"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 He’s withdrawn and not the bright preschooler he was just days ago.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.

“I wrote myself into a place where the question got more and more profound… I found myself less and less capable of giving a definitive answer. That’s not for an artist to do. You ratchet the question up, and you go, Yeah, that’s a tough one.” 💯 to this.

It's been said before, and by people more eloquent than me, but as a DV survivor, it makes me tremble to recognize everything these people are doing: the violence, the gaslighting, the emotional cruelty, the victim-blaming.

Thank you @100wordstory.bsky.social for this interview! Short and sweet, such a great idea for a series!

My last read of the year. Brilliant writing, but the thing that really strikes me about this collection is its stunning variety! I love Bear Sightings, The Shape Shifter and Proportions, but really I love them ALL. (Last few will be read tonight. 🕰️) @ladiwoods.bsky.social

Finally making my way through this delightful memoir. This prose @patriciacoral.bsky.social !!

Shocked, thrilled, all the things to find my book of stories on this long list. 😳

Never have small acts of human creativity mattered so much. Paint, draw, put on a play, write a song, learn an instrument, write a story (or a book!). The worst thing you ever make will be better than all this slop.

Feeling sad this week while traveling with 8 for medial needs and grateful for small kindnesses, like @andrewbertaina.bsky.social assembling a new bed for him while we’re gone. Need to get out of this early-dark, sleeting, Ohio gray weather and back to regular life.

Please help us congratulate our @bestmicrofiction.bsky.social nominees! @ladiwoods.bsky.social @robinwilder.bsky.social @amorak.bsky.social @kellathornton.bsky.social & @jeffreyhermann.bsky.social

Will someone pls invent an app that asks: Is this person on the train being annoying? And it sends push notifications to everyone around me and they can all vote yes.

Our cat maimed a mouse this morning and brought it into 8’s room and now we’re all traumatized. Happy Thanksgiving!!

My book is about a month old now. Thanks a million to those who have supported, come out, and recommended the book. If you enjoyed it and could leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, I would be grateful! Reviews are so important for smaller press books. Thank you!

Excited after years of submitting to have a piece forthcoming in @pinchjournal.bsky.social! Back to my CNF nonsense.

One of the best things ab literary community is reading the work of writers you admire. Read 2 essays this week by @danacann.bsky.social in @coloradoreview.bsky.social @andimyles.com in @michiganquarterly.bsky.social that were outstanding. Pls share your work! You never know who it will impact.

Most mornings leaving the house for 3 schools and 2 workplaces are rough. This one was particularly rough, involving a spilled tea kettle with hot water and some burns, a fallen shelf, and some tears all around. And that’s all before 8:30. The years are short and long and tough and good…

I have a baby essay in my submittable queue about to hit its third birthday! Next year, it can start preschool. (And yes, I only have it out at one place. No reason, just how it happened.)

I warned that private equity taking over Walgreens would be bad for workers. This is the private equity playbook: they hollow out businesses, cheat their workers, and drive them into the ground. Red Lobster, Toys "R" Us, and Joann Fabrics. Who’s next?

Just tried to make a funny comment to the woman next to me on the metro car but she just gestured that she couldn’t hear me and left her ear buds in. 🤷‍♀️ Modern life? Lol I’m sometimes just a chatty Texan living in the wrong part of the country.

The great thing about sadly unsubscribing from @washingtonpost.com since their editorial page went bonkers is rediscovering Libby and regularly reading @newyorker.com for free and getting great stories and long form content instead of scrolling.

Had no idea I followed so many midwesterners but hell yeah, thanks for those sky pics!

Please join Meg Pokrass and me for the PROSE GARDEN, Sat. November 15, 2 PM EST. Mario Aliberto III, Dawn Tasaka Steffler, Sumitra Singam, Coleman Bigelow, Keith J. Powell, Jeff Friedman, Christine H. Chen, Hugh Behm-Steinberg Please register here for zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Grateful to my old college paper at UT for an interview about my short story collection! Always great to visit Austin & speak with students.

Imagine dedicating your life to art—writing, painting, composing, whatever—and then you get online and some pro AI asshole is like, “If you hate AI you hate art.” Just…no. Shut the fuck up and go sit on a cactus.

Things that made me smile this week: Older woman approaches my 11 year old at grocery store yesterday, eyes her T-shirt. “Do you actually listen to the Velvet Underground?” Her: Yeah, sometimes Woman: Hell yeah! Rock on. *proud mom

Several hours of very intensive parenting is a great recipe for losing all executive function by bedtime.

Come out to @thewriterscenter.bsky.social Thursday next week in Bethesda to chat with @tomnavratil.bsky.social, Dine Watson, Elizabeth Bruce, and me to talk about unique paths to books and nurturing a writing life that works for you. writer.org/event/carvin...

Made a real mistake listening to 6 hours of Willie Nelson while road tripping through TX, it’s taking a few days to get that man’s voice out of my brain now. Gotta counter it with something v different.

Really missing this old place. Feels good to be back, if only for a visit.

Visiting family, staying in my old childhood bedroom in Texas. Pitch black morning, the familiar and comforting morning sound of a train honking in the distance. Making coffee, missing the dear sounds of childhood.

Looking forward to this Dallas event with @misternagel.bsky.social! Then off to Austin. Hope to see & meet other readers & writers while I’m in town!