I'll be a busy bee next week at the Portland Book Festival Cover to Cover events, including an AMA at @spokeandwordbooks.bsky.social, a conversation with @pollydugan.bsky.social at Annie Bloom's, and a conversation with @gigilittle.bsky.social at Broadway Books. Stop by and join us at one or all!

In which @laurastanfill.bsky.social writes about our beloved Rose City, which is not on fire, and books, which have the potential to save us. 💙

"...until refuge is secured with justice, it will never truly be refuge at all." This is a heartbreaking post from Ari Honarvar, whose debut novel A GIRL CALLED RUMI was published by Portland's Forest Avenue Press and my friend @laurastanfill.bsky.social in 2021.

Introducing our speaker... @laurastanfill.bsky.social! Laura Stanfill is the author of Imagine a Door, a book for writers, and the publisher of Forest Avenue Press. She has won the Oregon Literary Fellowship for Publishing twice, and she earned a certificate from the Yale Publishing Course.

YES. From @laurastanfill.bsky.social: "... as writers, we linger and agonize over each verb. We replace em dashes with commas and then switch them back to em dashes. We activate our characters and scenes and sacred objects, making artistic decisions alongside the practical ones."

To learn more about #democracy, #freedom, and to be an effective writer, I read these books during the summer of 2025. Thank you @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @dkthomp.bsky.social @chrislhayes.bsky.social @timothysnyder.bsky.social @laurastanfill.bsky.social and Ta-Nehisi Coates for writing books!

Getting a really nice review from Kirkus is as stunning as a billy club to the back of the head. So happy and thankful. The full review is here: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews.... #whokilledonethegun #forestavenuepress #timeloops #noir #oldtimeradio

ICYMI, here's a whimsical interview with Forest Ave's @laurastanfill.bsky.social and the phenomenal @debutiful.bsky.social. #writing #publishing

Want to add free mystery, thriller, and suspense books to your bookshelf? Here are free books, including WHO KILLED ONE THE GUN?, in a special @bookfunnel.bsky.social giveaway! #free #onethegun #smallpress #publishing #suspense #mystery #thriller books.bookfunnel.com/allgenremtsf...

I have been pretty quiet on social media this summer but here's a snapshot of one week of balancing my writing life and my publishing responsibilities. writeordiemag.com/features/-wr...

Excited about the Oregon Country Fair? Video of the 2024 writers' panel just dropped! I moderated a panel with @jorahlafleur.bsky.social, @lainitaylor.bsky.social, @rosieethor.bsky.social, and @reggiewatts.bsky.social. Ninety minutes of good vibes! youtu.be/ZKe3-or2h1k?... #writinglife #ocf

Check out our latest conversation with @forestavenuepress.bsky.social publisher @laurastanfill.bsky.social! Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5rFV...

Happy Juneteenth 🌱

holy shit everything about this is maddening but I think fabricating a DUI so they could say he was a criminal was the part where I audibly hissed

New interview just landed, thanks to @alyssagraybeal.bsky.social! IMAGINE A DOOR, a kind and comprehensive guide to publishing, is out wherever books are sold. alyssagraybeal.substack.com/p/an-intervi... laurastanfill.substack.com #publishing #writing

My second novel, THE NEIGHBORHOOD DAMES, has sold to @ooliganpress.bsky.social, one of my favorite independent presses. I'm so thrilled! I'm working on developmental edits now and can't wait to share this project with everyone in fall 2026. #writing

Gobsmacked to be in this company! Portland's Top Reads for the month of May, as reported to Willamette Week. Shout out to my local-est indie bookstore, Annie Bloom's, for hand-selling my new book and making it a best-seller! #publishing #writing www.wweek.com/arts/books/2...

I’ve been refocusing on creativity first in my writing, instead of letting publishing concerns drive the writing. After reading @laurastanfill.bsky.social’s terrific “Imagine A Door,” I am now beginning @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social’s “Dear Writer,” which looks equally wonderful #writing #creativity

FDA is "attempting to force loving families, parents and siblings, throughout this country to be the infectious vector through which you achieve your eugenicist goal of killing our disabled and medically complex children. There is nothing here but evil."

Who's on NetGalley? My book for writers, IMAGINE A DOOR, is live for the next four weeks. www.netgalley.com/widget/86116...

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN! We have 8 days to reach our fundraising goal & we have a LONG way to go!! Be the reason that the Locus lights stay on! Help us out at igg.me/at/locusmag2025. We are so grateful for your support! Fundraiser link in bio #sff #scifi #fantasy #booksky

This comment period ends today, 5/23, at 11:59 pm ET. Please do comment asap if you believe the government should allow us to get COVID vaccinations. I can't believe we even have to petition them about this, but here we are.

