As always, support your local station. They need it more than you know. And, if you can swing it, adopt a station in another state: adoptastation.org

So excited that my little flash essay found a home in issue #51 of Cleaver Magazine! This issue is incredible - it’s an honor to be in such good company.

support matter news, columbus.

Tonight Tonight!

“There are campuses where professors are being fired for statements made in classes. And there’s this sense of am I being recorded? Are people signing up for classes simply to antagonize? And all of that does feel even more amplified now, especially in the aftermath of this killing.”

Being a 2025 Ucross Foundation Fellow in Literature is a dream come true. See you soon, Wyoming! #ucross

Come hang with us in Brooklyn on Wednesday! Details at the link. 🔗

One of the things we do right in Ohio (despite the current administration attempts to change that) is have an amazing system of libraries.

Loved this beautiful event last night at the Columbus Metropolitan Library for The People’s Project! I could listen to @theferocity.bsky.social & @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in conversation all day. ✨

Three years after the end of Roe, prochoice orgs are still fighting to keep abortion legal and accessible across Ohio. I spoke with a few of them for Matter News. ⬇️

An executive order issued by Trump in July could affect everything from the types of programs available to the unhoused to how those experiencing homelessness are treated in their own communities. matternews.org/community/a-...

This country is doing everything to kids EXCEPT protecting them from gun violence.

Thrilled to have a piece about teenage rebellion in the Riot Grrrl era up at IN A FLASH today. Check it out!

As someone who grew up in Jerry Falwell’s town and lived just three miles from the Liberty Godparent Home during my own teen pregnancy, T.J. Raphael’s Liberty Lost podcast really resonated with me. So grateful for the opportunity to work on this story - please give it a read! #libertylost

Join MUTHA and Pen Parentis on 9/17 for a night out with parents who are writers/artists across genres that take on taboo topics. Details and tickets at the link in bio! THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2025 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT @bkbookfest.bsky.social @penparentis.bsky.social #BKBF

A few months ago, I shared an intent to raise money for Kaleidoscope, a youth center for the LGBTQIA+ community in Columbus. It had no date for the event or where it was going to be. Now it does: www.gofundme.com/f/save-it-or...

The @smokelong.bsky.social workshops are legit! So far, I’ve received acceptances for three pieces that were born and/or workshopped in the March Micro Marathon (all forthcoming this fall). If you write flash, check it out! 👀

They mean to be as insulting to Black people, as dismissive of our lives, as resistance to our status as full citizens in this country as they can be. There is no common ground to be had at the expense of our sisters & daughters’ lives and our dignity as a people. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/u...

“I knew one thing for sure; I did not want to have a baby.” New at MUTHA: Sarah Shaw shares her abortion story. Link in comments and bio. #protechchoice #abortionstories

Powerful and worth a read. #standwithimmigrants

“[Matter News] tackles complex community challenges ... through deeply reported, narrative-rich multimedia that elevates marginalized voices.” tbh this means as much to me as any accolade considering the amount of work I've poured into this thing over three years. matternews.org/community/ma...

Submissions are open from July 1-31! Send us your best poetry, artwork, fiction, or creative nonfiction. We pay a small honorarium for accepted pieces. Visit mudseasonreview.com/submit to learn more. 🎨: "Oranges on the Train" by Josie Levin for Issue #78.

“We are always coming of age, and adulthood is also marked by moments where we leave our past self behind and enter into a new sense of identity.” New at MUTHA: Jen Bryant interviews author Marie Rutkoski about creativity, reinvention, and her new novel, ORDINARY LOVE. #queerlovestories 🌈

“Every time I had heard stories of cults or abuse, it had been with this perspective of othering them…What I was hoping to bring to the table was the ability to make the experience relatable.” MUTHA editor Jen Bryant talks to author Veena Dinavahi about cults, control, and memoir-writing. ⬇️

Drastic changes are threatening to gut the SNAP program, which would result in widespread food insecurity at a time when folks are already struggling to put food on the table. I wrote about the leaders in Ohio’s hunger relief network who are pushing back against these changes for Matter News.

