2 lines into a book: this is the worst. it’s so slow. i don’t know what any of these names mean. what’s going on? 20 chapters into a book: i don’t know how i’m going to continue living when this book ends

i never said you have to get formal training or a degree of any kind. study can be self-study. practice can be making lots of drafts. experience can involve sending your work out to galleries/publishers and/or sharing it online. i just mean actually doing the work. not just fantasizing/aspiring.

"i could draw/paint/write that." ok but you didn't. and you won't come anywhere close if you think it requires zero study/practice/experience.

Maybe my agent loves the new novel. Maybe she hates it. Maybe we sell it. Maybe we don’t. There’s a thousand other maybes, and I don’t control any of them. What I control is the work, so I worked a bit on the next one yesterday. Always be writing the next one.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm telling you, the solution to many problems in education is to hire school librarians (at a liveable wage, with administrative support, and adequate resources). Your students don't need an LLM, they need a librarian.

Please support Anathema's return and the revival of a space for queer writers of colour!

“The last night I was a pediatric resident, a child came in with Hib and promptly died by the next day. I didn’t work for 50 years to have everything destroyed by one man.” -Dr. Kathryn Edwards, Vanderbilt University This is what RFK Jr. and the anti-vaxxers have wrought.

Something good of mine is coming soon. I haven't published in so long so this is such a blessing. Other eyes will finally be upon you, glorious one.

Forged in FIYAH, edited by @davaun.bsky.social, showcases the extraordinary talent and innovation of contemporary Black SFF!🔥 This collection of 18 stories features tales from mainstays of genre fiction alongside the dynamic, groundbreaking work of several of FIYAH's most promising newcomers.

On Trans Day of Visibility, read something free by me: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/cons... "There’s dysphoria, and then there’s turning into a mid-size city."

6/8 - #DSPBposts #SmallPress #books from @bullcitypress.com ‬@tracedepass.bsky.social @diodeeditions.bsky.social @denzelscott.bsky.social @emergejournal.bsky.social @akashicbooks.bsky.social 💙📚 #BookSky #BooksWorthReading #bookish #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booklovers

"American innovation" now refers to making a kind of atrocity cronut by combining insider trading with war crimes.

It's crazy that I at least have one book floating around. Now if only I could get this other collection published finally, my two novels completed and sent out, and my third poetry collection composed, I'd feel really accomplished. Back to writing purgatory to toil away.

I'm figuring out how to say this: I acknowledge that I live within a very progressive ecosystem. But I get the impression that some--or perhaps a lot--of conservative men do not care if their daughters get violated. It used to be "What if it were me?" You can't even use that anymore. So now what.

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

Denzel Xavier Scott @denzelscott.bsky.social , "The Black Rainbow" in BCS #342. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-...

Happy Friday! Let's love on our creators today. Who is a Black SFF author you wish more people were screaming about? Bonus if they have new work coming out this year 🔥🔥🔥

Finally submitted this google form with all my notes to @neonhemlock.bsky.social for this 2024 Were Here anthology. Now onto submitting to @apexmag.bsky.social I believe and caregiving, maybe calisthenics (probably not), then blissful sleep.

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere. Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself. Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

I'll just say for anyone who is starting off, and I am a small potato but still, I have never paid to appear at a book club or on a panel or at a festival where I was an invited guest. I've had two book launches at local bookstores, I haven't paid to throw those. beware of ppl asking you for cash.

Doubleback Review publishes previously published work from defunct journals—and they’re reading now for their October issue! doublebackreview.com

I remember when newspapers used to run massive, multi-page spreads of American service members lost to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, accompanied by their military headshots. They're going to have to resurrect it for those hunted and thrown away by their own government. This story is a mini-genre.

This is a fascinating read. Worth noting that @ufw.bsky.social fights for shade, water, and rest breaks for farm workers regardless of where they came from -- everyone deserves a human work environment. www.npr.org/sections/the...

“Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost.” — A. Whitney Griswold

internalizing american notions of race and ethnic division as timeless truths about the world is a shortcut to smoothing out your brain

I'm in my first anthology y'all. Zariel, baby, the places we will go!!!!

It's almost July, friends, which means: PodCastle will soon be OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS! General subs call, so: fantasy stories <6k, originals or reprints. You can send one of each at a time, and submit as soon as you're rejected, so get sending! escapeartists.moksha.io/publication/...

In 2022 (the most recent year for which we have comprehensive data), 52 people—an average of one per week—perished in Customs and Border Protection custody. How many immigrants will die under the second Trump Administration?

The more I live the more I’m astounded by how difficult it is to keep living and to remain a person. This is WORK.

The Social Security system, more than any other single institution, keeps the United States from becoming a truly Dickensian world of poverty and despair. James Chappel on why it is time to fight fire with fire:

Those formative, animated movies of my youth also just happened to be about scrappy alliances of everyday folks standing up to authoritarnianism, so, make of that what you will.

Hey, artists, in case you were wondering if your work matters: I'm a scientist working on climate change and biodiversity, and I would not be who I am today without The Lorax, The Secret of NIMH, Watership Down, The Last Unicorn, and The X-Files. I know I'm not alone. Thank you for all you do.

I'm in the midst of a breakthrough with my poetry and prose and I'm feeling hopeful. Wild child.

DOGE recommended firing workers at: -FDA, which oversees Neuralink -FAA, which oversees SpaceX -USAID, which probed Starlink -CFPB, which oversees Tesla's financing arm and a potential payment platform on X. "Conflict of interest" is a severe understatement.

Hey! SH is doing an Afrosurrealism special issue. I know a lot of my mutuals are interested in this! strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

At 4pm EST today, @roxanegay.bsky.social and I will read some new work and discuss creative nonfiction! I’m so excited about this event series. I’m collaborating with friends and mentors like Roxane all semester. Join us via zoom: harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Dozens of studies in recent years have linked ultra-processed fare to health problems such as high blood pressure and heart attacks, and also to some problems that one might not expect: cancer, anxiety, dementia, and early death.

I remember when right-wing media said that I wasn’t qualified to be a member of Congress because of my credit card debt. My debt was nowhere near $1.2 million. Do they think the same of RFK Jr? Or does that standard only apply to young people? We know the answer.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is in the running to serve as health and human services secretary, revealed he was carrying up to $1.2 million in credit card debt in recent financial disclosures, per CNBC.

Exclusive: President Trump's nominee as Air Force Secretary, currently a top official at the national spy satellite agency, arranged a multibillion-dollar contract solicitation in a way that favored Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to seven people familiar with the contract reut.rs/4b7MUKt

Worst week for science EVER. Sunday: ASM scrubs DEI mentions from website. Tue: NASA scrubs DEI from website; ICE arrests a student on campus; NSF plans to cut staff; USAID halted. Wed: HHMI kills diversity program; NIH trashes applications for diversity F grants. Fri: NIH cuts indirects.

After the First World War, traumatized soldiers were often prescribed a course of reading.

“People are always asking me, ‘Who will you pass the torch to?’ ” Gloria Steinem said. “The question makes me angry. There is no one torch—there are many torches—and I’m using my torch to light other torches.” Revisit a Profile of the feminist trailblazer, from 2015.

John Glenn didn't want to enter his space craft without first ensuring that the brilliant "human computer" Katherine Johnson had checked all the equations. John Glenn understood the difference between recognising expertise, and being blinded by prejudice.

JFC. gizmodo.com/nasa-ordered...

This 2018 piece by Aleksandar Hemon is almost too painful in its prescience to read right now lithub.com/fascism-is-n...

as someone who spent 2 years living in what you could charitably call a "company town but for artists": employer owning your house = bad

So it only just occurred to me that the link to my first book isn't in my profile. Oops 😬