Has anyone yet claimed the title "slowest writer"? I think I deserve it.

“If I can perceive and understand one small thing thoroughly, I gain a greater sense of peace and power than I'd feel having paid semi-attention to a vast thing.”

— Sarah Manguso

#writing #quote

The International Short Story is Booming In 2002, a friend asked if I would join him for a San Francisco Symphony concert with David Robinson as guest conductor. They were to play Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie. I was a bit ambi…

@rabihalameddine.bsky.social and John Freeman consider their new anthology and the appeal of the international short story.

Apologies to the authors, who put a lot of thought into their order.

Apologies to the authors, who put a lot of thought into their order.

This makes sense--a lot more sense than my way!

When I read story collections, I always read the shortest ones first, leaving the longer ones for later. Does anyone else do this?

#booksky

Thanks, Corey!

My chapbook OUR PLACE IS IN BETWEEN is now available from Bottlecap Press. The pieces explore marginal life and have magical or fantastical elements. They're sad but I hope you enjoy them. #booksky #fiction #bottlecappress

bottlecap.press/products/ourpsd

Nine Books to Reset Your View of the World Each of these titles will widen your perspective, offering you original insight and vision.

The right book can “make a subject that’s never crossed my mind, or that strikes me as aggressively boring, into something incantatory,” Deb Olin Unferth writes:

“You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.” ~ Margaret Atwood

“We have been taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing.' But a writer's job is ingoing.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin

#writing #quote

Deb Olin Unferth's EARTH 7 cover: on the horizon of a desert, two figures hold hands. Around them is the vastness and beauty of outer space.

Thrilled to announce that in July 2026, we are publishing the magical EARTH 7 by Deb Olin Unferth. A love story set against both a love letter to planet Earth, and a portrait of its slow demise, EARTH 7 is a novel for our times, and for all times dauntbookspublishing.co.uk/book/earth-7/

“Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.”

— Anne Enright

#writing #fiction

Love this New Year's poem by Naomi Shihab Nye (recommended on the @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social Substack): www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/...

“Whether we are happy or unhappy leads us to write one way or another. When we are happy our imagination is stronger; when we are unhappy our memory works with greater vitality.”

—Natalia Ginzburg

My favorite books this year:

INTO THE WEEDS - Lydia Davis
THE PELICAN CHILD - Joy Williams
MAN IN THE HOLOCENE - Max Frisch
SHORT: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY
MOON SONGS - Carol Emshwiller
CATASTROPHE - Dino Buzzati

#booksky

3 Ways to Become a Better Reader Always Have a Book With You I read somewhere that authors are voracious readers. I would imagine so. When I read, I also feel the urge to create something of my own. Likewise, I don’t think I’ve ev…

Hwang Bo-Reum recommends little ways to cultivate your reading (and writing) life.

“A story happens when two equally appealing forces, or characters, or ideas try to occupy the same place at the same time, and they’re both right.”

— Amy Hempel

#amwriting #fiction

Happy pub day to The Pelican Child by Joy Williams! To celebrate, we’ve unlocked her Book Post Diary: Hemingway and His Houses.

Read here → books.substack.com/p/diary-joy-...

@aaknopf.bsky.social #EduSky #Books

“The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.”

— James Baldwin

#writing #fiction

Thomas Pynchon Has Been Warning Us About American Fascism the Whole Time Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptations of Thomas Pynchon’s novels—first Inherent Vice in 2014, and now One Battle After Another in 2025—may be tipping the scales, with more first-time Pynchon readers f…

In @literaryhub.bsky.social, @devintoshea.bsky.social describes how movies are popularizing the classic #Pynchon theme: "The war between the powerful and the powerless."
lithub.com/thomas-pynch...

The Flag of Ahab | Charles Baxter On the literature and politics of charisma.

Read Charles Baxter on the literature and politics of charisma. www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/f...

“Always, where there is darkness, there must be a hint of light, and where there is brightness, some shadow play. Without this tonal range of mood orchestration, tension and artistic effect are lost.”

— Aimee Parkison

#writing #fiction

Betwixt or Bewitched? Rethinking the “Middlebrow” with Dino Buzzati Reframed as a “bewitched middlebrow,” Buzzati’s fiction re-enters literary history not as a comforting escape, but as a sharp tool for existential inquiry.

In a new review, Caterina Domeneghini studies a surge in translation to English of the work of Dino Buzzati. “This new translation project doesn’t just revive Buzzati,” she argues, “it reframes him.”

the weight of stillness, the power of white space Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash

My free September newsletter...

open.substack.com/pub/artoffla...

This probably can't be bottled, but some books definitely lower blood pressure and help one breathe.

#booksky

Exploring Octavia Butler’s Beginnings as a Sci-Fi Trailblazer It was Octavia Margaret who gave her daughter the spark to even consider a writing career. She saw her quiet, bookish ten-year-old daughter writing, saw the delight on her face as she created, and …

“She became fascinated with how human beings—especially those who didn’t have much power—could empower themselves and others and change the world.” What Octavia Butler’s early writings reveal about her trajectory as a literary icon.

“We sleep in language, if language doesn’t come to wake us with its strangeness.”

— Robert Kelly

#reading #writing

“I hate judgments that only crush and don’t transform.”

— Elias Canetti

#booksky