So thrilled to have my review of Anna Rollins’s fabulous book live at @christiancentury.bsky.social !

OMG what an honor to have my church camp essay among the top 25 of last year at @christiancentury.bsky.social!! Revisit it here: www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...

@mauchmauch.bsky.social wrote this incredible essay about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now (published by @www.sneakerwavemag.org). Check it out — open.substack.com/pub/sneakerw... #fuckice #minneapolis #reneegood #alexpretti #georgefloyd

Cincinnati Romance Review’s new issue features my review of Anne Berest’s gripping “nonfiction novel,” LA CARTE POSTALE (The Postcard)—incredible storytelling and a chilling reminder about the costs of looking away from rising authoritarianism www.cincinnatiromancereview.org/current-issu...

If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power

I wrote about golf and reading as a portal to empathy and quests that never end. Thanks to Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland for the inspiration, and to my dad for letting me borrow his book for three years. mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/on-reading...

Road tripping from Texas to Colorado (over multiple days, thank goodness), and my partner just put on a Phish song with a duration longer than a standard sitcom episode.

Whose inauguration? What?

I reviewed Stephanie Schechner’s new translation of Mireille Best’s Hymn to Moray Eels (out now via the Pride List from Seagull Books) for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! A sharp interrogation of gender and heteronormativity, set in a French sanatorium. www.full-stop.net/2025/12/15/r...

Flu season is here, folks. Get yourself vaccinated, and then get yourself a cat-panion who will keep watch from the crook of your knee-pits.

"In Tait’s case, no part of his public persona allows him to name harmful elements of the theology he was raised with. Theology wielded to inculcate hatred or disgust rather than grace is one of the most destructive forces I know." @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...

Has anyone written a cultural history of the paint-and-sip?? I would love to read that. #culturalcriticism #arthistory #historyinthemaking

I wrote about the #michaeltait scandal and about the iconic Christian music drag queen, @flamygrant.bandcamp.com — read it now!

Gabriella D'Italia’s memoir, GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK, is out now from @unsolicitedpress.bsky.app, and I wrote about it for Heavy Feather Review! A dazzling contemplative journey for anyone with a material art practice alongside your writing practice. heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/11/17/d...

@bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social’s memoir WORLDLY GIRLS offers readers a tender journey through intergenerational trauma, female relationships, and the narrative unmooring that comes after leaving high-control religion. Read my review here! @bookhugpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2025/11/12/r...

Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet! #thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...

Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.

Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk. cjr.org/analysis/the...

Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette

My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation mastersreview.com/a-conversati...

“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...

So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse

Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags lithub.com/on-the-futur...

Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!

Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!

Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech www.vulture.com/article/post...

Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET #churchcamp

Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!

I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary

I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!! #church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup

This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂

What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.

Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!

A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory

@therumpus.net your newsletter says you’re taking subs for #collaborativecritism (a column I’m so excited for!), but I can find the submission info. Inquiring minds (and collaborators) would like to know 🤓 #submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp

Pretty sure Substack is what Medium intended to be. #amwriting #writingcommunity #blogging

I’ve got a new piece up at #maydaymagazine and it’s the first of four essays as part of a critical residency! I’ll be writing about the frictions between the literary world and writing about/wrestling with faith. Thinking about #genesis and #evangelicalism maydaymagazine.com/the-gravel-p...

I wrote this article about how #thecrowdcollective, a #northboulder artists group, is working to activate #vacantspace on east pearl. Read the article, and check out their awesome new gallery! #goseesomeart #boulderartists #boulderdowntown

As a book reviewer of great passion and strong opinions, I absolutely loved this deep dive on criticism! I particularly appreciate Cassie’s point about specificity in book reviews or blurbs. What is a great line or detail you’ve read in a piece of criticism lately? open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...

“When your partner gives you a ride to the airport, that’s access intimacy. That’s love.” I love the framing of care (expressed in craft) from #robmacaisacolgate’s recent interview at #therumpus #writerinterviews #writingcommunity #AuthorInterviews therumpus.net/2025/05/19/r...

Hey #writingcommunity, where are y’all reading interviews these days? #amwriting #literarymagazines #litmags #interviewswithauthors

Just busy being obsessed with Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors again. #color #lownotesonartandtrash #wernersnomenclature #publicdomain #amwriting publicdomainreview.org/collection/w...

This story is so visceral and gross but also so emotional. I really love it. Another smash hit from @www.sneakerwavemag.org ! #nonfiction #truestory #cnf #personalessay #realamericanman #falcon #petsittinghorrorstory #oddjobs

Tonight! Join me, Jaydra Johnson, Elizabeth Cooperman, and Eula Biss in a panel about art made in spite of…everything. Hosted by @calyxpress.bsky.social, happening at 5:30 pm PT! #artunderduress #lownotesonartandtrash #eulabiss #havingandbeinghad #writers

One of those mornings where I just made a whole pot of coffee without any coffee grounds. Happy Monday.

As an editor for @www.sneakerwavemag.org, I really really love sending acceptances. #litmags #litmageditor

So jazzed to see @rachellsarnoff.bsky.social’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday roundup! Alongside a bunch of other great pieces 😍 #nonfiction #cnf #personalessay #truestories

A true story about a roommate-ship gone awry… I’ve had roommate-ships that soured, but thankfully never like this! Check out Anna DiMartino’s “The Housemate,” out now from @www.sneakerwavemag.org // #truestory #roommates #stalkerstory #memoir #personalessay

👉 Less than two weeks left to register for this panel with CALYX press, moderated by @mwatsonfore.bsky.social!

One of my writing friends and I have begun collaborating on poems and lyric essays. Now she texts me mellifluous names of plants and every time she has a noteworthy bird experience. Life is rich, y’all. #amwriting #collaborativewriting #blahblahblahbird