Where Physics Meets Poetry: On Language and the Power of Metaphor When I was 16 years old, my beloved college counselor told me that it was a good thing I wanted to be a physicist because I wasn’t much of a writer. We were close—I had her home phone number for em…

Where Physics Meets Poetry: On Language and the Power of Metaphor

@chanda.blacksky.app Considers Literary and Scientific Ways of Interpreting the World We Live In

I fell in love with this poem when I was barely older than its 16-year-old subject. It hits different reading it now as a parent (older than Ondaatje was when he wrote it!)

The Real Cancel Culture: NYU Has Put an End to Live Student Graduation Speeches Though New York University contingent faculty’s ongoing strike is the biggest news of late from campus, the institution’s  suspect labor practices aren’t the only recent damning headlines: NYU is a…

1 NEW from me in @literaryhub.bsky.social: I go deep on what it means that NYU has ended live graduation speeches lithub.com/the-real-can...

Glad to hear it! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to think about these things…

This is 50: Literary Hub EIC Jonny Diamond Responds to The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire "I don’t believe age automatically grants anyone wisdom about the world (look at the terrible things done every day by old men in power). I do know it gives us opportunities to learn from mistakes."

I answered some questions about turning 50 for @saribotton.bsky.social’s incredible substack publication, @oldstermag.bsky.social oldster.substack.com/p/this-is-50...

The Zionists are ethnically cleansing southern Lebanon using genocidal tactics deployed in Gaza. Israeli journalists report this openly, and yet there is silence from Western media.

In Defense of Being Performative The critics of “performative politics” misunderstand something fundamental: Democracy survives only when citizens perform it.

New piece for The Nation on the ubiquity of "performative" and "virtue signalling" as terms of derision.

"Citizenship ... is inherently performative and that abandoning the performance of democratic life means courting democratic collapse." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Sara Yasin’s new digital magazine, The Key, will center Palestine. The Key launched with an essay by the new magazine’s editor in chief Sara Yasin called “It’s Not Complicated.” The essay is part reflection, part media criticism, part thesis statement for th…

At @literaryhub.bsky.social, I spoke with Sara Yasin about the new publication she’s editing, The Key

5-days left countdown graphic to Election Day, March 17! The photo showcased is of Kat speaking at the DPOE, overlayed on the number 5. Full copy reads: "5 days until the election!" with Kat For Illinois' logo.

🚨 5 DAYS 🚨
Five days left to win this. This is the final push.

We have the Abughamentum, but still need your help to make it happen. Phone bank, knock doors, or join our volunteer Discord for more opportunities to help locally or remotely!

Oh my god my book is on here 😭😭😭

What Was Lost: A Queer Accounting of the NY Times Book Review, 2013-2022 “Goodbye, Pamela Paul,” was the headline of Andrea Long Chu’s now-iconic, recently ASME-nominated New York Magazine farewell to the former NY Times Book Review editor, when Paul left the paper two …

*taps internet microphone*

After months of work, a project i've been coordinating for @literaryhub.bsky.social in conjunction with @maris.bsky.social is now live ...

We've commissioned 13 reviews of books by LGBTQ folks not covered by the NYTBR under Pamela Paul ...

lithub.com/what-was-los...

I'm in for $100. Who's with me?

It's Friday evening! Almost time to go out for the night! Help out a family in need with a few bucks and then have a lovely evening.

"The working classes have always been the caring classes — not just because they do almost all of the caring labor, but also because, perhaps partly as a result, they actually are more empathetic than the rich. Psychological studies show this, by the way. The richer you are, the less competent you are at even understanding other people’s feelings. So trying to reimagine work — not as a value or end in itself, but as the material extension of caring — is a good start." . - David Graeber

Why We Must Fight to Stop HR 7661 Before It Destroys the Lives of American Children Lately I’ve been calling my House rep and screaming about one zillion things, and maybe you have too. But today I want to talk about one thing in particular you should add to your list: H.R. 7661 i…

I wrote about the first national book banning bill, which effectively seeks to erase trans people. At the end I include a link to let your reps know that you oppose this bill and all it stands for. lithub.com/why-we-must-...

Don’t miss these amazing Minnesota writers reading at AWP If you’re headed to Baltimore this week for the 53rd annual AWP (aka literary rumspringa for writers-who-should-know-better), I insist you come have a beer and celebrate some of Minnesota’s (and Am…

Come hang out with me if your at AWP this week… and behold this incredible lineup of Minnesota writers. (And if you show me proof of donation @literaryhub.bsky.social will buy you a beer). lithub.com/dont-miss-th...

My March poetry column is live at Lit Hub just in time for the AWP bookfair.

I just love all the trans people in my life and want them to be safe and happy!!!!!

I have a thread where I am compiling resources and instructions for both tabs people in Kansas and people who want to help

I’d love a boost 💕

bsky.app/profile/hyen...

Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses "The legislature did not include a grace period."

It seems all Kansas-issued trans drivers' licenses are invalid, effective tomorrow

It is now illegal for trans people to drive a car until they surrender their license at a DMV (that most will need to drive to) and have it reissued with the wrong gender marker

This was never about woman's sports

If you’re a @literaryhub.bsky.social member, I wrote a little about the etymology of “wuthering” for the member newsletter — you gotta subscribe to see it…

if you are not a Lit Hub member you can become one at lithub.memberful.com/join; it would mean a lot to me (and the website write large) if you did

Of course it was Brady Tkachuk who put the medal around his neck.

Somehow this makes the loss even worse.

Ugh

cool, cool. so we are sort of like citizens, but not really?

Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.) If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

whoever figures out a way to bundle independent journalism subscriptions will be a hero

i know that this is an unpopular take, but everyone starting their own newsletter as a revenue stream is not a sustainable model for writing and reporting or for people who love and want to pay for media.

happening this morning in Minneapolis -- ICE agents drawing guns on observers. I reiterate again that it is only a matter of time before DHS kills more innocent people in Minnesota. Congress needs to shut this shit down right now.

What does it mean that the world’s biggest live-streamer is broadcasting himself reading? It’s a dizzying, humbling, ages-you-a-year-in-a-minute experience to come across the name of a public figure you don’t recognize, and then discover that the name belongs to one of the most popular …

We should be reading to each other more (@literaryhub.bsky.social)

A Day for Gaza Today, The Nation is turning over its website exclusively to stories from Gaza and its people. This is why.

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza.

We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...