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Dina Strasser

@dinaeliz.bsky.social

Writer, teacher, semi-Luddite. I follow authors, educators, and lit mags.

318 Posts735 Follower 1026 Folgt

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 1h ago

Thank you, Joel.

Joel Pinckney@jpinckney.bsky.social · 3h ago

I wrote something about a man I'll never know and the car he left behind, bearing witness the only way I know how. Grateful to @lukeoneil47.bsky.social for making space for this one.

Literary Namjooning | Submissions Open!@lit-namjooning.bsky.social · 16h ago

Good news, everyone! (yes, it's a Futurama reference). We're celebrating our Issue 3 authors with a LAUNCH PARTY!! Do come, hear them read their work, chat with Lit Nam Eds, and have a generally good literary time! Friday, Oct 2, 9:00 PM EST. Registration link : us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 3h ago

REMINDER, as per my middle school students last week: Shirley Jackson is not Michael Jackson's sister

Bizarro∙Ren@blockmind.bsky.social · 24h ago

Shirley Jackson always knows how to start a book

Excerpt from the opening paragraph of “we have always lived in the castle”:

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death- cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”

Cheryl Pappas @cherylpappas.bsky.social · yesterday

I wrote this short essay almost 10 years ago about what Annie Dillard can teach us, looking at her essay "Seeing." I also quote extensively from her essay in my flash fiction class. Her words give us so much, and I'm so grateful. www.essaydaily.org/2017/03/cher...

Cheryl Pappas: Learning To See Again, with Annie Dillard

If you are like me and you check your smartphone about 80 times a day, then you, too, might need a gentle reminder that there is an unseen u...

essaydaily.org

Sam Rasnake @samrasnake.bsky.social · yesterday

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” Toni Morrison, from Beloved

Donna Vorreyer @djvorreyer.bsky.social · 23h ago

I have a new prose poem "I Blame the Planets" in the beautiful new DMQ Review. The issue also features an in memoriam featured of @jpdancingbear.bsky.social's work, along with poems from @renee-emerson.bsky.social, @sarahmillswrites.bsky.social & other great writers. www.dmqreview.com/vorreyerf26

I Blame the Planets,

though I don’t understand them, even poor relegated Pluto, who has vanished from the old mnemonic memory song so that now My Very Educated Mother Just Serves Us Noodles instead of Nine Pizzas. No matter. Astrologers say that those bulbous spheres are at fault for all my troubles. Who am I to argue when my car’s battery dies beneath a flock of shitting pigeons on a cold day and the windows fog from the steam of my breath while I wait for a tow truck? I curse those damn globules of gas and rock until I remember how lovely Earth looks from space, its oceans and cloud garments, its swirling. I can’t stay mad for long, at least at Earth. Or Mercury. I wish it would clap back, rain asteroids on our heads every time someone says retrograde to explain their misfortunes. It’s not Mercury’s fault, hung on the sky like an ornament, gazing out at its backyard of stars. I understand what it’s like—to take the blame, to have no voice.

Kathy Hoyle @kathyhoyle.bsky.social · 23h ago

BlessedMabon. 🍁🍂🩷

phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 23h ago

A poem for the equinox by Elizabeth Bishop as it first appeared in The New Yorker 70 years ago this month. This one hits a little different if you've spent time in Bishop's childhood home.

SESTINA

September rain falls on the house. In the failing light, the old grandmother sits in the kitchen with the child beside the Little Marvel Stove, reading the jokes from the almanac, laughing and talking to hide her tears.
She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house were both foretold by the almanac, but only known to a grandmother. The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,
It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears dance like mad on the hot black stove, the way the rain must dance on the house. Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the heartless almanac
on its string. Like a bird, the almanac hovers half open above the child, hovers above the old grandmother and her teacup full of dark brown tears. She shivers and says she thinks the house feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove. It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. I know what I know, says the almanac. With crayons the child draws a rigid house and a winding pathway. Then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears and shows it proudly to the grandmother.
But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in front of the house.
Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvellous stove and the child draws another inscrutable house.

