Novaya Gazeta Europe recently published an essay by Ksenia Buksha about a curious grievance in the Russian intelligentsia: that the release of the Epstein files is a symptom of puritanical American cancel culture. It was amusing enough that I decided to write a summary. meduza.io/en/brief/202...

Still a few drop-in spots available, come join us!

kind of funny that an olympian said they are here to represent "compassion, respect, and love for others" and some people automatically knew that was a statement against them

BODY DOUBLE is on LitHub's most anticipated list! "Okay Persona… okay Ingmar Bergman… okay Scandinavian literature about lesbians who start turning into each other…. a strange, twisty story about obsession and identity and how easy it can be to lose yourself completely" lithub.com/lit-hubs-mos...

“There are almost certainly stories we’re missing out on by only reading English-language fiction… The more translated fiction we read, the more our view of the world expands.”

Remember the other day when I was saluting my friend Greg Ketter, owner of Minneapolis’ DreamHaven Books? This is him the following day. Greg will never say this, so I will — now is a great time to buy books from DreamHaven. Support Americans who stand up vs. 🧊. dreamhavenbooks.com

My sanity these days hinges upon being around a creature who is delighted by everything

"This is the Texas that greeted Ramos. This is the Friendship State. This is the fiercely independent bastion of civil liberties. Overrun by jackbooted federal agents who view themselves above the law." www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/edit...

I have for you a snow day read❄️ www.washingtonsquarereview.com/evgenia-nekr...

First snow for baby Rodeo❄️

In case you missed it🖤🐻

I felt like making some art last night/today and could have made something beautiful and/or meaningful but I made this instead. It's a Barbie Yaga Malibu Dream Hut. No regrets. Can't defeat fascism without joy.

In case you missed it🖤🐻

Walter Siti wrote about one of the strangest encounters concerning that strange figure who was Pier Paolo Pasolini—from just days before his death 50 years ago. Proud to have a translation of this haunting story in the new @nplusonemag.com, with an intro of mine! www.nplusonemag.com/issue-52/fic...

Hi perhaps you would like a little break from the news in the form of an essay about my trip to Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town that’s been on fire since 1962—a place where surprisingly I found a great deal of hope, wonder, and mystery.

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

My Asymptote interview was the second-most widely read article in Asymptote in 2025 🙇🏻‍♂️💜✨

🌘 antidote for midwinter gloom: put the first Track Changes of 2026 on your calendar, ft. Devin Kelly (NYC) & Grady Chambers (Philly). join us for a reading, listening, & convo series where writers chat about their favorite records! 🎟️ advance tickets & info: jan-2026-track-changes.eventbrite.com

Cormac McCarthy line sticking with me this morning, from The Passenger: “Evil has no alternate plan. It is simply incapable of assuming failure.”

Not sure about the "architects of AI" being the TIME person of the year, but Indie booksellers, librarians, & library workers are def our winners. They continue to fight book bans and support their communities by creating safe spaces, mutual aid drives, and opportunities for curiosity and escape 🩵

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

New story day! My twisted fairy tale, “Head of the Household,” is in the winter issue of F(r)iction. Koschei the Deathless, Slavic folklore’s baddest bad, has met his match in Ira: a mortal woman with a clever plan to take him down. At stake? Ira’s best friend’s freedom. Warning: contains gluten 🥖🩸

Congratulations to Ia Genberg and our contributor Kira Josefsson. You can read more of Josefsson's work on our website here: wordswithoutborders.org/contributors...

Philly! This is in exactly one week. We’ll have spooky stories & free hot dogs. Come hang out!🪆🐻

Grateful for the opportunity to read at @littranslate.bsky.social conference today, in illustrious company🖤📚

This sounds fantastic (and the cover is gorgeous): Jazmina Barrera, The Queen of Swords (Christina MacSweeney, trans. @catranslation.org, @twolinespress.com, 2025) www.catranslation.org/shop/book/qu...

In today's Meduza newsletter, I offer you a tease of an episode in the new season of Russia Underground, an excellent podcast from @howardamos.bsky.social and Nina Berezner. meduza.io/en/brief/202...

A wonderful talk coming up!

⛵️ VAIM by Jon Fosse, tr. Damion Searls, publishes today ⛵️ Jon Fosse’s first novel since receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, it is a novel about little boats and big boats, love and death, passive men and an incredibly determined woman. ⛵️ fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/vaim/

Philly! I am excited to bring Evgenia Nekrasova to our fair city to talk about folklore in contemporary Russian literature. I’ll be reading some of my translations of her magically pessimist tales as well. Please come, dress on theme if you like, bring friends & nemeses🖤📚🐻

I'm a committed small press author & editor. Small presses are the seed-heads of the books world & they are scorched. Pls read and share this excellent letter on the situation & what's needed in @thebookseller.com, signatories inc Peninsula Press, @cipherpress.bsky.social @silver-press.bsky.social

You can now listen to the audio version of my translation at kenyonreview.org/piece/she-be... As read by me🐻

💛 L2 translators continue to remind the world that the concept of a mother tongue is, in fact, not so straightforward in large parts of the world, and that many of us translate into a language that is not our first!

ICYMI🐻🖤

Still a few spots left 🙂📚

Happy International Translation Day! And if your celebration includes reading some of my translations, I wouldn’t be mad📚🖤

🎉 Happy pub day to PLAYING WOLF! @catapultbooks.bsky.social To celebrate, here is a fun clip of Zuzana Říhová and me at @brooklinebooksmith.bsky.social Saturday night. 🙌 Shoutout to Pierce Alquist. L-o-v-e-d her suggestion that we read a section synchronously! www.youtube.com/live/AcQkRXZ...

Boosting one of my favorite pieces, out this week from @kenyonreview.bsky.social , on the life of a human cub who knows more about literature than people. I hope you find some time to spend with this piece, written by Evgenia Nekrasova and inspired by an old folk tale from Perm Krai.🐻📚🖤

“Can you change the minds of pro-Russian conspiracy theorists? Czech director Robin Kvapil tried, driving three of them to Ukraine and filming the outcome.” This is really worth a read. www.dw.com/en/czech-fil...

As someone who immigrated to Ohio as a disoriented teen with zero English, appearing in @kenyonreview.bsky.social years later, with one of my most personal translations means a little extra. Maybe I did learn to string English words together into meanings, after all. kenyonreview.org/piece/she-be...

👀🖤📚excited to read this one!

"Emerging literary translators often come up and tell me how much they want to be like me. They mean well, and more power to them, but I do find myself thinking: Are you sure about that?" I wrote an article about burnout for KLN:

📢 Translators, you too can join the @alcs.co.uk and get paid for having your books checked out of the library. A lifetime membership costs just £36. They take it out of your first payment, so you don’t pay a penny up front. Since I joined in 2020, I have received £515.45! What are you waiting for?

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

Who else will join me in making this happen?

"Words DO things. And naming is what gods do with language ..." @alinaetc.bsky.social talks to @monalisavitti.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2025/09/18/w...

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing. These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

Wrote a photo essay for @puncturedlines.bsky.social about nostalgia, Soviet-era children’s books, speculative fiction, and a recent trip to the country of Georgia. Come for the picture of baby-me talking into a mall phone. Stay for Svetlana Boym 💗 ➡️ puncturedlines.com/2025/09/16/

A read worth your time⏳

“Each act of translation performs a kind of alchemy on the translator, changing her way of seeing and thinking, opening new horizons...” 2025 ALTA Awards Judge Elizabeth Lowe shares her perspective on translation and the importance of it in troubling times at PELTA: