“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” — James Baldwin

Being asked to remain 100% peaceful while absolutely bursting with rage has given me a more profound appreciation for everyone in this country who marched for civil rights.

Villain, thou know’st nor law of God nor man

It is impossible to overstate the relief felt by queer people when, in the midst of ever-present caution and uncertainty, they realize they are in a safe space. If you are an ally, please remember this when considering how clearly you need to signal your allyship. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

“We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.” — Milan Kundera, The Incredible Lightness of Being #sundaysentence

If I were trying to kill people, I’d make it harder for them to get vaccinated against disease, reduce funding for meteorological science in the face of increasingly destructive storms, and limit loopholes on the sale of weapons while simultaneously cutting resources for mental health programs.

“Mary Jane let go the curtain and wandered back to the blue chair, passing two heavily stocked bookcases without glancing at any of the titles.” — JD Salinger, “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” #sundaysentence

A restaurant called “Don’t fill up on that” where all we serve are the free bread courses from other restaurants. Cheddar Bay biscuits, chips and salsa, brown bread from Outback, breadsticks from the Olive Garden, and the servers are always all “now don’t fill up on this” and we all laugh and laugh

It would be amazing and so relatable if Pope Leo is actually a diehard Cubs fan but his brother told the world that he’s a White Sox fan just to mess with him.

For college professors, it’s nearly unbearable to look at this problem straight on. That’s how massive, and massively complex, it is. With all the issues facing higher ed right now, I think this one, coming from inside the house, poses the most profound, long term threat.

The devastating, shortsighted attack on literature continues. List from Magic City Books. Who'd they miss? Note: the small publishers selected here for financial attack include (among other very worthy and important presses) @transitbooks.bsky.social, publisher of 2023 Nobel laureate Jon Fosse.

I wondered what it would take for me to finally become unhinged. Now I know. It’s the quote below. To @electricliterature.com and every other essential, brilliant organization impacted by the NEA cuts, you are my parents and I am Batman.

NEW from me — National Endowment for the Arts rescinds grants, dazing publishers and theaters Arts orgs across the country saw their grants pulled with little explanation, while a proposed federal budget sought to eliminate the arts funding agency altogether. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

The silence you hear is the silence of thousands of future writers and musicians whose community arts programs were defunded today.

“I am not the kind of woman who dreams of doing things.” - Three Days in June, Anne Tyler #sundaysentence

If Biden, who is actually Catholic, posted a picture of himself as Pope there would be a thousand op-eds and cable news hits for months about how it was the most blasphemous thing an American president has ever done and we’d assume he had gone insane.

It is as we all suspected: he is not the man we elected. But still, it's staggering to see it laid out so explicitly.

If you want to supplement your real friends without lining the pockets of billionaires, destroying the environment, and contributing to the decline of human imagination, may I suggest reading a book?

We must take away hundreds of age-appropriate books from kids to ensure they learn about certain topics the old fashioned way: wildly inaccurate speculation from peers.

One of my all time favorite photos. Of anyone. Doing anything.

“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” — Elie Wiesel

I, too, was a snob. And I, too, became a convert during Covid. I can no longer imagine my life with audiobooks. Terrific piece by @andrewporter01.bsky.social.

Things there are more of than the number of transgender athletes currently competing in the NCAA: - Texas kids in the hospital with measles - Sexual assault allegations against the president - Challenged novels by Toni Morrison - Seasons of “Cheers” - Your fingers

This is it right here.

Imagine putting magic and joy out into the world and then spending the rest of your life doing all you can to take it away.

Four of the Big Five Publishers Sign Letter Urging Congress to Restore IMLS 📚 www.wordsandmoney.com/four-of-the-...

Best sign from Strongsville Ohio Hands Off protest 4/5/25

Omelas, folks, what a wonderful city. So beautiful. So beautiful. Streets are clean, the economy, oh the economy, it's so beautiful. Really beautiful economy. They—and the liberal media won't tell you this folks—they keep a child in a dungeon. This child dungeon. They showed it to me. So beautiful

You should read @thesunmagazine.bsky.social because it's thoughtful and smart and honest but not in the way that makes you want to die. In the *other* way. Also they've been ad free forever. I have a very small story in this month's issue, starring cats. www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592...

yes

Great story collection. Get it now at bookshop.org!

Not an April Fools’ joke! @leahfolta.bsky.social and I got published in McSweeney’s today!

This is new. This is different. “I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"

Listen. I believe ardently in criticizing our leaders for their failures and inaction but if you refuse to acknowledge their efforts when they do make them and if you refuse to recognize a step in the right direction, you don’t really want change. You just want to complain.

It's not nothing he's doing tonight.

Don’t spend any of your precious energy worrying about a third term. Focus on today.

Brutal. Beautiful and brutal.

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

“He's all the things that can go wrong with men if you leave them to their own devices.” The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman #sundaysentence

I love baseball.

College faculty and administrators are morally obligated to protect these students, regardless of the cost. Full stop.

Hey, @turnandwork.com thanks for including my story in this great list!

Mr. Cig handing out free cigarettes to hospital patients in 1948 feels like the energy we need right now.

The soundtrack of my life from April to October is baseball. Happy opening day. Somehow, despite everything, we made it back here again.

How much is AWP conference registration if you only want to go for 20 minutes?

While everyone was busy doomscrolling (me included), democrats in Lancaster county PA just mobilized and flipped the hell out of their district. thehill.com/homenews/cam...

Flannery O'Connor was born 100 years ago today. She said more smart things about writing fiction in her 39 years than anyone has said about writing fiction ever. Ex: "A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is."