"Many decades later, my craft of writing remains a performance. It’s air guitar and costumed dress still under floodlights." Read Richie Smith's stunning flash "Floodlights" in CRAFT today: www.craftliterary.com/2026/01/07/f...

Congratulations to the writers (and lit mags) included in the forthcoming BEST MICROFICTION 2026: www.bestmicrofiction.com

ICYMI Great flash by @parlorspider.bsky.social in @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social ! www.matchbooklitmag.com/mb/knapp/she...

Love this New Year's poem by Naomi Shihab Nye (recommended on the @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social Substack): www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/...

Time for @cliffgarstang.bsky.social's annual lit mag rankings for fiction, cnf, and poetry. Check them out here: cliffordgarstang.com/2026-literar...

Thank you NUNUM for nominating "Your Perfect Day" for BEST MICROFICTION 2026, along with works by Dawn Miller @dawnwriter.bsky.social, Cole Beauchamp @nomad-sw18.bsky.social and others. Congrats to all!

Mexico Earthquake Videos: Angel Of Independence, Buildings In Mexico City; Acapulco Airport Shake Amid 6.5 Temblor A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled Mexico City and parts of the southwestern state of Guerrero on Friday morning, sending people rushing outside as buildings swayed for several…

Scariest thing that's happened to me on a vacation. Very loud alert before electricity went out and people started evacuating our 12-story building in Mexico City. Wow.

ICYMI "lIn Grover Cleveland’s childhood home, I’ll be so busy baking sourdough bread and reading poetry that I’ll rarely scroll the internet.flash essay" by Sari Fordham (@sarifordham.bsky.social) via @short-reads.org (& originally in @electricliterature.com). www.short-reads.org/in-grover-cl...

A compendium of Trump's own words. Shocking. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Love the joy in this flash essay by Melinda Brasher via @short-reads.org. www.short-reads.org/to-the-young...

“… I know I’m your only sister and you felt you had to ask for a toast despite your misgivings, but maybe if you didn’t always have misgivings about me I …” Your Perfect Day by @jacqdoyle.bsky.social with art from Angel Dionne in NUNUM online.fliphtml5.com/kmmwt/drrt/#...

Waymo has halted service in San Francisco after numerous videos & images showed its autonomous cars snarling traffic during the blackout. With traffic lights down, Waymos across the city stopped dead in their tracks at intersections. missionlocal.org/2025/12/sf-w...

My newest essay, “Enough,” on @essaydaily.bsky.social’s Advent Calendar: www.essaydaily.org/2024/12/dec-...

@jacqdoyle.bsky.social in NUNUM!

I just got a rejection labeled "Default Decline" from a print journal that's had my submission since September 2022. No answer when I queried about the status in July 2023. Now a decline that ends "we're grateful you considered us." Really?

"The wind blew, the windows rattled, the firelight flickered like writhing ghosts on the floor." And: "The cellar stairs were dark. And steep." I love this extraordinary writing by @jacqdoyle.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social 💙💙💙 bendinggenres.com/some-come-ba...

"I looked up and she’d crumpled lifeless to the floor. As she wasted away, Berenice grew more beautiful by the day, especially her teeth." Wow--brilliant voice in these 2 micros, both chilling and funny @jacqdoyle.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social bendinggenres.com/some-come-ba...

Scams targeting published authors. You probably know all t his, but just in case. electricliterature.com/that-persona...

"The first time I watched Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, I was twenty years old, and I felt the pin on the hand grenade in my head coming loose." Let's go @leahmensch.bsky.social, Dec 11th in the @essaydaily.bsky.social Advent Calendar: www.essaydaily.org/2025/12/dec-...

Such a nice idea. We have such a nourishing literary community. Without nominating the writer who nominated me (an amazing human being), here are three of many writers whom I really appreciate for their inspiration and support:: @kathyfish.bsky.social, @patforan.bsky.social, @danbillyc.bsky.social

“‘Take your beak out of my heart,’ I said.” “Okay, I did it, I told the police, who were staring, staring, listening, listening. Listen, it was...” lovers, murderers, man you should have seen them not kicking EAP & @jacqdoyle.bsky.social @bendinggenres.bsky.social bendinggenres.com/some-come-ba...

