FLEX THAT CHAMP RING

hi friends! I wrote a story that’s an actual eBay description for an actual item: you can read it, you can bid (for a good cause) as part of the #significantobjects2026 project: www.ebay.com/itm/26764354...

Check it out! PWYW’s very own Shane Zimmer composed two poems on demand for WGN TV on Monday, April 13th ahead of our appearance at the American Writers Museum yesterday night! wgntv.com/daytime-chic...

"The Dawn of Spring" a typewriter poem by yours truly from the American Writers Museum! poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/8140529...

This essay by @martinseay.bsky.social on "My Ding-A-Ling" is riveting, at least if you're the kind of person who wants to read 7,000 words about Chuck Berry (I am that kind of person)

Hey one of y'all needs to buy this clown (or at least read the story)

So many of the old British punks (from Lydon on down) ended up as Brexiteers. There’s a GenX cynicism that - paradoxically - leads a lot of us to become marks for vice signalers

Another video of Uptown's flying squirrels. 25% slow motion. Filmed March 30, 2026.

Gonna learn bad rituals to bring Satie back to life and give him a theremin.

My @marchxness.bsky.social Sadness Championship ring arrived today and I promised to take pictures! I love it so much, it fits perfectly, and I am so happy and honored to have been part of something so rad.

Awesome to see & hear @marchxness.bsky.social essays that I've been thinking about for YEARS read tonight by their authors. Have you picked up your copy of the anthology yet? If not you can get it here & you'll be glad you did: www.splitlippress.com/product-page...

Need something for your sanity/humanity? Get in, kids, we’re going to a Zoom reading about songs!

Thrilled to have my poem "Wilt" in the latest issue of the @newohioreview.bsky.social! newohioreview.org/2026/02/15/w...

Tomorrow night on Zoom! Hear my lovely spouse @martinseay.bsky.social read from the astoundingly good @marchxness.bsky.social anthology with lots of other brilliant writers!

We are very close to signing up 100 new recurring donors on our first day with an ad-free site. Your support is proving that a business model of treating readers well instead of monetizing their attention can really work. You can take part here. prospect.donorsupport.co/page/FUNPEVN...

TOMORROW: @marchxness.bsky.social Anthology launch event at 7pm CT! Featuring @danchaon.bsky.social, @stevenchurch.bsky.social, @mlfaliveno.bsky.social, @dellegeller.bsky.social, @toddkaneko.bsky.social, @elenavox.bsky.social, @mossyair.bsky.social + @martinseay.bsky.social! tinyurl.com/hitrepeat

Tucson Xness frenz take note of our upcoming in person event 4/19 (and zoom launch reading 4/7 for everyone NOT in Tucson which is most of you!)

Hey, y'all should come to this! It's on the internet! It'll be fun!

surely

"Bar Makeouts" a typewriter poem by yours truly from the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame! poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/8126948...

The winning bracket (by @legaultd.bsky.social) got the Championship game and result correct, 2 of the final 4, and 4 of the Elite 8 correct. Well done sir. You will receive a special prize (we'll be in touch)!

Having blundered my way into the lottery this year on my first try, I can testify that the @marchxness.bsky.social essay is a genre unto itself, and one I'm into. Ordering!

It's here! Super stoked for this anthology and to have an essay in it—the first I ever wrote for @marchxness.bsky.social, on the Creatures’ Exterminating Angel, Virginia Woolf, misogyny, and learning to trust myself as a musician. I love this tournament and community, and so glad to be part of it!

People have noted the high @marchxness.bsky.social vote count, and I don’t know how to explain all of it. My husband and friends are all incredibly supportive. Mostly, though, I think my biggest strategy was just being a high school English teacher for the past 20 years:

From last night: Another look at Uptown's flying squirrels …

Oh hey! Did you miss the first Goodreads giveaway for my novel MAN OVERBOARD!, coming out in July? Not to worry. Another one's on right now. Enter here if you like free books and tales of men adrift at sea! www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

The @marchxness.bsky.social anthology we've all been waiting for is finally here! So thrilled to have my essay on "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" of Dirty Dancing fame included in this much-anticipated mixtape of phenomenal writing. Get yourself a copy today!!

