#durham peeps! Story Connection is coming your way! Find your voice, make new friends, feel better about the world in a live storytelling class. Sign up now--class starts Sept 2!! www.writingisjoy.com/story

"For the better part of a year, Monet got up at 3:30 am and painted haystacks." A writer walks through the Art Institute of Chicago and this is only one of the insights we get. I'm bookmarking this Substack for return visits. from @juliafgreen.bsky.social writingisjoy.substack.com/p/my-kind-of...

I was thrilled to be invited to talk craft with some of my favorite writers about one of my favorite short stories: "Housewifely Arts," by Megan Mahew Bergman. Thanks so much for this wonderful chat, @juliafgreen.bsky.social and @ralphwalker.bsky.social! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Season 3, Episode 7: Housewifely Arts

Podcast Episode · Writing in the Dark · 08/15/2025 · 46m

podcasts.apple.com

Good news: every clumsy embarrassing fumble forward counts towards writing

Can't wait to watch the new season of The Bear, which is why I yakked about the pilot episode on the podcast with @ralphwalker.bsky.social

Writing is Joy@writingisjoy.bsky.social · last yr.

HEARD! The new episode of Writing in the Dark is all about The Bear and what prose writers can learn from it. Had a lot of fun deep dishing with @ralphwalker.bsky.social on character, conflict, and Chicago. Thanks, as always, for listening-- open.substack.com/pub/writingi...

Summer in the city means cleavage cleavage cleavage (cannot be the only person whose skull this lyric has been knocking around in the last few days)

HEARD! The new episode of Writing in the Dark is all about The Bear and what prose writers can learn from it. Had a lot of fun deep dishing with @ralphwalker.bsky.social on character, conflict, and Chicago. Thanks, as always, for listening-- open.substack.com/pub/writingi...

Season 3, Episode 5: The Bear

Spicy characters rage and sweat in this fast-paced TV show set in a Chicago restaurant

open.substack.com

School's pretty much out for the summer, which makes writing hard! Some thoughts on how to keep going amid the chaos: open.substack.com/pub/writingi...

Chaos is coming

How to keep writing when summer demolishes routine

open.substack.com

So happy to see these gorgeous displays of queer joy in the city that raised me. Happy pride y'all !!!! apnews.com/photo-galler...

AP PHOTOS: World Pride gathers LGBTQ+ advocates in Washington for 50th anniversary

WASHINGTON (AP) — World Pride gathers LGBTQ+ advocates from around the globe. This year, which marks the 50th anniversary of Washington’s Pride festival, is the first time the city is hosting the gath...

apnews.com

I hope everybody CRUSHES #1000wordsofsummer and also I wrote about why I won't do it again. Keep writing friends 💜 writingisjoy.substack.com/p/against-wo...

Against Word Count

Why I'll never do the #1000wordsofsummer challenge again.

writingisjoy.substack.com

Looking for some writing accountability in June? Highly recommend Allison Kirkland's June Writing Circle - weekly meetings in the evening on Zoom. Keep writing even as the summer blows up life! open.substack.com/pub/allisonk...

Registration Closes Today

For the June Writing Circle

open.substack.com

I'm so excited to share the newest episode of WRITING IN THE DARK with you. It was a joy to chat with @ejwenstrom.bsky.social and @juliafgreen.bsky.social about the Charles Yu story OPEN. Come check it out. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Writing in the Dark

Fiction Podcast · Updated Monthly · Julia F. Green and Ralph Walker explore getting lost in the writing process, finding their way through rich storytelling, and the importance of creative community. ...

podcasts.apple.com

A student called me Master Splinter today which gave me way more joy than I was expecting on a Monday in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty-five

To all the moms, "moms" & people who give care and nurturing to other humans: we see you and we celebrate you. And since you can't get paid parental leave or subsidized childcare or a shred of fucking respect as a parent in this country, I hope you at least got a nap and 20 minutes of alone time.

I feel sad about this apnews.com/article/sing...

Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter known for 'I Kissed a Girl,' has died in a fire

Jill Sobule, the award-winning singer-songwriter whose witty and poignant writing first attracted widespread attention with the gay-themed song “I Kissed a Girl,” has died in a house fire.

apnews.com

Some One Sentence Book Reviews Would be curious to hear your thoughts on any of these! writingisjoy.substack.com/p/one-senten...

One Sentence Book Reviews

And a couple titles I didn't get through

writingisjoy.substack.com

There is so much in America I don’t want to see. And I don’t mean the suffering. I mean the entertainment, the consumerism, the success, the celebritism, the sickness disguised as having it all.

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

Screaming Screaming Screaming AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel that if you are a working mother, you should not have to submit a ton of shit to apply for a residency, you should just have to check a box that says: please, I have a child, please let me write

What's in your revision toolbox? Ours has a machete writingisjoy.substack.com/p/mean-girls...

Mean girls meet the revision machete

My go-to scene revision strategy

writingisjoy.substack.com

The way I SCREAMED A SCREAM upon reading scanned lines of prose. This made my poet-heart so happy, and is also proof that time heals all wounds (thousands of lines of AP Latin scansion homework.) I read this short story then listened to the podcast and then read the story out loud to myself again.

Writing is Joy@writingisjoy.bsky.social · last yr.

New podcast episode is out! If you've always wanted to better understand how rhythm, melody, and sound can play a pivotal role in making your writing sing, give this one a listen! writingisjoy.substack.com/p/season-3-e...

best advice i have for starting your day right is to sign up for newsletters/journals that send poems to your inbox

Approx one hundred times a day I wonder what the world would look like if EVERYBODY KEPT A JOURNAL

Loving the birds rn. You wanna hear an angry bird? Stand near a tree in NC in April. These birds got something to SAY

Everyone is dealing with something. EVERYONE. Be kinder. 💕

Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.

got asked again during a Q&A what led to me becoming a poet, and this time i decided to answer completely honestly: "being a weird person"

It's Wednesday. Put on pants (or don't) and shine your light into this dark, dark world. We need you 💜

If you need me I'll be on my bike (her name is Shirley) yelling at undergraduates recklessly riding scooters in all/no directions as if they had a hundred wild and precious lives