My four-year-old suggested we "just buy a house for $1" so lmk if anyone here in San Diego is selling!

Really proud of @annawangyuan.bsky.social!!! www.pointloma.edu/news/ma-writ...

Check out Episode 31: 1986 where @jawicks75.bsky.social and I look at music, films, and an essay from 1986. Featuring: - Music by Prince and The Cure - Tim Hunter's RIVER'S EDGE - Richard Ben Cramer's "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

I'm loving Adam Curtis's SHIFTY. A found footage BBC documentary about Britain and Thatcherism. Well worth a watch as it informs today's U.S. political landscape in grim ways. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qtI...

Not only was I not in Paris this weekend, but I also don't know how to ride a motorcycle or operate an angle grinder. PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT I RAIDED THE LOUVRE.

Listen to Episode 30: Melancholy Songs if u like: - Sad music - @angermonsoon.bsky.social's essays - Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" - Up-and-coming Irish bands (DUG) - @thomyorke.wastehq.social defending sad songs - @jawicks75.bsky.social - the word "fluorescence" robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

Okay, if nobody else wants to be the Duke of York, I can be the Duke of York.

@lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social will be here for in-person/live-streamed events, leading a workshop and discussing her book "Knock at the Sky" on October 29th! Purchase your tickets here! plnu.universitytickets.com

Last night in class we looked at structure and transitions in @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social‘s KNOCK AT THE SKY. Excited to have Liz out to @plnu.bsky.social for the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Visiting Writers series!!! In-person and streaming tickets here plnu.universitytickets.com

Robbie & James Talk Music: Episode 29 - On Rotation. robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com In which @jawicks75.bsky.social and I discuss: -Amelia Earhart, -Margaret Thatcher, -"Shifty" by Adam Curtis, -The purpose of art, -Rick Rubin, -Music by Public Service Broadcasting, -Music by Spoon.

FYI, @therumpus.net is still open for essay submissions! If you want to get an idea of what we publish, check out the #RumpusEssays threads below. therumpus.submittable.com/submit

In September 2025, we published 10 siiiiicccck essays at @therumpus.net so here’s a #RumpusEssays thread: We kicked things off with Celia Bell’s “Unwriting the Great American Novel: Helen DeWitt’s ‘Your Name Here’”—an essay about Helen DeWitt’s novels. therumpus.net/2025/09/09/u...

We had an amazing @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Visiting Writers Series with @samuelashworth.bsky.social. He ran a masterclass on student drafts, read from THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY, and delivered a lecture titled “The Art of Telling.” Such a generous, wise human!

Pumped to have @samuelashworth.bsky.social visiting the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social program today to talk about THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY. In-person and live-stream tickets are still available plnu.universitytickets.com

it's tha 1st of tha month, submissions are open thanks !

Thrilled to have @samuelashworth.bsky.social joining the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Visiting Writers Series tomorrow!!! Get your streaming and in-person tickets here: plnu.universitytickets.com

An honor to be featured on episode 94 of THE WRITTEN SCENE podcast. I had a lovely conversation about writing with the host, Adam Greenfield. open.spotify.com/episode/5qFk...

We're relaunching ROBBIE & JAMES TALK MUSIC: -Short episodes -Two songs per episode -Me: talking creative writing [email protected]: talking film -Availability on pretty much every listening platform. Give it a listen! We're proud of this relaunch. robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

I've been in the same 12-team fantasy baseball franchise league since high school. Starting in 2015, I placed 3rd 9 out of 10 years. Again, this is a 12-team league. But this year, I finally won. THE MONKEY IS OFF MY BACK, Y'ALL.

This summer @therumpus.net published some truly stunning essays via our Essays section. Here's a #RumpusEssays thread: Starting things off, @josiahroberts.bsky.social's "To Adopt a Grandparent" therumpus.net/2025/05/06/t...

