Ted Chiang: "The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."

I’ll be moderating the “Magical Realism and Speculative Fiction” panel at the NOLA Words & Music Festival this year! It’ll be Friday Nov. 21, at 3:15 pm at the Andre Callioux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice! Panelists are @mlensheffer.bsky.social & @literarydesiree.bsky.social 😬

Introducing the readers for the Fantasy & Fairy Tale Fiction Session! Come listen to these fabulous writers this Sunday at Big Couch at 7 PM!

The Fantasy & Fairy Tale readings for the next Fiction Sessions coming soon! ' We have some great readers, so stay tuned for the announcement!

Next Wednesday, (September 24th) will be the official Charras Book Launch for New Orleans at dba (pubbed by UNO Press and a reading of Charras by me. Music to follow by the amazing Los Guiros. Please come out and support live local readings! #Readings #Translation #NewOrleans #Unions #Activism

Last night's Literary Agent 101 presentation (led by @lizified.bsky.social ) was dope as hell! This is just one example of the programming that TLL offers at NO COST to attendees! If you like what we do, consider signing up for our newsletter :) thirdlanternlit.org/newsletter

Karen Attiah, a black woman, got fired for A: accurately quoting what Charlie Kirk said about Black women B: Accurately observing that most white Americans seem permissive of white violence. It's bullshit, but almost expected in this white supremacist country.

Former Washington Post opinion columnist Karen Attiah this morning on Bluesky: “I’ve been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.” (She made the mistake of quoting his own words.) [kottke.org]

Story Hour kicks off the spooky season a little early with stories from Marguerite Sheffer and Jennifer Brozek! So turn the lights off—or turn them up. Watch however suits you best! @jenniferbrozek.bsky.social @mlensheffer.bsky.social youtu.be/o2h8Sy-1kXk

this is status quo now. Teen Vogue is a serious news org committed to democracy and truth. NYT, WSJ are...not.

Last night was awesome! Thanks to everyone who could make it! :)

I don't know about you, but when the news is particularly fraught, I like horror fiction's ability to match my emotional state and then actually resolve (or at least end). It's weirdly calming. And we're in luck, because guess who's reading on Story Hour tonight!

Small Wonders will be open to original flash fiction submissions this Friday, September 12th. We'll be open through October 31st! We'll also be closing to reprint flash fiction on Friday, September 12th. Send us your weird, wild, wonderful little stories with big emotions!

It’s rare to have two Story Hour debuts on one night, but then, it feels silly to call either of these authors “debuts.” Join us for stories from Jennifer Brozek and Marguerite Sheffer! Wednesday, September 10 at 7:00 PDT! @jenniferbrozek.bsky.social @mlensheffer.bsky.social www.storyhour2020.com

(Reposting because I messed up.) Wednesday: I'm reading a couple of horror flash and then a visceral piece of horror on @storyhour.bsky.social 9 pm CST / 7 pm PST - Free! www.storyhour2020.com Hosts @pronouncedlahra.bsky.social @danmarcus.bsky.social , and and co-reader @mlensheffer.bsky.social

“A new volunteer-led organization called Grandparents for Vaccines launched Sunday on National Grandparents Day with a mission to share firsthand experiences of life before vaccines were widely available.” [kgw.com]

Weds 9/10 pm: I will be reading a werid horror story from THE MAN IN THE BANANA TREES on @storyhour.bsky.social 9 pm CST / 7 pm Pacific - Free! www.storyhour2020.com With hosts @pronouncedlahra.bsky.social @danmarcus.bsky.social and co-reader @jenniferbrozek.bsky.social ! 🦞

Uncanny Magazine closes to short story submissions TODAY! When September 8 is finished everywhere on the planet, the submission portal will be closed!

New this week: I wrote about how people seem to always perceive that crime is rising -- a problem that goes back at least a century -- and what I'm hoping to do about it. Check it out! jasher.substack.com/p/what-to-do...

Next event will be this Wednesday, 9/10 @ 6 to 8 PM! Want to learn the basics of obtaining your own agent? Then come check this out! We'll be at the BK House and Gardens!

Wednesday! I can't wait! I'll be reading a couple of horror flash and then a really visceral piece of horror that, weirdly, was inspired by a scene in Babylon 5. (But the story is horror, not SF.) Also, look at who I'm reading with!

I'm happy to announce that I'm the new associate editor of the sf section at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. So I'm open to good review/essay pitches that fit LARB's audience. I've been quietly doing this for a few weeks and already commissioned some things I'm excited for you to read!

