“I reject scarcity and the feeling that the other writers around you are your competition, and that there’s only so much pie.” —Laura van den Berg, interviewed by @rokwon.bsky.social www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

Got into money, reaching readers, and what we would tell our pre-publication selves with five writers I admire so much: electricliterature.com/its-the-writ...

Wrote about a recent ER all-nighter & my relationship to pain: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Our fall issue is coming! We have essays by @heatherchristle.bsky.social, Oliver Egger, and Ash Sanders; interviews with Laura van den Berg, @blondieband.bsky.social, and Richard Ayoade, conducted by @rokwon.bsky.social, Emma Ingrisani, and Wallace Shawn; poetry, reviews, and more.

Wrote about last weekend's fight: fightweek.substack.com/p/let-the-lo...

"Every time I thought about the event I felt like vomiting on my shoes" Laura Van Den Berg on stage fright - something horribly familiar to most writers - and how to dull it into submission

Wrote about having terrible performance anxiety & how I worked through it: fightweek.substack.com/p/the-edge-o...

@lauravandenberg.bsky.social reading from state of paradise

NYC! We'd love to see you at Florida Night! tomorrow (July 1), 6:30 PM, at P & T Knitwear. Super excited to be joining forces w Kristen Arnett, Gabriella Burnham, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, & Lynn Steger Strong. We're gonna have a good time. ptknitwear.com/events

Justice Sotomayor's dissent in Skrmetti (which she's now reading from the bench) is deeply pained, accusing her colleagues of abandoning "transgender children and their families to political whims" and badly damaging "bedrock" principles of equal protection. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Hudson Valley people: wildly excited to help host Catherine Lacey TONIGHT for The Möbius Book: 6:30 PM, Northern Spy Reading Series at Left Bank Ciders in Catskill. This will be very fun & you do not want to miss it!

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Come out to P&T Knitwear on TUESDAY, JULY 1ST at 6:30pm, where our lovely @lauravandenberg.bsky.social will appear for FLORIDA NIGHT to talk about her novel STATE OF PARADISE! #florida #lauravandenberg #stateofparadise

Baffler no. 79 features new short fiction from @lauravandenberg.bsky.social‬. In “Cake,” every treat is a burden, and every burden is an opportunity.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming Democratic primary for New York City mayor — delivering a jolt to the crowded race with less than nine days until early voting starts: bit.ly/45bpiU6

I wrote about boxing as the loneliest sport + what makes a community hold: substack.com/home/post/p-...

It seems to us that if you're anywhere near the Southeast, this is the event you should be headed to on July 1. That lineup is bonkers.

Wildly excited for this night of Florida lit at P & T Knitwear on July 1, with @kristenarnett.bsky.social, @kaylakumari.bsky.social, Gabriella Burnham, & Lynn Steger Strong. You can get your tickets right here: www.eventbrite.com/e/florida-ni...

A delight & an honor to interview @mcrane12.bsky.social on FIGHT WEEK!

New newsletter is up! Wrote about what happens on a Fight Week + AMA. fightweek.substack.com/p/what-happe...

April newsletter is on finishing what we start: fightweek.substack.com/p/the-deep-end

Last call to register for this 2 session class on character! We will talk craft, read, write, Q & A. We will do deep dives into what characters need to do & do not need to do & what allows a character to feel alive-alive on the page. www.eventbrite.com/e/kinderhook...

A reminder that this magic is happening on Saturday in New Orleans. Come see @kristenarnett.bsky.social & @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social talk books & life & clowns & how to be a dirtbag and more!

"Your Second Wife," a story from my last collection, is getting adapted! deadline.com/2025/03/max-...

A clown explores how much of life is a joke in this excerpt from "Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One" by Kristen Arnett (@kristenarnett.bsky.social), recommended by Laura van den Berg (@lauravandenberg.bsky.social).

Joy of joys to introduce @kristenarnett.bsky.social's marvelous latest for @electriclit.bsky.social!

Extraordinary interview with Adania Shibli: “Language is not immune to acts of genocide and annihilation. It too can be destroyed, become unable to endure, get lost.” www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/03...

y’all it’s the last week for preorders - i know you don’t need me to tell you how important preorders are because you’ve heard that shit a million times but please go grab one from this link right now - you’re not only supporting a queer floridian, you’re also supporting a florida indie bookstore

March Substack is on shaping time on the page & in the ring (+ my dad’s pet buzzard, the brilliance of Jenny Erpenbeck, & what happens when someone’s shoelace comes untied in a boxing match): fightweek.substack.com/p/the-clock

Looking for some new ways to think about character? I’m excited to be teaching this class in March / April w/ Kinderhook Books. Link to sign up is right here: www.eventbrite.com/e/kinderhook...

Very happy to have a new story, "Ghost Horses," in The Sewanee Review: thesewaneereview.com/articles/gho...

Currently reading STATE OF PARADISE by @lauravandenberg.bsky.social and it’s exactly what I’m in the mood for right now. 💜

My last newsletter was an “against,” so I thought this time I’d try a “in praise of.” It’s about weightlifting + moving weight in all its forms. fightweek.substack.com/p/in-praise-...

These cuts save nothing, just as the trans care bans protect no one. There’s a reason “woman” is on the list of banned research terms Trump put out and it isn’t trans people.

This will be played as an attack on universities and research and rightly so—it is—but someone on this list might save your life or that of someone you know if they could keep working. Many will die who didn’t need to if the cuts stand.

I'm in the @nytimes.com @nytopinion.nytimes.com this morning asking: Who exactly is running the federal government? If we can’t answer that simple question, government officials and civil society must recognize warning signs of state capture and take back what's ours. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

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Can't make it to one of these because your Senators' closest office is several hours away? Maybe try your hand at writing an op ed for your local. Or reach out to someone you know who lives closer. Or find out if any organizations are mobilizing & shoot them a donation.

The creative writing program at Harvard is hiring a fiction writer! Come work with me + an excellent crew of writers: www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?...

I wrote about putting your skills to use for @writingco-lab.bsky.social.

If you are within striking distance of Catskill, NY tonight this will be a great event: Francine Prose will read + be interviewed by Elissa Schappell, Left Bank Ciders, 6:30 PM.

The creative writing program at Harvard is hiring a Senior Lecturer on Fiction! Come work with me + some other lovely & amazing writers: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/145...

Reissue out today! Big thanks to @lauravandenberg.bsky.social for the killer new afterword. I started writing this novel 20 years ago, finished it around this time in 2007. Published 2010. It feels ancient, yet the book refuses to die!

New newsletter is up! On the problem with motivation + power of routine (also 👻)

STATE OF PARADISE by @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a sticky fever dream of a story that I quite literally haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I read it in September. I will now read everything else she has ever written, thank you #BookSky

Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum's (MF 09) debut novel, ELITA, is finding its way to readers everywhere today via @triquarterlymag.bsky.social! "a brooding, atmospheric tour de force of psychological suspense. " – @lauravandenberg.bsky.social (MF 16)

A delight to be mentoring with Periplus again + to be working with Bella Bravo. Congratulations to all the fellows! lithub.com/announcing-t...

❤️❤️❤️

book therapy at @oblongbooks.bsky.social in Rhinebeck, courtesy @lauravandenberg.bsky.social

Wrote about the advice I give but don’t take, coming back to a project after a long break, & all the different versions of ourselves we run into when we go home substack.com/home/post/p-...