Book 84 of 2026: Every Dark Cloud by @marisca.bsky.social #PostApocalyptic #ClimateFiction #Novella Humanity develops tech to cope with a too-powerful sun and all is well (if dark). But is it? Corruption, tech failures, human ingenuity—and the power of human connection. Really enjoyed it! #BookSky

Issue 8 #CreativeNonfiction DON’T BE AFRAID OF ME, I CAN’T REACH THE TOP SHELF by Liana “And yet, every room I walk into, everything stops. Shoulders tense. Eyes flicker. They calculate. Assess. I am small. But, apparently, also a potential threat.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

'Plenty of time for quiet on the other side.' Hell yeah! Fabulous tribute and call to action from @nomad-sw18.bsky.social in Righteous Rage! 'When My Dead Aunt Joins Me on the Protest March' in @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🪧

Issue 8 #CreativeNonfiction CAVITIES by @whichwaytorome.bsky.social “”Have you seen the world outside?” This I do say out loud, push it out past the always-present initial urge to never make someone else uncomfortable.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #CreativeNonfiction DROWNING by Lucinda Guard Crofton “Uprooted by grief, wanting nothing more than to hug her manchild, she holds tight to a tree branch as the river flows around her kayak. She takes no notice of the bark digging into her palm, drawing blood.”

Issue 8 #CreativeNonfiction LISTEN by @sugarpigblog.bsky.social “Her fine strawberry tresses burn from scalp to virgin ends, glowing red and orange, dancing in the air. Her small white hands wave above her flaming head, trying to get anyone’s attention.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #CreativeNonfiction HIGH-FUNCTIONING by Kate Choi “A plastered lizard crawled out from under the stone. My skin crackled, palms banging like bass beats. They remembered. Oh, they remembered. My mouth sewed itself shut with shame.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

This is THE definition of #ELit. I got chills listening to the recording.

Issue 8 #Poetry IF I DIE FROM THIS by @kristinwrites.bsky.social “Disfigure the shiny wood with flame and bury me with the ashes” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry THE NEWS by @shimmo.bsky.social “being cancelled by the screamers in the kangaroo court of public opinion versus vaporisation from the face of the Earth is hardly a valid comparison” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry I SWORE by @anoldwriter.bsky.social “In a time of war I took an oath to serve my country and its constitution. If called upon today to take such an oath I would have only questions” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

“and in ways with teeth / that devoured my soft parts, leaving old-lady bones behind” omg this poem by @cake-girl.bsky.social in @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥🧡🧡🧡

So, so grateful this poem found a home in issue 8 of @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🥹💗

Issue 8 #Poetry ICE MURDERS A POET BLOCKS FROM WHERE POLICE MURDERED GEORGE FLOYD by Amanda Trout “Here, the witness poet shot, screams into the sky out from the silence, her rage sound ringing.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry PUNISHMENT by Terri Watrous Berry “Who gives this right, who claims the right to kill a man in Texas today for a boy’s alleged deed” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry RABBIT, RUN by @shaunjexauthor.bsky.social “The rabbit knows it must evade the jaws Of the yellow-eyed fox on the prowl The fox, who hunts only for pleasure” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

"She runs from the shack where she sleeps alone to the nearest fine house, pounds ineffectual fists on the hard front door. “I know what happens!” she yells..." ICYMI my CNF story full of recognition and warning. In the latest issue of @epistemiclit.bsky.social epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry A POEM IN WHICH I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT BEING ANGRY by @cake-girl.bsky.social “and i am trying to be angry / but you see, i was hungry for decades / in hidden ways that swallowed my words / before they could catch fire” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Here's a righteously pissed-off poem to contemplate

Issue 8 #Poetry I JUST WANT TO TALK by @lyfaulk.bsky.social “I got an A+ in sleeping and woke up ready to climb a mountain and kill god.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Quite a few pieces in here by #EpistemicLitFamily! Can’t wait to dive in!

This is why we do what we do. ❤️😭

Issue 8 #Poetry DEFIANCE IS SACRED WORK by Candace Kronen Blackout poem of very few words — I encourage you to listen to the audio, which is its own gorgeous piece of art! epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry ALECTO by @lauraupat5am.bsky.social “You hypocrites, you merciless, you will learn what coils in the shadow of my rigid, vulture wings” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Poetry RUMBLE by Joe Coy “there’s a rumbling roiling discontent one step is a movement that starts a movement” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

You need milk! A funny and scathing story about a husband.

