Jamelle Bouie: The cruelty is still the point of the Trump regime. “This isn’t a border security policy. It’s cruelty as governance — directed at people this administration has decided don’t deserve dignity.” [youtube.com]

Homeland Security killing endangered species.

AMAZING NEWS!!! So excited to announce that my hybrid essay collection THE LUNATICS’ BALL is the runner-up for the Gournay Prize and will be published in the 21st Century Essay series by Mad Creek Books (the literary imprint of Ohio University Press) in 2027. My dream publisher!

"Not one, but two David-vs-Goliath victories." Human rights advocates extraordinaire Robin Broad & John Cavanagh, authors of THE WATER DEFENDERS, talk with @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social about why this story of grassroots activism is so instructive for the current moment. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUJ4...

Welp there’s no unseeing this

There was a time, not long ago, when state policies helped to make the crucial first steps of deploying renewable energy. I spoke with @joshuabasseches.bsky.social about his new book: insideclimatenews.org/news/2805202...

Looking for new avant-garde theatre? Jake the Cat is performing American dramatist Edward Albee's seminal one-cat play Box at this year's Edinburgh fringe. It's a one-cat show for Jake, and the cat he's performing to is his big brother Joe. Aug 2nd to 25th, Tickets £9, concs £6, 7.30pm, no comps.

i was such an avid reader of stuff i did not even get CLOSE to understanding as a kid and all it did was make me read more, and ask more questions about the world. there's a concerted effort from almost every consolidated power on this planet to make people less curious!!!!

This senior living activity schedule took an unexpected turn

Bluesky can be annoying for various reasons but it's also the only social-media platform I look at regularly that isn't an exploded septic tank of LLM-generated word diarrhea

Grateful and humbled to be included on @altajournal.bsky.social’s list of 20 recommended books for AAPI Heritage Month alongside so many friends and literary luminaries!! Thank you @anitafelicelli.bsky.social for this wonderful curated list. 🙌🏽

Lovely to see @gracelp.bsky.social's THE TRANSLATOR'S DAUGHTER on this list! @anitafelicelli.bsky.social www.altaonline.com/books/g71220...

"I don’t know why I’ve woken up in this Costco. The last thing I remember is breaking up a ninth consecutive fight over Duck Tales, and suddenly, I was floating over my own body, looking at the breakfast they brought me spilled all over my bed." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/my-...

TIL Con O’Brien worked as an intern for Barney Frank

The author sent me a copy, and it's really something to behold in person.

I work with people who are not only brilliant writers and editors but who have...esoteric literary interests. Very proud to learn that a conversation between me and Elizabeth led to Hatchet's inclusion because that scene has been seared into my brain since 7th grade! lithub.com/seven-of-the...

Gonna create a department for the study of human cultural practices. Might call it "The Humanities" or some shit.

Oh dear

I get one of these men in my classes every now and then. And let me tell you, the Gen Z ladies in the room be clowning these guys like this and they don't even realize it.

some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small

it's the first day at standing school for Wright, Zeldin, and Burgum

This is really sad. My sister went to Hampshire.

I for one think it's about time that marine mammals get the fearmongering media treatment once reserved for sharks nypost.com/2026/04/06/s...

Solanum lycopersicum / Tomato, c. 1690-1730, by #AlidaWithoos (Dutch, c. 1661/2-1730). Held at Wageningen University & Research, images.wur.nl/digital/coll... #womenartists #artherstory #hernaturalhistory #FreshTomatoDay #NationalFreshTomatoDay

😂

Social movement scholar here again. So, why protest? Nihilists were out yesterday arguing that "protests don't do anything." A short 🧵:

"When I go into that voting booth, I think about three important things: What the man on the pamphlet looks like, what the name of the man on the pamphlet is, and whether or not that man is trapped in the pamphlet and needs help to get out."

My latest review, out today in @wirobooks.bsky.social: "who among us hasn’t at some point gaped at our beloved and thought, “How is it that I’m even WITH you?” before once more remembering the how and the why." A thought-provoking memoir-in-essays from Lynette D'Amico.

This man did far more fighting for the US than anyone in the cabinet or the White House. And he died one day after being taken to an American concentration camp. One day. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Sometimes we paws our reading to watch the wind

Lynette D'Amico (MEN I HATE out now from Mad Creek Books) in conversation with her husband P.Carl about his book and now hers, which shares her perspective on the transition he documented in BECOMING A MAN. www.full-stop.net/2026/02/17/i...

The Death Penalty Is Even More Horrifying Than You Think www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/o...

Congratulations to @jsanchez-taylor.bsky.social on DISPELLING FANTASIES (Ohio State UP) being shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association awards! locusmag.com/2026/03/2025...

“If something weird happens to me, or I overhear a weird thing, or somebody says something weird to me and it disturbs me, that, to me, is a good opportunity for an essay." CITY OF TOYS out today from OSU Press! Thank you @matternews.bsky.social! matternews.org/culture/word...

want some context on that Times Higher Ed article on authors and publishers? Check out this thread linking to great #FeedingtheElephant posts:

Glenwood Springs Co. July 1984. photo by Mark Williams. I was apparently working on a song that became Maps & Legends. Thanks Mark!!

Have you ever seen a snake eat a mouse and thought how unpleasant it must taste? How their mouths mostly come into contact with fur and nothing delicious? Don’t feel too bad for them. Most snakes barely have any taste receptors. Most don’t even have the genes for tasting umami or sweetness.

“A teacher of standing, a poet, tells her class, Never put stars in your poems, and some of the students write this down. And some stop writing after a year or two. And some get married or take jobs selling pharmaceuticals.” —Stephen Kuusisto, “Erasing Stars” @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

Congrats to my friend and colleague extraordinaire Elizabeth!

I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.

Every time I see Buttons the passenger pigeon at @ohiohistory.bsky.social I feel like I commune with him a little and feel so sad

Seeing @people.com include Lynette D'Amico's exquisite, funny, cutting memoir, MEN I HATE, on its books page in the new issue is super cool and … definitely one of the biggest surprises of my career! Book World may be gone but dammit, we still have People. ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

Fetid Rivalry

“Sun Ra: Do the Impossible” debuts tonight on PBS. Great companion reading below from Michael Lowenthal @pbs.org @ohiostatepress.bsky.social @rafertess.bsky.social "The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible." — Sun Ra

This is the point that I wish everyone could see more clearly. The problem is hed & dek, which are all most people see.

"I also want authors to know that a book can still succeed in the absence of traditional reviews, and while the acknowledgment that comes with a review is fantastic, its impact is not certain." open.substack.com/pub/derekkri... @derekkrissoff.bsky.social

I’d mix it up a bit. Cats are the gorgeous stoners who maintain a firm suspicion of the world and cuddle selectively. Dogs are the restless, tamed man-eaters who eat absolutely anything including books. One howls at the moon; the other admires it.

"As the AI agents played—1,000 games per set of rules—the researchers tracked how the pieces moved. Then they compared the moves with the levels of wear on areas of the board, tracing which gameplay seemed to replicate grooves on the stone."