HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY TO MEEEEEE! Buy my book because I can (unfortunately) guarantee that you will need it someday. And if you have to figure this stuff out, you might as well laugh about it while you learn. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789600...

NPR's Jan. 6 archive brings together reporting, video, documents and testimony to show what really happened during the Capitol riot. Explore the timeline, cases and evidence behind the attack.

5 spots left in my January class!

5 spots left in my January class!

January

If you’re a flash writer, please come join @smokelong.bsky.social’s The Village With All The Flash Writers. And make sure you read the inimitable Zach Doss’s story on which the name of this new community is based. I’ll link it in the thread.

“I’m honored to be your ancestor and believe that disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”

An old friend of mine lost her husband just before Christmas, and this is a link to a fundraising auction for any golfers out there. It also should have a link in the comments to her GoFundMe if you’re able, and thank you!

Craft piece for all the writers solo road-tripping back home after the holidays. lithub.com/karen-palmer...

I've started a page at Bookshop to share some recommendations and favorites! Stop by!

His author photo. Now to write the book.

Also my son (earnestly): I didn’t know Larry David made pasta.

When my teenage son gets mad at me, he calls me “Mr. TED-Talk.” It is so hurtful & funny.

"Did you see what Mark Cuban posted? Oh did you see the clapb—" You shake yourself awake in the cold North Atlantic water. You are not online. It is July of 1858. You are a baleen whale, and you have changed your mind. The future most not come to pass. The telegraph cable must break.

During covid I did poetry workshops and I’ve had interest in doing it again. February seems like a good time to add creativity to our lives so if there’s enough interest I’ll do two workshops of 5 people each. The price for 6 weeks will be 10 dollars for costs and you can reserve a spot for 5 down.

Thinking of you tonight, the very sad. I like to stand outside & shiver a little until my mind empties itself. Maybe you have your own thing. Here’s hoping you have access to it.

How many of us the library has saved!

One more reason a book makes a great gift? It imagines a future where the receiver has the bandwidth & alone-time to enjoy it.

a love that dares rip / open the chest to see what goes on singing. Dean Young

When you hear a midwesterner chuckle and say, "Never a dull moment around here!" it means Life has deeply wronged them in some way & they are actively plotting revenge.

My 16-year-old is on the Massachusetts attorney general's youth council. Last night, he got to tour the state capitol & stand on the balcony overlooking the holiday lights of the Boston Common. This moment is a long, long way from where he began: www.themanifeststation.net/2016/12/30/t...

Is it awards season for horror writers? This is a contender

Some sunlight

"FRAMING NATURE is a smart, beautifully illustrated examination of Grand Canyon imagery as it became an ever-more-crystallized view in our collective consciousness," writes Josh Garrett-Davis for the Journal of Arizona History. Order your copy: bit.ly/4oLi3Z6

If you are in a position to join, please consider becoming a supporting member of @literaryhub.bsky.social. To say that their work is invaluable to the literary community is an understatement. Every day I read something there that edifies, informs, & entertains. lithub.memberful.com/join

If you are in a position to join, please consider becoming a supporting member of @literaryhub.bsky.social. To say that their work is invaluable to the literary community is an understatement. Every day I read something there that edifies, informs, & entertains. lithub.memberful.com/join

Whatever embarrassing thing you’re afraid of—someone else has already done far worse. Whatever shame you think might end you socially—someone else has survived it, transgressed it, transfigured it into the stuff of personal growth.

This year I wrote stories I've been sitting on for years, stories I didn't know I had in me & even 2 essays. The publishing gods were kind. This might be my favorite. Without all of u, I wouldn't even know where to send stories or how to write them. Thank you 🙏 newworldwriting.net/fancy-thomps...

This will be a great event! Happening today!

Let’s work together in January! This online workshop is for writers at all levels. Join me to get reacquainted with yourself & your practice. We will write, share, & draw inspiration from another.

Let’s work together in January! This online workshop is for writers at all levels. Join me to get reacquainted with yourself & your practice. We will write, share, & draw inspiration from another.

If you need a little digital reconnection to the pulse of the living Earth, here are about 200 sandhill cranes winging south over Atlanta this afternoon. Their voices have echoed across this continent for at least 5 million years. Hopefully 5 million more

Listening to this podcast is likely your only chance to hear me read my book’s title poem, which is struggle to get through without choking up

Whatever embarrassing thing you’re afraid of—someone else has already done far worse. Whatever shame you think might end you socially—someone else has survived it, transgressed it, transfigured it into the stuff of personal growth.

War is peace.

I'm extremely proud of this essay about the Eaton Fire, the Aurora Borealis, my ex-husband destruction of family photo albums, and what we make of loss. "Destruction, creation—the universe requires both. Sometimes, if we’re very lucky, the aftermath is poetry." tinyurl.com/muzj7and

Every so often, I come across an essay by Steve Edwards @the-big-quiet.bsky.social and keep a tab open until I have time to read it with care. Here, a writer‘s thoughts on libraries, community, generosity, time… lithub.com/on-the-infin...

Join me (& many other wonderfully talented writers) on Saturday for a free virtual speedwriting workshop at Larksong Writers Place! Details here: larksongwritersplace.org/Events/Onlin...

"Implicit in the bargain was permission to do with that time whatever the kid saw fit. No educational goal had to be attained. Nothing had to be learned... The exchange itself carried value for having happened. It taught that kid a lesson in the nature of generosity."

Free third spaces are threatened & @the-big-quiet.bsky.social illustrates why libraries remain vital to the social fabric in another beautiful essay.

Been looking forward to @robertmoor.com’s newest for a few years now! Publishes early April.

Another morning with Rilke (and the unreachable) "It is as if whatever I truly receive falls too deeply into me, falls, falls for years and in the end I lack the strength to lift it out of me and I walk about fearfully with my heavily laden depths and never reach them."  To Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1903

This came to me in a dream

I'm so grateful to everyone who read and shared this yesterday. Against the loudness and cruelty we're surrounded by, I wanted to write something quietly abiding that seeks to recognize how we care and make space for one another. To me, the library embodies that.

"The sounds of play and connected chatter wasn’t an interruption of my work but a reminder of its purpose." Steve is such a wonderful writer, it's always a treat to read him.

Look I've been suicidal & not only that I've come to terms with the fact I'll always struggle with suicidal ideation. Those feelings crest & peak & people commit the act opportunistically at a low, when if they'd stuck around they'd see they felt better just a bit later. So yes ChatGPT is killing.

Why a library’s “most abundant resource” isn’t books, but time.

I feel like so much of what I read on here takes away, but this is restorative; a gift. I needed so many different parts of this essay.

Kandinsky on the spiritual element in art and the 3 responsibilities of the artist www.themarginalian.org/2014/06/02/k...