This free talk on the 14th is going to be epic—and many many thanks to @pronounced-ing.bsky.social and @sugi.bsky.social and @atticalocke.bsky.social for doing it! And additional thanks to Ng for spilling the beans on her secret life as a true Minnesotan! mspmag.com/arts-and-cul...

Opinion | The U of M is ailing. If only we had a doctor. www.startribune.com/university-o...

NEW EPISODE: Writer @motherslug.bsky.social joins co-hosts @sugi.bsky.social and Whitney Terrell to talk about her recent article for @currentaffairs.bsky.social “Thomas Pynchon Saw American Fascism Coming.” @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/ana-gavrilov...

With English Prof @sugi.bsky.social author of the novel Brotherless Night:

I'm so excited to come talk in Minneapolis next week! See you then, @sugi.bsky.social and @atticalocke.bsky.social!

NEW EPISODE: Psychologist, behavioral geneticist and writer Kathryn Paige Harden joins co-hosts @maritza4770.bsky.social and Whitney Terrell to discuss Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/kathryn-paig...

NEW EPISODE: Author Ellie Roscher joins co-hosts @sugi.bsky.social and @maritza4770.bsky.social to talk about her recent book, Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/ellie-rosche...

NEW EPISODE: Novelist Jeff Boyd joins co-hosts @sugi.bsky.social and Whitney Terrell to talk about his new work of literary crime fiction, Hard Times, which is set in Chicago, where he lived previously. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/jeff-boyd-on...

So excited to see this year's Carol Shields Prize Longlist!

Don't miss this timely episode!

I'm excited to be in conversation with the brilliant @ninamcconigley.bsky.social about her latest book, "How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder," at Plymouth Library on March 7th. Register here! hclib.bibliocommons.com/events/69657...

NEW EPISODE: Novelist, essayist, and educator Brian Platzer joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss his new novel, The Optimists, which follows private school teacher Mr. Keating over three decades. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/brian-platze...

NEW EPISODE: Writer and editor Yi-Ling Liu joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and Jennifer Maritza McCauley to talk about state-controlled censorship and what it means to build community online despite surveillance and suppression. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/yi-ling-liu-...

NEW EPISODE: Novelist Eleanor Shearer joins co-hosts @sugi.bsky.social and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new novel, Fireflies in Winter, about the Leeward Maroons of Jamaica—a free Black community—who came to Nova Scotia in the late 1700s. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/eleanor-shea...

ICE/CBP have taken at least 3 Columbia Heights students and 25 families(it’s a small suburb) and they’re staging *in the school parking lot* www.kare11.com/article/news...

Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti —from human rights scholars affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program in the College of Liberal Arts. cla.umn.edu/human-rights...

Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti —from human rights scholars affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program in the College of Liberal Arts. cla.umn.edu/human-rights...

“Please get the truth out about our son.” Read and share the statement from the parents of Alex Pretti, the VA ICU nurse who was shot and killed by border patrol.

"Liam, age 5, was the fourth child in the district to be detained by immigration agents in the past two weeks, school officials said. "Two of them are high-schoolers. "One is a 10-year-old girl who was apprehended on her way to school..." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

I met an absolutely lovely academic who asked whether my department back home is affected by ICE -- a question dramatizing how little info is getting out. For the record, the small example I chose: My dept has a carpool to pick up grad students of color who can't safely commute to campus alone.

NEW EPISODE: Performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar Jessica Lopez Lyman @uminnpress.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about Minnesota’s history with state violence and local resistance. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/jessica-lope...

The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality. - James Baldwin

The UMN Twin Cities AAUP calls on the university to reduce operations on Friday, January 23rd to allow members of the university community the time and space to exercise their fundamental right to free speech on a day of deep importance to our community. www.umn-tc-aaup.org/day-of-truth...

Noticing even in work meetings that, while most people might end the meeting with "Have a good one" or "See you soon," people in Minneapolis reflexively stay, "Stay safe"

While many of you are likely yelling "GO INDIANA!" or "GO MIAMI!" I'm yelling "GO AAUP and academic freedom!"

