Check out one of our 2026 Fiction Selections, "The Great Renunciation" by @laurenbarbato.bsky.social  (American Literary Review), selected by Andrew Porter on bestofthenetanthology.com/2026-2/2026-fiction/the-great-renunciation/ #bestofthenetanthology #poetrywriting #finalist

Has anyone sent J.D. Vance the pope's job description yet?

Ah yes paying for cancer treatments with the no tax on tips for DoorDash definitely isn't a sign we're living in a dystopia.

Not the onion.

Calling Reproductive Justice Catholics ❤️‍🔥 For my dissertation, I'm building an archive of the lived experiences of Catholics organizing for or working in reproductive justice, including: healthcare workers; organizers; chaplains; people who've had abortions. 🔗 Info: forms.office.com/r/DdretP45Ce

I'm honored to have my short story, “The Great Renunciation,” published in the 2026 Best of the Net Anthology! Thank you to American Literary Review for the nomination & for Andrew Porter for selecting my story. Visit the anthology to read "The Great Renunciation" and the other selections. 💙

A little late, but I'm honored to receive an Individual Artist Finalist Award in Prose from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts! I love my home state and its commitment to funding the arts (I'm also in some really good company!). ❤️ myemail.constantcontact.com/NJ-State-Cou...

Calling Reproductive Justice Catholics ❤️‍🔥 For my dissertation, I'm building an archive of the lived experiences of Catholics organizing for or working in reproductive justice, including: healthcare workers; organizers; chaplains; people who've had abortions. 🔗 Info: forms.office.com/r/DdretP45Ce

Rand Paul calls for immediately putting the men who killed Alex Pretti on administrative leave and for a full investigation, while subtweeting Stephen Miller et al who immediately labeled the VA ICU nurse an "assassin" and a "domestic terrorist"

I find it sad, but not at all surprising, that it took the extrajudicial murder of a legal gun owner for the Right to start shifting. Gun rights are the rights most valued in America, and the Second Amendment is at the center of what it means to be an American.

BREAKING: A young doctor who lives near where Alex Pretti, a nurse, was killed by ICE says in a declaration he saw the shooting, went out to help, was not let through at first then patted down before being let by, and was apparently the first to try and provide any medical assistance to Pretti.

But if they were praying in front of an abortion clinic, their speech and right to worship would be protected. 🫠

Okay sorry one more shot:

BREAKING: Trump is getting absolutely fricaseed - like nothing I've seen before - in the UK right now over his lies about NATO troops in Afghanistan 'staying behind the lines'

Trump essentially peddles every pseudo-historical talking point from white Baby Boomers, who bought into the American Exceptionalism propagandistic narrative that emerged post-WW II. This is why we still need the humanities. 🥲

The only positive about Trump's Davos speech is at least he didn't say he ended the war between Albania and Azerbaijan this time. (Though he still mispronounced Azerbaijan.)

The choice is impeachment and removal or calamity for the United States. I don't see how anybody watching Trump's speech in Davos can draw any other conclusion. He's a senile madman.

Mark Carney offers a bleak assessment of the chimera that American ideals will ensure the stability of civil society-especially with Trump in charge-and pledges Canadian support for Denmark and Greenland against the US Republicans-wake up before the entire country is destroyed due to this madness

For the full context, His Excellency: -A group of protesters disrupted the church because their pastor is an ICE field director. -Some Catholic bishops have suspended Mass obligation across the U.S. because ICE agents are waiting outside Catholic churches, hoping to "round up" immigrants.

Do lesbians face discrimination in the United States? On the one hand, Renée Good was murdered. On the other hand, I am highly paid to relativize such crimes. by Bari Weiss

Go to the “Report a Fundraiser” page and fill out the form. This was how I filled out the form since there wasn’t an option for violating the Terms of Service. Report Fundraiser: www.gofundme.com/contact/sugg... Ross Fundraiser (you need this for the report): www.gofundme.com/f/ice-offuve...

*half-assed class project some fifth grades ran through Chat GPT and proudly passed off as their own work.

"Mary Magdalene said I wasn't fit to be the Virgin Mary. 'We should switch roles,' Mary Magdalene said." An excerpt from my novel, As the Lord Hangs Around Her Neck, is now published on CRAFT as a winner in their First Chapters Contest. ❤️‍🔥 www.craftliterary.com/2025/12/12/a...

📣 I’m interviewing Catholics with personal experiences with either providing abortion care or organizing for reproductive justice for my PhD dissertation. Please feel free to share this with your networks. For more info, or if you're interesting in participating: forms.office.com/r/DdretP45Ce...

NEW: The Trump-Vance White House has falsely accused an ally of Pope Leo — Sr. Norma Pimentel — of illegal activity tied to migrant aid, and cut off all federal funding to Catholic Charities in Texas. Church leaders say it’s a targeted, political reprisal against Pope Leo and the Catholic Church.

