I made the cut! (Not a bad way to start the new year.) #MilkHouse #BestInRuralWriting #Anthology #Rebounders www.themilkhouse.org/anthology @themilkhouse.bsky.social

The results of the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest are in. Who has won the grand prize and title of overall Best in Rural Writing, presented by #TheMilkHouse and @dailyyonder.bsky.social? www.themilkhouse.org/2025-best-in...

We're grateful to @dailyyonder.bsky.social for publishing the finalists of the #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Vote for overall winner on #TheMilkHouse's contest page. Read the nomination for Best Essay, "God, Guns, and Baseball" by Lena (Sunada-Matsumura) Newlin. dailyyonder.com/2025-rural-w...

Thanks to @dailyyonder.bsky.social for publishing the finalists of the #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Vote for overall winner on The Milk House's contest page. Read the judge's choice for Best Short Story, "The Escapee's Lover" by Dennis McFadden: dailyyonder.com/2025-rural-w...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: Andrew Sharp (@asharpwriter.bsky.social) teases apart a delicate but universal issue, in his essay "On killing." Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/on-killing-b...

Announcement! We can now share which entries @jamesgwriter.bsky.social has selected as Best Essay and Best Short Story in the 2025 #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Visit themilkhouse.org to read or listen to both entries and lend your vote for the overall prize of $500!

This week on #TheMilkHouse: a man returns to where he grew up with unsettled business on his mind. Enjoy "A Good Visit Home" by @dantamblyn.bsky.social. www.themilkhouse.org/a-good-visit...

His mostly bald head bobbled as he talked and the halting words waited like the holes to be threaded... This week on #TheMilkHouse: "Baling Hay with Glen" by Joseph Powell. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/baling-hay-w...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: a hunting trip for brothers turns into a comment on mortality, in the short story "Bug" by John Whittier Treat. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/bug-by-john-...

Every so many years I stumble onto a poetry collection that makes me excited about the possibilities of language again. #ThisMuchVery by @hiramlarew.bsky.social has surprising turns, a unique voice, and is a celebration without a hint of sentimentality. Highly recommended.

Cover Reveal Alert! The Milk House is delighted to unveil the cover of its latest project – the 2026 Best in Rural Writing Anthology. Coming this winter!

The shortlists for the 2025 #BestinRuralWriting Contest is live! Congrats to the 10 shortlisted authors selected by @jamesgwriter.bsky.social. He had tough choices to make! And thanks to everyone who submitted. You deserve credit for lifting the rural voice. www.themilkhouse.org/2025-best-in...

Announcement: Tuesday, October 15th (tomorrow) the 2025 #BestinRuralWriting Contest shortlist, as chosen by judge @jamesgwriter.bsky.social, will be announced on The Milk House website at 1pm GMT/ 8am EST. Stop by for the results!

It's great to see that #BarnGothic, my upcoming memoir about the dairy industry (November 13th), is listed in @foodtank.bsky.social's Fall Recommended Reads! foodtank.com/news/2025/10...

Drawn to their sad songs rolling across the yard like leaves, I lingered in soft eyes, gazes never wavering from his window... This week on #TheMilkHouse: "Grieving Horses" by Julie H. Fonte. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/grieving-hor...

Reading more submissions this evening for the 2025 #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Found another few pieces that I just love! 🤩 @themilkhouse.bsky.social #Judging #Fiction #NonFiction

Reading submissions. First one I picked up was AWESOME! #Reading

"Yet there it was, transferred to my palm like one of those crazy decalcomanias she adorns herself with..." This week on #TheMilkHouse: "Dead Owl and Other Poems" by J.R. Solonche. Read them here: www.themilkhouse.org/dead-owl-and...

What he feels, he acts upon; What determines truth describes consequence.... This week on #TheMilkHouse: "The Sugars of Existence by Benjamin Green. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/the-sugars-o...

The 2025 #BestinRuralWriting Contest is now closed. Thanks for another incredible turnout of submissions. Good luck to all who have entered! The shortlist announcement is expected for late October/early November.

This week on #TheMilkHouse: A young woman has some tough choices on a farm left in her care. Read "Flystrike" by Pearl Benjamin, #shortlisted for the 2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest. www.themilkhouse.org/flystrike-by...

Less than a week to go! The deadline for the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest is Monday, September 15th (midnight GMT). Get your entries in! Judge @jamesgwriter.bsky.social is looking forward to them! themilkhouse.org/contest

"I’ve been here for decades among all sorts of hardwoods, eight evergreen species, innumerable shrubs, not on the Main. But in truth, I was born in the suburbs..." This week on #TheMilkHouse: the poem "Education" by Sydney Lea. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/education-by...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: A character might have found an opening for a new life in "Agata and the Mice" by Peyton Ellas, shortlisted in the 2024 #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/agata-and-th...

The #RuralLitBookClub is meeting online this Sunday, August 10th, 6pm GMT/1pm EST to discuss #ThisIsHappiness by Niall Williams. Come along for a fun chat! www.themilkhouse.org/rural-lit-bo...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: An old man gets a chance at another adventure, in Dennis McFadden's short story "The Escapee's Lover." Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/the-escapees...

