome. What does it mean to live in a world where speech becomes prompt, where we engage in speech that mimics kinship but fails the meaning test?”

Favorite part of AWP was connecting with a stranger about the cult classic PEOPLE OF PAPER (which is now 20 years old). www.publishersweekly.com/9781932416213

TONIGHT! Don't miss our Plum City Reading in Cleveland featuring Ruth Awad (Outside of Joy), Ananda Lima (Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil), & Ben Mauk (The Fugitive World). WED, MAR 19, 7 PM @ Loganberry Books! @ruthawad.bsky.social @anandalima.bsky.social @benmauk.bsky.social

Next month: Books at the Market at Cleveland's historic, West Side Market w/ @andrewaydin.bsky.social. Will we see you? Join @literarycleveland.bsky.social, Cleveland Public Library, Comics at the Corner, more! #comics #booksky #CLE #RustBelt @valentinolzullo.bsky.social @katietrostel.bsky.social

Props to @michelmartinnpr.bsky.social for holding DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar's feet to the fire this morning. Powerful interviewing: www.npr.org/2025/03/13/n...

New Katie Kitamura is a stunner. I'm speechless.

Poignant. Important. This is what is happening around us now, particularly with universities and organizations obeying FAR in advance. "I am losing my job at Ohio State. Bridges we fought for will crumble if DEI falls." www.dispatch.com/story/opinio... via @DispatchAlerts

Please share this call widely. We want everyone to participate in this shared space, for our GRIEF issue, Spring 2025. Some letters will appear in the magazine; many more online.

Bringing Black Studies to Black People On weekends, Stanford University professor Adam Banks flies from the California campus to Cleveland, on a mission to teach a college-level African American studies class to the Black community — for free. wordinblack.com/2025/02/brin...

🎉The Cleveland Poetry Festival is BACK April 25-27. Three days of readings, workshops, panel discussions, open mics, plus a new POETRY CRAWL on indie bookstore day. Space is limited so get your tickets early: www.litcleveland.org/events-progr... #ClePoetryFest

Last night was magic~BIG LOVE to everyone who came out for Plum City! 💜✨ Next reading WED, MAR 19, 7 PM @ Loganberry Books! Featuring Ruth Awad (Outside of Joy), Ananda Lima (Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil), & Ben Mauk (The Fugitive World). 🎟 Get Tix Below!

For my late night pals, here is the cover reveal for my new book~~~~~

This was always the plan for AI. Plausible deniability for plutocrat plunder.

Last month @katietrostel.bsky.social and @valentinolzullo.bsky.social presented their work "Rhetorics of the Rust Belt" at the meetings of the MLA. With funding from the Teagle foundation, we have revamped our composition courses to focus on writing about place. #academicsky #booksky #RustBelt #CLE

Reminder! Ohioana Library has a $1,000 award for Ohio writers under the age of 30. Deadline to apply is this Saturday, February 15. Go get it! www.ohioana.org/programs/ohi...