My twin brother was disabled, but I don't consider myself a 'glass child' "Sometimes I had to be my brother’s arms, legs, eyes and voice," writes Brian Trapp. "It often didn’t feel like a burden, more like an alternative way of moving through the world."

Thanks to @wbur.org for adapting my essay into an audio piece. You can hear me and Danny at age 5, 8, and 25, including us joking about who is the evil twin. But it also wonderful to hear my mom talking to Dan again. Please check it out and share.
www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Published five years ago today 🙏🏻 www.the-tls.com/regular-feat... @cbeditions.bsky.social

One of my poems in the new Birmingham Poetry Review—with thanks to poet & editor Adam Vines 🙏🏻

The President of the United States is threatening to commit war crimes and wipe out a "whole civilization" — all because he started a disastrous war of his own making and had no plan and no strategy for how to end it.

This is abhorrent, and the American people do not support this.

To everyone celebrating Easter, Michelle and I wish you a joyful holiday filled with reminders of the enduring power of faith and hope.

Acre Books is looking for creative nonfiction broadly, including #memoir, graphic nonfiction, #essay collections, and narrative #nonfiction. For this call, we’re reading full manuscripts (no query required). Submit through our website at acre-books.com/submissions/ by April 15. #booksky 📚🖊️

Poem by Dan O’Brien in the Times Literary Supplement

In print 🙏🏻 @thetls.bsky.social

Theater Talk: Excellent AN IRISH PLAY only up tonight and tomorrow features actors in top form. Don't miss it. (See listings.) Running into May, ON A FIRST NAME BASIS at Desiderio's Dinner Theatre als... This week on Theater Talk, Anthony and Peter revel in the excellence of AN IRISH PLAY by Dan O'Brien at American Repertory Theatre in the Compass Performing Arts Center (545 Elmwood) with a fine cast....

tinyurl.com/5cm9wk5p

A strange & wonderful feeling to know that a play I wrote nearly thirty years ago (!) is affecting audiences today — this production in Buffalo with American Repertory Theater of WNY sounds exceptional 🙏🏻

Anyone running a reading series they need an extra writer for? We're in the Lenten season, soon to be Eastertide, and my new book is all about Easter in various ways, and I'd love to do a reading from it this spring. Let me know if I can jump in with you.
tinycatpress.com/product/jaso...

Review: An Irish Play at ART of WNY — Metatheatre, Identity and the Cost of Cruelty - The American Repertory Theater of WNY's production of "An Irish Play" turns a rehearsal of a Cork theatre troupe into an emotional roller coaster ride, and it asks some big questions along the way, wr...

An insightful review of ‘An Irish Play’ in Buffalo thebuffalohive.com/review-an-ir...

Thanks Penny!

After Loss We are standing beside the fallsand our daughter is clattering through the chattering stonesand the leaves are bronze gold or goneand the seal is in the river and the river is beneaththe gently toppli...

I’ve a poem in @thetls.bsky.social — with many thanks to editor Camille Ralphs 🙏🏻 www.the-tls.com/literature/o...

Acre authors in action! @bydanobrien.bsky.social signing copies of his books, including OUR CANCERS and SURVIVOR'S NOTEBOOK! #poetry #booksky 🎉📚🖊️

Signing books after last night’s reading at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. With thanks to Adam Vines for the invitation and the hospitality, and to the students and all those who came to the reading 🙏🏻

Little Prayers

The start of an email announcing the new class of Watson Fellows

It’s been 30 years since I received a letter in my campus mailbox letting me know that I’d spend the next year in Ireland, writing, acting, learning about Ireland but learning, more importantly, about the US from the outside. Congrats to the new class. We need their vision, energy, and purpose.

John F. Burns, Prize-winning Foreign Correspondent for The Times, Dies at 81

RIP John Burns, one of the best war reporters. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/w...

E MER B R R M TEE BE RM MER I E MB R R MEER EE B RM M ER I E MB R I remember, Joe Brainard 'A masterpiece.' Paul Auster

Joe Brainard’s ‘I Remember’ (1970-1975) is a small book that is immense inside, not least because of the way it—generously, wittily, companionably—opens up the reader to their own worlds of memory and feeling. There’s no such thing as an everybody book, but this is one. @dauntbookspub.bsky.social.

A new poem for my brother in @poetrylondon.bsky.social — with thanks to editor Niall Campbell 🙏🏻 poetrylondon.co.uk

Statement from Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump’s Illegal War on Iran “President Trump is unilaterally dragging this nation into an illegal and unjustified war with Iran without congressional authorization, without a clear objective, and without any imminent threat to the United States. This is a reckless abuse of power that puts both innocent civilians and American lives on the line for a conflict the American people do not want. “As someone who has survived the horrors of war, I know that bombs do not build peace or create stability. Military strikes will not make us safer; they will inflame tensions and push the region further into chaos. When we abandon diplomacy, we choose destruction.

“We know who will bear the cost of this decision: innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and our young service members sent into harm’s way. This is the devastating human toll of another regime-change war. Already, children and families are paying with their lives. There is no moral or strategic justification for this bloodshed. “The American people are exhausted by endless wars built on false promises and paid for with American and foreign lives. Congress must reassert its constitutional authority. We must vote immediately on the War Powers resolution authored by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie. This unlawful operation must end immediately."

Two poems in America Magazine

In print. Two for my brother. With thanks to Joe Hoover & America Magazine 🙏🏻

Donate to Support for Nano Taggart’s Recovery, organized by Shari Zollinger On February 2, 2026, Nano experienced a brain bleed and a major stroke, leading to… Shari Zollinger needs your support for Support for Nano Taggart’s Recovery

Please help Nano Tagg & Natalie Young (of Sugar House Review) through this incredibly difficult time if you can gofund.me/e134b5acb @sugarhousereview.bsky.social

Dermot Healy's "Collected Plays" Dan O’Brien (From Scarsdale: A Childhood, True Story: A Trilogy) joins Vince Francone (A Book No One Wants) and Chad to discuss Dermot Healy’s Collected Plays. After discussing Healy’s life and other ...

Chat w/ Chad & Vince about Dermot Healy's plays: fearlessly inventive language and theatricality, yet tied to the voice and experience of those he wrote about. The wit and poetry is pure him, and pure Irish. Mining the @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social podcast: dalkeyarchive.substack.com/p/dermot-hea...

Acre author @bydanobrien.bsky.social is returning faculty this summer at @sewaneewriters.bsky.social! Apply, apply! 🖊️📚

Applications through March 1 ✍️

CB editions February newsletter - it's been a bad month - as archived on the blog: sonofabook.blogspot.com/2026/02/cbe-...

The outsider who writes from within – The Friday Poem Matthew Stewart looks at the work of Michael Laskey - The outsider who writes from within

Congratulations to Michael Laskey who was awarded the King's Medal For Poetry at the weekend. Here's a fine appraisal of his work by Matthew Stewart @roguestrands.bsky.social

thefridaypoem.com/michael-lask...

Another from America Magazine for my brother, on the 40th anniversary of his first suicide attempt, and what may be the third anniversary of his suicide. Thinking of him and all those who struggle with depression.

Thanks so much, Penny. I’m so sorry for your loss