Issue 8 #FlashFiction ALL ABOUT [INSERT HUSBAND HERE] by @melruthwrites.bsky.social “He says people who lead healthy lives don’t hold onto responsibility so tightly. Sometimes I imagine holding on to [insert husband here]’s throat so tightly his eyes pop.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

"Give em hell, she shouts, breath puffing in the blue blue sky of a Minnesota winter" Wonderful sense of character in this from @nomad-sw18.bsky.social; love the way this builds tension between anxiety and hope

"But [insert husband here] doesn’t have any clue what my burden is—that Rose likes ketchup on her bologna sandwich" Love the whole journey of this from @melruthwrites.bsky.social; great use of form to tell the specific and the universal at the same time: epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #FlashFiction EVEN A WORM by Kelly Murashige “You’d make it painful. You’d make it hurt. You’d say you still love me, then break me again. Make me so tiny, I would disappear.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Get your swag!

"In between snow drifts and abandoned firearms, emaciated birds pick at the carcasses. Crows with blood-wet beaks" Rich, sumptuous writing from @romymorreo.bsky.social that contrasts so well with what is being brought to life

Issue 8 #FlashFiction MY BIRTH STORY by Rachel Rodman “On this occasion, the receptacle is especially uncooperative.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Thanks so much for publishing my story, @epistemiclit.bsky.social team! So proud to be part of your Righteous Rage issue, with so many fab writers @tomljanovic.bsky.social @lorifontanes.bsky.social @emhall47.bsky.social @romymorreo.bsky.social @sugarpigblog.bsky.social

Issue 8 #FlashFiction WHEN MY DEAD AUNT JOINS ME ON THE PROTEST MARCH by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social “I don’t know where to look. What to do. I promised myself when my aunt died that I’d do more to follow my convictions, to make my time on this planet count.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #FlashFiction 1969: THE STONEWALL INN by DC Diamondopolous “His wiry body whirled around. He punched the cop in the face. Jackie saw first shock, then fear in the man’s eyes. Fear. Jackie lived with it every day.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #FlashFiction TALK TO ME by @lorifontanes.bsky.social “Today, when you called with gritted-teeth urgency, I realized how close I came to waiting too long.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #FlashFiction GYPSUM AND DUST by Jeff Radwell “That the goal was not to frighten people into stillness but into the continuation of small motions. To keep everyone moving. To make resistance look like standing on a corner with oranges while a man disappeared into a van.”

Issue 8 #FlashFiction AN ORDINARY OCCURRENCE IN THE KITCHEN by Kira Coleman “When Laura was too angry to speak, she put it into work: into the new curtains for the family room or the vegetable garden or the spaghetti. Tonight it was the spaghetti.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

“Cause she’s clearly got a post-death thing going on here, wrapped tight in her purple Helly Hansen parka with its fur-lined hood.” A beautiful tribute, @nomad-sw18.bsky.social in @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥

Issue 8 #Microfiction WHAT REMAINS by @emhall47.bsky.social “Girls are just useless split tails, he’d boast whenever he thought I deserved it.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Microfiction INFESTATION, another by @romymorreo.bsky.social “Multiplication, the perpetual nightmare of math (fuck you, Mr.Dennington), as if the plague wasn’t bad enough already, dusting me in rot while I vomit rage: if you’re gonna die in my home, pay some fucking rent first.”

Issue 8 #Microfiction AFTER THE LAST ABDUCTION by @romymorreo.bsky.social “Embers of a war with no winners burn lonely by the wayside.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Check out this workshop with @liapas.bsky.social

Issue 8 #Microfiction OTHER MOMS STAND IN AN IMPENETRABLE CIRCLE OF BACKS, another by @tomljanovic.bsky.social “Screams and spilled Stanleys hit the pavement. In the rearview mirror, I see the circle break and my son laugh.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

Issue 8 #Microfiction BEFORE THE GROUND GETS TOO HARD by @tomljanovic.bsky.social “Start again. It’s so easy for them to start over. A new car, confidence, penis pills, and a profile on Tinder.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

The fierce stare in this photo is powerful and the starkness of black and white enhance that emotion. I'm honoured to have it paired with my micro "Before the Ground Gets Too Hard"

Issue 8 #Microfiction BEFORE THE GROUND GETS TOO HARD by @tomljanovic.bsky.social “Start again. It’s so easy for them to start over. A new car, confidence, penis pills, and a profile on Tinder.” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...

"Assault rifles. Torsos strapped with cannisters and pulls and gas masks. Little brown backpacks. Think—who are these agents targeting and why? Another person disappears, a bright orange hunting cap flying into the air like a flare." Stunning @nomad-sw18.bsky.social epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...