This weekend!

Louisiana GOP races to keep an exonerated Black man from taking office in New Orleans The Louisiana House Judiciary Committee April 16 passed a bill essentially eliminating New Orleans’ clerk of criminal court just weeks before Calvin Duncan, a Black man who was wrongfully imprisoned f...

Louisiana GOP races to keep Calvin Duncan, an exonerated Black man who wrongfully spent years in jail, from taking elected office as New Orleans' Clerk of Criminal Court

www.nola.com/gambit/news/...

It’s official, @colsonwhitehead.com has won this day in my humble estimation.
(This is the dedication in Cool Machine, which will be published July 21.)

Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This

“Some people say, “I just use it to brainstorm ideas.” If you don’t know what to paint, or compose, or write, you’re in the wrong job. Art is the business of making up stuff — go make up some stuff.”

@colsonwhitehead.com weighs in on AI!

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Opinion | Just Because I Wrote This Doesn’t Mean I’ll Be On Your Panel About A.I.

“Everybody’s using AI for everything nowadays, and if you don’t, you’re a misfit outsider who should be stoned to death in the town square, and then resurrected virtually from your data so you can be stoned to death in the virtual town square, for infinity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

A New Yorker being bested by a Chicago guy has gotta lead to feelings.

!!

This is real agenting!!

IT HAPPENED TO ME: I decided to write this book in present tense instead of past and am now going back and changing all of it. ☠️☠️☠️

Helen DeWitt turns down $175k Windham-Campbell prize over promotional requirements The novelist says she couldn’t accept the award after being told it would entail ‘extensive promotion’

They should just give Helen the money. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Louisiana GOP advances bill to criminalize homelessness, create internment camps The Louisiana House Judiciary Committee approved legislation criminalizing being unhoused in the state, imposing fines for first offenses of up to $500 and a minimum of six months in prison

Louisiana GOP advances bill to criminalize homelessness, create internment camps

www.nola.com/gambit/news/...

Hall of fame FT correction

lol nope

Get Drunk with Isaac Pre-Order Challenge

who has a book coming out that people can preorder so they have something to look forward to and then be pleasantly surprised when the book just shows up on their doorstep

The Patron Saint of Oddballs and Delinquents The New Orleans writer Nancy Lemann conjures scenes of booze-soaked calamity, where everyone and everything is on the verge of rot.

I got to write about Nancy Lemann! For The New Yorker!

On making space for writing (and day-to-day life, honestly) in the midst of everything.

“There is always a small gesture you can make to be helpful. … And when you are done with that, when you have taken that step, your mind will feel a little more expansive because you will feel less hopeless.”

I’m so fucking embarrassed to be from the United States with this insane freak in charge.

I simply can’t believe Congress and the cabinet are sitting around, totally fine with what is absolutely demented behavior from the president.

Will I Pass Down My ADHD to My Kid? As much as things have changed since writer Jason Diamond was his daughter Lulu’s age, the possibility still terrifies him, he writes in this essay for The Cut.

As much as things have changed since writer Jason Diamond was his daughter Lulu’s age, the possibility still terrifies him, he writes in this essay for The Cut.

Pep Talk for Consuming The News (And still be able to write afterward.)

OK I wrote a little pep talk for how to keep writing after consuming the news basically for myself because I need it every damn day 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/pep-talk-f...

What I needed to read today.

"There is always time for panic but is there always time for calm?"

Pep Talk for Consuming The News (And still be able to write afterward.)

OK I wrote a little pep talk for how to keep writing after consuming the news basically for myself because I need it every damn day 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/pep-talk-f...

Paid my taxes 💀💀💀

Excellent!!

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Now is when I ask if I have any 1000 Words folks in or near Asheville, NC because I am going to be there for TWO MONTHS including during the actual 1000 Words of Summer. Are we all going to get together and write one day?

Doing a little "why we write" 1000 words prep workshop on may 9!

www.jamiattenberg.com/workshops

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