Exciting news: Fansplaining now offers gift subscriptions! Is there any better way to support a fandom-related project than by sharing it with your friends? 💞 Purchase access at any tier for a month or a year, and we'll send a link to pass along to whoever you want! fansplaining.com#/portal/gift

"With canon now a sprawling fanfic multiverse, there’s plenty to choose from," writes @prof-anne.bsky.social. "I hope that fandom, asking with Aziraphale, 'Why give us Crowley only to take him away?' will make use of the many pens and blank books the series holds out and keep writing."

Y'all, I can't overstate how much I enjoyed working with @lincodega.com and @elizabethminkel.bsky.social on this story!!!! Lin really made me rethink and refine my arguments in the essay. You should have seen the first draft 😩 Very knowledgeable and passionate people 🙌🏾

The Good Omens finale, @prof-anne.bsky.social writes, "was the most heartfelt and validating love letter to fanfiction I’ve seen come out of a commercial enterprise." But it was also trying to "save itself from its author—not Pratchett, the other one—and restore the Good Omens legacy to its fans."

Ever since I first read @prof-anne.bsky.social's "Fic" way back in, what, 2014? I've deeply admired the way she can connect threads across different kinds of transformative texts—real English major stuff, but in a fun, accessible way. 😅 Not my fandom at all, but I found this a very engaging read!

I'm so excited for everyone to read @prof-anne.bsky.social's take on the Good Omens wrapup for Fansplaining! A witty, warm overview of the show's meta-narrative embrace of transformative fandom. fansplaining.com/good-omens-f...

Our latest piece is live! The great @prof-anne.bsky.social writes about the Good Omens series finale as a sort of metatextual gesture to fans—and especially fanfiction. "Good Omens’ final scenes are not subtle about their allegory of fanfic empowerment." Read or listen to an audio version:

“I don’t think it was a good movie, but as a fan, I was serviced—and I am not mad about that.” — @flourishklink.com On our new special episode, a Mirandy focused ✨appreciation✨ for The Devil Wears Prada 2 (alongside...some critiques). Subscribe or buy one-off access for the audio & transcript!

It's extremely fun to go to the movies with someone who is clutching you with delight, even if you are not personally delighted by said film. 😘 It was wonderful to get back on the air with @flourishklink.com again and I'm so glad they'll be doing occasional special episodes with me going forward!!

The first special episode of the new Fansplaining is live! 💖 @flourishklink.com returns to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2 and their love of MIRANDY, their introduction to femslash. Special eps are subscriber exclusives—or you can buy any ep individually! Check out the description/show notes:

In our latest, @soila.bsky.social writes about the complicated ways colonialism and cultural hegemony can separate English (for fanfiction, fun) from non-native speakers' local languages (for Serious Literature, everyday life). Read or listen to an audio version: fansplaining.com/the-elation-...

Have you joined the flock? 🐏 🐑

We're sooo close to the baseline 🙏 less than a handful of paid subscribers from reaching this milestone. And the work will only get better!

These things take time to build up, but while a lot of new indie pubs can do the writing internally as subs grow, we're in the tricky spot of wanting to publish a lot of freelancers as soon as possible. Having a wide variety of voices is vital to this project—help us pay folks for their expertise!

Enjoying the work we've published since our relaunch? Become a subscriber! 🎉 We've been thrilled by the enthusiasm around this project, but we have yet to reach a baseline of subscriber revenue to pay writers each month, let alone editors. Help us get more smart fandom writing out in the world!

“If I post a fic in Isoko, how many people can actually read it? English makes fanfic feel universal, while local languages can make it feel limited.” @soila.bsky.social talks to Nigerian fic writer si11yw0rm alongside other fans from Kenya and Burundi about the dominance of English in fandom:

I was so delighted to help shepherd this piece through the edit process. @soila.bsky.social digs into why she -- and many other African fans -- feel "cringe" when reading or writing fanfic in their native languages. A fantastic discussion of colonial history, contemporary lit, and fandom.

Today's Fansplaining article is a must-read. @soila.bsky.social was part of several of my fave panels at Seattle Worldcon, and I was elated to see her write about decolonizing fanfiction for us! fansplaining.com/the-elation-...

This piece is SO GOOD. @soila.bsky.social & editor @lincodega.com worked magic to bring this final product together. As I was editing the audio version, I kept finding myself nodding at particularly sharp points, e.g., how only English gets to be the language of "play." Please read and share widely!

Peeps! I have arisen from my social media slumber (again 😅) to come promote my new article with Fansplaining! Super excited for this to be out as it's been in the works for a while now. 5,000 words. African fandom deep dive. Language capital. Decolonialism. Let's go! 🚀

"There are currently only three fanfics on the Archive of Our Own written in Swahili." In our latest, @soila.bsky.social writes about the dominance of English in fandom and especially fic, including the perspectives of fellow fans in Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi. Read or listen to an audio version:

We're just putting the finishing touches on tomorrow's piece—here's a hint. 😉

Most books are written on subjects that would be a non-issue to sheep. You know: Tax fraud, so what? Let’s keep grazing.” @mldavies.bsky.social interviews Leonie Swann, author of Three Bags Full (titled Glennkill in Germany), the source for The Sheep Detectives: fansplaining.com/three-bags-f...

i am ethically compromised and unable to edit, revise, touch, or even lick these recaps but no other outlet has one of the crew on staff ykwim

Just revisited a chat with @gavia.bsky.social from June 2024 in which she despaired that she couldn't place IWTV pitches and wanted to recap s3 and I replied, "real talk, if i wind up building out fansplaining into a broader cultural publication (possible....) you could certainly do it there" .... 😎

lestat recaps incoming!!!!

