I really enjoyed this!

The Attic by Aaron Burch Some kind of a noise. Or a nudge, a push. Probably both. A “Babe, babe,” together with or followed by, enough of a jostle to wake me up while trying not to startle me. “Sorry,” Michelle said. “I...

New story out on @hexliterary.bsky.social today! One of my fave journals doing it rn.

It's kinda inspired by Ben Loory & Brian Evenson, and by homes & love & language, and it's maybe a little more unsettling/creepy than my typical modes while also being about kinda all the same ol shit as always.

My preorder copy of @lucaseschaefer.bsky.social The Slip is still in transit. I know because I keep obsessively checking the tracking, but there’s good press to read while I wait!

Happy pub day to OS 225 author @lucaseschaefer.bsky.social! THE SLIP is out now. bit.ly/43BifBJ

I’m glad I know!

This has been on my list for awhile because I typically like Alex Garland, but sounds like it’s a skip

Hi! I'm now offering one-hour writing coaching sessions over Zoom! I've done this with a few people who've taken my classes, and it's been great! Need advice, support, tips, prompts? Hit me up for some writing therapy. Message for more details and pricing. 😘 Info about me below:

New story in @librelit.bsky.social Thanks for giving this piece an excellent home!

Delightful

Happy birthday! Hope you had a great day!

Picture of the books On the Calculation of Volume I and II by Solvej Balle

These books are simply astounding. I haven’t felt this way about a work in a long time. The ideas, the attention to the world around us and all its intricate details and absurdities - somehow quiet and thoughtful at a pace you want to devour.

just putting some NEW BOOKS out on the shelf!

W.S. MERWIN Did the poems do any good? We'll never know. We certainly wrote, all of us, some very bad poems, and we knew it. But the alternative was not to do it at all, and that seemed unthinkable, and it still does. 102 PROSE INTERVIEWS POETRY ART The Paris Review

Yes, this.

“Sometimes the clay is smashed / so that with careful hands / it can become / a sculpture of hope.”

Vivid, finely-wrought poetry by David Icenogle on the site today.

www.librelit.com/themagazine/...

No submission fee for Issue Three submissions until Sunday at midnight. We realize we’re asking a lot with this theme. I personally want a dramatic monologue in the vein of Nash or 1976’s Sybil, or a brief personal essay about the first time you watched Silver Linings Playbook.

We don't know the full spectrum of what's being affected, in part, because the people responsible are still getting their stories straight and figuring out how the machines they are turning on and off even function. The backlash they have encountered from the public has been important.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a midday press briefing that she would have to “check back on” whether Medicaid was implicated by the funding pause. Leavitt said more broadly that “assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause.” The federal government does not pay individual Medicaid members directly, unlike with programs like Supplemental Security Income. Rather, Medicaid funding is paid as grants to states, which run the programs, said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

"I'm gonna have to check back on whether we shut down 11% of the federal budget and health insurance for poor families" is next level incompetence

www.statnews.com/2025/01/28/f...

“If Democratic leaders won’t fight, then it’s hard to expect civil society, or just ordinary people, to pick up the slack. Either democracy was on the ballot in November or it wasn’t, and if it was, it makes no political, ethical or strategic sense to act as if we live in normal times.”

Dude, You’ve Gotta Check Out This Virginia Woolf Chick Yo, Tanner! Get your dick over here; I’ve got a Four Loko with your name on it. Yeah, bro, so far my summer has been tight tight tiiiiiight — thank...

"Masculinity is a construct invented by bros to repress hoes. You'll learn that when you read 'Orlando,' you noob."

(Happy b-day, Virginia)

What madness, to divert us towards a beyond when we are surrounded by tasks and expectations and futures here. What deceit, to divest us of images of earthly delight in order to sell them to heaven behind our backs!

- Rilke, "Letter to a Young Worker"

Picture of the novel The Bishop’s Villa by Sacha Naspini

Weekend reading:

I’m very excited to have a story forthcoming in @librelit.bsky.social

Verde - The American Scholar Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew

My whole essay "Verde" at The American Scholar is now available to read online (outside the paywall). "Words change the way we see, taste, smell, and live in the world."

theamericanscholar.org/verde/

I’m finding this book - part biography, part history, part philosophy - fascinating

Kawase Hasui Evening Rain at a Lakeside Tea House, 1935

A quiet moment, a warm cup of tea, the sound of rain on the window. Nothing to fix, nowhere to go—just this.

#zen #mindfulness #gratitude #buddha

Photo of the book Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera

Next read

Rec’s were not wrong. I know he probably would not want it, it I just want to give Ludo a hug

A periodic reminder that if you can't afford a book the library does buy books, and sometimes we even buy hundreds of copies of one book. Checking out books from your local library supports authors, which means they get paid and can write more great books!