-ELIZABETH BISHOP

Jennifer Wortman @wrefinnej.bsky.social · yesterday

I have a new book coming into the world! Many thanks to Thirty West and Josh. I’m thrilled to be in the company of so many great writers.

Thirty West Publishing@thirtywestph.com · 3d ago

Acquisition alert! Jennifer Wortman will be joining Thirty West next fall. A PERSON'S ESSENCE FEELS THE SMALLEST is her 2nd story collection. Welcome! @wrefinnej.bsky.social We are excited to have a year of mostly short stories: the musculature of TW.

Tupelo Press @tupelopress.bsky.social · yesterday

Absolutely incredible work by John James in Extinction Song 🌟 tupelopress.org/bookstore/p/...

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 5h ago

If McSweeney's says it's time, it is time. I am now allowed to drink pumpkin spice lattes.

McSweeney's@mcsweeneys.net · yesterday

IT IS TIME. buff.ly/pykYN6f

Identity Theory @identitytheory.bsky.social · 17h ago

Just published 10 new micros for the equinox!

Micro - Identity Theory

Prose up to 500 words. Poetry up to 9 lines.

identitytheory.com

Trash Cat Lit @trashcatlit.bsky.social · yesterday

Day two of teases for our upcoming prose poem issue 🦝 Gill O'Halloran @quickasaflash.bsky.social gives us a blistering, darkly funny look at ageing 💜 Lavanya Arora gives us joystick-jabbing nostalgia in one piece, and post-relationship surreal networking in his second 💜 COMING 28th

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 6h ago

Thank you, Shome!

shome dasgupta@shomedasgupta.bsky.social · 5d ago

Say—here are about 78 literary journals opening for submissions in October. Some are open now or will close soon in September or October. Genres, themes, & guidelines vary—dates are tentative. These should be no-fee. There are more resources out there, too. Wish y’all well, friends.

Paris Review
Electric Literature
Quarterly West
Writers Space Africa
Reading Into Culture
Hoot Review
Petrichor
Encyclopedia Prismatica
128 Lit
Diamond Gazette
Brick
WayWords
The Gilded Weathervane
Shadowplay
Fiction
Amsterdam Review
Poet Lore
Room
Oakwood
Southern Quill
45th Paralelle
Apotheca Journal
MicroLit
Weird Lit
Gravity Of The Thing
Nimrod
Superpresent
Ink In Thirds
Beloit Poetry
Unbound Ink
New World Writing
Folio
Plume
The Shore
Banshee
Tractor Beam
SmokeLong Quarterly
Rome Review
Patrika Aranyak
Gyroscope Review
Letters
Forge
Two Hawks Quarterly
Seaside Gothic
The Rumpus
Westchester Review
Thieving Magpie
Kitchen Table Quarterly
Salamander
New Feathers Anthology
Shift
Portland Review
Barcelona Review
The Razor
Clockhouse
Tahoma Literary Review
Clackamas Literary
Gooseberry Pie
The Drift
Wigleaf
Craft
Pithead Chapel
Doric Literary
Reed Magazine
Harpur Palate
Trace Fossils Review
Ninth Letter
Black Fox
Redivider
The Meadow
Puerto Del Sol
Lolwe
Split Lip
Beaver Magazine
Lunch Ticket
Saw Palm
Bat City Review
Crab Creek Review

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 6h ago

You can't post-modernize a good metaphor. They're the end of the line.

HAD@havehashad.com · yesterday

knocked out by today's constraint poem from Kayla Rutledge Page "That summer, when pregnant was a club they kept kicking me out of I was a gumball machine of bad babies. Wrong babies, backward babies, backdoor babies..." www.havehashad.com/hadposts/gum...

Cowboy Jamboree @cowboyjamboree.bsky.social · yesterday

Our Fall 2026 issue--kicking off our 12th (!) year--is now live! Dig EAGLE-EYED, 7 original works of verse and fiction incited, inspired and ignited by the artistry and life of legendary independent Texas filmmaker, Eagle Pennell: www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/121-eagle-ey...

