This weekend I gave a presentation to a group of mostly college-aged folks and had a little line at the beginning of my slides that described it as an "AI-free presentation made by a human, for humans" and I had to pause for clapping at that part

you love to see it

Would he listen to the audiobook? like a pretend podcast

A poem with the opening line, It's spring and everyone's joking about killing themselves again. Full text can be found on our website, Link in the next post

For National Poetry Month, we would like to remind you that we publish all time bangers, such as Staircase wit by Rhiannon McGavin, from TBQ6:

BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms

Larry Levis poem “The War” in full: THE WAR He thought he could ignore the war, and forget how he paid for it daily— with a silence, a sales tax. He numbed himself to photographs of farmers swatting flames off their faces. He lived at least as well as a cold rat, waiting for his number to come up. But he behaved himself, already cowed by the nightsticks that left him alone.

I sent my friend the new collected Levis, and he sent me this poem from it.

“He thought he could ignore the war,
and forget how
he paid for it daily—“

Larry Levis

You have more in common with the people of Iran than you do with anyone in this administration, any member of the technocracy, anyone who is profiting from this war, or any billionaire. When you see Iranians forming human chains outside key infrastructure sites, you should feel a sense of kinship.

This is honest to god LITERALLY out of Fahrenheit 451

I need writers to stop writing flop-sweat articles claiming “everyone” uses AI. Like baby you give away your artistic soul if you want, no one’s stopping you, but you don’t get to self-soothe on a lie. You’re not an artist anymore and other people still are, and that’s the price of your laziness

Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dreaming so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beautiful day. How 'bout some coffee? Don't mind if I do. Take a little ride on my donkey, I love that donkey. Hell, I love everybody.

My traditional Easter reading, from James Tate.

Isaac Chotiner: You say the two cats who live in your house are "Jerks" and you don't care for them
Me: Absolutely. They are the burdens of my life
Chotiner: It seems you spent an hour searching for special food for them and paid more for it than you do even for your own food.
Me: That's--Hold on,

if you’re trying to “save time” as a writer by using AI, i suggest you find another profession. it takes time to write well, time to write exciting books. it takes time to write one good poem. i’ve spent years on a single poem. the time spent learning one’s craft is everything

Stop worrying about what YA books to let your kids read and let them sort it out with V C Andrews and cocaine era Stephen King as God intended

yeah im bummed about sora. bummed i sora bunch of stupid fake videos

ANNE CARSON LIGHTSTICK

“According to Chat GPT” is exactly the same as “somebody told me”, without any transparency as to that somebody’s credibility. The somebody could be a credible researcher or a raving lunatic, and the user has no idea who it’s getting information from at any given moment.

@exhaustdata 2 months ago Ten thousand dissertations all called “the American novel since 1945” reduced to a single sentence @chillextremist 3 months ago When I'm in the suburbs for too long I start to think about dying

Existence of Mamdani in the media criticism discourse is so useful because it demonstrates what the media could be doing to Trump if they ACTUALLY thought that he was an aberrant threat to our Republic. Not that you need to do this for Trump but: You can just write negative stories based on nothing!

This thread -- & the thread it links to, & @jamellebouie.net's original insight -- are super-important to understand. To the average Ivy-educated, DC-centric journalist, the MAGA base is almost entirely theoretical. They don't know any genuine MAGAts, they just construct a Noble Savage imaginary.

Fair play, 'the mad emperor started compulsively buying shoes for his court, guessing their foot size & his courtiers were too scared not to wear them even when they didn't fit' is some classic, on the nose End Days Of The Empire stuff

Had to take AI training today and the example use case was writing a thank you email to your team for successfully completing a project. Listen, if writing a thank you is too hard, try walking into the ocean.

We're bringing back every part of the Y2K zeitgeist, including the grumpy old man "I don't want a mocha-choco-latte, just GIMME A CUP OF COFFEE" energy

Absolutely incredible choice for an op ed in these United States in 2026

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

Rod Serling is probably the coolest guy of the 20th century. Looked cool, sounded cool, fought Nazis, hated John Wayne, wrote the screenplay for Planet of the Apes. Honestly dunks all the hell over any male influencer guy.

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there

— William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel That Greeny Flower"

“You being / inside / means / you’re already hurt.”

— Isabelle Correa

.
.
.

This poem appeared in Good Girl and Other Yearnings by Isabelle Correa, published by Write Bloody Publishing, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

Jon-Hamm-in-30-Rock-ass coffee

if you were to write a prophecy of the future back in 2000 that "in 2026, President Donald John Trump has launched a war on Iran with Israel after previously attempting a coup to stay in power in 2020", people would think you've gone insane

Latest substack on Iran by @snellarthur.bsky.social is a must read

substack.com/home/post/p-...

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to