TINY THREADS came out last year by @delreybooks.bsky.social. I'm very proud of the dark thriller about a young woman who takes a fashion job in Vernon, California where she starts seeing disturbing things. To mark my horror debut, here's some fave reviews: www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

On this week's Selected Shorts episode, It’s About Time, actors Stockard Channing and @vangsness.bsky.social perform stories by Helen Phillips and @anitafelicelli.bsky.social about how time controls our past, present, and future. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. bit.ly/4hUNIpi

continuing to update this resource for SNAP recipients in the Bay Area — now with 31 food businesses/restaurants where folks can get free or subsidized hot meals 💖 www.coyotemedia.org/these-bay-ar...

For @altajournal.bsky.social I reviewed Julian NoiseCat's WE SURVIVED THE NIGHT, which is fascinating and moving and intellectually rigorous: www.altaonline.com/books/nonfic...

Thrilled to launch IF THE OWL CALLS with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social on Nov 19 at 5:30 p.m. PT—hosted by @bettybooks.bsky.social on Zoom! We’ll talk writing, memory, and the stories behind the book. Hope you’ll join us! Register here: bit.ly/42aTqwG #IftheOwlCalls #BookLaunch #SharonWhite

Incredibly grateful for this wonderful review of BEINGS by @hspartington.bsky.social at @altajournal.bsky.social. Such a joy and privilege to be read so lovingly <3. www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

Announcing the virtual book launch of our next title, If the Owl Calls: A Novel by @sharonw.bsky.social! ✨ Join us on November 19th at 5:30 PM PST as Sharon will read from her book and speak with author @anitafelicelli.bsky.social of How We Know Our Time Travelers. Register: bit.ly/42aTqwG

Such a thrill to present Scott Anderson with the 2025 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction last night in New York. You can read about all the winners here. www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-fea...

Say it often, say it loud: "Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."

I was honored to have the opportunity to review McNamara at War, the new biography by Philip and William Taubman, for Alta Journal @altajournal.bsky.social. Thanks go to @anitafelicelli.bsky.social

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

loved the prismatic novel The Wilderness. here's a profile I wrote about author Angela Flournoy in connection with the book. www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

Greg Grandin on 3 notable things about Spanish American independence: It brought about an already socialized community of nations. Its leaders understood their movement as atonement for conquest. They broke free from one empire to confront a new one.

The only reason to hire a critic, instead of giving a megaphone to the crowd, is that creative work—books most of all—isn’t processed as a collective. People make sense of art as individuals, and their experiences of the work differ individually, too. @nathanheller.bsky.social, @newyorker.com, 2017

Nice evening to drift around North Beach and Chinatown and drop by @citylightsbooks.bsky.social, where copies of Daydreamers are on the shelf.

My book came out 6 years ago -- thank you WTAW Press for taking a chance on this collection. It made my world so much bigger and helped me meet so many wonderful people and find community. Huge hugs to all my readers -- forever grateful.

Excited for tomorrow’s award ceremony for the Northern California Book Awards! My memoir The Translator’s Daughter is a finalist in creative nonfiction. The event is free and open to the public—come celebrate with us at @sfpubliclibrary.bsky.social in the Koret Auditorium at 2pm

Looking forward to being a part of The Future of California, a @litquake.org event in Berkeley this weekend 9/7 with Susanna Kwan, @annaleen.bsky.social, @sherijoseph.bsky.social @mikechenwriter.bsky.social and Zoe Young www.eventbrite.com/e/how-they-d...

🧵 In the wake of numerous reports of interactions with AI chatbots that resulted in deadly consequences, the Center for Democracy & Technology's Dr. Michal Luria says AI firms should stop designing products that pretend to be human.

Why do you appreciate unions? I’ll start: Weekends off Paid vacations Work breaks Sick leave Paid holidays No child labor Safer working conditions Health care and retirement benefits

This superb interview from @lulugn.bsky.social w/Arundhati Roy emphasizes, with clarity & restraint, how the personal is always political. A quarter century after I read “The God of Small Things” as a South Asian teenager, awed by her gifts, Roy remains an inspiration to me. overcast.fm/+ABOPVmwsQ1c

In a sane world this would be the number one political priority www.theguardian.com/environment/...

brilliant essay by Lauren LeBlanc.

💥💥💥💥💥 2025 Kirkus Prize Finalists are Announced! 💥💥💥💥💥 lithub.com/here-are-the...

The only remotely wise thing I can say is to directly support outlets that are still writing thoughtful, eloquent criticism. Shell out a few $ for a subscription to those who offer it, hit the free sites with your traffic, share good pieces here and elsewhere. It's a tiny thing, but it's something.

What does the future hold for California? On 9/7, six incredible Bay Area authors will speculate and dream. Don't miss this amazing @litquake.org event w/ @mikechenwriter.bsky.social, @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, @sherijoseph.bsky.social, Susanna Kwon, & Zoe Young! www.eventbrite.com/e/how-they-d...

