*scuttles back into cave and rolls the boulder in front of the entrance*
DongWon Song
@dongwon.bsky.social
literary agent. newsletter: http://publishingishard.com they/she
one irritating consequence of the plagiarism machine becoming so prevalent is that emails are getting longer
SHELVED BY GENRE awakens far below the Misty Mountains, and with riddles and talking eagles and exploding pine cones, the hosts continue their discussion of THE HOBBIT! Also, we learn so much about what Tolkien thought of airplanes. rangedtouch.com/2026/01/16/t...
Today's Love Letter is a stunning meditation on birdwatching and the loss of a friendship, from the one and only @amalelmohtar.com stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...
Why I Need the Birds
A Love Letters Feature by Amal El-Mohtar - November 2025
stone-soup.ghost.io
I had some thoughts on gift economies and what it means for publishing. www.publishingishard.com/a-publ/
An Industry of Gifts
I had reason to take a long drive recently, down the length of California from the Bay back to my home in Los Angeles. I made the mistake of taking the 5, saving me some time but the route took me thr...
publishingishard.com
Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk Mike Davis's City of Quartz Each of these, in some essential way, taught me how to be a person.
Preeti Chhibber@runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 9mo agoperformative reading, lack of reading skills, nobody's reading anymore -- NO! tell me about a book that changed you for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
thoughts on grace and finding it in risking your life www.publishingishard.com/grace-will-f...
Grace Will Find You
I saw an old friend for brunch recently. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside feeling the cool crisp air and shared a Japanese-style pancake with the approximate diameter of a basketball, custard...
publishingishard.com
new Publishing is Hard on the singular joys of jumping in an alpine lake. spoiler: it sucks. www.publishingishard.com/go-find-a-la...
Go Find a Lake
Recently, I climbed into an alpine lake. The rocks were slippery and unstable, the water near freezing. In the time it took to gasp, the cold was in my bones. I waded deeper until I found sandy bottom...
publishingishard.com
Exciting news! Tickets are on sale NOW for our Writing Retreat on a Cruise Ship! Join @maryrobinettekowal.com @howardtayler.bsky.social @dongwon.bsky.social @nirele.bsky.social & @sandratayler.bsky.social in 2026 in a voyage to Alaska www.tickettailor.com/events/writi...
This week's episode of @writingexcuses.bsky.social is focused on my own personal creative practices. I talk about how being bored is one of the best ways to keep moving forward towards your goals. This was a fun conversation and you can check it out below: redcircle.com/shows/848724...
20.41: DongWon Song’s Personal Writing Process
Listen to Writing Excuses on RedCircle
redcircle.com
woah woah woah, two weeks in a row with newsletters? is this habit forming? www.publishingishard.com/surgery-with...
Surgery with a Shotgun: Why Genres Matter
Categories are made up. They will always be nothing more than an approximation of the thing itself. Nothing as simple as a label can encompass the experience, the reality, and the nuance of any indivi...
publishingishard.com
"Part of how these terms persist is as a site of fracture. Not only are we trying to encompass an unencompassable thing, but we can't even agree on what it is we're trying to approximate when we say 'science fiction'" Must-read @dongwon.bsky.social essay: www.publishingishard.com/surgery-with...
Surgery with a Shotgun: Why Genres Matter
Categories are made up. They will always be nothing more than an approximation of the thing itself. Nothing as simple as a label can encompass the experience, the reality, and the nuance of any indivi...
publishingishard.com
being open to subs after the advent of generative ai sure is... different.
Hello! I'm open to unsolicited submissions for the first time in ages... Looking for: Adult Epic Fantasy and Horror only Guidelines are here: www.dongwonsong.com/submission-g...
Submission Guidelines — DongWon Song
dongwonsong.com
Gotta say, these protests and the city of LA fighting to take care of their neighbors is the most hopeful I've felt in a bit.
You can see America as a nation built on a monstrous agenda of genocide, enslavement, apartheid. Or you can see America as a nation of people who - massacred, enslaved, disenfranchised - absolutely refused again and again to accept that agenda. I am so proud of that second nation.
We are excited to announce that @dongwon.bsky.social will be joining @maryrobinettekowal.com and @sandratayler.bsky.social in Minnesota from June 15th-21st for our 2nd (re)Generate Retreat!
Anyway, the truth is it’s not hard to stand up to genocide apologists. Just say “This is awful; I cannot fathom how any person could justify this.“ And then when they try to justify it you say, “No, I don’t think you understand: This is unfathomably cruel.” That’s it! You did it!
i gotta be honest... i've played all 3 mass effect games multiple times and i have no idea what n7 means or why it matters. it really never comes up in the games? i was always confused why it was on all the branding/shepard's uniforms.
it doesn't fly so no, mister detective bladerunner would not have driven it.
oh this is thrilling news for so many reasons: www.npr.org/2023/11/01/1... well. for certain definitions of thrilling I suppose.
npr.org
reminder to everyone to turn off your phones, don't take photos of people's faces, and please god use signal or something similar to coordinate if you're going to protests.
PSA: if you take or edit photos of crowds or strangers with Signal, you can use our face blur tool to quickly hide people's biometric face data. You can then export the photo from Signal if you want to post it publicly. More on this feature here: https://signal.org/blog/blur-tools/
Blur tools for Signal
Right now, people around the world are marching and protesting against racism and police brutality, outraged by the most recent police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At Signal, we support the people who have gone into the streets to make their voices heard. We believe that something ...
signal.org
leaving october with a very different life than the one i entered with
Jews calling for a cease fire have taken over Grand Central ✊ Tell me again how they’re marginal. Absolute nonsense.