Weds 9/10 pm: I will be reading a werid horror story from THE MAN IN THE BANANA TREES on @storyhour.bsky.social 9 pm CST / 7 pm Pacific - Free! www.storyhour2020.com With hosts @pronouncedlahra.bsky.social @danmarcus.bsky.social and co-reader @jenniferbrozek.bsky.social ! 🦞

The thing is, I’m pretty sure these all majority black cities and I’m worried that Trump will eventually try to occupy them too at some point. The fact that they are in Republican-controlled states isn’t a gotcha so much as evidence of how they’ve been maligned by their state governments.

“Violent crime rates in America’s big cities have been falling over the last two years, and at an even greater rate over the last six months. The decrease in violence in America is unprecedented.”

update: half full (100)!

How Are You Supposed To Get The COVID Vaccine Now? An Explainer. “If you are not in one of the 16-ish states requiring a prescription for a COVID vaccine, you should be able to self-report a condition and receive your vaccine.” [defector.com]

Who records history after humans depart? Birds remember. Finch, Chickadee, Turkey, Crow... Here is our story, made theirs. Check out my avian mythos, "The Last Harvest," in Phano!

This friday from 2 to 4 PM, we will be at The Rink discussing part 3 of Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell! Come learn how to fix up that work-in-progress with us!

🚨 LA placed a Medicaid ban on gender affirming care for trans adults. In response, Trans Income Project launched a 1st in the US initiative, and will pay for HRT for low income Medicaid enrolled trans Louisianans. For Antigravity Magazine, I talked to TIP’s Executive Director to learn more!

@thecosmicbgr.bsky.social is having a @gofundme.com campaign to support its third year of publication. At $.10/word, The Cosmic Background pays authors of flash and poetry to share their work on the website www.gofundme.com/f/support-th...

We Already Know a Way to Save a Bunch of Lives. (Giving wounded people blood earlier, in ambulances, increases their chance of survival. But insurance won’t pay for it so we don’t do it in the US. 🤬) [slate.com]

Our September event schedule!!

As part of @thecosmicbgr.bsky.social's fundraising efforts, we're delighted to offer our whole-ass guide on writing successful flash fiction, released in parts at every $400 interval. Here's part 1. www.thecosmicbackground.com/how-we-start

@thecosmicbgr.bsky.social is a gem of a magazine: a great place to read and send your weird stories! Consider supporting them ❤️ 🌌💡

It's officially fundraising time over at @thecosmicbgr.bsky.social, and we're doing things a little differently this year. Help a pro-paying, deeply-progressive, 100% human magazine continue to thrive. We'll love you for it. gofund.me/ca0c2b7d

Our next and last event of the month will be on 08/29 at @sprtsdrnk.bsky.social ! It's our monthly generative writing event, Get Lit. We will be there from 11 AM to 1 PM :) Hope to see you there!

Thank you for reading! @marisca.bsky.social - I'm so excited to dig into EVERY DARK CLOUD ☁️❤️

I read 2 excellent collections during @seattlein2025.org: WEDDING OF THE FOXES by Katherine Larson THE MAN IN THE BANANA TREES by @mlensheffer.bsky.social

this week's (free) post is about the adage "deescalate all conflict that isn't with the enemy" and what it means to be an enemy, and don't worry I manage to reference both Sun Tzu and Tolkien so I've still got it margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/we-know-wh...

Next event! We'll be meeting up on 08/18 @ 6 to 8 PM to get some writing done at Miel Brewery! We hope to see you there :)

OB-GYNs in some abortion ban states say they are relocating or retiring from their practice because of the restrictions. Kelcie Moseley-Morris reports for @statesnewsroom.com it's having a compound effect in locales that are already maternal care deserts. lailluminator.com/2025/08/13/r...

“The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, ‘leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,’ the scientists said in the paper.”

Reddit will block the Internet Archive. “The company says that AI companies have scraped data from the Wayback Machine, so it’s going to limit what the Wayback Machine can access.” AI scraping will kill the open web — everyone’s shutting the gates. [theverge.com]

I was reminded today at work that I play and pretend for a living. Even if the living is modest, I win.

Here’s the tl;dr version of my last comic. Facial recognition surveillance is bad! Tell New Orleans City Council you don’t want it! Sign the petition at bit.ly/NotoOrd35125

Here are 23 debut books coming out in August that caught our eye: debutiful.net/2025/08/11/2...

Can't wait for this to host this workshop: been thinking a lot about writing as exploration rather than perfection! (easier said than done) Join us - link belo! @cecordasco.bsky.social

“New FBI data shows that both violent crime and property crime are at their lowest level since the 1960s” but the media disproportionately covers crime, so most Americans aren’t aware of the decrease. [popular.info]