Tessera

Colleen Burner

@colleenburner.bsky.social

Editor at @surelymag.bsky.social writer, painter, quilter, dust mote in space just like you author of SISTER GOLDEN CALF (Split/Lip Press) more at colleenburner.com they/them

97 Posts232 Follower 251 Folgt

Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 2mo ago

i think to be a writer you have to be stubborn, defiant, and at least a bit delusional. i mean, you have to believe—and keep believing—that you have something worth putting on the page. even just for yourself.

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited for this! (& long live Lost/Found!) 🎊

Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 2mo ago

Excited to share the next acquisition for our Lost/Found imprint: EDGE OF THE KNOWN BUS LINE by @jamesrgapinski.bsky.social, a reissue of their award-winning 2018 novella which follows a woman’s gruesome fight for survival after a city bus drops her in a brutal wasteland of cannibals and cultists!

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I’m so furious about how stupid everything is

Soph Warnes @thatsoph.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I was annoyed that I couldn't find a database of David Attenborough documentaries where I could search for a specific episode by topic. So I made it. attenborough-100.vercel.app

Attenborough at 100 — A Nature Documentary Archive

Explore nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 series — from Zoo Quest in 1954 to Secret Garden in 2026. Search by animal, habitat, location, or theme.

attenborough-100.vercel.app

donni saphire @donni.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Look, if I unclench my jaw, my brain might fall out

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 4mo ago

It's the one where Johanna Hedva calls you "girl" and you like it 🪩 Happy birthday, friend! milkweed.org/between-the-...

Johanna Hedva : Your Love Is Not Good | Milkweed Editions

What if you gave your fictional main character all of your own biographical details and family history but had them, at every point, choose “wrong”? At every point do the thing you yourself would be a...

milkweed.org

David Naimon@davidnaimon.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hey, it's my birthday today and I'd love to hear what your favorite episode of the show is, and/or who in the world you'd most want to hear on the show going forward. Share a link of the conversation that is most unforgettable to you. Here's one of mine to start it off: milkweed.org/between-the-...

Split/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 4mo ago

We're open for MULTIGENRE FULL-LENGTH MANUSCRIPTS!!! April 1 - June 1, send your multigenre books to our SUPER EXCITED brand new multigenre reading team, headed by our SUPER EXCITED multigenre editor, @erinvachon.bsky.social! Link for full details + to submit: splitlippress.submittable.com/submit

purple background with jellyfish and the message OPEN CALL FOR MULTIGENRE MANUSCRIPTS, reading period April 1 through June 1, submit at splitlippress.submittable.com

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5mo ago

TRUMP RUINED BAD TASTE John Waters at #NoKings in Provincetown (Pic via petermarietoto on X)

Elderly man with a thin mustache holding a cardboard sign

surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · 6mo ago

our next submission window opens March 29, and it will be for a themed issue—"big slime falls down stairs"! guidelines and more are at surelymag.com/about

Issue 34 will be a themed issue! Inspired by some search terms that showed up in our site analytics, the theme for our next issue is "big slime falls down stairs"—this is wide open to interpretation, but we want your prime slime, your sentient blobs, your gooey pratfalls, your fun fiction that leaves us gooped.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 8mo ago

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 8mo ago

as an editor of a small literary magazine, i'm begging folks to read submission guidelines a little more closely. otherwise i have to tap the sign via email. ☹️

NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social · 9mo ago

NANCY IS IN A OPEN DRAWER, WRAPPED IN A BLANKET AND SHE SAYS JUST ONE WORD…NO

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 9mo ago

flames….flames on the side of my face

A screenshot of an incredibly ridiculous and offensive email for a “writer editor - part time - AI trainer” position with Outlier Ai that pays FIFTEEN DOLLARS PER HOUR for a person with a brain and editing and writing experience to train some sort of LLM bullshit bot to help AI replace the very person training the program.

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 2y ago

A photo of David Lynch from the chest up, his open hands reaching out in front of him. The background is panels of muted red, blue, yellow, and green. The caption text on the image says "You're all together on this planet trying to live a life"

A photo of David Lynch from the chest up, his hands face down in front of him. The background is panels of muted red, blue, yellow, and green. The caption text on the image says "Why would you torture people?"

🌈 Hailey Piper 🌈@haileypiperfights.bsky.social · 9mo ago

When you recount this election day:

Gonzo in Muppet Christmas Carol saying "Now once again, I must ask you to remember that Dick Cheney was dead and decaying. That one thing you must remember, or both that follows will seem wondrous."