I had a blast repping Brick all month! We didn’t get the gold but I look better in silver anyway. And for my post game snack, you better believe I’m eating one of these Brick cookies. Great game, @mfitejohnson.bsky.social! 🧱

THAT'S THE BUZZER! MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION HAS CROWNED A NEW CHAMPION! FINAL SCORE: CELINE DION, "My Heart Will Go On" and @mfitejohnson.bsky.social 784, Ben Folds Five, "Brick" and @cicilybennion.bsky.social 474. Congratulations to both our finalists for an outstanding game.

OH SHIT LET'S GOOOOOO

WOOT!

I'm prrrrrrobably Team Brick in the @marchxness.bsky.social final—but I AM considering how the clock-punching professionalism of "Heart" leaves empty space that listeners can fill w/ their own emotional stuff w/o feeling like they're trespassing or piggybacking. That ain't nothin'!

The story here is not that "Brick" is way behind; it's that "Brick" has *360 VOTES AT HALFTIME* and is STILL way behind. It's awesome to see a ton of people avidly participating in this fun weird thing!

culture people! fave examples of essays / chapters in which a subgenre or microstyle is identified, named, and theorized, on the basis of a small number (3 or so) instances? (ala the excellent "The New Black Gothic" ( 1 film, 1 music video, 1 novel) by Sheri-Marie Harrison)

This final feels pretty inevitable to me, especially as an Xennial. Both essays are so good, and so sad, and this is a true 90s heartbreaker of a matchup. My Heart Will Go On is iconic, but Brick devastated an entire generation, and still makes me cry every time. I've gotta go Brick for the win.

Just discovered that if you put on Whatever and Ever Amen and immediately start reading @cicilybennion.bsky.social's fantastic essay on "Brick" you will (at my pace at least) reach the paragraph where she introduces the song at *exactly the moment* it starts playing.

You're not crying? Leonardo DiCaprio's 24-year-old girlfriend is watching "one of Leo's old movies" for the first time, sobbing over Jack's death, not realizing that 25 is the iceberg and she is the ship, and he will always be Rose on the door, and you're not crying? marchxness.com/sadnesschamp...

Here’s the snapshot I almost used as my author photo for this @marchxness.bsky.social tourney. It is the essayist holding a doll of her own likeness. Too on the nose? We’re down by a lot, but it’s not too late to vote for Brick! marchxness.com#/sadnesscham...

Let's go, March Sadness fans. Both essays are excellent. I've never seen "Titanic" and I've never been much invested in Ben Folds. I had to really think about this match! Verdict: I'm voting "My Heart Will Go On" - I dig its bigness, its insistence on being heard. marchxness.com#/sadnesscham...

Not relevant but also kinda relevant to @marchxness.bsky.social I have just learned that today is Celine's birthday! Mainly posting because this is a great pic of her

Essays Matter

Enjoying this shade from Cicily Bennion's video this am which is simultaneously cast on Canada and the US: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLf...

The road has been winding, full of surprise and (appropriately, I guess) heartbreak, but the March Sadness: 90s Edition Championship game is HERE

BEFORE YOU VOTE in today's championship game, here are some late night baking thoughts for your consideration. (Hang tight for part two, coming later today). Vote for Brick! youtu.be/OKLfpx5G6hs @marchxness.bsky.social

"I'd just like to point out that it's the love theme to 'Titanic' which is a real-life event where 1,500 people died" we are pulling out all the stops for the March Sadness final people!

Should I get this in like 4 colors so I can wear a different one every day at the AWP book fair next year

He definitely did the work to correct an oversight!

And allow us to remind you that it's release week for Hit Repeat Until I Hate Music: the March Xness anthology. It's like this whole tournament got shrunk down into book form! Thanks to @splitlippress.com for bringing this beauty into the world: www.splitlippress.com/product-page...

Latest thing which is Now up for everyone: some early thoughts on the techno-Calvinism of contemporary AI, the reactionary drive for the eradication of the political and the movement's Satanic theology of debt -- thehaunt.blog/2026/03/29/s...

Tomorrow's the big @marchxness.bsky.social final! Seems like now or never for catching up on the rest of the pre-tournament essays! Shall we?