A wonderful, thoughtful, dreamlike piece by @andrewbertaina.bsky.social ❤️

Looks like a great event at our local independent bookstore @peoplesbooktakoma.com on Thursday, May 28. Congrats @carabensonwriter.bsky.social on your book! You can see her in conversation with @marthaannetoll.bsky.social peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/armsfu...

I’ve proposed AWP panels many times over the years and have never been selected, so this year in Chicago, I’ll be giving my TED talk in a bar at a table over drinks. It’s going to go something like this. Fit your damn art into your own damn life any way that makes you feel something big, and

So excited to finally get to this!!!Lauren’s such a fantastic short story writer and this is just what my Sunday needs. @ladiwoods.bsky.social

Have been at work for several months on a Frankenstein-inspired story that is now quite the Frankenstein story, which I should have seen coming! Have deconstructed and rebuilt more times than I can count. Hoping to get it right soon, feeling like poor Victor.

I hope we can all agree that as doctors, dental offices, other places start having AI bots answer their phones, they will quickly lose their customers. There is no way in the fresh dystopia I’m keeping a doctor or dentist who does that.

Feels good to keep increasing the money I put into my local economy. Buying more books directly from small presses, buying my coffee beans from the local shop, farmers markets, doing our small parts. Bezos doesn’t need our money.

Emptiest flight of my entire life. This is us at takeoff!

Can we all just declare bankruptcy on emails, call it a loss, give up on responding to anything anymore, and start over? I want to go full analog. Will respond to messenger pigeons.

Atlanta,Ga in the golden hour. First time in the city.

12 today: Do people get drunk on wine? I feel like you just sip it elegantly. Do people drink it to get drunk? Probably only if you’re a millennial.

Can’t stop reading & thinking about Kingsnorth, and his history of the Industrial Revolution uprooting old ways & thinking ab the tech revolutions everyone is embracing now & the extremely different impacts on rich/poor.

Yes, pretty much this.

Incredible honor for this former (forever) Texan now in DC to receive the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction from the TX Institute of Letters. Thx to my publisher @autumnhouse.org and to Sergio, for writing his own books & helping other authors making their way.

At the airport, watching this lady sitting alone look up, see CNN’s headline ab the Pulp Fiction prayer, obviously news to her, and start laughing her ass off.

Seriously awesome conversation here between @ladiwoods.bsky.social and Will Rose wordsonawire.org/episodes/lau...

Spring is here, indoor pools are open and non-torturous! Grateful to swim with the kids after work and to get some much-needed exercise in. It’s about the only way lately.

It’s taken me a long time to realize the best writing feedback almost never gives you the answer. It leads you toward knowing how to find the answer. (She writes in the midst of heavy revisions)

Their last year of elementary together, the last year of dropping them off together until high school, last few months of double window hearts before 12 goes to middle school. It really goes by in a flash

Dorothy Rowena Rice reviews The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe, a story collection by @ladiwoods.bsky.social, in our latest issue:

When I was younger, I was always pleasant. Now in my 40s, I’m still pleasant but occasionally burn bridges. I’ve burned 1-2 this year as a natural consequence of being a little firmer and more honest. I think this is probably the right amount for right now.

Thrilled to welcome @ladiwoods.bsky.social to Writers’ Commons this month, a DC-based writing community where we highlight a local author, discuss craft, and write together. Want to join? DM me!

Happy birthday to @andrewbertaina.bsky.social! Husband, dad, writing professor, sports coach, author, community organizer, and carpool driver extraordinaire!

Congrats to Lauren D. Woods: Her debut collection has been named a finalist for the 2025 Foreword INDIES Finalist for Short Stories! Read all about it: www.forewordreviews.com/awards/books... @ladiwoods.bsky.social #indie #finalist #bookprize #shortstories

My second-grade son and all his boy buds just decided as a group to sign up for the sewing club at school and I’m so here for it 🪡🧵

Joke’s on you, scammer! My actual child would never send me a text that polite.

writer.org/event/publis... The @thewriterscenter.bsky.social does put on a good conference! Looking forward to this one in less than a week and speaking with other writers ab small presses & lit mags.

I don’t usually do the shoutouts, but this guy has been burning the candle at both ends while we’ve navigated multiple doctors appointments, a child’s broken finger, 4 sick children, a child’s oral surgery, sports, grading. Oh, and that was just this week. @andrewbertaina.bsky.social is a real one.

Taught a generative workshop with @autumnhouse.org in Pittsburgh today and so much fun to see the talent & share stories from @nickreesgardner.bsky.social @taracampbell.bsky.social @whitneycollins.bsky.social @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social & see what they inspired

"I am obsessed with the idea of escape and didn’t realize it until I wrote this collection." Thanks to the Pittsburgh Review of Books and Devan Murphy for this wonderful interview with AHP's Lauren D. Woods! @ladiwoods.bsky.social @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social

Child at home with a broken finger, broke my computer, lost my glasses, got halfway to Pittsburgh & had to stop for the night… I keep hoping for the perfect conditions for the writing life, but this is the one & only messy life we get. Anyway come say hi if you’re in Pittsburgh tomorrow!

Really wish DC schools would reevaluate having SO many presentations for parents to attend during the working day, particularly when many of us have recently lost the ability to work remotely or have any flexibility to attend. It just ups the pressure and disappointment even more.

we’ll always have bad bunny

Pittsburgh, join us next Friday for a generative writing workshop at the AHP office: "Expanding Your Range in Short Stories: From Realism to Surrealism," led by @ladiwoods.bsky.social

Next week, 02/12/26 at 7 pm, join AHP authors Lauren D. Woods & Sherrie Flick at White Whale Books for Lauren's Pittsburgh launch for her collection, THE GREAT GROWN-UP GAME OF MAKE-BELIEVE. @ladiwoods.bsky.social @sherrieflick.bsky.social

New piece up with @inshortlit.bsky.social. They’re doing beautiful work, loved reading the other pieces. inshortjournal.com/lauren-d-woo...

I have reached the age now of whimsical earrings and clothing of natural fibers. What comes next? A shampoo or conditioner bar without plastic? I sure hope so. The world is alive and full of possibility.

Liam is in ICE custody and his health is deteriorating. Joaquin Castro says Liam is depressed, lethargic, sleeping excessively and barely eating, repeatedly asking about his mom, and when he can go home. He’s withdrawn and not the bright preschooler he was just days ago. LIAM NEEDS A DOCTOR 1/2

So excited to read with @sherrieflick.bsky.social in Pittsburgh in Feb. I love her stories! There is one ab Edith Wharton I was recounting to @andrewbertaina.bsky.social which is how you can tell I really love a piece. Ty @autumnhouse.org for the connection!

years and years of avoiding plain language and the active voice do make the choice to use it more impactful, I suppose

Oh, I thought of more: Spend time researching companies that enable ICE and spread the word about boycotts. Use your own positions of power and influence to chip away at the enablers too. And here’s a guide on how to do that:

Sister in South Africa sent me a family picture from the sunny beach today and why did she need to commit that kind of violence?

Reading in Fairfax tomorrow with these lovely people!

Someday 11 is going to be in her twenties and I’m going to be bored, and I’m just saying turnabout is fair play.

Okay so now at least 3 people very dear to me have or are permanently relocating from the US to other countries because of the political situation, and this is extremely real and extremely personal to me. Dammit we are still just one year into this.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." —MLK Jr.

Thanks to @electricliterature.com and Wendy J. Fox for featuring THE GREAT GROWN UP GAME OF MAKE-BELIEVE by @ladiwoods.bsky.social in their "15 Small Press Books You Don’t Want to Miss This Winter" list!

Saw the great KOK last night with @topefolarin.bsky.social moderating and while it was a wonderful conversation overall, one question really stuck out to me 1/4

Seeing Karl Ove read tonight at Politics and Prose in conversation with @topefolarin.bsky.social. This is going to be good!! @andrewbertaina.bsky.social was already talking about KOK on our second date.