Curtis by Patrick Cottrell Stephen suggested that they have sex on the kitchen table but Susan declined. She hadn’t brushed her teeth yet.

“ ‘Curtis is definitely a murderer,’ he said. ‘No question about it.’ ”

From “Curtis” by Patrick Cottrell in our new Spring issue.

I reviewed Lio Min’s debut Beating Heart Baby, a queer YA romance set in perhaps the most intense high school marching band in Los Angeles.

The 10 Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2026 The books we can't wait to read next year, from heartfelt memoirs to trans alien romantasy.

Wrote about some of the books I'm most looking forward to next year for @them.us:

www.them.us/story/most-a...

This list features, among others, @blipstress.bsky.social, @patrickcottrell.bsky.social, @gabriellekorn.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @thatames.bsky.social, and @jordyrosenberg.bsky.social!

Purple lighting as Mattilda laughs with her head back behind the lectern, address made of so many layers of fabric, pink, and blue polka dots, ruffles and knots. Photo by Oscar

MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE ON TOUR WITH TERRY DACTYL 10/25 SEATTLE ART MUSEUM BOOKS SOLD BY ELLIOTT BAY BOOK CO. 11/19 THE STRAND NEW YORK, NY WITH ALEXANDER CHEE 12/1 POLITICS & PROSE WASHINGTON, D.C. WITH JENNIFER NATALYA FINK 12/3 GREEDY READS Remington BALTIMORE, MD WITH JEANNIE VANASCO 1/13 POWELL'S BOOKS on Hawthorne PORTLAND, OR WITH LENI ZUMAS MASKS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Here I am laughing in joy during the beautiful book launch for TERRY DACTYL at the Seattle Art Museum, thank you all!!!! And, get ready for my upcoming events in New York, DC, Baltimore, and Portland, please spread the word, and let's continue this magic 💕💕💕

Review | ‘The Endless Week’ is an unusually feral and lovely novel In Laura Vazquez’s deeply strange book, a chronically online teenage poet goes on a quest to find his mother.

Amazing review of THE ENDLESS WEEK in The Washington Post today!

"It’s rare to encounter a book as feral and lovely as THE ENDLESS WEEK, one equally fluent in the comedy and the horror of the world — and the word."
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: • MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth CC Ms. May Mailman Mr. Vincent Haley

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

The Real Threat to Free Speech in America is From the Right, Not the Left—Stop Pretending Otherwise The road to fascism is paved with false equivalencies. For years we’ve been told that the censorious Left is a serious threat to free speech. If Simon & Schuster cancels one book because the pu…

I wrote about how the road to fascism is paved with false equivalencies. lithub.com/the-real-thr...

Why is New York's literary crowd suddenly in thrall to Hungarian fiction? | Hari Kunzru Hari Kunzru: The highly educated aspiring writers of New York are looking beyond the English-speaking world for their reading fixes. It must be a sign of the times

Couldn’t be happier that the Nobel has gone to Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Back in 2012 I tried to astroturf a movement claiming him as the Next Big Thjng but it didn’t take off because he’s too difficult www.theguardian.com/books/2012/j...

Bright magenta cover with black border. Floating open mouths in magenta, with tongues out and teeth visible, TERRY DACTYL TERRY DACTYL TERRY DACTYL in one of the mouths. Floating iridescent sparkling glitter pills in spot gloss like jewels. Title at top of black border, author name at bottom, on the side a blurb from Sarah Schulman, "The historical novel on acid"

Honey, look, it's a gorgeous final copy of TERRY DACTYL, out on November 11 from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social🎉🎉🎉 Book launch on Saturday, October 25, 3 pm at the Seattle Art Museum, and you can preorder signed copies from Elliott Bay Book Company, or preorder from your favorite indie, get ready 💎⚡✨

thank you amina 🥲

Patrick Cottrell's 'Afternoon Hours of a Hermit' Is a 'Hilarious and Heart-Wrenching' Whodunnit — See the Cover (Exclusive) 'Afternoon Hours of a Hermit' sees a man unexpectedly thrust back into the question surrounding his late brother's death. Seeking answers, the man returns to his childhood home, where he reckons with ...

To have a new novel coming out by @patrickcottrell.bsky.social is thrilling. I love the cover; I am also very jealous of the title! people.com/patrick-cott...

Birthing Channel, by Laura Vazquez

Check out this excerpt from THE ENDLESS WEEK by Laura Vazquez, translated by Alex Niemi, in the new
@harpers.bsky.social Readings section!

Book pubs next week! 9/30!
harpers.org/archive/2025...

PORTHOLE by Joanna Howard (@mcsweeneys.net). Reviewed by Martin Horn. necessaryfiction.com/reviews/port...

sarah says petals and pages is a queer owned bookstore. i also like fahrenheit books for used

rachel cusk describes a man eating a huge amount of ice cream

This continues to be the biggest story in the country: DOGE has already squandered half a trillion dollars in 6 weeks. Not billion. half a trillion, $500 billion talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/irs-p...

AOC and Bernie in front of the rally crowd in Denver

Zoomed out crowd shot of 34,000 people in downtown Denver with Colorado mountains in the background

Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back.

This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008.

Also bigger than the 2024 DNC.

And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).

This is why you fight these cowards.

The moment you stand up to them, they crumble.

Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights.

He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.

so excited to announce that my second novel, ALL US SAINTS, is out next year from Bloomsbury ✨ it's about family, art, and the way a closeted trans girl's act of desperation is permanently warped in the cis imagination

Personal Discretion Over the Treasury's Payments System Means the End of Democracy If the Court and federal workers fail to stop Elon Musk, we are heading for authoritarianism.

The NYT asked me to write an op-ed on Musk and the Treasury and then took a pass. I hope it will still get read.

🖤

NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.

Here are the options on the table (which are not mutually exclusive):

1. House Dems bring articles of impeachment*

2. Senate Dems play constitutional hardball and obstruct everything

3. State AGs litigate (and prosecute) everything they can

4. Citizens march en mass

I don’t think we understand:

Elon Musk is the most powerful man in the world, by far.

Not just because of his money. But because of his access and control of all data at every possible point. He locked government officials out of their computers yesterday. Now this:

Once someone starts talking about what “can’t happen” in the USA because of checks and balances, it’s best to stop listening to them.

My Heresies, Alina Stefanescu — SARABANDE BOOKS Pre-order only. Available April 2025. Behold My Heresies : the latest and highly anticipated poetry collection from Alina Stefanescu. Riven by the tension between hagiographies, utopias, b...

Dear humans,
Just wanted to share something I've been quiet about, in the year of my loud self-doubt, with gratitude to @sarabandebooks.bsky.social and to many others whom I look forward to thanking in the coming months, MY HERESIES, forthcoming in April 2025.🖤
www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p...