Alex Hanna@alexhanna.bsky.social · 9mo ago

sorry it's still so funny we woke up to Dick Cheney dying today too

Tash 🍉@tashmahal.bsky.social · 3y ago

Oh Lydia Davis ❤️

Fear
By Lydia Davis

Nearly every morning, a certain woman in our community comes running out of her house with her face white and her overcoat flapping wildly. She cries out, "Emergency, emergency," and one of us runs to her and holds her until her fears are calmed. We know she is making it up; nothing has really happened to her. But we understand, because there is hardly one of us who has not been moved at some time to do just what she has done, and every time, it has taken all our strength, and even the strength of our friends and families too, to quiet us.

Chembu🌺🧶@chembarathi.bsky.social · last yr.

Heart weeps. Head tries to help heart. Head tells heart how it is, again: You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday. Heart feels better, then. But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart. - Lydia Davis #Poetry #LiteratureSky 💙📚👀

Head, Heart

Heart weeps.

Head tries to help heart.

Head tells heart how it is, again:

You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday.

Heart feels better, then.

But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart.

Heart is so new to this.

I want them back, says heart.

Head is all heart has.

Help, head. Help heart.

Em Gray @em-words.bsky.social · 2y ago

This might be my favourite piece by Lydia Davis - a comfort in the never lostness of things.

A photo of a book page, showing a short story by Lydia Davis titled 'Lost Things' that reads;

They are lost, but also not lost but somewhere in the world. Most of them are small, though two are larger, one a coat and one a dog. Of the small things, one is a valuable ring, one a valuable button. They are lost from me and where I am, but they are also not gone. They are somewhere else, and they are there to someone else, it may be.
But if not there to someone else, the ring is, still, not lost to itself, but there, only not where I am, and the button, too, there, still, only not where I am.

Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 10mo ago

It is true there is not enough beauty in the world. It is also true that I am not competent to restore it. Neither is there candor, and here I may be of some use. —Louise Glück, from "October"

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 10mo ago

A “no smoking” sign that has been amended to say “no kings”

bulldog @harpua.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Ursula Le Guin's 1999 letter to Michael Powell, the owner of Powell's Books in Portland. Powell's workers unionized in 2000 and have faced some union-busting measures since, but were the first contract in ILWU Local 5.

Ursula Le Guin letter to the owner of Powell's Books in 1999 where she says it would be an honor to know that it's a union shop.

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.@sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I didn’t even edit this one. Snail looked this good all on their own. Sports Illustrated model of snails over here. Great work snail you’re lookin wet as hell.

A wet snail on some tiny leaves on the side of a wall

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Ah, the scammy book club placement emails have reached me and they’re getting the title of my book wrong. The perils of being An Author in the modern age ✨

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 10mo ago

It’s sunny today ⛅️ youtu.be/F_09jWiVbYg

Sparks - It’s Sunny Today (Lyric Video)

YouTube video by SparksVEVO

youtu.be

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Ominous portents this evening

A torn paperback copy of a book titled 20/20 Thinking on the sidewalk under a power pole that’s been seeping creosote so it looks like black ooze is snaking out from underneath the book

Two red hatchback cars parallel parked on a street; they aren’t the same model but very close, like siblings but not quite twins & there’s something striking about their likeness and proximity and how bright their red is—the shade of red is the same

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Kitchen disco, 8 a.m.

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 11mo ago

@davidnaimon.bsky.social we’re in here somewhere

S P A R K S@sparksofficial.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Thank you, Portland!!

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 11mo ago

my 1st book, Sister Golden Calf, was released 2 years ago today by @splitlippress.com. I don't think anyone can predict how a book launch will go, but I got real lucky with the Split/Lip team & the events I got to do in Portland w/ David Naimon, Alissa Hattman, Thea Prieto, & Bishop & Wilde Books

the cover of Sister Golden Calf: a peach-colored rectangle hovers in front of a landscape of red rock formations and blue sky. On the peach rectangle are the title of the book and my name, in front of a pile of 7 cow legs; 1 cow leg hovers mid-air. Designed by David Wojciechowski.

David Naimon and I in front of the audience at Powell's City of Books

Me reading in front of a wall of books at The Stacks Coffeehouse

Promo graphic for my reading at Bishop & Wilde on 10/4/2023. Five people showed up for this reading, but now I'm actually friends with all of them, and the oddly intimate reading situation should not be dismissed!