“Like the agent who slipped on ice, they have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people … who’ve decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin.” ❤️‍🔥

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have basically mobilized into a war economy of mutual aid and non-violent defense. I’ve never seen anything like it, even during Covid. People who barely vote are guarding their schools from ICE and doing the shopping for neighbors in hiding.

A Minneapolis man died in El Paso after being abducted by ICE www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

the spoons are gone and I am now on sporks and fpoons.

Please take care of each other, but again, the harm is not necessarily bad harm, because many of our biggest donors are deeply enmeshed in it. Perhaps the harm is more of an opportunity for care and a learning experience."

Please take care and be flexible as you navigate difficult but morally ambiguous factors that we can not name. Our community is resilient, but we are resilient about things that we don't necessarily oppose, but respectfully observe and experience.

U of M statements right now all read like: "This is a time of great stress and uncertainty. Many community members are concerned about events that we view as neither good or bad but as potentially neutral depending on your perspective.

Insomuch as there's a point to these articles, it's worthwhile to note that so many politicians that only represent the Twin Cities are fighting for us (not all, Jacob!) while those who represent the state refuse to draw the line that under no circumstances are you allowed to invade Minneapolis.

I love the bait. I gotta have it. A dollar bill attached to a fishing line? All mine. A carrot dangled in front of my face while on a treadmill? Call me Usain Bolt. A delicious cheeseburger under a cardboard box held up by a precarious stick? You know I'm there.

One of the stories that makes me the saddest out of this ICE invasion is one out of the Minnesota Star Tribune today about ICE agents eating at a little Mexican restaurant in the small town of Willmar, Minn, —and then, when they were done, arresting some of the workers.

Highlighting this one in particular because I know that many, many, many Minneapolis-area instructors are struggling with how to make classes that were going to be fully in person work in a hybrid format (to support students who aren’t safe coming to campus).

Two things that I have not successfully conveyed to people without deep Minnesota ties are the scale and extent of the ICE occupation (a word I don't use lightly), and likewise of the community resistance.

NEW EPISODE: Award-winning writers and longtime friends @vauhinivara.bsky.social and Karan Mahajan join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss Vara’s recent New Yorker essay “What If Readers Like AI-Generated Fiction?” @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/vauhini-vara...

NEW EPISODE: Bestselling and award-winning writer @matthewpearlauthor.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss his new novel The Award. Pearl explores imposter syndrome, external validation, and cultural prizes. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/matthew-pear...

Asking this seriously: has Bari Weiss ever in her career reported out an investigative story?

NEW EPISODE: Acclaimed fiction writer and long-time creative writing professor Elizabeth McCracken joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss her ninth book and first volume about craft, A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/elizabeth-mc...

Apply to work in our great creative writing program! The Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities campus) invites applications for the Edelstein-Keller Endowed Visiting Writer Chairship: hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/371...

I was delighted to sit down with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and discuss the German language launch of Brotherless Night. www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/stimme-aus-s...

So pleased to see "What We Hunger For," an anthology of diasporic writers on food and longing which I contributed to, featured in Lavender Magazine. lavendermagazine.com/our-lives/a-...

also still thinking of இலங்கை post-Ditwah. 💔 (what am I working on these days? a series of 💔 posts, apparently, since at present my hands, pretty wrecked this whole fall, will permit.)

Also thinking of the community at Brown, an institution that has undeniably shaped my life despite the fact that I have never taught or studied there, as *so many* of my friends and family and beloved work colleagues have spent time in Providence. 💔

NEW: We filed a motion to stop the Justice Department from accessing Maryland’s entire voter file as part of their effort to create a national voter database. We've now taken legal action in eight states to protect voters' sensitive information from being weaponized by the Trump administration.

rob reiner made so much art that I loved. thinking of his community. 💔

can someone explain what is going on between martin bakery and marino's bakery in toronto? inquiring tamil minds outside the GTO would like to know— #muttonrolls