This place has two modes: bleak or boring.

I want to do rejection erasures but most of the form rejections are barely a sentence long. At least give me something to work with!

My chapbook OUR PLACE IS IN BETWEEN is now available from Bottlecap Press. The pieces explore marginal life and have magical or fantastical elements. They're sad but I hope you enjoy them. #booksky #fiction #bottlecappress bottlecap.press/products/ourpsd

Me on spring break.

It’s my spring break. I’m going to get a haircut, work on poems, and go to the library.

Friendly reminder I got laid off recently & want the bookstore to be my main job alongside Amanda. Spent the last week brainstorming how to make it happen. Some cool things you could do to help: -Buy books at @eveninghouse.bsky.social, in-person or online -buy Boxcutters or Feast -hype either 🍻🙏🫡

My poem in the latest Hayden’s Ferry Review. Grateful to the editors, who also nominated the piece for Best Small Fictions. You can grab your copy of the issue here: haydensferryreview.com/issue-77

My poem in the latest Hayden’s Ferry Review. Grateful to the editors, who also nominated the piece for Best Small Fictions. You can grab your copy of the issue here: haydensferryreview.com/issue-77

I don’t really care about ekphrastic poetry and there is so much of it.

I did an in-class handwritten essay with my class and I am way happier reading these than all the AI slop I got last semester.

It seems like submission windows are getting smaller and smaller. 😭

New #poetry from Ariel Machell: "When Professor [ _ ] Says My Poor Memory Is Why I’ll Never Be Great".

Five college classes I took: - The Psychological Novel - Victorian Poetry - Creative Writing - Social Deviancy - Myth, Ritual, & Mysticism

We are excited to release our Issue 77 , and our web preview is now live! Explore the preview, purchase your copy, and register for our 1/21 launch event. We look forward to sharing the full depth and breadth of Issue 77 with you! All links available here: linktr.ee/haydensferry...

I sometimes get mad when writers are too good. How dare you.

My debut collection of speculative short stories, winner of the 2024 @mooncitypress.bsky.social Short Fiction Award, is now available for preorder and, well, I hope you'll want one when it releases this time next month. Get it from The University of Arkansas Press: www.uapress.com/product/bedt...

I’m going to start a lit journal just so I can say no to people.

For 2026. Let’s go. Read my full blog here: josephdante.com/2025/12/2025...

It feels like my husband has been watching football for 17 hours.

In 2026, if you don’t already, start keeping a personal journal. You don’t need to write every day. They want to destroy history. Tearing down the East Wing, throwing away NASA archives, removing Smithsonian exhibits and historical markers… Keep your own history. We might need it later.

Goodbye to 2025. 👋 It’s time for my end of the year blog, which includes my favorite books, games, podcasts, etc. This one was certainly something (derogatory) and took me a while to write. ✍️ Have at it: josephdante.com/2025/12/2025...

“Whether we are happy or unhappy leads us to write one way or another. When we are happy our imagination is stronger; when we are unhappy our memory works with greater vitality.” —Natalia Ginzburg

Sharing the opening poem, “Pseudo Myth” from MORE FLOWERS, out with @triohousepress.org on February 1st, 2026! 🌺 #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Ah, when the lines finally connect and a poem clicks, unlocks.

My year in reading: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in...

All of the podcast recaps of this year are soooo depressing (don’t worry, my blog will be too).

We often think of a life in chapters. But I wonder: how do we organize our lives through our motivations/methods for writing? The life stages of a writer up now: josephdante.com/2025/12/the-...

We often think of a life in chapters. But I wonder: how do we organize our lives through our motivations/methods for writing? The life stages of a writer up now: josephdante.com/2025/12/the-...

No notes, really.

The hydra approach: for every rejection, you submit to two magazines.

I really appreciate writers who are transparent with their rejections. Publishing is slow af and not fun. Why do we do this??

If you enjoyed my "Good Riddance to The Best American Poetry" article, you'll dig the podcast "Bad Art"--about the politics of art in the 21st century--where I discuss more about BAP's genre management & canonization practices. Thanks to @jt24.bsky.social! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

I’m so lucky to have found my husband, who still doesn’t annoy me in the slightest. How did this happen? When everyone else drives me up a wall? We’ve been married eight years now. Incredible.

Debut novel titles from the 2000s be like: The Numismatist’s Wife The Philatelist’s Daughter The Herpetologist’s Assistant

Abigail.

Finalizing grades this semester. They were not good. Very few As, many students not passing. A lot of AI use.

I am thankful for: my family, my husband, my kitties. I am not thankful for: chronic body issues that have completely ruined my relationship to food.

What even was literary Twitter? Vote in the first round of our bracket to determine the literary internet’s wildest, weirdest, most iconic moment!

I feel like I’ve had 136 separate existential crises this year, at least.

Receiving even one AI-generated paper sends me into an existential tailspin. Why are we doing this? Why am I even here?

I’ve realized that most people seem to watch WAY more movies than I do. I watch maybe like 3 or 4 a year. I’d rather be doing other things? Like reading or playing games?

Found out I’m receiving research funds to present at a conference + received an acceptance letter from Hayden’s Ferry Review for one of my haibun!

To become dependent on ChapGPT is to evacuate yourself from your own life. YIKES, no thanks. I’m gonna be alive inside every damn thing I do, even and especially the ish I don’t wanna do.

"her memory is a cloud she can't hold..." Lots of feels with this poem for my mum. Sent with love for anyone with a parent or loved one with Alzheimer's/dementia. It's a journey. (And thank you @poetsorg.bsky.social and Rick Barot for sharing this one. It means a lot.)

All these incredibly short windows for open submissions.

Tired of this vessel.

Take my poems!!!! Now!!!!!!!

It's the end of The Best American Poetry. I wrote about the forty-year anthology project, poetry’s place in Big Five publishing, and editor David Lehman's culture wars vision of American verse. defector.com/good-riddanc...