Jeff Sykes
@byjeffsykes.bsky.social
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Writer of short stories and longer fictions. NC native and student of history. jhsykes.substack.com
Bingham Park is back in the headlines. My novel, releasing March 24, imagines what happens when communities wait too long for answers.
#greensboro
20 days ago
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Last year, I decided to write this short story about what it would be like if a fastidious editor I once worked for tried to go to the symphony in Charlottesville and had his night interrupted by street protests.
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There is Nothing Pure
A fastidious editor's night at the symphony is ruined by chaos.
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/there-is-nothing-pure
about 1 month ago
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In a Southern city built on buried harm, memory becomes an act of resistance. When Goldie Hayes, a grandmother from East Greensboro, begins asking questions about the soil beneath Bingham Park, the city’s story starts to crack. Coming March 2026.
about 1 month ago
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"Behind him, the wind surged across the quad, lifting the edges of his uncle’s coat. He gripped the air in front of him. “Let me tell you about this city,” he said."
jhsykes.substack.com/p/revolution...
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Revolutionary Love!
Author’s note: This is the opening chapter to Book 2 of my upcoming Greensboro trilogy. I expect to publish it in the Fall of 2026.
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/revolutionary-love
about 1 month ago
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"Behind him, the wind surged across the quad, lifting the edges of his uncle’s coat. He gripped the air in front of him. “Let me tell you about this city,” he said."
jhsykes.substack.com/p/revolution...
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Revolutionary Love!
Author’s note: This is the opening chapter to Book 2 of my upcoming Greensboro trilogy. I expect to publish it in the Fall of 2026.
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/revolutionary-love
about 1 month ago
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In a Southern city built on buried harm, memory becomes an act of resistance. When Goldie Hayes, a grandmother from East Greensboro, begins asking questions about the soil beneath Bingham Park, the city’s story starts to crack. Coming March 2026.
about 1 month ago
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Log line: In a Southern city built on buried harm, a grandmother named Goldie Hayes uncovers toxic runoff in her childhood park—setting off a chain reaction that pulls a disillusioned academic, a conflicted political insider, and a cautious financial analyst into the heart of a cover-up.
4 months ago
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"They crouched there in the shadows, waiting for the moment when the sky would begin to lighten, when the guards would be slow to rouse in that gray hour between night and morning." From my story "One Way Out" published recently by
@gritquarterly.bsky.social
gritquarterly.com#jeff-sykes-o...
5 months ago
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Jamey Gallagher
10 months ago
Aw yeah. My gritty West Maryland story "Cam" is live at
@gritquarterly.bsky.social
. Thanks to
@danrussell.bsky.social
for making it better than it was.
gritquarterly.com#jamey-gallag...
gritquarterly.com#welcome
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Grit Quarterly
https://gritquarterly.com/#jamey-gallagher-cam
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Author Mitchell Toews
7 months ago
Grit Quarterly launches today—congrats to Ed. Dan Russell. Happy to contribute an icy little chunk of S.E. Manitoba.
@gritquarterly.bsky.social
@nberlat.bsky.social
@dashlarkin.bsky.social
@melissacuisine.bsky.social
@russellthayer10.bsky.social
@byjeffsykes.bsky.social
@maudlavin.bsky.social
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I published my first short story collection last year, a week before Hurricane Helen struck North Carolina. Ii put all my promotion plans on hold, but you may find it of interest.
shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?App7X1...
9 months ago
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Chill Subs
9 months ago
These mags specifically note in their guidelines that they publish established and emerging writers alike, and placing a piece in one would look reeealll nice on the ol’ (new) literary bio. Submission info:
www.chillsubs.com/lists/New_pr...
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Virginia Quarterly Review
12 months ago
“​​Lily was my dog. In Lily were combined the two most beautiful and highest virtues—I’ve thought about this, and I mean it—the two very highest virtues of all conscious life, which are 1) likes to play and 2) gentleness.” Read James Whorton Jr.’s “Stove City”:
www.vqronline.org/winter-2024/...
