I recorded "For My Brother: A Heroic Crown" for The Kenyon Review, if you feel like a listen: soundcloud.com/the-kenyon-r... @kenyonreview.bsky.social

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara: "People have had enough. This is the third shooting in less than 3 weeks. The MPD went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn't shoot anyone ... this is not sustainable."

It's time to abolish Trump’s ICE.

Sayre: "My background is in international humanitarian response in conflict zones in Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. What I've seen here is what I've seen there. A powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people."

Superb reportage on Minneapolis from one of the all time greats.

The last poem in a sequence for my late brother Chris. From our last visit together. In the new @kenyonreview.bsky.social 🙏🏻

Includes a heroic crown of sonnets for my late brother 🙏🏻 @kenyonreview.bsky.social kenyonreview.org/contributor/...

Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.

Applications open today @sewaneewriters.bsky.social — through March 1 sewaneewriters.org I’ll be teaching with playwrights David Adjmi, Nathan Alan Davis, and Lauren Yee

If you think time at MacDowell might be beneficial to your art (fwiw I bet it would be) then APPLY. They are incredibly welcoming and supportive, the experience was transformative for me and many others, and no, you don’t have to be a superstar to get accepted. So, apply! @macdowell1907.bsky.social

Watch my address on the ongoing federal presence in Minnesota: youtu.be/fGTsYXBWQgU

Esther Allen (@eallen.bsky.social) can spin the woolliest yarn with scholarly precision… You know who else was known for such things?

Very happy to be back at @sewaneewriters.bsky.social this summer — come join us on the mountain ✍️ sewaneewriters.org

Very happy to be back at @sewaneewriters.bsky.social this summer — come join us on the mountain ✍️ sewaneewriters.org

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

a major american city is being forced to close schools because armed government agents are raiding and pepper spraying and terrorizing children and teachers for social media content

Last night, at the corner where an ICE agent murdered Renee Good, thousands of Minnesotans gathered in the frigid dark to protest her killing. In the face of this administration’s lawless violence, solidarity is the answer. They want to mold America to their cruelty. We refuse.

I’m grateful to editors @sternbergh.bsky.social, Vanessa Mobley, @dansaltzstein.bsky.social, and the design team at the Times, for publishing so beautifully my essay about catastrophe, luck, resilience, and hope. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day. Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me. 🧵

It's an old and obvious pattern. An unpopular president - failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home - decides to launch a war for regime change abroad. The American people don’t want to “run” a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one.

Book birthday — two years since True Story, my trilogy of documentary/memoir plays, was published by @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social. Many thanks to @chadwpost.bsky.social, Kaija Straimanis, & readers 🙏🏻 dalkeyarchive.store/products/tru...

Maybe 15 years ago I was in Western Massachusetts with a partner who wanted to check out the Norman Rockwell Museum. I only knew of Rockwell as 1950s kitsch and had low expectations. As it happened, we showed up while an exhibit on Rockwell's Civil Rights legacy was on display. Blew my mind.

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

The American College Theatre Festival has suspended its affiliation with the Kennedy Center after nearly six decades of partnership. www.broadwayworld.com/article/Amer...

The Northwest Review is alive and now on Bluesky. We are reviving this historically great magazine in 2026. We are now open for submissions. Send us your best fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. northwestreview.submittable.com/submit

We've got gift options galore and our annual end of year sale is still on! Link below for details. 🎁📚🎉 #booksky

"Another challenge was to fit in writing between part-time and full-time work and, later, cancer treatment. I have four fewer organs now than when I started the book. So to at last see it published is, for me, an arrival that I don’t take for granted."

Some of my recent books, bendable for placement inside stockings — available in the usual ways, but links are @ www.danobrien.org @acrebooks.bsky.social @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @poetrylondon.bsky.social @calquepress.bsky.social

Amazing to me, but @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social and I began @badlilies.bsky.social five years ago this coming spring. Five years! A lockdown project of optimism in a sad time. The world continues to disappoint. Bad Lilies keeps going. Explore our archive: www.badlilies.uk/issues

New work from Acre poet @bydanobrien.bsky.social! 🎉🎉🎉

A poem for my brother in @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social, in fine company. Many thanks to editor @jamiepcameron.bsky.social thelondonmagazine.org

A poem for my brother in @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social, in fine company. Many thanks to editor @jamiepcameron.bsky.social thelondonmagazine.org

Delighted and proud to see Acre Poetry Editor / @cincinnatireview.bsky.social Managing Editor @lisaampleman.bsky.social in the pages of @pw.org! 🎉🎉🎉

Twelve hours to go until the submissions window closes on our disability issue, folks. Keep those poems rolling in. Full call and instructions here: thefiddlehead.ca/revolution

Thanks to all the new readers and of course, to all the saintly booksellers who have supported the book 🙏

In which a New Zealander writes about a fire likely still burning. From Collected Poems of Bill Manhire, Carcanet Press, 2001. @carcanet.bsky.social @pacificraft.bsky.social

My first piece for @theguardian.com on MBS’s visit to the U.S., seven years after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Trump’s America is beginning to look like MBS’s Saudi Arabia— which Jamal warned me about. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thanks, Black Warrior Review for publishing my new graphic memoir piece "Pink"--about silent movies, living in color and the sadness of my sister fading from my life. bwr.ua.edu/special-art-...?

“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life”

Imagine being so weak minded & illiberal & brittle & averse to criticism, that you think banning Wole Soyinka is the right thing to do? Good grief. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

its remarkable to see random suburbanites in their fucking PJs have more courage than the vast majority of america's political, social, and civil elites

Come join our @litquake.org Lit Crawl event tomorrow at 5 p.m.! I'll be hosting, and Jesse Nathan & Cate Lycurgus will be reading. Kick off your Lit Crawl San Francisco with @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social! litcrawlsf2025.sched.com/event/2AjSc?...

Published two years ago, but a new shipment of copies still brings a thrill — thanks to those who’ve been reading 🙏🏻 @acrebooks.bsky.social

American democracy today....

No Kings 🐔 Santa Monica

[Exit King.]

Nice write-up of the Leonard and Hungry Paul TV show which is on iPlayer now-ish (I don't have access to the iPlayer so not sure) and which is on BBC Northern Ireland tonight at 9pm; BBC 2 on Monday. Hope you enjoy it.