So far today I've received 28 pitches for upcoming books. By 28 different publicists representing 28 different authors. There is so little space to cover any of them. Which is why this AI-created and unedited by humans summer reading list is such a slap in the face.

Extra! Extra! Get your fake books! Maximum dystopia! gabinoiglesias.substack.com/p/the-one-bo...

Novelists, poets, screenwriters, playwrights, songwriters, and journalists should stick together.😭

Good news in Libraryland 📚📜

My new book BREAK THE FRAME: CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMEN FILMMAKERS drops in 10 days. Tour schedule (link below) will take me to SF, Brooklyn, Chicago, Ann Arbor and many more! See you on the road! www.breaktheframebook.com

How COOL is this???? Miriam Gershow's CLOSER is one of Bookshop.org's "50 Preorder Picks: Books We Can't Wait to Read." #happydance @miriamgershow.bsky.social regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/closer/

PSA: Because of readers’ support, this Independent Bookstore Day was not only the largest Bookstore Day ever for so many bookshops, but their biggest day of sales ever. We at Libro.fm also had our biggest day of sales ever, all of which supported indie bookshops across the globe.

If your literary organization lost an NEA grant this week, I'd like to hear from you for a story I'm writing for the LARB. DMs are open, email is [email protected].

At @reactorsff.bsky.social, I shared some indie press SFF due out in May and June. reactormag.com/cant-miss-in...

Oh, this is SO good, so thorough, so shiny bright! From @cassmannes.bsky.social, interviewing @laurastanfill.bsky.social about her new book IMAGINE A DOOR, "a way to herd all those insights and stories into one accessible place, where anyone can find them." Brava! open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...

This is my love letter to writers and a rallying cry. Your stories matter. Don't let the process of publication erode your belief in your own creativity; there are so many ways we can shift that mindset, and we must, because stories change minds and offer hope. Thank you so much for reading, Dale!

Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.

@laurastanfill.bsky.social and I had a strategy session about my book-to-come yesterday and it was lovely. The linked post was a tiny moment from it. (One of the things she did was remind me about hashtags.) #forestavenuepress #mystery #sci-fi #whokilledonethegun

Lynne has shown up for so many writers and grieving humans in the Portland community. gofund.me/43a5596b

The First Amendment, the Associated Press and all of us are winners tonight, thanks to a judge who stood up to Trump's assault on our free press. Sam Bellamy provides the details below in an update on Trump's harassment of the AP.

Huge thanks to @janefriedman.com for sharing an excerpt of IMAGINE A DOOR on her site today. janefriedman.com/trust-your-i...

I wrestled my anxiety all week leading up to my book launch on April 1 and I managed to banish the scaries in time to save my event from, well, myself. IMAGINE A DOOR is full of human moments, writers doing the best they can. Thanks to all who made it a @powells.bsky.social best-seller!

Can't wait to celebrate @laurastanfill.bsky.social and Imagine a Door at Powell's tomorrow! Come join us. 7 PM, April 1, Powell's downtown.

One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.

NEW: Internal staff email from Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch addressing Trump’s executive order. “As always, our work will be shaped by the best scholarship, free of partisanship, to help the American public better understand our nation’s history, challenges and trumphs.”

Sky friends, ooh do I love this manuscript, and I get the privilege of making it into a book. THE SEA-GLASS SHORE by Julie Salmon Kelleher is a midlife selkie story. How do you parent twins on land when they are drawn to the call of the sea? www.forestavenuepress.com/news/acquisi...

A week from today, IMAGINE A DOOR, our book for writers, will be out. Join us at 7 p.m. at Powell's to hear author @laurastanfill.bsky.social in conversation with poet @armintolentino.bsky.social.

The thing about so-called generative artificial intelligence is, the intelligence isn't artificial. It's real. It's OURS. The techbros stole our intelligence (our data, our thoughts, our stories, our art) and used the software to regurgitate it and spackle it together into digital particleboard.

A Slice of Life: A Closer Look at the Short Story. Christine Sneed, Robin Romm, Lena Valencia & Daniel A. Olivas. Apr 27, 3:30 PM, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books! Details: events.latimes.com/festivalofbo... #LATFOB

I'm fighting for my community, which is full of people whose identity words are banned by this administration. What that looks like is offline. In person. Specific actions. I'm okay with doing the work instead of shouting about the work. But when I'm quiet, don't assume I'm complacent.

Shouting it from the rooftops that the new how-to-with-heart for writers who want to understand publishing is here from @laurastanfill.bsky.social. Pub date 4/1/25 but this beauty can be pre-ordered now! #forestavenuepress #portlandoregon