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Hal Espen
9 months ago
The incomparable Joyce Carol Oates with an epic review of Caroline Fraser’s Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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Death in the Air | Joyce Carol Oates
In Murderland, Caroline Fraser traces the correlations between rapacious industrial pollution and sadistic serial killers.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/07/24/death-in-the-air-murderland-fraser-oates/
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The Lynx
9 months ago
Announcing our July First Editions Club pick: PAN by Michael Clune! He’ll be visiting The Lynx on July 23rd—Lauren’s birthday!—to discuss his debut novel with Prof. David Leavitt. More details and tickets at
TheLynxBooks.com/Events
.
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The Lynx
9 months ago
@legroff.bsky.social
's new collection of short stories, BRAWLER, is coming out February 2026, and is now available for pre-order on The Lynx’s website. Order through The Lynx for EXCLUSIVE signed and personalized copies, alongside a piece of art commissioned for the book.
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"Still. Phone in hand. Dog at her feet. The silence inside her deeper than before, stretched taut and humming like speaker wire."
jhsykes.substack.com/p/the-cloud-...
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The Cloud and Her Mixed
Anxiety ran wild as Kyleena Bradley pulled into the gravel drive of Johnson’s Farm trailer park off Wayehutta Road.
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/the-cloud-and-her-mixed
9 months ago
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Art Is For Living
9 months ago
Amazing work by Lebanese illustrator Tracy Chahwan in the New York Times this week. This accompanies a review of the new crime thriller by SA Cosby, King of Ashes. The review is here:
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/b...
#illustration
#art
#artsky
#litsky
#booksky
#thriller
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Mystery Writers of America
9 months ago
Don't know what to do this holiday weekend?? How about reading a new book by one of MWA's members - here is the July list -
mysterywriters.org/new-books-by...
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New Books by MWA Members - July 2025 - Mystery Writers of America
Here are the July 2025 books by some of our members. They may all be found at your local Independent Bookstore. Visit this link...
https://mysterywriters.org/new-books-by-mwa-members-july-2025/
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Some good mail I received.
over 1 year ago
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over 1 year ago
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Rina Palumbo
over 1 year ago
We are open for subs! Flash fiction, CNF, poetry, and art and photography. Can't wait to see your wild, wooly, and brightly feathered creations!
third-street-review.org/submissions/
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Submissions
Third Street Review Literally On the Edge Located on the Pacific Ocean in the artists’ colony of Laguna Beach, California, Third Street Review lives on the edge, both literally and figuratively. Ca…
https://third-street-review.org/submissions/
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My latest short story is about domestic violence and its impact on children.
jhsykes.substack.com/p/it-comes-b...
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It Comes Back to You
Blake was seven when he began to realize the world was bigger than the parts he knew about. His family lived in a suburban apartment complex carved from pastureland astride a busy thoroughfare. Most o...
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/it-comes-back-to-you
almost 2 years ago
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"If you know the history of the activist class in Greensboro, then you can see clearly how they pounced on these bureaucratic processes and the failure of civil servants acting under pressure and sculpted them into the malevolent conspiracy of the age."
jhsykes.substack.com/p/review-i-a...
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Promise unfulfilled: A critical look back at the death of Marcus Smith via 'I Ain't Resisting'
I found it quite impossible to review Ian McDowell’s book, I Ain’t Resisting, at the time of its release. Although I received an advanced copy, and promised to review it, I failed utterly to live up t...
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/review-i-aint-resisting
about 2 years ago
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I wrote this short story about bitterness the the consequences of negativity.
jhsykes.substack.com/p/mariah
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Mariah
“She brought some complete stranger home from a club last night, and left him here when she went to work,” Carmen said with near fury. “I got up this morning and found a note under my door saying he ...
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/mariah
about 2 years ago
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“You got my back right? All I said was get out of my face.” I paused for a second as Lonnie stood there staring at me and shaking his bloodied right hand. “Sure, Lonnie, I got you. He didn’t have on no mask and you asked him to get out of your face.”
jhsykes.substack.com/p/get-out-of...
about 2 years ago
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Jeff Sykes
Cowboy Jamboree
over 2 years ago
On 9/16 CJ Press launches our second
@danbillyc.bsky.social
collection. BLUR is comin':
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I write things. Some reporting. Some fiction. Here's a short story from my website.
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/one-night-on-coward-knob
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One Night on Coward Knob
Laurel’s face is next to my shoulder. I know she’s only one person but the fractals have started and I see several of her. Each one is outlined in black marker and the movement of her head and ext...
https://jhsykes.substack.com/p/one-night-on-coward-knob
over 2 years ago
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