More on this—quite a lot more on this—soon, but in the meantime: If you're a writer of fiction (and/or maybe simply a writer or a person), you really need to preorder @elizmccrack.bsky.social's A Long Game, which is both enthralling and inspiring. (And sharp as a stiletto.)

I just think it’s cool when someone who isn’t an elderly racist wins

The matchup we've been waiting for.

Two local stories, four days apart: Greg Abbott sends his goons out to "clean" homeless encampments in Austin; homeless people get pushed into creeks, creeks flood, homeless people drown. The governor of Texas literally is literally, intentionally, flushing the unhoused down the sewers.

I am chuffed to the point of unpleasantness to have a story in this year's Best American Short Stories, chosen by the wonderful @pronounced-ing.bsky.social!

This morning the American Express representative thanked me for several decades of membership, & my "love and trust." You misunderstand our relationship, thought I.

I like a president who doesn't have the time *or* inclination to weigh in on the choice of Super Bowl halftime performer.

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Hello! I am teaching a course for the splendid American Short Fiction MFA for All, on physicality in fiction. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. Kevin Wlson & Tommy Orange are also teaching! Deadline to sign up for my class is 10/5. americanshortfiction.org/mfa-for-all/

An amazing graph, what happens when you destigmatize a behavior.

A thread on the illegality of the Texas Tech president’s letter banning reference to more than two genders. We saw a similar confusion of EO’s with law and a similar overriding of free speech and academic freedom in the Texas A@M case.

Hello! I am teaching a course for the splendid American Short Fiction MFA for All, on physicality in fiction. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. Kevin Wlson & Tommy Orange are also teaching! Deadline to sign up for my class is 10/5. americanshortfiction.org/mfa-for-all/

I have to Zoom into a class & be a head on a screen on a wall, which always reminds me of this excellent ad for prunes starring Ray Bradbury (written & narrated by Stan Freberg). www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Also, a public service message rightly reminding us that escalators are terrifying and may gobble up your child. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirp...

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

The cartoons published upon Walt Disney’s death in 1966 double nicely as cartoons about the present Jimmy Kimmel situation.

It's over. No way Mandami comes back from this one.

can a Magic 8-Ball suffer? we interviewed a few, and the answers may surprise you! REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD IT IS CERTAIN SIGNS POINT TO YES BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW

Texas Republicans are holding a Black woman, a Democratic state rep, hostage in the legislative chamber. They have locked the doors and have banned her from leaving.

Instagram suggested that I might like to purchase this Prada straw visor, the most expensive, depressing piece of headgear of all time. To be worn, apparently, with sequins and a yellow raincoat.

Hello! This fall I am working with the excellent folks at American Short Fiction as part of their MFA for all online program (alongside the wonderful Tommy Orange and Kevin Wilson). You can study with one or all of us or even 2/3rds. americanshortfiction.org/mfa-for-all/

"The humanities tell us who we are. Without them, we're automata." Edward Carey, Celsius 232 Festival, Avilés, Spain.

Left Texas. Currently in Madrid.

As promised: when I picked up my copy of Loving Day from BookPeople, they had stuck a sticker with my last name on the spine, over @matjohnson.bsky.social's. I have left it there ever since. It makes me laugh, as though I am lazily insisting I wrote this brilliant book.

Yvette Benavides reflects on the power of short fiction to convey what we might not have the words for. "Birdsong from the Radio" is from the collection The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken. Read More👉 www.tpr.org/podcast/book-pu...

Never vote for a bill that causes you to look like this afterwards:

How could people even believe that there IS such a thing as a child crisis actor? I WAS a child actor. We are not that good. Ever seen a school play?

Gonna take this to the airport to see where it will take me. (Haven't lived at that address for 25 years.)

It's the 50th anniversary of Jaws, yes, but it's also the 50th anniversary of Mr. Jaws. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDNl...

There is good news in this world: at one of my favorite places in Austin, the recycling depot, I went to the scrap metal station and asked where to put my metal hangers, and the guy said, "No! More! Metal! Hangers!"

i have nothing but contempt for a Democratic Party that supports Cuomo

Literally "war is peace."

I cannot emphasize this enough that for YEARS: -trans women played various women’s sports. -trans kids got medical assistance as they and their parents needed. -trans folk could get accurate documents. -trans folk used the bathrooms that felt appropriate. AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED.

Hand to God, somebody told me that while at Yale, the VP of these United States was known as Vivian Vance. I can think of no better time than now to exclusively refer to him this way.

This book is so brilliant and encouraging, even if you are not a fiction writer or even, for that matter, a writer, but love thinking about words and books. "Did I say that real life occurs in the present tense? I don't believe that. We live in a great simultaneity." [email protected]

Just to be clear: I have no intention of eating it myself. It's for someone else.

Disrespected my mother's memory this morning by buying a French-toast flavored bagel.

I stand with salamanders, & against authoritoads.

ChatGPT is down but The Museum of English Rural Life still stands, proving once again that Silicon Valley cannot compete with the history of rural England and its people.

A new book from @elizmccrack.bsky.social is cause for celebration! 🎉 Get an up-close look at her brilliant, delightfully idiosyncratic, & uber-funny notes on writing fiction in A LONG GAME, coming Dec. 2 from @eccobooks.bsky.social. Pre-order: www.harpercollins.com/products/a-l...

I am going through old boxes, because I'm moving both soon & eventually (have to teach in the fall) and have found many oddities which I will share here, but first I wish to report something I'd forgotten: My old pal Jeff Conant had a band called Nebuchadnezzer Pez Dispenser.

Went with my kid to see Dr. Strangelove which has somehow become a documentary.

My coolest colleague.

It’s hard to put into words just how comprehensively this bill is going to hurt public colleges and universities in Texas—especially UT.

Here's my ten-minute presentation on supporting creative writers in libraries, which is part of the American Library Association's "If We Could Have Just Ten Minutes of Your Time" series. There are some other awesome presentations in this webinar too, check them out!