Anika Carpenter @stillsquirrel.bsky.social · 2d ago

Happening online TODAY at 11 am UK time ✍️

Anika Carpenter@stillsquirrel.bsky.social · 4d ago

Joy, Play & Community #writingworkshop Join me on Mon or Wed to explore the work of an artist whose projects get people together to celebrate creativity, history and the power of community. Come away with 3 - 4 drafts and a glow in your heart. 🔗 www.tickettailor.com/events/anika...

Typewriter on a striped background. Disembodied hands are typing the paper is dripping with blue paint. Text on the paper reads Art & Flash Ekphrastic Writing Workshops. Other text reads - MONDAY sep 21 11 am - 12 UK TIME or WEDNESDAYS sep 23 8 - 9 pm UK TIME www.anikacarpenter.com

Trash Cat Lit @trashcatlit.bsky.social · 2d ago

We are back after a speculative fiction festival in Derby 🦝 Trash Cat got to hang out with three amazing Trash Family and writing powerhouses, @leighloveday.bsky.social @meanerharker.bsky.social and @sjtownend.bsky.social DO meet your heroes - they'll inspire and invigorate you 💜

Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · 2d ago

Back home from two weeks running a writing retreat with @ruthabrandt.bsky.social in beautiful Yorkshire. Very broken today, but so glad I pushed myself to do it. Brilliant to spend time with @pleomorphic2.bsky.social @nomad-sw18.bsky.social @cake-girl.bsky.social @orli-bee.bsky.social

European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · 2w ago

Dear friends, in November we're going to PARIS! We’re hosting an open mic and 2 writing workshops in a cosy, welcoming cafe and in the city beyond. All welcome. The theme is ‘My Self in Other Cities' and takes place over two days. You can join as much or as little as you like. It includes:

Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 3d ago

Toad opened his present from Frog. It was a beautiful new clock. The two friends sat by the fire. The hands of the clock moved to show the hours of a merry Christmas Eve.

Toad and Frog set in front of a roaring fire in the hearth, admiring the new clock.

From "Christmas Eve"
In *Frog and Toad All Year*

Ani King (they/them)@aniking.bsky.social · 3d ago

FAMILY NIGHT comes out in one month!!! Early feedback from one of my all time favorite writers and people in general, @lumchanmfa.bsky.social: (full text in the alt text, too)

A bright pink slide featuring the Family Night book cover and a quote in white text that reads:

“ “Mercurial and mellifluous, ecstatic and ephemeral, FAMILY NIGHT will carry you in the backseat of a 1976 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, through the labyrinth of the Minotaur, on the wings of a wasp-mother, through town on a porch pontoon as Ani King unravels, unveils, unfolds the lives of the liminal, the tangible and intangible who find themselves in the in between spaces, on the edges, and in the seams.” --Melissa Llanes Brownlee, author of Bitter Over Sweet and Hard Skin”

Electra Rhodes @electrarhodes.bsky.social · 3d ago

Things I did today instead of doomscrolling 1. Caught a LOT of trains, sometimes in the right direction 2. Read a book 3. Did a bunch of laundry 4. Watched the new ep of Slow Horses 5. More competition feedback

Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 3d ago

I’ve got a new poem in the September issue of @splitlipthemag.bsky.social. It’s about the daughter my mother always wanted and the sister I dreamt of having.

IN THE FOREST OF MY OWN TEARS I SUDDENLY REMEMBER WANDA

It's the name my mother would've given her daughter if she ever had one instead of yet another son. Wanda.
I used to dream of climbing trees together & playing wizard of the forest together, though not in the forest of my tears.
This was always in the forest of my laughter. Always, despite how sad I got at times that my mother didn't get to have you.
Back then I climbed trees every day. These days I'm lost in the thickets of my phone. The other week I kept missing calls, turns out I forgot to turn off "do not disturb." Eventually I remembered, but couldn't remember how to actually do it, to say, Yes, I want to be disturbed again-by my phone, & by the world, I guess.
Then I googled it, instead of just asking Jeff (I think you would like Jeff), because I didn't want it to be a whole production again, a customer service situation, except between lovers, & I am the worst

