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...

Sound your voice! I scale mountains or dive in the sea after you.

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

Please come work with us CNF writers! It is very cold but the food and community are great

Excited to see this important story in Tamil and also receiving award recognition! Congratulations to Shoba Sakthi and @ezi.asokan.org

NEW EPISODE: 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award winner Alison C. Rollins joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss her 2024 poetry collection Black Bell, which documents a bell-laden iron device used to torture enslaved people. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/maya-angelou...

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...

Shields Prize Auction • Today’s Spotlight: 📖❤️‍🩹 Brotherless Night Book Club with Shields Prize and Women’s Prize WINNER V.V. Ganeshananthan + Five copies 📚 Fab Fiction For All Ages: a selection or exciting recent fiction, some are signed!

Incredible to talk to @svenbeckert.bsky.social about his important new book, CAPITALISM

NEW EPISODE: Pulitzer Prize finalist Sven Beckert joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about his new book, Capitalism: A Global History. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/sven-beckert...

our next @fnfpodcast.bsky.social guest!

"though in all this reddened heaven and earth, desire reduces to reversal". From V.V. Ganeshananthan's @sugi.bsky.social. poem "the faithful scholar dreams of being exact" My version from the 2023 collection "Out of Sri Lanka" edited by Ravinthiran, Seneviratne and Trevett. #poetry

NEW EPISODE:Journalist @jacobsilverman.com joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about his new book, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley which discusses the rightward ideological shift among tech giants and their companies lithub.com/jacob-silver...

My novel, Brotherless Night, is a Literary Picks Best Deal Multiday Kindle Book. The ebook is $1.99 from now until 12/1! www.amazon.com/Brotherless-...

NEW EPISODE: Poet and essayist Kathryn Nuernberger joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about her new collection of lyric essays, Held: Essays in Belonging, which is about symbiotic mutualisms and climate grief/joy. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/kathryn-nuer...

@sugi.bsky.social Screengrab from X/Twitter ezi.asokan.org/2025/10/21/%...

NEW EPISODE: Translator @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai’s work. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/ottilie-mulz...

Does the smörgåsbord of your life feature administrative word salad? What is the most nothing response you have received to an attempt to generate action? (Yes, please consider this a contest with no prize but the gradual draining of the hourglass.)