Members of Congress: stop posting online and APPEAR, PHYSICALLY on the steps of the Capitol to decry this unconstitutional violation of domestic & international law. SHOW THE PEOPLE the level of danger we are facing as a country. @housedemocrats.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social

This is one of the reasons poetry lives and changes lives. youtu.be/vTjdjw6a-is

In 2024, I read 143 books, 87 poetry & 56 prose. In 2025, I read 114 books, 68 poetry & 46 prose. There are a lot of reasons why I read fewer books this year, most beyond my control. 1/4

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If you want our politics to change, it is IMPERATIVE that you become a different kind of voter: 1) become an OBSESSIVE primary, local & off-cycle voter 2) research every candidate and don’t rely on what commercials tell you about them 3) show up at events where candidates speak & debate

The whole year-end review and goal-setting can feel a little punitive. Rather, I like to ask myself one question, "What day this year did I feel most authentically like myself?" Then try to capture what aspects of that day I can recreate more often in the upcoming year.

I think that I've fallen in love with Jessie Buckley. Not because she's an amazing singer (she is). Not because she's an amazing actor (she is). But the press tour for Hamnet has revealed that she's an incredible reader and I love how she talks about books!

Thank you!

If you can find some time in this liminal part of the end of the year to remind yourself why you are here on this beautiful earth, you'll be rewarded. I love to watch this TedX talk with Ethan Hawke about creativity. youtu.be/WRS9Gek4V5Q?...

The sea spoke forever, but its language was foreign to her. She did not understand.

Lit matters: Many literary nonprofits lost grants this year because they would not defund programs that were deemed “DEI”; donations from individuals went down, book sales are down. Even $10 helps a small press like @triohousepress.org or a large org like AWP. Please give to the orgs you love. 💛💜

Hey, if you know any nonprofit administrators, please be nice to them this time of year. (Well, all the time would be okay as well. 😉) Most of them are under a lot of pressure to meet fundraising goals at the end of the year, and this year has been a doozy.

Surely one of you has a subscription to the Paris Review and can shoot me a copy of this: Alice Oswald, The Art of Poetry No. 119. Please? Pretty please?

I could not be more pleased that my poetry appeared in Shenandoah Literary Magazine, Ploughshares, and Poetry Northwest this year. It's really such an honor and I'm so grateful.

I know that most people don’t like the dark part of the year, but I love it. It’s such a creative, inward time. I can spend all night reading & drinking tea (or whiskey) & every dark morning writing poetry. Winter Solstice means my time to do this is waning & that makes me sad. #wintersolstice

This is an incredible gift.

Everything frozen deep in the mountain’s pocket solstice sun stirring #apprenticetolight #GrianstadanGheimhridh #kachemakbay

You, too, could have some cool Storyknife swag.

this field biologist does a great job highlighting the insidiousness of AI editing these one-click AI edit buttons are incredibly appealing to many photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, and are framed as innocuous this is worth sharing and educating people about

'Our land' by Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak #WomensArt ##ArtAdvent

For more than 20 years, director and producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson has been enthralled by the story of “Two Old Women.” Now, she's bringing it to the big screen at the Anchorage International Film Festival.

Six stories in a rowan. Six hungers and songs. Six secrets to grow old in.

Whenever I press the submit button for a grant, I just send up a little message to the universe, "Please, please help me to help more women writers. Please see how important our work is to protect, defend, and uplift their stories, their writing."

Friends, there are so many good causes, but I've seen firsthand women writers weeping because they finished their novel and poets excited because they've put their first collection together finally. They have the ideas and skill - YOU are giving them the time and space and community. Please donate.

Winter sunrise - worth the wait. If you've a keen eye, you can see two different eagle's nests and an eagle. #apprenticetolight

That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself?

Oh, she was so wise and beautiful.

Rabbit. Rabbit. (or hares in this case.)

As someone whose poetry books didn't get a lot of attention, I get a thrill every time one of those fake AI book clubs reach out to tell me how fabulous my books are & how their members are dying to read them and talk with me. Then I remember that it isn't real and shake my head and smile a little.

A huge raven just landed on the railing outside my window. For a magical minute she just looked at me and I looked at her. And when she flew away, I felt filled with wonder and teary.

What will the creature made all of seadrift do on the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?

If I had my way, I'd spend the whole day reading.....

Let light be your oracle. Do not be afraid of darkness, for the long cold nights makes the short days sing. #apprenticetolight

Well put by @drrachelbarr.bsky.social

There is nothing like waking up in the morning to a poem from a brilliant friend. @akwenstrup.bsky.social, your work astonishes in the best ways possible! poets.org/poem/lodestone

It is almost 11am and I am at work inbox zero. That doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that I received almost 275 responses to the acceptance and decline letters that went out last week. Add my usual email load, oof, it was like a firehose. But now I feel ready for the week.

Check out this interview from Alaska Book Week with Alaska poet, Annie Wenstrup! Annie reads from her book The Museum of Unnatural Histories and discusses her work with Nicole Stellon O’Donnell. Watch the full interview here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DghI...! #alaskapoets #anniewenstrup #poetry

When did your name change from a proper noun to a charm? […] I see it, discreet in the alphabet, like a wish. I pray it into the night till its letters are light. I hear your name rhyming, rhyming, rhyming with everything. ~Carol Ann Duffy

But the death of a great mage, who has many times in his life walked on the dry steep hillsides of death’s kingdom, is a strange matter: for the dying man goes not blindly, but surely, knowing the way.

The room is almost all elephant. Almost none of it isn’t. Pretty much solid elephant. So there’s no room to talk about it. -Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room” #everynightapoem

Friends in the writing world - do not blast off a disgruntled and angry letter to an organization if you receive a rejection. It doesn't help your case and it hurts the heart of the poor sod on the other end who receives it.

Remember, sometimes it's not about you. Sometimes, another person is hurting and the container they keep their hurt in is too small, so they need to hurt someone else.

Awe. #apprenticetolight

Every year I think, "I'll just take it easy in November and December," forgetting entirely that I'll be slammed with tasks from every direction in November and December.

November’s mid-morning moon has advice for you. #apprenticetolight

A crow calling beside death is not a metaphor.

Feminine Vices?

Today is astronomical Samhain for 2025. The midpoint between Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice. As we feather back through the years, I bet we would find that all of our ancestors paid attention to these days that were marked by the increase or decrease of light.