customer & the worst lover when trying to figure out my own phone. True, I'm a bit (Jeff would say a lot) of a Luddite. Well, a Luddite who's a screen fiend, & isn't that the perfect storm, wait, is that the right proverb, is it an idiom, I think you would know, Wanda. & now I'm remembering French class, how I adored learning new idiomatic expressions— lifit's Idiomatic Expressions Time! That's what happened in my head. How often I wished, Wanda, that you were at school with me. Say, only a year above me, but wise & capable of forming really cool sentences in French, & you'd never tease me in any language, or just a little, for what went on in my head. & after school we'd race from the bus to our favorite tree, though already we were a tad old to be playing like that, we'd play, we'd climb, we'd take turns being wizard of the forest, & laugh, we'd laugh so vast. At some point in our tree, you'd tell me which boy you liked, if any. Then I'd chime in with which one, or ones I liked. & though I could guess, & now know, thanks to my best friend Sam (you'd like him too), that having sisters can be very complicated, including or especially big sisters,

back then I believed, needed to think that I could tell you every big thing. I could tell my sister, & then it was okay for a while that I couldn't tell anyone else in the family, it was alright because I had you. You, Wanda, & maybe that's sort of what she was thinking, believing, too, in her own forest early mornings or late at night, up in her own magical oak, when my mother was dreaming so hard about you.

Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’m celebrating the 25th anniversary of my debut novel Edinburgh this fall with a new Mariner Classics edition (intro by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social) on Oct. 13th at the Center for Fiction with Brandon Taylor, @mirajacob.bsky.social and @rokwon.bsky.social. centerforfiction.org/event/edinbu...

A dark green book jacket with a wooden fox head at the center. Text is in white and reads: "ONE
OF THE
GREAT QUEER NOVELS •
- BRANDON TAYLOR, GQ
0 F
OUR
TIME."
EDINBURGH
25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
ALEXANDER CHEE
BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT

R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 3d ago

writers! If you’re looking for mentorship & you’re of color, Periplus is going into its seventh(!) year of annually pairing 50ish writers who are newer to publishing with more established writers. Periplus is taking applications through 10/11 🌱 faqs below docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Dina Strasser @dinaeliz.bsky.social · 3d ago

this is gorgeous and damn spooky.

John Glenday@johnglenday.bsky.social · 4d ago

Just occasionally, you come across a new poem from a young poet that reassures you all is well with the future of poetry. Dean Browne, from his debut Picador collection ‘After Party’

Stella Sacco @antlervel.vet · 11mo ago

WHEN THERE’S TREASURE BEHIND THE WATERFALL: Oh wow. Yes, very clever! Waterfall treasure! No one’s ever done that before. Lazy jackass WHEN THERE’S NO TREASURE BEHIND THE WATERFALL: Wow. Too stuck-up to put treasure there huh? Too much of a fucking ICONOCLAST for that? Piece of shit. FUCK you

SmokeLong Quarterly @smokelong.bsky.social · 3d ago

We like to have all new members in the workshop a week before the writing starts. The first Oct writing task goes live on Oct 7th, so we need everyone in by September 29th. Thinking of joining SmokeLong Fitness? We'd love to write with you. #notacult www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi...

SmokeLong Fitness — The Community Workshop - SmokeLong Quarterly

In September 2022 SmokeLong launched a workshop environment/community christened SmokeLong Fitness. This community workshop is happening right now on our dedicated workshop site. If you choose to join...

smokelong.com

Jen Mac @jen-m-a-c.bsky.social · 3d ago

🤔Ever wondered what the dawn chorus might have sounded like a couple thousand years ago? Listen here: bird-times.lovable.app/share/aberde... Dawn Chorus Quest is a free web game to share and enjoy birdsong. #IndieDev #GameDev #BirdSong #ShareAndEnjoy

A 5-voice chorus — Pictish Shore — Dawn Chorus Quest

Press play: 5 birds singing together. Pictish Shore, Aberdeen, Scotland.

bird-times.lovable.app