“This is not just a family disagreement about tradition and loyalty, but a battle between those who favor a single story of Malaysia and those willing to accept complexity.”

Hi sister!!!

“Beyond the superstructural loneliness, I was interested in using horror movies to talk about hunger for connection.”

Math for art majors: your body + mine = 69

Laura Vazquez's answers to these questions about tTHE ENDLESS WEEK are wonderful, definitely worth scrolling all the way down! With thanks to @electricliterature.com electricliterature.com/3-debut-nove...

I think I like this little life :) ❤️

Didn’t Taylor Swift write a song about this?

Croatia is a land of abundant beauty, delectable cheese, and enormous upheaval in the recent past.

“We live in a time when standards of masculinity are being dictated to us by deeply problematic men.”

Think you got a BINGO!? Find out with the full bingo card at the link! buff.ly/BGy3gNl

The survival of literary magazines like Electric Lit—an independent, nonprofit publication that is completely free to read—is far from guaranteed. Help us meet our fundraising goal so that we can keep people reading!

“I have always had a gut reaction to credit card debt the way some people might feel about, say, ebola.” buff.ly/5wKvjvj

There is no greater betrayal than when the body that houses you fails you.

Big spoon, little spoon, or middle spoon?

Our sponsor, the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation—located in the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the nation—will hold a virtual Open House information session, December 4, 5–6 PM. Click for Zoom info! buff.ly/ympMvf8

A memoir about resisting other men’s notions of manliness and finding the humor in it all. (@adamjfarrer.bsky.social) (@krajewskib.bsky.social)

A bingo card for those navigating life as an older writer (by R.L. Maizes the Elder @rlmaizes.bsky.social) buff.ly/BGy3gNl

“When I ask my mother what it was like, in the orphanage, her face closes down, the way it always does when conversations drift toward the war.”

“I wanted to say this is the best way to celebrate death. But I couldn’t say that, could I?”

“It is lazy to look at a fat body and assume you already know the whole story.” buff.ly/Pjmg50s

Let’s cancel everyone!! Jkjk haha look at this book list (allietagledokus.bsky.social)

National Book Award finalist and renowned middle child Alejandro Varela tells us about being gay while heartbroken (@drovarela.bsky.social) buff.ly/oW5GR6Q

“In his eyes, thirty-three is too old to sob like a baby. At that moment, I am reminded of the differences between our definitions of manhood.”

Authority has become less like a marble statue and more like a quilt—provisional, hand-stitched, showing its seams. The Obsessive Investigation books don’t deliver meaning from on high; they show meaning getting made. (@strangeclarity.bsky.social)

Creating a rich tapestry of LGBTQ+ stories that break stereotypes and show the beauty of all types of families.

Books about famous people that brim with complexity and charm.

A story about a whole life spent as a fabulous queer club kid. (@mbsycamore.bsky.social) (@iamlisako.bsky.social)

"I can’t think of any other American novel that traces the AIDS pandemic to the early months of the COVID pandemic w/as much heart, humor, & radical style" Thanks to @iamlisako.bsky.social for a stunning intro to this excerpt @electricliterature.com, thank you💞 electricliterature.com/terry-dactyl...

Is "performative reading" a thing? What book have you seen people reading in public the most?

“My classroom was on the first floor, next to the nuns’ lounge. I used their bathroom to puke in the mornings.”

"When I blow out my solar-powered, flame-free soy candles, I wish for the same thing I have for the past five years:" (@McSweeneys.net)

What better reprieve is there than to revel in the wreckage of white pieties?

"You like it when I hurt you in the dark.” buff.ly/yPtyI5W

"He supports rent freezes for all, especially for Mets fans." (@mcsweeneys.net)

“Perhaps our starkest divide is between those who own property and those who can’t.”

Political imagination is a free space that no one can occupy.

“Professor Fulton Mathis’s vehicular misadventure had been devastating for him, but the university had taken it in stride.”

“All of it is related, the activism and the politics and the situation happening in Egypt and what’s going on in Palestine, everything going on in America right now.”

“Readers drawn to this list will find a clearer sense of what it means not merely to have a psychiatric disorder but to live with a mind that persists in pain.”

Anyone else feeling newly #hopeful this week? 💡 📖 💕🧠

“These characters are not good people—that’s part of the fun.”

“The thing about being from Queens is that when you leave Queens you realize there’s no other place in the world like it.”

When your commitment to the church is lukewarm, even after you’ve been dead for hundreds of years.

Time to polish up your essays! 📝 ⚡ 💡 Electric Literature will open for submissions in ✨Personal Narrative✨ on Monday, December 1! All submissions will be accepted through our Submittable page. Portal closes at 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, December 14, or when we receive 500 submissions.

Novels about what it means to see your homeland become unrecognizable or disappear altogether.

“If parents refused to give up their disabled children, authorities would threaten to take their other children away and commit the parents to forced labor unless they complied.” (catharinacoenen.bsky.social)

"As a dictator, there’s no limit. Your power is boundless. Some political figures in the West admire that."

“The most excruciating part of Carrie is the brief moment she’s happy… She dances with Tommy, as they kiss, as she rests her head against his shoulder. She doesn’t know there’s a bucket of pig’s blood teetering in the rafters. She asks Tommy why he brought her to the dance.”

"Sundays Are for Yard Work" by Kate Brody, selected as one of the the 2025 Best Small Fictions anthology! Help us celebrate by reading the piece, on our site now!

These authors explore how the betrayals of their own bodies and minds opened up new possibilities for them. (@tiffanygrahamcharkosky)