Last week I taught TENTH OF DECEMBER by George Saunders. Students mapped stories to find the following:

WHAT'S BETTER THAN @therumpus.net OPENING FOR ESSAY SUBMISSIONS??? Well, a few things, tbh, but still.... #RumpusEssays therumpus.submittable.com/submit

Amazing to have R.F. Kuang at @plnu.bsky.social yesterday for the Writers Symposium by the Sea! Kuang did an afternoon Q&A with our @plnuwritingma.bsky.social students, moderated by Dr. Breeann Kirby. So much writing wisdom!!!

Get tickets to today’s livestreamed @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Q&A with R.F. Kuang at 3pm PT!!! plnu.universitytickets.com/w/default.as...

Pumped about the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Visiting Writers Series which is bringing 6 amazing writers to PLNU this fall. Events will also be live streamed. Purchase tickets here: plnu.universitytickets.com

Just a reminder that today is the final deadline for the @lastsyllablelit.bsky.social book awards!

Congrats to our alum @bennysummerhill.bsky.social, whose essay “‘Tell Me When to Go’ Had Just Dropped and I Was from Oakland” won the inaugural @therumpus.net Prize for nonfiction! Check it out here:

Idk why I thought the box might not be telling the truth, but I opened the box in the back of a supply closet (it *was* a crown of thorns).

My 4-year-old calls black and white photos "Dead people photos."

Reminder that the @lastsyllablelit.bsky.social Book Awards is still open for submissions! If you've recently published a book we want to read it! Visit lastsyllablelit.com/book-awards for more information. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity!

Exciting professional news: yesterday I was awarded MVP in a kid’s kickball game! I batted 5/7 with two triples, a double, and six of my team’s 15 RBIs in our dominant win against the other kids.

We will be publishing cultural criticism every day at The Rumpus. We hope to fill some of this egregious void being created by the mainstream media. Relaunch is in October but we are also publishing between now and then.

Took my kids to the zoo today and my one-year-old threw his pacifier into the touch-a-shark tank.

submissions for shorts & creative nonfiction are now open until we reach the cap flash & micros are closed for august, they'll come back next month thank u !

Looking forward to when they replace gardens with AI and then instead of saying things like, "look at this beautiful garden flower; it smells nice," I'll say things like, "look at this beautiful AI; it still doesn't work very well."

This Normal School Hulk Hogan essay by Andrew Cartwright is still the best wrestling essay I’ve read www.thenormalschool.com/blog/2017/9/...

For anyone wondering about the weather in SC right now, whenever I stepped outside today, I immediately sweat through my shirt.

My uber driver said that the reason uber has him post his license plate number in the front windshield is so he can’t impersonate an uber driver, kidnap passengers, and demand large ransom sums from their family and friends. 5/5 stars. Extra big tip!

Finished writing a book, y’all!

I absolutely adore this @therumpus.net essay by @misternagel.bsky.social about the upside-down-ness caused by a family health emergency. #RumpusEssays therumpus.net/2025/07/17/o...

RIGHHHTTT. A classic "I was hacked." Smh, Elmo, smh.

For having zero photoshop training, I am pretty good at photoshop.

Re-upping this @lastsyllablelit.bsky.social post-pub book contest. Deadline is Sept. 1, 2025. lastsyllablelit.com/book-awards

FYI, @therumpus.net is open for submissions in a whole bunch of categories. Essays, fiction, poetry, comics, criticism, interviews! therumpus.submittable.com/submit

Started my day with "In the Shadow of Babel"—a poem by Jessica Jacobs, published in Green Linden Press, Issue 15. www.greenlindenpress.com/issue15-jess...

Yesterday, I took the kids to four different playgrounds. Good luck to any other dads who’ve thought about running for “dad of the year”

Dragonfruit tastes like the scent of the zoo’s gorilla exhibit.

John Gregory Dunne on "writer's block" and committing to write in "On Writing a Novel," an Esquire essay collected in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 1987.

Finally got to check out the Olympic poster exhibit at @plnu.bsky.social’s Balboa campus. Worth a visit!

Hang on...grumpy, miserly Scottish-born titan of industry...three chaotic siblings and a cousin...sycophantic employees? Is Succession just a remake of Ducktales?