Love this so much! 🖤

Not sure how to describe my piece in @bendinggenres.bsky.social today. A haunting maybe. A hybrid medley incorporating Poe's music, his murderers, his lovers, his women. Most of them come back. bendinggenres.com/some-come-ba...

"As a child, you wanted a bigger, stronger body. As a woman, you wanted and want to be smaller. Your body is something you inhabit but also something that inhabits you." Read @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social 's compelling essay in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social www.cincinnatireview.com/articles/bod...

Semicolons! I almost left them behind when I left academic writing behind (when I was very fond of them). Maybe they're worth another love affair. Check out Georgia Bellas' enchanting experiment in @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social www.matchbooklitmag.com/bellas

SF and Bay Area friends! Looking forward to reading with @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social and these great writers on Tuesday, Dec 9, at the Sycamore in the Mission.

A timely subject (the history of psychiatry) and also a genre that draws me ("not-quite-memoir-not-quite-history"). See @sharrona.bsky.social's review of @susantonetta.bsky.social's THE DEVIL'S CASTLE in Lilith today. lilith.org/articles/gla...

Consider pre-ordering @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social's ALL THAT BLUE. Pre-orders are always important, but especially with this press.

Powerful flash essay by @kristaleehanson.bsky.social via @short-reads.org. www.short-reads.org/in-the-waiti...

An essay about lovely brother in honor of World AIDS Day: creativenonfiction.org/writing/catc...

I love owls. hearing them at night (often, in our neighborhood), the extremely rare glimpses I've had of them (just about never). Loved today's Beautiful Things in @riverteeth.bsky.social by Anne Giordano.

Musk dismantled government watchdogs for all his businesses, and now the Trump administration is dismantling all watchdog oversight for civil rights violations in immigration cases. Whatever checks and balances we thought we had in the US government are gone. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

(How do we explain our fascinations? Our obsessions? We’re drawn. Isn’t that enough?) Love this lyric essay by @jilltalbot.bsky.social in @sonorareview.bsky.social

I’m bursting with good news I can’t disclose yet. In the meantime, our Thanksgiving cactus has bloomed. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Can you participate? No spending for a week, starting today, November 25. Small businesses only, local businesses only, cash only. We can make a difference.

Happening Wednesday! Thank you @unsolicitedpress.bsky.social and @rosaliascalia! #literaryreading #writer #writers #writerssupportingwriters #author #authorlife #writerslife

In a twist of fate, my first full collection and a new member of our family are due on the same day--December 2nd!

On 22 Dec at 5pm CET, I will run a small online event on how to use my lit mag rankings for submitting to journals. This event is for those: (i) new to submitting; and/or (ii) not comfortable with spreadsheets. The event will be FREE but there are only 10 spots - sign up below!

What a gorgeous flash essay by Beverley Stevens via @short-reads.org. www.short-reads.org/out-the-fron...

A posthumous letter. A Japanese island filled with life-sized dolls of the dead. A dizzying workplace attraction. Check out these great micros by @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social in @pangyrus.bsky.social

Read Joseph Gross's beautiful micro "Jumping In Leaves" in @riverteeth.bsky.social's "Beautiful Things" today. (You can listen to it too.) riverteethjournal.com/beautiful-th...

Wowed by Paul Crenshaw's essay "Choke" (from his first book THIS ONE WILL HURT YOU) on his Substack today. Really brilliant. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

This will make you laugh whether you're over 65 or not. R.L. Maizes is great.

"'Do you sense anything?' the dentist asks, pricking at my gums with her tiny metal sickle. I shake my head no, but honestly, I’m never sure what I feel." Love this essay by Linda Button via @short-reads.org. www.short-reads.org/numbing/

This poem does me in every single time. #poetry

Another amazing graphic story by @jesselkercheval.bsky.social. Love it!

‘We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read’ We're delighted to announce Flesh by David Szalay as the winner of the #BookerPrize2025.