“In [these] accounts, the gap between classes—rarely discussed or even thought about by those on its privileged side—is a chasm that those who have crossed must spend the rest of their lives coming to terms with.”

against the tradition of arts & letters, and against expertise in general—which we're of course seeing everywhere, in science and medicine, in economics, in the study of history, and so forth. Basically, everything that keeps us thinking & human. I had to make my Instagram private years ago...

In light of Vanity Fair's recent idiotic decision, WaPo's offering its veteran critic a buyout, the NYT's "reassigning" three arts writers critics, etc., a lot of us are talking about the public's (and thus publications') lack of interest in criticism. It's part of a larger pattern of a war...

I wrote about one of my all time favorites, Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings”, for Alta’s California Book Club. Thank you to @anitafelicelli.bsky.social for excellent editing. It’s a spiky, funny, beautifully drawn graphic novel that’s lost none of its sharpness. www.altaonline.com/california-b...

✨AMUSE-BOUCHE PT II: How They Did It — Imagining a Future California Join 5 brilliant writers on Sun 9/7 at Page Street Berkeley for a convo on speculative fiction + the future of CA. 🎟️Tickets: bit.ly/44WLT4Z @mikechenwriter.bsky.social @anitafelicelli.bsky.social @annaleen.bsky.social

"Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act..."

Ty @finishinglinepress.bsky.social My #debut #poetry collection, Self-Portraits Ex Machina, will be released Nov. 2025! gratitude to #EwaChrusciel @shikhamalaviya.bsky.social @elizabethrosner.bsky.social for their many kindnesses 🩷🙏🏽

One of the most profoundly wonderful people I’ve ever worked with, @rosannaxia.bsky.social, is dishing wisdom on how California is meeting the challenge of sea level rise with the inordinately cool cats of @altajournal.bsky.social tomorrow at 5 pm PST (virtual) and you can RSVP here:

"I have not read a book with prose about the shoreline this beautiful in years,” writes Freeman, “California Against the Sea is the first book on the climate crisis in some time that makes you feel that this change isn’t just necessary, it is possible."

Last call— three spots for August left (will open again December 1-15, and am scheduling appointments for that now)

really enjoyed interviewing Nishant Batsha (A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart) for Alta. www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

Your Prime Day reminder that half of Amazon warehouse workers struggle with food & housing costs. A third have had to rely on government assistance like SNAP — which is about to get cut. If Bezos can spend $50M on a wedding, Amazon can afford to treat its workers with dignity.

read Nina Schuyler's beautiful essay on Rosanna Xia's beautiful California Against the Sea, the July California Book Club selection. Xia will be in conversation with host John Freeman and special guest Marthine Satris about the book on Zoom—July 17 at 5 pm PT (register link at bottom of web page)

"Lu brings to life a haunting story of immigrants and artists in Daydreamers." My novel Daydreamers featured in this list of 12 new books for July "by authors on and of the West" in @altajournal.bsky.social. www.altaonline.com/books/g65173... h/t @anitafelicelli.bsky.social

really taken with Evanthia Bromiley's lyrical debut novel CROWN, set in the blue collar southwest. here's my profile of her: www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

a pleasure to profile Caro De Robertis in connection with their oral history 'So Many Stars' for Alta's Writer's Room. www.altaonline.com/books/nonfic...

We’re wasting the remaining carbon budget on war and AI.

NBCC member Bridget Quinn reviewed Jordan Troeller’s "Ruth Asawa and the Artist-Mother at Midcentury" for Alta Journal:

"From the laundry room window, I could see the red glow of the Eaton Fire in the distance, then the jump of flames. The back door started rattling against the dead bolt like in a horror movie." —Katya Apekina for Alta Journal www.altaonline.com/california-b...

PADILLA: “If this is how the administration responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, cooks, and day laborers throughout the country.”

We're moving, which means it's your lucky day(s)! Starting June 12th, for 2 weeks only, you can stock up on select titles at terrific discount prices. Hop on over to the WTAW Press Bookstore while supply lasts! #WTAWPress #WarehouseSale #IndependentPublishing

My novel about Chinese literary exiles in California comes out next month(!). "Daydreamers kind of sinks in slowly. Then it becomes absorbing in a way that doesn't let up.” —Stacey Levine Review copies are available. Let me know or contact my publisher @fictioncollective2.bsky.social to get one.

Lovely time at the Bay Area Book Fest. Thanks to @janeciab.bsky.social for hosting and so great to speak with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai-Chu, and @jacqlyy.bsky.social about spec fic! Check out their weird and wonderful books, HOW WE KNOW OUR TIME TRAVELERS and MENDING BODIES

Hard to pick just 5, but 5 favorite B&W films: All about Eve Shadow of a Doubt Sunset Boulevard La Belle et la Bete Out of the Past