A big thanks to @agriland.bsky.social for featuring a story on the 2025 #BestinRuralWriting contest, co-sponsored with @dailyyonder.bsky.social! Agriland is a great news source for those in rural Ireland, and we're grateful they've given us coverage. www.agriland.ie/farming-news...

Thanks to @dailyyonder for sharing a piece on why the #BestinRuralWriting Contest matters and what's at stake when stories about rural life aren't told. Get your entries in by September 15th for judge @jamesgwriter.bsky.social. dailyyonder.com/best-in-rura...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: An old eccentric in a small town holds secrets that no one guessed. Enjoy "Johnny's Coming!" by Gwyl Weatherford. www.themilkhouse.org/johnnys-comi...

Two months left to enter the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest! In partnership with @dailyyonder.bsky.social and judged by @jamesgwriter.bsky.social, the #writingcontest is accepting fiction and nonfiction under 7,000 words. Deadline: September 15th To enter: themilkhouse.org/contest

The landscape changed, the game unfurled, a post-impressionistic dance, as bird and hare and hound performed in blurring April ambience... This week on #TheMilkHouse: "The Seventh Whistler" by @northernjim.bsky.social) Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/the-seventh-...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: A teenage boy has to learn when to hold on and when to let go, in Elizabeth Rosen's #shortstory "A Body in Motion." Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/a-body-in-mo...

The Milk House is excited to announce the 3rd annual #BestinRuralWriting Contest, judged by @jamesgwriter.bsky.social. Fiction and nonfiction. Deadline: Sept 15th, 2025. Prize pool: $700. Finalists published in the 2026 Best in Rural Writing print anthology. To enter: themilkhouse.org/contest

This week on #TheMilkHouse: a chance encounter with an usual ally helps a man reconsider what's in front of him. Read the short story "Side of the Road" by Simon A. Smith: www.themilkhouse.org/side-of-the-...

On #TheMilkHouse: Bill Conlogue considers his father's life through the fieldwork he did, in his essay "Haying Seasons," shortlisted for the 2024 #BestinRuralWriting contest. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/haying-seaso...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: In the short story "Cloud of Locusts" by Michael Loyd Gray, one character faces the fragility of being a farmer in the modern world. Read "Cloud of Locusts" here. www.themilkhouse.org/cloud-of-loc...

You massacred those oysters when we were girls, wrenched them from the river mud... This week on #TheMilkHouse: "Oyster World" by Cayla Garman. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/oyster-world...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: The past and the present collapse in Bill Smoot's moving story "What We've Lost," sharing an experience faced by many who grew up on a farm. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/what-weve-lo...

"Maybe I'll Catch a Second Wind," "Fire Extinguisher," and "Picking Mushrooms With Papa In Woodinville" (@themilkhouse.bsky.social) www.themilkhouse.org/maybe-ill-ca...

This week on #TheMilkHouse: In "The Birth" by Pearl Benjamin, two characters realize that they have more than the life of a calf at stake. "The Birth" was a shortlisted story in the 2024 #BestinRuralWriting Contest. Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/the-birth-by...

This week on The Milk House: Billie Pritchett explores the implications of growing among the rural poor. Read his essay "Dirty Laundry." www.themilkhouse.org/dirty-laundr...

It's this Sunday! Significantly improve your dialogue by learning these simple but essential edits. Sunday, April 13th, 6pm GMT/ 1pm EST Sign up here: www.themilkhouse.org/product/bett... #fictionclasses #onlinewritingworkshop #onlinewritingclass

This week on #TheMilkHouse: Randy Hisner looks back on his father, who credits milking cows for helping him play major league baseball. Read "Milking Cows and Throwing Curves," shortlisted for the 2024 #BestinRuralWriting Contest. www.themilkhouse.org/milking-cows...

This week on #TheMilkHouse" A certain feature of the landscape becomes the dividers of countries and time in @ainegreaney.bsky.social's hybrid essay "These Stone Walls." Read it here: www.themilkhouse.org/these-stone-...

The first 2-hour #writingseminar from @TheMilkHouse in 2025 is announced: The Ol' He Said, She Said: How to Write Stronger Dialogue April 13th, 2025 6pm GMT/ 1pm EST $15/€15 (free for WRITER or SUPPORTER subscribers) More info/Register here: www.themilkhouse.org/product/bett...

The 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest judge is Jamie Guiney (@jamesgwriter.bsky.social), author the short story collection #TheWoodenHill and the forthcoming novel #TheLightning. Learn more about Jamie here: www.themilkhouse.org/2025-best-in...

I’ve resorted to murder, here in my kitchen filled with basil, bee balm and thronging castes of blue-black crawlies— This week on #TheMilkHouse: I Confess and Other Poems by Poet Laureate of Ohio @karigunterseymour.bsky.social. Read them here: www.themilkhouse.org/i-confess-an...

Poem appears in The Milk House newsletter www.hiramlarewpoetry.com/post/a-poem-...

A monumental thanks to our readers. The Milk House has moved to a subscription model, and the response has been humbling. We're ready to take your support and do big things with it.

1/28 Feb is #ReadIndies month & each day I’ll feature a book from an indie publisher. The Employees by Olga Ravn (trns Martin Aitkin) is strange & beautiful. Told as a series of witness statements from a space crew it explores what means to be human. www.lollieditions.com/books/the-em...