Become a Mud Season Review Volunteer Reader. Our volunteer readers carefully evaluate the submissions we receive and determine to recommend to the editorial team for consideration. Would you consider joining us? Email: [email protected] For more info.

Mass deportation = Eugenics Eliminating science from Dept of Health = Eugenics Eliminating vaccines = Eugenics Cutting Medicaid = Eugenics Cutting Social Security = Eugenics Eliminating medical research = Eugenics Targeting LGBTQ = Eugenics Scrubbing contributions by minorities = Eugenics EUGENICS

Happy Pride! Buy books by queer authors! Support queer stories! @lgbtqreads.bsky.social is an amazing resource if you need recommendations:

Tech-savvy lit folks: Come work with us! Time commitment is 10-15 hours per quarter. 📚

“One can’t help but think about a throughline from that period of time where Black women were forced into involuntary reproductive servitude for the benefit of other people and not for them.” 🎯

More Columbus residents than ever are at risk of going hungry - but why? I spoke with the Mid-Ohio Food Collective to find out what’s going on. Read more at the link, and please consider donating to your local food pantry! Access to fresh, healthy food should be a basic human right.

“I want so badly to reassure my kids. It’s uncomfortable to watch them try to make sense of this mess. Uncomfortable to admit that there are a lot of harmful rules coming that we may not be able to change soon…” New comic by Bria Dolnick on #politics and #parenting

I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.

So excited to have an essay in Vol. 5 of @anodynemag.bsky.social.✨ The space they’ve created for FLINTA voices is incredible - check them out!

Looking back on all the things I became because of libraries, it stands to reason that some people might see them as a threat. I would hope that anyone who does is seen for what they are. Anyone who would diminish a library diminishes democracy, builds a wall around freedom. New from Scott Woods.

Mud Season Review is open for submissions until 4/30. Send us your work! ✏️

Thrilled and humbled to have an essay in the latest issue of Mountain Bluebird Magazine. Many thanks to @jenny-forrester.bsky.social for this gorgeous labor of love! ✨

Every day should be trans day of visibility-- for those of you who are out, shine big, gorgeous ones. 💖 and for those of you for whom it's not safe, now-- please stay safe and know how loved you are. 💜 And for everyone in solidarity, here's a great way to show up with cash dollars:

As the Ohio legislature continues to target LGBTQ+ youth, I spoke with the staff and young folks at Kaleidoscope about advocacy, community-building, and why we should all be paying attention. Full story below.

New interview up at Mud Season Review! Greta McGee’s essay blew me away - I loved learning more about their work.

i don’t even know if crime is the right word for the illegal destruction of USAID. it is an autocratic power grab and a direct attack on the sovereignty of the american people

it is indeed both dirty and illegal I'm sorry, a random rich racist can just waltz into a federal agency and say 'Give me and my posse of 19 year old gremlins everything we want or else you're fired' ?? And then he can indeed fire people who refuse?? Who even are you? What are we doing here? Aaaah

It was a joy to interview @tdorabji.bsky.social about her new novel for MUTHA Magazine. Link below!

Mud Season Review is open for submissions through 1/31. Send us your work!

A quick dispatch from MUTHA co-editor @cherylekleinla.bsky.social: "My family and home are safe. Incredible acts of community heroism abound, and I saw it abundantly in our local NELA Mamas group, which includes numerous moms impacted by the Eaton Fire. Muthas get shit done." (1/3)

Congratulations to Xinran Maria Xiang, Altaf Saadi, Catherine Alene, Brittani Sonnenberg, Jessica Phillips Lorenz, and Susannah Dainow, MUTHA Magazine’s 2024 Pushcart Prize nominees! 🎉

“He manipulated lots of people by playing on their fears…” Reckoning with post-election dread