“The whole idea of this sort of novel ranking is pure nonsense.” rhollick.wordpress.com/2026/06/05/b...

A public pencil sharpening: Only in the great city of #Minneapolis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C34E...

#Writing: "Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do?" – Bret Easton Ellis

"Frozen in time." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to @rarehistoricalphotos.com.web.brid.gy! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe rarehistoricalphotos.com/prisoners-mu...

"A revelatory examination." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @shaunwalker7.bsky.social & @profilebooks.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

#Writing: "Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on." – Jane Austen

"Biggest book giveaway in history." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer Maureen Corrigan & @npr.org! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.npr.org/2026/05/25/n...

"Never-before-seen evidence." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @susannahstapleton.bsky.social & @panmacmillan.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

The cover of my next book, coming on October 6 from Pegasus Books. It's a nonfiction account of a miscarriage of justice in 1933 and the teamwork of two men who resolved it twenty years later. Available for pre-order: bookshop.org/shop/el-hai

#Writing: "Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness." - Allen Ginsberg, born 100 years ago on today's date

"Librarian for the #KGB." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @gordoncorera.bsky.social & @harpercollins.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Drab tan." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @bradfordmorrow.bsky.social & @literaryhub.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe lithub.com/in-search-of...

An unusual approach to authorship! crimereads.com/co-writing-a...

#Writing: "A very smart man tells me the thing I have written is too much about myself. Too much 'I.' Could I please write something else? Differently?" – Lidia Yuknavitch

"The crosshairs." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @led0260.bsky.social & @literaryhub.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe lithub.com/americas-fir...

"Increased visibility arrived, but at a heavy cost." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @hughryan.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

#Writing: "The world is disgracefully managed; one hardly knows to whom to complain." – Ronald Firbank

Now out: the June issue of DAMN HISTORY, my free monthly newsletter for #history readers and writers. Medicine man & mystery writer, fingers as memory machines, radio journalism's birth in a prison fire, valuable storytelling advice, + more. Read/subscribe: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Collage." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @morgangodvin.bsky.social & @jstordaily.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe daily.jstor.org/the-surprisi...

"More rewarding as well as riskier." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author Stephanie Coontz & @vikingbooks.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Soon gone: the May issue of DAMN HISTORY, my free monthly newsletter for #history readers and writers. Sitzfleisch, ancient surgeons, theft of Shakespeare's skull, stolen valor, a betraying laugh, an emotional historian, obituaries + more. Read/subscribe: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

#Writing: "Nobody is going to give you a thing. You have to give it yourself. You have to tell us what you have to say." – Cheryl Strayed

"Cruel prejudice and resilience." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author Alexander Lee & @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Conflicting evidence." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to @plagiarismtoday.com! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.plagiarismtoday.com/2026/05/28/t...

American Historical Association says Florida "advances an 'overt ideological agenda' at the expense of sound scholarship and effective #history education." www.historians.org/news/aha-sta...

My book "Face in the Mirror," about a patient's path from suicide attempt to face transplant to recovery, is this year's winner of the June Roth Memorial Award for medical journalism from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It's been a moving journey!

#Writing: "Where your fear is, there is your task." - Carl Jung

"Infiltrated the highest levels." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @tonisenior.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Pre-sliced." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @cliopticon.bsky.social & @jstordaily.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe daily.jstor.org/history-of-w...

#Writing: "The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it." – Joan Didion

Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @jonathanburdick.bsky.social & @eriereader.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.eriereader.com/article/the-...

"Slaveholders’ violent police regime." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @gauthamrao.bsky.social & @uncpress.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

For #writers who like to make graphs: get out your coloring pencils. lithub.com/manil-suri-o...

#Writing: "When you're creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain't the limit." - Miles Davis, born 100 years ago on today's date

Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @tolani-akinola.bsky.social & @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe pghrev.com/dont-ask-me-...

"Women lived for a long time without #writing; then they began to write with their lives and for their lives." – Karoline von Günderrode

“I was in disbelief.” Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @c-cauterucci.bsky.social & @slate.com! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe slate.com/life/2026/05...

"One of the most misunderstood." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @loisromano.bsky.social & @simonandschuster.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Today's #history article pick from Damn History, my free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to @americanstudier.bsky.social & @satevepost.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2026/05/cons...

"A childhood on the run." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author Zayd Ayers Dohrn & @wwnorton.com! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Lawsuit succeeds in blocking the Trump administration’s effort to evade the Presidential Records Act. www.historians.org/news/judge-g...

“Kelley found some darkness in every person. Gilbert found a unique darkness in some. They were both right.” www.historyimpossible.com/p/the-third-...

#Writing: "I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away." - Nancy Mitford

“Explosive potential.” Today's #history article pick from Damn History, a free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @mrjordanhirsch.bsky.social & @slate.com! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe slate.com/life/2026/05...

"Should not disturb anyone who is at all familiar with what awards judges tend to favor.” lithub.com/a-prize-winn...

#Writing: "There had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French." – P.G. Wodehouse

"And it only took 37 years." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, a free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @britt-kathryn.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe lithub.com/2m-worth-of-...

"Originally considered obscene." Today's #history book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @guywjc.bsky.social & @yalepress.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Sham news sites are increasingly common in Florida and across the country." floridatrib.org/2026/05/14/t...

#Writing: "Human happiness is rarely in the best of circumstances without shadows, and an almost pure happiness can be a terror to itself." – Iris Murdoch