Thank you @variantlit.bsky.social ! I am so honored to be on this list 💞

Issue 37 is here l! Covert art by @writesofkathryn.bsky.social with 12 outstanding stories by @claudiamonpere.bsky.social @jekwriter.bsky.social @thorntonforreal.bsky.social @maireadwrites.bsky.social @michelleross.bsky.social @salgal.bsky.social @shemurph.bsky.social @stephieosaurus.bsky.social

Excited to share that I have a piece out in the beautiful new issue of @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social today! gooseberry-pie.com/anyone-who-f...

"If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?" Billie Eilish speaking directly to Mark Zuckerberg, as she donates $11.5m to food poverty and climate justice organisations.

honestly the only piece worth reading on the platner situation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is absolutely cooking here. (gift link)

People who aren’t writers think writer’s block is at least as big and real a problem as I thought quicksand would be, as a child.

Thank you, Chicago.

To recap: •$100M on golf •$172M for jets for ICE Barbie •$230M in DOJ payments to Trump •$250M for a vanity ballroom •$40B to Argentina while our farmers suffer •$117B in annual tax cuts to the super wealthy 1% •$170B ICE budget to round up Americans like Gestapo Meanwhile—no money for food stamps

n+1 comes out swinging www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Important reminder

I came for the frog saunas, and stayed for the dick-punch to capitalism:

On a basic sentence level, the first sentence voids every sentence after it.

That’s comforting. Measles has no chance against withering criticism.

So far I've found AI has been used as an excuse to increase workloads and shorten deadlines, worsening burnout in an effort to increase shareholder value.

8 vacations in 7 months has prepared JD Vance to be the next worst president

I miss the old brand #CDC

For 12 months, America had a limited proof of concept for universal healthcare, and it was so uniformly successful we had no choice but to obliterate our society

This isn’t bad luck or coincidence or predestination. This is our choice. To live in a nation where our leaders teach hate, and military style guns are everywhere.

MINNEAPOLIS: “A deliberate act of violence… don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.” 2 kids dead, over a dozen others wounded by another heavily armed gunman. Heartbreaking.

Dunking on AI by showing the stupid prompts you make it do is still using AI. They don’t care if you’re using it to make fun of it, you’re still a number on a spreadsheet proving its use

If you can't build your own guillotine, store bought is fine

If you’re looking for a lil story about a grief stricken cryptid, I’ve got you covered: centaurlit.com/monstrous-by... Thank you a million times to the lovely @centaurlit.bsky.social 💞

Sundress Publications announces the release of Delicate Machinery: Poems on Survival & Healing, edited by Erin Elizabeth Smith, which you can download for free today! www.sundresspublications.com/news/2025/07...

Look at this beautiful anthology! I can’t believe I have a poem in here, among all this beauty. www.sundresspublications.com/e-anthologies

Imagine having so much money that you could solve childhood poverty or pay off everyone’s medical debt or fund a cure for cancer and you choose this instead

"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." Happy Lottery day to you and yours.

The maddening thing is that this would have been PAINFULLY OBVIOUS if they had ANY EXPERIENCE AT ALL working with the government! In any way! Or if they had asked a single question!! 😖

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

Libertarian tech bros discovering big corporations are less efficient than government www.npr.org/2025/06/02/n...

~ Li-Young Lee I Loved You Before I Was Born (oof) —I loved you before I was born. It doesn't make sense, I know. I saw your eyes before I had eyes to see.

I have a story up at Midwest Weird! You can listen to me read it! www.midwestweird.com/post/flood-s...

I have a story up at Midwest Weird! You can listen to me read it! www.midwestweird.com/post/flood-s...

Oh my gosh a spreadsheet wow

literally woke up like this

"I mean, what were we thinking, letting children paint murals on underpasses? Handing out grants to novelists with weird names like Marisol or Devin? Some of them were using metaphors. OPENLY."

I am still stunned to have had a poem in Stone Circle Review. 💕Thank you again to @leepottspoet.bsky.social

Stone Circle Replay Wednesday poem: "Nectar" by Stephanie Frazee (@stephiosaurus.bsky.social) stonecirclereview.com/nectar/

Elon Musk's effort to slash government "led to purchasing bottlenecks and increased costs; paralysis in decision-making; longer public wait times; higher-paid civil servants filling in menial jobs, and a brain drain of scientific and technological talent." www.reuters.com/world/us/100...

Neglecting to take down the Christmas wreath for way too long is not all bad.

thank you 🥹🥚

I spoke to an expert in authoritarianism, who explained to me that things like this are extremely meaningful and they help protect democracy, even if there’s not a straight line between this and actual legislating

Mister Rogers never misses

Enjoy more prose from Issue 20! Here's "Clutch" by @stephiosaurus.bsky.social "At The Bait Boyz, I asked for their fattest worms and got an offer from every guy there. I bought the wax worms and hand-fed him. I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t heartless." 🥚🪱 variantlit.com/clutch/

I can't remember the last time I saw an article just focus on this. Not that they've bent the truth or misrepresented a few facts a little, but that every single solitary thing that the GOP says on the topic is a stone cold lie with absolutely no basis in reality. ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports...

That is exactly it.

‘It is hard to live within constant striving. It is hard to live within the word “degenerative”, which means that, however I strive, I do not win.’ Anne Carson on living with Parkinson’s: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency.

“Egg just sat there… never left dirty dishes on the counter or trash next to the can. I could make whatever I wanted for dinner… Egg never complained. He was the perfect partner, silently bearing witness to my life.” @stephiosaurus.bsky.social ruffles some feathers… variantlit.com/clutch/

@variantlit Issue 20 is live! Read it here: variantlit.com/issue-twenty/