Philly folks! Join me and Jiordan Castle for a convo about my book THE SUN WON’T COME OUT TOMORROW this Thursday at the Penn Bookstore!

'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Pa.'s 2 senators, including alleged Dem Fetterman, picked the wrong week to tell Americans not to talk about fascism, Hitler The shredding of the 1st Amendment that led to gov't coercion to silence Jimmy Kimmel is fast becoming our own Reichstag fire My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/jimm...

I may never recover from the fact that Rider Strong AKA Shawn Hunter has READ MY BOOK and TALKED ABOUT IT and SAID MY NAME on this Boy Meets World podcast 😭😭😭

The thing about accelerating authoritarianism is that it is deadly serious and also just increasingly absurd All of this, and more, because of that guy?

Love to wake up in Ireland the morning we’re flying back to the States to news of an authoritarian crackdown on freedom of speech, abetted by Disney

Even leaving the country has not saved us from having to see the creepy eyes of Kash Patel (staring out from a TV in a pub in Northern Island)

“Editing according to traffic is not editing; it’s engineering" — David Remnick in NYmag nymag.com/intelligence...

Coulda watched Rilo Kiley play for hours longer tonight, was grinning from ear to ear, perfect band, perfect songs, perfect concert

A little background on my review of the new Miriam Toews for The Atlantic, and the truly remarkable essay she takes her title from: open.substack.com/pub/american...

Truly incredible location-targeted ad on the Every Outfit podcast this week, aiming at electrical linemen who shop for tools at Grainger and also love Sex and the City

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about one of my favorite novelists, Miriam Toews, and her new memoir, an elliptical attempt to articulate why she writes and why she lives: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Miriam Toews’s latest book “A Truce That Is Not Peace” is an investigation of her will to write, which is deeply entwined with her will to live, writes Kristen Martin:

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about one of my favorite novelists, Miriam Toews, and her new memoir, an elliptical attempt to articulate why she writes and why she lives: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

"There are only seven full-time book critics left in the United States...The rest of us are freelancers—and according to the Freelance Solidarity Project, nearly one-third of freelance book critics make less than the federal minimum wage for their reviews." worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...

I don't begrudge Swifties any joy, and I try to keep my hating to a minimum, but I served with English teachers, and, senator, you're no English teacher.

Big ups to @inquirer.com for their in-depth coverage of what the SEPTA cuts have looked like on the ground today share.inquirer.com/9yZd9y

🚨 If you were thinking of picking it up, today's the final day of the $1.99 ebook sale for THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US

Journalists everywhere need to stand in solidarity on this killing spree and resulting news blackout. See below in this thread for some actions and stay tuned here https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hits-gaza-hospital-killing-least-20-people-including-five-journalists-2025-08-25/

I want to be a writer, not an entrepreneur

Ten days later and I was still fuming over some really wrongheaded characterizations of book criticism on this website, so I blogged about it: americanorphan.substack.com/p/what-is-bo...

Hey! If you’ve assigned Dreamland I would be happy to zoom in and talk to your students if it sounds like fun a.co/d/8GAMLuK

Good riddance to James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who among other Bad Things stoked evangelical zeal for adoption: thebaffler.com/salvos/wards...

👏👏👏 “Book reviews are not advertisements, and books are not merely products. They are not commodities, and they are not consumables that get used up and thrown away, like face cream or paper towels. We should not judge the worth of book criticism by whether or not it moves book sales."

I actually just shed a tear. This is the most absurd story I’ve ever read. Levels of absurdity have never been higher

Criticism matters.

Please read Kristen Martin on book criticism (and on everything else she writes about, honestly)

I'm going on book tour 👽 9/24 Skylight Books, LA (CA) 9/28 Head House Books, Philly 9/30 Loyalty Bookstore, DC 10/1 The Strand, NYC 10/2 Riffraff Bookstore, Providence 10/3 Porter Square Books, Boston 10/9 Sarah Lawrence College 10/11 Sunny's Bookshop, LA (CA) 11/12 Francie & Finch, Lincoln, NE

Ten days later and I was still fuming over some really wrongheaded characterizations of book criticism on this website, so I blogged about it: americanorphan.substack.com/p/what-is-bo...

Devastated that I can't give blood right now to reap the new Red Cross x Peanuts t-shirt (got a tattoo in July)

Criticism is discernment. Criticism is a form/medium. It is not a coincidence that a culture that devalues criticism has many other ... problems.

Ok I have watched the series finale of AJLT and they really took the worst parts of the show and remixed them to cap things off. Weird wokeness from season 1, more men pissing, The Woman saying nothing and it being portrayed as profound, side characters for side characters

Watching Jersey Shore for the first time ever bc I was “denying my heritage” when it aired in 2009, per my husband, a Jersey Italian

Instead of #familypolicing, survivors talk about what real help looks like: responses that provide safety and support, honor family and community relationships with empathy and compassion, and value healing, connection, accountability, and care. buff.ly/esqjYKI

NEW RESOURCE: Drawing on the wisdom of survivors, Roxanna Asgarian posits powerful questions that challenge us to respond more humanely to child sexual harm. @strawburriez.bsky.social buff.ly/esqjYKI

my fellow PA-ians, pleaaaase hit up your friends/fam/exes/whomever who live in areas where their senators especially need to be pressured about supporting SEPTA funding— that’s N East Philly, Bucks County, & Montgomery County 🚂 ⬇️

I am losing my mind over how the four-seat Republican majority in the PA Senate has held up our state budget for *six weeks* and is continuing to play games with transit funding, forcing SEPTA to go ahead with catastrophic service cuts

I’m thrilled to be teaching a workshop this fall over at Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance! Things are bad bad bad right now, I know, but perhaps a slow down and some time spent marveling and writing about the natural world with me is a good antidote: www.mainewriters.org/calendar/bra...

Those aren’t reviews. Those are opinions, and they have their place and uses, but they do not substitute for deeply informed and engaging critical writing, which is a skill that takes time, practice, and experience to develop.

“It’s like the criminal on trial gets to say, ‘I don’t like this, let’s change it,’” said Corrine Moon, a plaintiff in the class action who has described years of sexual abuse by state employees. “How is that fair? Why does the state get to keep re-victimizing us?” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/u...

It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.

Watching a real blast from the past SVU episode, with cameos from Wendy Williams and Perez Hilton

On reading for pleasure v reading for work, new reviews, an interview with me, and links: open.substack.com/pub/american...

On reading for pleasure v reading for work, new reviews, an interview with me, and links: open.substack.com/pub/american...

Completely unsurprising that Trump 2.0 is once again using family separation as a punishment tactic for asylum seekers, but seeing the administration claim that it's doing so to ensure the safety of children is still sickening: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/u...

So many things are bad but here's a small good thing - @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social made these incredible, adorable, perfect pins to go with BEINGS, and you can get a pack for free with proof of pre-order: fpls.in/beingsanovel

It’s my 36th birthday—and my first as a published author! So yes, I am using this as yet another opportunity to say BUY MY BOOK and TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT plz! bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

I loved having this talk about the process of writing my book and freelancing with Erika Hayasaki for her Substack The Reported Essay. Her Substack is a must-follow for journalists and nonfiction writers—she also recently interviewed ADRIAN NICOLE LEBLANC!!! substack.com/home/post/p-...

PA needs to pass this budget and fund SEPTA bc I just got into an argument with an old Italian man while waiting forever for the bus bc he claimed “illegals” were to blame for the impending cuts

Thank you to Erika Hayasaki for this interview! open.substack.com/pub/therepor...