It's the point in a novel draft when I wonder how many times I can use the word "thrum." (Please don't tell me. This is a decision every novelist must make on their own.)
Here are the winners of American Short Fiction’s 2026 Insider Prize, as selected by Elizabeth McCracken. buff.ly/HFlL7E4
Read the Winners of American Short Fiction’s 2026 Insider Prize
Writing is a challenge, at every level. There are constant pressures acting upon a writer: juggling between responsibilities and work; prioritizing health; making and somehow slowing down time; eve…
lithub.com
There’s such an easy answer to this “gotcha” question and it’s “Sports are inherently unsafe and unfair and it’s ridiculous to single out trans athletes when we allow 150 pound linebackers to go up against 260 pound linemen in freshman football on a daily basis. Let kids play with their friends.”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 24h agoTalarico: "I oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it endangers safety or fairness"
I just posted something on my very sleepy substack. It includes this picture of the worst artistic failure of my life.
I enjoyed the new Anthony Bourdain biopic but was distracted by a prominent and anachronistic velcro wallet appearing in 1975. (The tattoos on the bad guy's bicep are also not of their time.)
RIP, Gloria Steinem. Her early job working for Mad’s Harvey Kurtzman at Help magazine is a fascinating career highlight. When she left, her replacement was Terry Gilliam! https://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/04/harvey-kurtzmans-influence.html
Harvey Kurtzman's Influence
This is a subject that deserves a bit more depth and perhaps I'll get around to that some day. Perhaps I'm overstating my point, also. I don...
booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com
One of the best three-person dance numbers of all time. Rest in peace, Tim Curry. Shine on Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T_R...
Annie (1982) | Easy Street | Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters
YouTube video by The Film Scene
youtube.com
I really cannot think of a greater honor than to have the Muppets say this about you upon your passing
I want to add that Dolly wrote this song less than a decade after eugenicist Harry M. Caudill's Night Comes to the Cumberlands was published, pathologizing Appalachia during the country's "War on poverty." That "Despite your contempt, the things I love are worth loving" part runs DEEP.
Bowiesongs (C. O'Leary)@bowiesongs.bsky.social · 2w agoa favorite bit of writing on Dolly: David Cantwell on "Coat of Many Colors" "I am poor, but I will be more than that. I *am* more than that. Despite your contempt, the things I love are worth loving."
My mother, whose name was Natalie, loved it when other people were also named Natalie. She bought presents for baby Natalies she didn't know. I genuinely wonder how she'd feel about this particular state of the name.
Of all the things I don't miss about academia: calling an extra-long meeting a "retreat."
StoryQuarterly opens for subs this weekend, subs stay open all semester. Note the fee-free window in mid-Sept. Full details storyquarterly.submittable.com/submit
StoryQuarterly Submission Manager
When to Submit:Our submission dates for Issue 59 (publication in 2027) are: Fiction general submissions: Saturday, August 22, 2026 – Sunday, November 22, 2026No-fee submissions: Saturday, September 5,...
storyquarterly.submittable.com
storyquarterly.bsky.social@storyquarterly.bsky.social · 3w agoIn planning for SQ 59, we’re trying something new: a two-week no-fee period. Here are our submission windows for this year: Fiction submissions: 8/22/26-11/22/26 No-fee submissions: 9/5/26-9/20/26 Nonfiction submissions: 8/22/26-1/31/27 2027 fiction contest: 11/26/26-3/1/27
This does not bode well for the humanities at my former employer: www.statesman.com/news/educati...
UT quietly opens Center for Humanities but won't say how it was created
UT is adding 14 professors through a new humanities center, though the university has not explained how the initiative was formed.
statesman.com
Extended cut of Demi’s improvised dialogue as an old-timey animation director, from our short WINKY’S SPEAKEASY - streaming on @dropout.tv / @toonoutanimation.dropout.tv 📽️🎬 #animation #rubberhosestyle
Yesterday the ball-&-chain and I went into St. Paul's, Covent Garden, also known at the Actors' Church, and I thought of how much @bcdreyer.social would like it.
Hello! Would you like to take a craft seminar with me this Saturday, and get a copy of my book? Here's where you can: writersleague.org/calendar/sat...
WLT Saturday Craft Seminar: “A Long Game” with Elizabeth McCracken
A few times a year, the WLT hosts Saturday Craft Seminars featuring a presentation and conversation with an author who has recently released a book on the craft of writing. Everyone who buys a tick…
writersleague.org
This is a factual sentence: Amid an outbreak of explosive diarrhea and with measles cases at a 35-year high, America’s top health official, who has an affinity for roadkill and guzzling raw milk, will soon start hosting a cooking show. My column, tragically: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Move over, cyclosporiasis. RFK Jr. is hosting a cooking show. | Opinion
America's top health official, who has an affinity for picking up roadkill and guzzling raw milk, will soon start hosting a cooking show. Barf.
usatoday.com
to lose one representative may be misfortune, to lose two seems like carelessness, to lose three what the fuck are you doing
Soulebreaker@soulebreaker.bsky.social · last mo.Been almost two months now newrepublic.com/post/212682/...
No spoilers, but if you're a woman, trans, or nonbinary comics creator, please reply to this skeet with a link to your online portfolio *with a listed email address*, thanks!
‘It has reached the stage where an effective modern curse might be “May you appear in a Rachel Cusk book”.’ I wrote about writers who put real people in their novels - and get in trouble.
That’s me in your novel! The perils of writers who borrow from real life
Author Rachel Cusk has caused a fuss for her portrayal of an actress uncannily similar to her friend Natalie Portman. She’s part of a long and inglorious literary tradition
thetimes.com
Well, it turns out the Christopher Nolan Odyssey was mostly not for me. Still, it's a hell of a yarn.
We just watch Roger Corman's absolutely bananas The Raven. I recommend it highly. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, & a very baby Jack Nicholson.
I have only just discovered that Hume Cronyn, after Jessica Tandy's death, married Susan Cooper! I like a man with interesting wives.
Here in Bath, my local cinema is hosting a dog-friendly screening of The Odyssey.
I actually think the trillionaire saying his AI tool will remake a movie without the Black and trans actors in it should be a bigger story because it’s a perfect example of why the ruling class wants AI to succeed: so they can remake reality without those they deem undesirable - every nazi’s dream.
If you're wondering how I'm acclimatizing to the UK, last night I yelled THAT LOOKS LIKE A WAITROSE BAG at the winning outfit on the Great British Sewing Bee.