I was moved and disturbed by Egana Djabbarova’s writing - can’t wait to see the book again in @lizoksbooks.bsky.social translation

Slavic Review Fall 2025 is out now. This issue includes "Critical Forum: Blackness in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Societies." Read "Introduction: On Black Life and Blackness in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Societies" by Nana Osei-Opare and Sunnie Rucker-Chang.

Just finished the forthcoming @newvesselpress.bsky.social title My Dreadful Body by Egana Djabbarova, translated by @lizoksbooks.bsky.social Mark your calendars, you will want to add this book to your TBR list. A story of the body as the intersection of cultural expectations, family, and disease.

The Double" by @yelenafurman.bsky.social in case you missed it

After decades in the US, my mom found these made-in-Canada decorations, seemingly aimed at the very niche audience in both nations of ex-Soviet Jews. There are a handful of other countries they could export them to.

Between bouts of rain and hard days, an impromptu day trip to one of the loveliest places on earth, Santa Barbara, CA.

A short, unplanned visit to an old favorite, w/ lights and palm trees. The last photo is of the Petersen Automotive Museum across the street (even if you, like me, are not into cars, it's still a cool museum). This year was/is not the best; good thing there's art and lights, and end of term.

Thank you to everyone who made it to our literary lagniappe last night, complete with readings, song, and a great discussion about the art of translation! Indie press and indie bookstores for the win!

The couple who were fatally wounded confronting the Bondi Beach gunmen have been identified as Boris and Sofia Gurman. www.jpost.com/diaspora/art...

Tomorrow in Washington DC!

On this day of darkness, let there be light. Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate.

A plane carrying Russian citizens deported from the U.S. touched down in Moscow amid fears that some on board might face unjust imprisonment or forced mobilization.

Ironic that it's the 75th anniversary edition, and I'm just getting around to it.

On the Ramblings today - I share my thoughts on a hugely entertaining pair of British Library Crime Classics! @blpublishing.bsky.social @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/12/06/d...

Last writing retreat of the year today, sandwiched between last day of teaching for the year (yesterday) and a pile of final grading (starting tomorrow and ending who knows when). In any case, the grading will be over before the short story is done, which is either good or bad, depending.

LA sunset & the Hollywood Christmas parade, a 5 min walk from me, incomprehensibly always on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Not pictured: following for several packed blocks as a car w/ Anthony Anderson drove the route (don't care about celebrities, do care about Law and Order cast regulars). I❤️LA.

Enjoying We Computers: A Ghazal Novel by Hamid Ismailov, translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

We don't just like Romanian literature but also Romanian films - and there's a great film festival coming up in London. Especially recommend the classic Forest of the Hanged @marinasofia.bsky.social's favourite for @jacquiwine.bsky.social

What fiction are you reading to cope with current events? Švejk or Yossarian? Any other favorites? Swing by our bookstore or your local indie bookstore for some therapeutic reading!

JUST IN: California voters have approved a ballot measure to redraw the state's congressional map to favor Democrats, marking the party's biggest victory to date in a national battle over redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms.

We should change the saying to, Don't mess with California, Texas (yes, I have been waiting to say this for a while. Yes, yes, yes.)

Did you miss the author event we held with Marek Torcik here in the bookstore? Memory Burn, is a coming-of-age story of a queer boy from a Czech industrial town, delving into the recesses of memory to come to terms with his painful childhood. Save 15%. bergstrompressbooks.com/en/fiction/1...

If you're able to, please donate to this one if in LA, or to whichever your local one is. www.lafoodbank.org?_gl=1%2Aft21...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Live in the DMV and have an interest in Central and Eastern European literature? Make sure you follow us or get on our mailing list. Last night we hosted Czech author Marek Torčik & Sunday we will host Ukrainian poet Iryna Vikyrchak. Copies of both books are available in the bookstore.

Diana Loginova, 18, was sentenced to 13 days in jail shortly after finishing a previous 13-day sentence for her band's performances of anti-war songs.

A brief detour from Chekhov scholarship (for class) and FSU writers' portrayals of the Holocaust and the war (for conference paper). Preface begins with discussion of Dostoevsky's near-execution.

A friendly reminder to vote if you're in California, should you need one. Come on, California, you can do this, yes, you can.

This portrait of Akhmatova was painted by Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya in 1914. Come and hear Stephen Capus and I talk about Akhmatova at Ledbury Winter Poetry Festival on Sat 22 November: www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/her...

Are you a furloughed federal worker? Need some kind of escape? Swing by the bookstore, we have a lot of ARCs we would happily give you. #strongertogether

My new blog post on Lydia Chukovskaya's brilliant, chilling, tragic novella, SOFIA PETROVNA. Translated from the Russian by Aline Werth. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/s...

Today, we remember the 11 innocent lives taken during the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We honor the victims and commit to building a country free from antisemitism and hatred.

Huge thanks @elizabethmck.bsky.social and @chicagoqreview.bsky.social for publishing my personal essay "The Richest Kid in the World." It's about the fall of the USSR as told through the eyes of a pre-teen, censorship, & the way end of censorship in the USSR affected different generations.

Due to my not realizing that not all early vote centers open today, I couldn't go to my local one, so I went to the one that did open today in the area, located in a park that has been the hub for Soviet Jews since, well, Soviet times. Come on, California, you can do this, yes, yes, you can, yes.😉

What are you reading this weekend? I’m working my way through this. Haven’t progressed far, but it is engaging.

Technically, this is a book of spells.

Big thank you to @moushumighosh.bsky.social for the recommendation of this, which feeds my growing obsession with Japanese detective fiction of the twistiest kind. (Mystery of a different kind is why this new book is covered with baked-in black stuff all over it. Yes, I did try to wipe (!) it off.)

This ends in revolution

“Nasiliu.net no longer exists, but the violence does,” founder and director Anna Rivina wrote, urging the public to continue supporting the psychologists and lawyers who still work independently.

Police have detained a local street performer in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg after he played songs in support of an arrested St. Petersburg street band that went viral for anti-Kremlin performances, the rights group OVD-Info reported Tuesday.

If you are in or close to San Francisco, you should go hear these phenomenal writers this Saturday.

I hope everyone's enjoying @litquake.org ! Mark your calendars for next week --

Saturday!

Saturday!

Wow! Love your creativity Ocean Beach (San Francisco)!

Most representative moment from my local No Kings march of the fact that LA is such a war zone we need troops sent in: someone in an inflatable dinosaur costume, with a bunch of little kids crowding around for a group picture. Most unexpected sign among so many good ones: More Congress, Less Duma.

I'm excited to see that my translation of Egana Djabbarova's "My Dreadful Body," on the way from New Vessel Press in spring 2026, is on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair! newvesselpress.com/books/my-dre...

After many years and several times taping it in parts, this has finally happened. It tore in the middle of "Anna on the Neck," a (minor) reworking of Tolstoy. Somewhere, Michael Heim, whose class this was, is smiling or rolling his eyes at me. I taped it back up, and we carry on in his memory.

Five Minutes' October Newsletter is live! 5minutes100words.substack.com/

It’s not too late to write #PostcardsToVoters with us!!! Join us! PostcardsToVoters.org