Mitchell has a literary fire going in Southeast Michigan!

"What’s important to me isn’t to capture an experience so much as the emotional truth of an experience." @rsdeeren.bsky.social's interview with Valencia Robin on her new book “Lost Cities: Poems” (Persea Books) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/09/12/t...

I had the joy of speaking with Valencia Robin on her newest poetry collection, LOST CITIES, for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social Check out the brilliant insight below. Thanks to Gabriel Fried for putting us in contact.

Such an honor to be from a state that has a huge love for its own authors and books.

Preorders are live for this major anthology edited by Michael Welch. I am always stoked for work that shows honest aspects of the Midwest, especially the Great Lakes Region. Honored to be in these pages.

The team at Wayne State UP have told me that online sales of ENOUGH TO LOSE are still climbing. I don't know what is contributing to this boom 18 months after the book came out but I'm extremely grateful! My neighbor even told me she got a copy!

Real honored to sit down with Mitch at KicksART Farmington to discuss class, writing fiction, rural spaces, and of course THE THUMB. Coming this August!

And it's a brilliant piece!

I'll be discussing thr working-class, my book, and answering your questions live! See you there.

Wreckage and the Hollywood sign for the Poetry in Woods #AWP25 hike.

Started of #AWP25 right with eight street tacos and poetry talk with a fellow Thumbody.

They got totes! #APW

This may be my first #AWP with bluesky. I'm hoping to get fives of reactions to my silly posts. Excited for a handful of working-class panels!

I had another chance to speak with a wonderful poet. Gabriel Fried's recent collection is stunning, halting, and fantastic!

Oh yeah, forgot: this is my first ever CNF pub!

Thrilling Sunday news! I wrote a creative nonfiction piece that started as a memory of playing in the woods that quickly turned into a 150-year history of exploitation of stolen land in Michigan's Thumb. Excited for this essay to be at home in this anthology. Out next year from Belt Publishing!

I had the chance to talk to @rsdeeren.bsky.social about the journalism-fiction intersection, Michigan lit and other cool stuff.

John Counts had brilliant things to say about rural life, work, and writing. It was amazing getting to speak with him!

"Our inability to reconcile our impact on others is mirrored by our inability to reconcile our impact on each other." Spent the new year finalizing an essay that blended my ties to Michigan's ash trees, the Emerald Ash Borer, and my neighbor's AR-15.

An honor of a review for the book! "Enough to Lose is a masterclass in intergenerational midwestern gothic showcasing geographic space and time’s pull—on hopes, dreams, grief and loss."

Started a list of working-class and rural authors, for your ease of follow. Feel free to share and add to the list. bsky.app/profile/did:...

I'll never write a character better than the real-life bunny lady on IT'S FLORIDA, MAN.

Today's guest editor.

Today's guest editor

"Stories are holy and nutritious and crucial. Stories change lives; stories save lives.... They crack open hearts, they open minds." ~ Brian Doyle

First page of Hanif Abdurraqib's THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR. Amazing.

"There's no such thing as a born writer. It's a skill you've got to learn, just like learning how to be a bricklayer or a carpenter." ~ Larry Brown

Started a list of working-class and rural authors, for your ease of follow. Feel free to share and add to the list. bsky.app/profile/did:...

In the generative poetry workshop, students are scared to share the work they just wrote. So, I write bad, top-of-my-head poetry and have a laugh. An ice-breaker. A week later, the students are writing with confidence!

A stunner from @kristintenor.bsky.social

A weekend of writing AND videogames? Oh my god it's good to not be a grad student anymore.

Today's students devoured this poem by Kenzie Allen!

Great Lakes Region Writers: check out this CfP for a new Belt Publishing anthology edited by @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social EiC @mbwwelch.bsky.social

Got a bad review!

Brilliant time at #AWP24. Got to reunite with so many authors and talk working-class storytelling. Someone told me they didn't feel like they belonged until hearing my presentation. Hot dang. Also helped that I went backing a Michigan Notable Book with ENOUGH TO LOSE.

After my panel on class and storytelling at 1:45, I'll be signing copies of ENOUGH TO LOSE at the Wayne State UP Table at 3pm. Table 1219. There's gonna be vinyl stickers!

The #AWP fee is $250, $90 if you present. That's an expensive toteba---oh, wait.

Honored to get the shield for the MICHIGAN NOTABLE BOOK award for ENOUGH TO LOSE from the Library of Michigan.

Lionel Shriver's newest book promises to show just how stupid her Libertarian takes are by *checks notes* creating a fantasy world where "stupid" is the worst slur. She's the literary equivalent of the whitest person you know saying it's racist to call a racist a racist.

I interviewed @bonniejo.bsky.social for her new book, THE WATERS, for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. Check it out!

A thoughtful review of my debut: "... for those born in the region, the Thumbbody life chooses them — “Enough to Lose” reveals that the simple life is not so simple after all, and unravels the complexities of its characters’ lives with care and realism."

Real honored to have ENOUGH TO LOSE named a 2024 Michigan Notable Book alongside some brilliant people such as @curtischin.bsky.social, Ann Patchett, Ghassan Zeineddine, and Jack White!

A stunning review of ENOUGH TO LOSE by Jim Daniels: "Deeren’s lyricism and imagery are first-rate, often counterpointing brutality or offering insight into it.The vividness of the sensory detail here is impressive—I can smell these places, and their whiffs of despair..."

Hey everyone, it's my birthday year.

Real honored to see ENOUGH TO LOSE on another "favorites of 2023" list. Humbled to be mentioned in such good company as @kellylink.bsky.social, Vauhini Vara, Jamel Brinkley, and Yiyun Li.

"The way Deeren opens up these lives speaks to the gravity of our own." A lovely review of my debut!

Blown away to see ENOUGH TO LOSE is a 2023 favorite book for The Chicago Writers Podcast. What a surprise!

A student wrote their final for a comp class I teach on the essay "Cost of Living" by @emilyfmaloney.bsky.social and they said they, "finally felt seen." Moral: we don't know who's gonna need our words and when. Best to get them down and out in the world. Have a good day, my 10+/- followers.

Milwaukee and virtual friends. Come out to Woodland Pattern Book Center to celebrate ENOUGH TO LOSE in my favorite spot in the city. The livestream link is also below.

What a nice thing to say about ENOUGH TO LOSE!