"Temporally and geographically expansive, 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦’s apparent digressions sediment into uncanny layers." Madelaine Caritas Longman in conversation with Stephanie Bolster. Read the rest at the link: mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/long... @effervescentvoid.bsky.social

edited big essay. possibly made it worse but oh well. a process has transpired.

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

Just read Justin Torres' We the Animals. Love when a book is so good it leaves you thinking, "Oh yeah. This is why books exist."

books i have reread most often: short talks - anne carson the vertical interrogation of strangers - bhanu kapil god's silence - franz wright stilt jack - john thompson

Scientists now believe that the human brain--a magic goo for worrying--can also be used to do other things

the life of dunsparce

Every 30 minutes I let out a long blood curdling shriek to keep my mind sharp

sick today but just had a poem accepted in Modern Haiku :)

"Advice" by Ruth Stone. Poems that make you audibly say "oof."

love this poem by Hannah Gamble

Hey, props to writers who got literally anything done this year.

I remember that online post lamenting the embarrassment of being an adult figuring out social/emotional dynamics that others grasped as children, but as corny as it sounds I find it uplifting to remember that learning is never finished and life in adulthood can still change and improve.

It is a stressful time of year, but here are some books that arrived and which I am looking forward to reading: Stone Sky - N.K. Jemisin More Everything Forever - Adam Becker No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women Poets We the Animals - Justin Torres

Generally speaking, people enjoy learning, challenging themselves, and contributing to the world; the preferred degree of intensity may vary, but when people are physically and mentally well, they *like* to do things. Working towards goals that align with one's values feels rewarding.

🔁

"My brother has a van full of rifles, a string of wives and children along the interstate, and I do not know if he shaves or does not. We each think the other has flattened a life." Mary Ruefle, "Cul-de-sac"

Thinking about how everyone has a unique way of experiencing thought (some more linear, some more associative, different speeds and rhythms, different relationships to visualization and language) can be overwhelming but it's also beautiful. Corny sentiment but everyone really is irreplaceable.

I love how poetry reminds you that people have so many different emotional ranges and ways of experiencing cognition. It's such a privilige to be granted that entry to the rhythms and textures of someone's thoughts.

Franz Wright again— Who on earth ?

newly posted at @periodicities.bsky.social : Madelaine Caritas Longman : Three poems / @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social ; periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/made...

For the day that's in it... 'All Hallows' by Louise Gluck - has a deep sense of loneliness and loss, that shifting between the seasons, and the final lines where the veil between this world and the next becomes thin #poetry #poemoftheday #Halloween

👉 This from the brilliant review/interview/essay by @effervescentvoid.bsky.social on Stephanie Bolster's «Long Exposure», just published at mRb... mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/long...

Stuninng Victoria Chang poem: yalereview.org/article/vict...

I complain a lot but do want to express my gratitude to people who've helped me feel welcome in a writing community, whether that was a kind comment when I was a teenager posting poems online, or a prof who reacted with encouragement rather than accusation when I struggled with undergrad stress.

There are no circumstances where human beings should be without food. There are no qualifications that make someone undeserving of access to food. If you are a human being, you should get food. I don’t care about ability, job status, legal status, or anything else. If people are hungry, feed them.

Not sure if there's a word for this fallacy but ime there's a recurring trend of people in arts communities declaring (with varying levels of correctness) that a smug, toxic, elitist in-group holds too much power, and responding to this by trying to create their own smug, toxic, elitist in-group.

most writing advice is terrible but this is truly helpful: find a sensitive rat and let him ride your head. allow him to pull your forelocks and thus guide your typing. do not ever let anyone else know about the rat. you also have to be French

Susan J. Dawe, 1986

[1/4] I noticed that when neurotypical people talk about neurodivergent people having social difficulties, they typically think of someone who is argumentative, bossy, takes over the conversation, seems indifferent to others' feelings, etc.

A caution I have about "More people should romanticize an average, ordinary life" (as well as with "Never settle for an ordinary life") statements is that "ordinary life" is rarely defined, and this category means very different things to different people.

I am not a subscriber to "no one should ever mask their personality in any situation, ever," but it is worth recognizing how often ingratiating yourself to people you are deeply uncomfortable around will only result in having to spend more time with the people you are deeply uncomfortable around.

organizing poems and currently have a 60 page manuscript, plus another 60 pages of possible poems to add (which must now be sorted through to find the best fits). still a long way to go, but a shape is emerging.

My various responsibilities include tutoring, teaching, and reading lit journal submissions, all of which mean I am reading an inordinate amount of really, really bad AI generated writing (in fields where making AI do the work defeats the entire purpose) and learning to recognize it very quickly.

maslow's pyramid but every level is Listen to Tori Amos' "Crucify" while staring into space in the grocery store

Wonderful paper reframing autistic neologisms (inventing new words) as linguatype (an autistic way of speaking) rather than a deficit onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... (with thanks to the ever-excellent @pkwalkersharpe.bsky.social for flagging it up!)

if you can replace "psychotic" with "autistic" and it'd be horrifically offensive to autistic folks, rest assured this is also the case for people who experience psychosis. stop

[1/3] I've often encountered a subtly (or not so subtly) ableist perspective that anyone can become a super confident, outgoing, conventionally charismatic person if they just try hard enough. I recognize some people see that view see it as encouraging. I also think there are *some* skills

"The thing about hiding one thing about yourself... is that it warps your perception of the real you. What you must protect against all odds becomes your defect, your truth, your failure, your success. It becomes the most authentic thing you have because you have no means of going further..." -Yanyi

Giving students thoughtful, personalized feedback and instruction is not a problem that originates from the difficulty for an instructor to generate feedback, it is a problem that originates from institutions pivoting to student:instructor ratios where that dynamic is not logistically feasible.

Trump and Robert F. Kennedy's announcement about Tylenol and autism will have tons of negative implications for women's health. But it will also return society to when people blamed unloving mothers–aka "refrigerator mothers– for their autism. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

FUCK, man.

I also think it's possible to recognize you need space from a person -- or they need a level of care you can't provide, or your attempts to help are causing harm, or your own health is too tenuous for the relationship -- without acting weirdly celebratory about cutting off a very ill loved one.

I am thinking about ableism and capitalism and how these relates to ideals of independence and self-responsibility, and the uncomfortable truth that, at the end of the day, yeah -- caring about other people is not profitable. Helping others is, in the dominant value system, not productive.

One more from Marie Howe

One ridiculous way I've found gender stereotypes manifest is that when an autistic (or even just socially isolated) girl/woman makes a faux pas, a lot of people will assume she's playing evil 5D manipulation chess instead of just... misreading tone.

Saw a comment where someone said they didn't listen to music with words in it because all(!) lyrics were either "triggering or cringey." I can't stop thinking about this. Fascinating that this is the binary someone is using to parse the world.