We've mentioned it in a few places, so we can officially say: we're incredibly excited that @gavia.bsky.social is going to be recapping The Vampire Lestat for us next month!! ⚡⚡⚡ Help us pay Gav for her extra-sharp analysis (and all our other great pieces in the works): fansplaining.com#/portal/

Seeing chatter this morning about how publishing doesn't realize Bluesky is full of book lovers, and 1) correct 2) we've got a case study here about how organic, non-algorithmic word of mouth on this platform led to people being unable to find a two-decade-old mystery novel in stores or libraries!

“People wanted to come together and read this silly, moving little book about sheep and talk about it," @caitesq.bsky.social told @mldavies.bsky.social. "There was a sense of community about it—a little fad that swept through a corner of Bluesky, the way it would through a small town.” 🐑

Thanks so much for having us on, Erin! 😍 It was wonderful to be able to talk about what we're doing with Fansplaining (and the many difficult/frustrating parts of the media industry today). For Fansplaining readers/listeners who are desperate to see our faces 😉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L6Z...

So close! We've got more than a dozen pieces in flight, but we're not ready to do a wide-open call for pitches until we have more monthly revenue. If you've been thinking about subscribing (or are a free member contemplating an upgrade), your support would be a great help as we get off the ground!

this is such a nice exploration of the whole THREE BAGS FULL/SHEEP DETECTIVES phenomenon over at @fansplaining.bsky.social and I'm quoted in it, so that's cool too

@bookshop.bsky.social was interviewed (alongside the brilliant @liangge11.bsky.social!) for this piece on an EU commissioner RPF ship (Attalourné 😘) that's blowing up in Chinese fan spaces right now. Fascinating transcultural fandom dynamics!

It was a true delight to edit this by @mldavies.bsky.social on THREE BAGS FULL, the beloved mystery novel that's now The Sheep Detectives film. It's exactly the kind of smart book writing I wanted to publish at the expanded @fansplaining.bsky.social!! Also I'm reading the novel rn—SO GOOD. 🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑

And it was such a delight to talk to @mldavies.bsky.social for her deep dive into all things sheep detective (including the Bluesky Book Club!):

I really wouldn't have predicted that in this life, I would write a #longread about THREE BAGS FULL, the sheep mystery novel that blew up on Bluesky in 2023 and inspired THE SHEEP DETECTIVES, but here we are. @fansplaining.bsky.social made it happen.

An tale of early Bluesky community-building! 🐑 📖 “People wanted to come together and read this silly, moving little book about sheep. ... There was a sense of community about it—a little fad that swept through a corner of Bluesky, the way it would through a small town.” — @caitesq.bsky.social

🐑 Our latest piece is here! 🐏 @mldavies.bsky.social goes deep on beloved mystery novel Three Bags Full, aka the source for the new Sheep Detectives film. Feat. interviews with @cait.bsky.social, @joshuajfriedman.com, @sarahweinman.com, and author Leonie Swann. Read or listen to an audio version:

baa, baa

We're just putting the finishing touches on tomorrow's piece! Here's a hint: 🐑

in which i bring in TTRPG theory into fandom theory :))))

In our latest feature, @lincodega.com deconstructs what makes The Pitt such a dynamic fanfiction fandom right now. (More than 1K new fics posted in the past week!) To read or listen to an audio version, become a member of the new Fansplaining site. (It's free!) 💞 fansplaining.com/the-pitt-fan...

This was a really interesting read and I don't watch the Pitt.

one of the reasons i wanted to write this piece for @fansplaining.bsky.social is because it is incredibly, deeply difficult to impress upon non-fandom people how huge the pitt fanfic community is. A Thousand New Fanfics a week. Over two hundred fanfics updated/posted Just Today.

Thank you all SO much for the love and enthusiasm! Bluesky once again proving it's the coolest platform for internet nerds 🔥 💪 💖

Two days in, we're thrilled by the support for Fansplaining's next chapter. 😍 Sign up and become a free member to read (or listen to!) all our current articles. If you have the means, consider becoming a paid subscriber—you'll fund deep, nuanced reporting and criticism from and about fan culture!

it happened to ME it can happen to YOU!! you too can innocently be browsing instagram on your civilian account when you are CONFRONTED with your OWN EROTICA!!! The madness MIGHT NEVER END there is NO END to our depravity!!!

"It’s hard to describe the combination of delight and utter mortification one feels when confronted with their own erotica while casually browsing Instagram." Fansplaining editor (& Pitt PWP writer) @lincodega.com goes deep on the Pitt fandom and its fanfiction. Read or listen to an audio version:

We've had such an incredible response since relaunching yesterday! 🎉 Hundreds of folks* have already signed up to support independent reporting and analysis of fan culture (and culture more broadly). Will you join them? *FYI: Bluesky is by far our best referrer! Let's keep it going. 🥰