nothing could have prepared me for how unraveling postpartum depression would be. in birthing my daughter, did i also (re?)birth a girl I thought I wasn't anymore, a girl I left in Iowa?

Bummed as I'm always bummed that they didn't get raptured.

The thing I like about dark mode is its easier on the eyes when a fresh new horror appears

Happy Silksong, y'all

Loved the latest substack from @mdbell79.bsky.social on putting title chapters to work: inspired me to mess around with the idea of including some clearly demarcated 3rd person passages in my novel so I can tell more stories of people in space... mattbell.substack.com/p/54-putting...

me: (checking that I'm logged into my own account before liking something) me: 😑

In undergrad, it was especially hard for me to move on in writing a story if each sentence, each word, wasn't *just* right. A college professor told me to stop finessing and keep going, just sit down and don't get up until the story has an ending. I think this is novel advice too.

"When 8 men have more money than 4 billion people combined, folks relying on food stamps or Medicaid aren't the problem."

"Why does the myth of upward movement persist so stubbornly? Why do we measure greatness by vertical gain? ...Somehow, we believe that ‘up there’ where it’s bright, that's where life is truly happening." Really appreciate this perspective from Nadia Meli. substack.com/@nadiameli/p...

I haven’t drawn in years, but I was thinking about how little kids draw all the time—and how much unabashed joy they have—and I want to too

Who else is notebooks deep in Blue Prince? This game rules.

“I was busy…but I always have time to worry.” This Miranda July quote (from ALL FOURS) hitting a little too close to home.

Reminds me of this eternal Ted Chiang banger-

babe are you ok you’ve barely written about your characters sighing, looking, or nodding & you’ve only typed the word “just” 40 times

For those interested in a more unhinged severance bingo

Building a severance season finale bingo card if anyone wants to play along.

Woke up from a nap with this small rattling poem

us? the nation who ate Tide Pods? has resurrected measles??? I don’t believe it.

Phenomenal piece by @sfmontgomery.bsky.social : “I’ve come very far in ignoring advice like this—the kind that suggests my writing is only of value if I demonstrate how far away from my disability I have managed to escape.”

Sometimes to counter the worry that robots are taking over I think about how a printer literally stops working if the paper is wrinkled.

Public comment is now open for passport gender marker changes. You can go here to go to each of the three proposed passport rules, and submit comment. My suggestion: be unique, argue for trans-inclusive policies, against the constitutionality of the changes, etc. www.reddit.com/r/Passports/...

Just a reminder that fascists, authoritarians, dictators of all stripes destroy archives— books, museums, databases, &c— because those things provide windows onto a plurality of other ways we might organize the world. And so preserving, defending, and spreading that knowledge harms those regimes.

“Tender, crumbly, crunchy, buttery, creamy, crispy, velvety. You eat and weep at the glorious textures.” Devastating and timely and beautifully horrifying @claudiamonpere.bsky.social

YES. I feel like fiction is my way of telling the truth, of taking some stimuli from real life and kaleidoscoping it into something stranger (and, somehow, truer) open.substack.com/pub/etgarker...

I’ve been reading substacks instead of scrolling, holding my daughter instead of engaging with the news. It is a privilege to be her parent, to watch the sun rise together, to see if her eyes stay blue.

Really enjoyed this substack exploring definitions of flash fiction by @mattkendrick.bsky.social prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/a-butterfl...

I started a substack about my creative process & it includes prompts like I use in my classes, if anyone’s interested. open.substack.com/pub/bethgils...

This pop quiz from @mcrane12.bsky.social’s I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF

Working at @uapoetrycenter.bsky.social is an incredible gift—because I get to go to readings like this "for work," where Ada Limón casts spells and makes us laugh and launches us directly into space: voca.arizona.edu/reading/ada-...

I miss snow so much. Softness falling. How you could hear the quiet if you just stood still. I felt fearless traipsing through the woods on unploughed snow. I wandered as far as I wanted—following my own footprints home.

SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)

“I’m busy being kind” ❤️ = antithesis to powerlessness and hopelessness

Aren't you

Thanks I hate it

writing is so fun. this person I made up is really going through it & I’m going for a walk to think about ways they might get out of this mess or if they even will

I'm a little embarrassed how sad I am feeling about the tiktok ban. It's a little like a funeral march watching all the nostalgia and goodbyes over the past couple days

I would like this comic I drew in 2017 to stop being relevant pleeeaaaaase

when you make a little tent over your face with the book before dozing... *chef's kiss*

Come on, Wolf Moon, do your thing. Can't you hear us howling down here?

With my own parenthood rounding the corner, loving this sleepless pantoum by Laurel Nakanishi poets.org/poem/sleeple...

These extraordinary photos of the LA fires have been shared widely on social media, often without crediting the photographer. These are all the work of Ethan Swope, an LA-based photojournalist working for AP. You can follow his remarkable reporting here👇 www.instagram.com/ethanswopeph...

"Joy still stays joy. Sequins stay sequins. Words still bespangle, bewilder."

Here’s your morning mood, courtesy of Marco Melgrati.

A bouquet fit for a poet

The most effective editing move is still the one I stole from George Saunders: read your draft over and over and over again, out loud, until you have to fix the bad parts because you will literally die if you have to read them more time

The other night I fell asleep thinking I had 'cracked' the secret behind season 1 of Severance (ie, what they're REALLY doing), and woke up foggy the next morning being like...they put dead people's severed brains...into goats

longing for the Big Nap