The vaccine autism thing is bullshit but even if you believed it, it seems incredibly fucked up to then believe that raising child death rates is some sort of worthwhile trade-off to reduce autism rates

This is what they've done.

by the way, that book boyfriend song on the clock app is AI. just so you know.

One of the goals this year is to treat social media more like how we used to “go on the computer” in the olden days: brief and concentrated instead of diffuse over the course of the day

In less than a year, Authors Against Book Bans has made an impact on the fight for the freedom to read by helping to transform individual passion, talent, hard work, and money into collective action. On top of some big election wins, here are some highlights from the year!

Hello all, I'm sure some here are wondering why I've gone quiet lately. The TL;DR: I have Polycystic Kidney Disease for a long time. This year, I was pregnant and gave birth prematurely. And while dealing with the baby's NICU stay, a nephro told me I will need a kidney transplant in 4 years. +

If you want to call but feel awkward talking to a person, it's worth noting today is a day you're very likely to get their voicemail. Fill their inboxes.

Left a message for your office this morning with the keywords "impeach" and "remove." Are those the checks you plan to put on this president?

hi yes, send us your fiction and poetry!! it feels like just yesterday that ash and MR and I were saying "if we started a magazine we could do this and that and ooo—but haha jk we won't do that... unless..." and now here we are!! OTHERSIDE's debut year! I'M EMOTIONAL 😭

And again, this resonates with what Team Fight is demanding Dems do about Trump once they take power back—this is the equivalent of a Day One executive order from the next president repealing all of Trump's executive orders and announcing that his ballroom will be razed.

I was wondering what Mamdani's first executive order would be, and I'm not disappointed by this. He has wiped off the books EVERY Eric Adams executive order issued on or after September 26, 2024, the day Adams was indicted on federal bribery charges.

Good night, Bluesky.

It's the 1290s. You're at university in Paris. Your cousin wants you to attend late-night secret alchemy lectures. You join a very intense theology reading group instead. They keep talking about "Bearing the Good Fruit." What's the worst that could happen? kaleidotrope.net/winter-2026/...

this was very good

[screaming at the top of my lungs, once again] the fundamental technology of humanity is care

Again,

In America, where irony is dead, a hotel chain uses a policy denying shelter to local people, for fear of accidentally housing homeless persons… To deny a reservation to the author of a much-lauded book on how American economic unfairness forces working people into homelessness.

A lot of writers have busted their butts all year to publish great fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism. Consider sharing their work today. Consider what you send people's attention to.

just dropping this image for anyone who needs it - whoever the original creator is, please tell me so i can credit you and also send you blessings

if we ever run concurrent again, it won't, as some feared, consist of panels about the evils of AI. but if you use genAI, you're not welcome. concurrent stands with labor organizers and genAI is inherently exploitative and anti-labor. (among many other things.)

If you're wondering whether the "open letter about AI" on file 770 is worth reading and engaging, it is not. The whole thing is rhetorical mush so it was no surprise when I got to the end and she admitted "her" letter was itself written by AI. Useless bait.

You may have heard there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese. However, in California, the Pacific Ocean flows with champagne and shrimp.

"The girls' journey parallels that of their city in beautiful, bloody, haunting ways... this unity between self, place and history... seared When They Burned the Butterfly into my mind and made it my favorite book of 2025." to be read & seen; thank you @grimdarkmagazine.bsky.social ❤️

Readers loving Shesheshen and Homily has filled my life with brightness. But the truth is, a lot of really honkin' good books never get published. Wrong day, wrong editor, wrong mood, wrong breakfast. The lack of virtue in the system is why it's so important to lift up writers who touch your soul.

100% yes!!! The essay "We Are the Mountain" by @laviecestmoi.bsky.social gets into this; I'm constantly recommending it to folks because it's such an important reframing! psychopomp.com/fantasy/augu...

Treat a published work that was later divulged to be AI-generated the same way you would if you found out it was manually plagiarized from a different book. Same situation, just the plagiarism has been automated and averaged out a bit, and the plagiarist is also a scab and a cultural arsonist.

The only real way is to formally require divulging any degree of AI usage, in much the same way that we all already declare in contracts that out work is original. Plagiarists will simply lie here, but at least there are consequences when they're caught later. Establish those consequences as norms.

The only reasonable position is zero tolerance: the AI industry must end sooner rather than later. It is culturally, socially, environmentally, and economically destructive, and all the Silicon Valley marketing in the world isn't going to make it otherwise.

There is no ethical use of AI because the continued existence of the AI industry is directly harmful to (alongside everyone else) the interests of everyone whose labour makes books exist—writers of fiction & nonfiction, illustrators, translators, researchers, editors, everyone.

The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.

It's not what May means, but I always think of that college professor who told me it was time to stop writing Fantasy and move on to serious Literature.

Happy holidays and a blessed New Year unless you used A.I. to make your holiday cards then I hope it’s all terribly disappointing. ❤️

#Facts Repost : @qasimrashid.com

Bari Weiss claims she killed the CBS CECOT story because it lacked Trump’s perspective. 1. That’s a lie. Trump has publicly commented supporting CECOT. 2. Refusing to comment is their choice. They are no victim. 3. Killing a story to protect power is State Run Media. Drop CBS permanently.

“As a writer…you are the freest person that ever was.” Don’t let genAI ever take away this freedom.

Found the actual men in women's bathrooms assaulting women.

Both my physical and mental health are rough right now. Most days, the pain is overwhelming. If you'd like to do something for me? I have a request. Do something kind for someone else. Invite an extra person to holiday dinner. Donate to mutual aid. Help your sister pack. Anything for anybody.

So getting added to an "AI Hater" blocklist made me go yeah, genAI hater here, for life ✌️ So I made a thing XD Mainly made for a sticker, but it's on other stuff too. Threadless: artofelainetipping.threadless.com/designs/slop... TeePublic: www.teepublic.com/sticker/8510... #noai #humanmade

Clay letters from ancient Mesopotamia are alive with idiom, sayings, and everyday language that I love. Here are just a few random ones so you can enjoy them too.

my name is cow and wen its nite and when a star is shiyning brite and three wise men give me the nod i walk up close I lik the God

Thanks to @sfwa.org for being so responsive to concerns around the Nebula Awards and LLM use. The Nebula should honor human creativity, as the revised rules now state. However, we also don't want to see writers tripped up on eligibility or hit by witch hunts over minor LLM usage like spell check. 1/

As a disabled guy, I don't care that much about a few abled people faking disabilities. My concern lies with the myriad disabled people who have talked themselves into thinking they aren't disabled and hurt themselves over and over trying to stay invisible.

If it was inevitable, they wouldn't work so hard to convince you.

I won't talk about myself but I will certainly talk up my team ALL THE DAMN TIME. So here it is: ConCurrent's awards eligibility post.

Anyone who was lucky enough to attend some or all of Concurrent knows what an amazing and uplifting experience it was.

And just like that, SFWA capitulates. Keep fighting. It works.

Spell check existed long before genAI and in its most basic function is not genAI. Spell check is code. It's a function. It checks against a database of available words. Spell check in certain programs, however, may have been made worse by running it through genAI.

brb adding "gothic-flavored speculative menace" to my bio thanks for reviewing TBAB, arley!!

Too much life imitating too much art… :/

ProPublica is an important source of news. Management shouldn't jeopardize that with reckless LLM usage and mistreating their workers. A fair contract would keep them healthy.