'Wake Up, Dead Man' discourse reveals how many have caught onto the Evangelical grift overtaking U.S. Catholicism--appropriating the aesthetics while forsaking the tradition. What 'Dead Man' misses is the internal institutional politics, but that isolationist attitude lends to the Evangelical vibe.

ICYMI: Pro-choice nuns? Yes, kinda. In the early 1980s, restoring public funding for abortions was a central plank for the abortion rights movement—and many #Catholic sisters became not-all-that surprising feminist allies in this movement. Read more on @nursingclio.bsky.social ⬇️

Democrats should introduce the "Have Rand Paul Get His Health Care From Amazon, Not the Taxpayers, Act of 2025," tomorrow.

My novel excerpt, As the Lord Hangs Around Her Neck, is now published on CRAFT Literary. Thank you, CRAFT & Alejandro Heredia, for choosing my novel as the second-place winner for the First Chapters Contest! This novel is my heart & I'm thrilled to share these opening pages w/ the world.

My new historical essay for @nursingclio.bsky.social tells the story of Mercy Sister Agnes Mary Mansour and a prominent group of Catholic religious sisters who viewed #Medicaid funding for abortion as part of their duty to serve the poor—even when the Vatican threatened their livelihoods.

We’re proud to announce Hayden’s Ferry Review’s 2025 Best of the Net nominations! ✨ Congratulations to all the incredible writers and artists whose work has been recognized this year. Read these incredible pieces at haydensferryreview.com

I'm thrilled that my novel has been awarded Second Place in CRAFT's 2025 First Chapters Contest! I'm honored by this recognition and look forward to the publication of my novel excerpt in CRAFT this December. Stay tuned! ✨ www.craftliterary.com/craft-first-...

Zohran Mamdani Refuses To Share Plan For Making Rich Richer

Today, I asked my college students what year 9/11 happened & who was president at that time. Most of my class didn't know the answer to either question. I'm finally convinced that "common knowledge" no longer exists.

HOLD THE LINE, BRAVE SILWA. LET YOUR HATRED PIERCE THE HIDE OF THAT PRIDEFUL BEAST KNOWN AS ANDREW CUOMO!

My short story "The Great Renunciation" continues on this wheel of existence! 🪷 American Literary Review nominated "The Great Renunciation" for Orison Books' Best Spiritual Literature anthology! My story was also nominated for Best of the Net. Read here: americanliteraryreview.com/2025/04/03/l...

I'm excited to have a short creative nonfiction piece in the latest issue of carte blanche. ✨ Merci beaucoup à carte blanch for choosing this piece, and please check out this wonderful new issue/literary magazine out of Montréal! carteblanchemagazine.com/issue-52/bar...

Thank you so much, Hayden's Ferry, for the Best of the Net nomination! You can read my short story "Reputations" here: haydensferryreview.com/lauren-barbato When I first conceived this story, I was thinking about survivor narratives, the shifting politics of victimhood, and the role of the accused.

I'm so happy that American Literary Review nominated my short story, "The Great Renunciation," for the Best of the Net Anthology! You can read the story here: americanliteraryreview.com/2025/04/03/l...

Beyond the false claims linking Tylenol to autism, it is especially gross to see extremely wealthy men shaming women for not ‘toughing it out’ during pregnancy.

We also really need to start qualifying the term "Christian" and stop using it as an umbrella term assuming a unified belief system or sociocultural stance. (Looking at you, mainstream media.)

As a religion scholar (w/ a focus on Catholic history), it's mind-numbing to see the Catholic hierarchy fall under the spell of Technocratic Evangelicalism. Once upon a time, JFK was the model for U.S. civil religion. Father Ted Hesburgh exemplified liberal Catholicism & free speech. What a time.

creating AI slop of Charlie Kirk arguing in favor of progressive causes until conservatives get confused

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

“But Charlie [Kirk] also advanced another really important idea. And that is that he loved the people on the other side of that table” Here’s Charlie Kirk questioning whether Kamala Harris was Black and calling for Joe Biden to be executed Some people have a very different idea of what love means

Necropolitics: the culture of life has embraced the culture of death.

Did any of these people actually read or listen to what Kirk actually said or did? I don’t know how you can portray someone who created a “professor watchlist” as a free speech champion or how someone who said vile things about minorities and immigrants was being civil.

A montage of Charlie Kirk: Roll that footage…

"Charlie Kirk died as he lived: propagating hateful myths about marginalized groups in our society. He was both a profiteer and architect of America’s increasingly violent culture war. He spent his entire adult life pouring fuel on the fire. You reap what you sow." To Hell With Charlie Kirk