My anthology of shapeshifter fairy tales comes out in 8 days. I'm so proud of this book from @lfpbooks.bsky.social it was a blast to write the informative, wild, & weird footnotes for each story! You buy it online, at your local bookstore, & get it at #AWP26 #books

Ohio Northern University's national undergrad lit mag, Polaris, is open for submissions until Feb 1st. We especially need more visual art and non-fiction. Tell your students to send us work! polarisliterarymagazine.com

Ohio Northern University's national undergrad lit mag, Polaris, is open for submissions until Feb 1st. We especially need more visual art and non-fiction. Tell your students to send us work! polarisliterarymagazine.com

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids by Leyna Krow. Set mostly in a near future NW, this collection showcases Krow's ability to write stories that are at once eerie, kind, funny, & sad. "Sinkhole" was optioned by Jordan Peele's production company.

My friend Greg Leunig's new book, Neon Citadel, is out from Spaceboy Books! A genre bending blend of sci fi, fantasy & noir, I read it one delighted sitting! @books-that-go-boom.bsky.social @spaceboybooks.bsky.social readspaceboy.com/portfolio/ne...

I feel like I'm screaming into a void about AI and pedagogy. "Writing" a story with AI is no more a sign of knowing how to craft fiction or write than microwaving a Hot Pocket means I know how to cook.

Hugs from Fidil. I think we all need it.

Hello fellow university profs! Does your department need a visiting writer to give a reading? Or a contest judge? I edited an anthology of shapeshifter fairy tales for Lanternfish press (out in Feb) & of my textbook & chapbook are already out! I promise I'm an excellent visitor!

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” ― George Orwell, 1984

I had a great visit home this holiday season. My home state of WA will always have its hooks in my soul. Such beauty.

I NEED this costume.

Cats know how to nap! Soft on soft on soft.

Fidil claimed the laundry basket as his own.

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend Lucky Girl by Allie Tagle-Dokus from @tinhouse.bsky.social. A Bildungsroman for 21st century girlhood, this book is bold, vital, moving, & unique.

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. This Arthurian fantasy is so immersive Fidil tried to climb inside. At once aware of the history of Arthuriana, & magnificently new & strange, this book is a must read! #purrfectreads #fantasy

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. This Arthurian fantasy is so immersive Fidil tried to climb inside. At once aware of the history of Arthuriana, & magnificently new & strange, this book is a must read! #purrfectreads #fantasy

Check out my wee furry house beastie with Beastly, the new anthology of shapeshifting fairytales I edited for @lfpbooks.bsky.social, out in Feb!

McSweeney's wins again with niche comedy. I laughed so hard I cried. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-g...

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend Patchwork: A Sewist's Diary by Maddie Ballard. This memoir through a catalog of sewing projects by the author is warm & intimate, it feels like a lingering much needed conversation with a friend in hard times. #purrfectreads @tinhouse.bsky.social

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. This historical fantasy is an engrossing mystery wrapped in a feminist take on fox folklore. Riveting from the first to last page, worthy of every bit of attention it has received.

Hello folks! The Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Contest is back! Publishing my chapbook, A Bead of Amber on Her Tongue with them through this contest was career changing, and they are great to work with! Open through Oct 26th. www.omnidawn.com/fiction-cont...

Polaris, an national award winning undergraduate journal, is open to all undergrads for submissions from Sept. 1st to Feb 1st. All submissions are entered into our free contest. If you are an undergrad, please submit, if you are a teacher, refer your students. polarisliterarymagazine.com

I wrote a guest blog post for @beckyltuch.bsky.social on her Lit Mag News, focused the history of the separation between "literary" and "genre" magazines. Check it out! litmagnews.substack.com/p/a-legacy-o...

Privileged AF to get my grubby mitts on an ARC of this near-future fever dream. Avail yourselves of a copy - and a pair of knee-high railroad spike boots - the split second it drops! @kkoja.bsky.social @meerkatpress.bsky.social meerkatpress.com/books/dark-m...

Dr. Pullen and her TA Fidil recommend Great Disasters by Grady Chambers from @tinhouse.bsky.social. This novel of coming of age in early 2000s Chicago is at once tender towards its characters, and utterly afraid to show them at their best and worst, all in lucid and lovely prose. #purrfectreads

Hedgebrook is hiring: www.hedgebrook.org/about-us/car...

The first ONU English Reading Series event on 9/16 will feature the wonderful @alisonstine.bsky.social The event is free and open to the public. It begins at 7 pm, preceded by a catered reception, in the Wilson Hall Elzay Gallery of Art. @ohionorthern.bsky.social

I had a visitor this week. It was almost as large as the palm of my hand!

My entire college class from last semester could tell that reviewer (you all know the one) that they've misunderstood Frankenstein. Sigh.

How I feel almost every time I open a program on my computer these days.

The comment period for the attempt to rescind the Endangerment finding (the basis for all US regulation of greenhouse gas emissions) goes until the 22nd of Sept. Please comment and tell them not to rescind this finding, if they do, we are in HUGE trouble. www.regulations.gov/docket/EPA-H...

The Roadless Rule does a huge amount to protect wild areas against wildfires, the vast majority of which begin near roads. It's super easy to leave a comment urging them to keep the Roadless Rule and protect against fires. Comments like this make a big impact! www.regulations.gov/commenton/FS...

A monarch sighting on campus this week!

Every time someone tells the orange menace "make me" and refuses to be intimidated, matters.

This is absolutely catastrophic for U.S. higher education, and for U.S. global leadership. Just the latest in a series of senseless acts of self-sabotage by a malevolent administration bent on making the United States weak and poor.

Dr. Pullen and her TA Fidil recommend The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni De Feo. This Italian fantasy is dark, lush and unforgettable. The coming of age story at its core gives it heart, its imagery gives it soul. I fell into this book & didn't want to come out. #purrfectreads

The first day of the 25/26 school year is in the books! It was also the first day of my 15th year of teaching!

You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption. “We” is more important here.

This is a nifty freelance job: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

I'm super excited to be on this panel, see you all at AWP 2025 in Baltimore!

Congrats to my wonderful students at Ohio Northern University. Our undergraduate literary magazine, Polaris Literary Magazine (which I advise) is a finalist for Literary Magazine of the Year! The awards will be decided in October. Fingers crossed!

I'm leading a book group for this excellent NW OH non-for-profit, The Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center, starting in September. We are reading Lone Women by Victor LaValle. If you live in the area, consider joining! All membership and book group dollars help fund the Center.

My name is Fidil, and I played in this Trader Joe's bag until I passed out half in the aforementioned bag, using my catnip pickle as a pillow.

I think everyone needs to see my little Fidil sleeping with his tongue out and watching TV with me.

Dr. Pullen & her TA Fidil recommend Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos from @tinhouse.bsky.social. This subtly eerie novel depicts a translator alienated from herself & her place through a bizarre act of translation. Unforgettable, lyrical & strange, an amazing book. #purrfectreads

Awesome library jobs at the Bodleian. www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/jobs?f...

My husband and I and some of our dear friends hosted Japanese high school students this weekend for our town's Friendship City program. We explored the region together! It was lovely, and a great reminder of the importance of these exchange programs.

Pure dignity.

This is awful.

My introduction to the English major course has the most students in it I've ever seen. So many new English majors...I'm excited to induct more nerds into the club.