so grateful for these kind words and that this piece found a home with Afterimages. Now go hug someone

Thirty West Publishing@thirtywestph.com · 6d ago

This one may make you want to hug someone. A place where medicine and life saving may sting you a bit more than the pain scale shows. “Syncopation” by Lori Barrett closes out our July Afterimages catalog. Read now and read with urgency. 🫂 open.substack.com/pub/thirtywe...

Remember how nice and fast Southwest boarding used to be when they didn't have assigned seating and didn't charge extra to check a bag? It's not like that any more.

“I needed an immigration lawyer—but for plants.” Sharp and moving story by @pegahouji.bsky.social

🚨There’s still time to haunt us, but our call for ghost stories closes tomorrow night at midnight pst! 👻⏰

Flash Frog@flashfrog.bsky.social · last mo.

Haunt us! flash-frog.com/submit/

Feeling extra lucky today to have a micro essay up at @thirtywestph.com’s Afterimages about a headache and a heartache substack.com/@loribarrett...

Lori Barrett (@loribarrett1)

Excited to have this micro up at Afterimages. Thanks to Josh Dale and the Thirty West team 💓 I wish I could send this to my former hospital roommate

substack.com

I read this amd liked it so much I went looking for more. This one might be even better www.cleavermagazine.com/my-mother-is...

Marijean Oldham: My Mother is the Last Cigarette in the Pack

Marijean Oldham is a public relations consultant/writer. She set a Guinness Book World Record for creating the largest bouquet of flowers.

cleavermagazine.com

T.L. Tomljanovic@tomljanovic.bsky.social · last wk.

Just read "Sugar Tits" by @marijean.bsky.social in @neitherfishnorfoul.com and so should you. www.neitherfishnorfoul.com/issue-7-oldh...

I keep this one in a stack near my bed and return to it often. I love these flash stories about marriage and family and the sacrifices we choose to make or refuse to make. #blurbchallenge #smokelongsummer

Broke out Shit Cassandra Saw before going to see The Odyssey. The frustration she experiences in Ancient Greece is shared by many of the women in these funny and fierce stories. #blurbchallenge #smokelongsummer

Eating at Taco Bell right now and this is proof it's fine. No bacteria is surviving. This lunch could remove carbon build up in an engine

I’m not sure how I found this story but I’d read a novel about Ellen and her confused thoughts about religion and men

Stephanie Early Green@eteffi.bsky.social · 12mo ago

St. Ellen www.gulfcoastmag.org/stories/stel.... // I have a piece out today in Gulf Coast!

I don’t often laugh out loud when I read but as someone who lives in Chicago

Quinn Slobodian@quinnslobodian.com · 3mo ago

“What Mamdani just did to me, and more broadly is doing to the city of New York, is triggering of the trauma I went through in Chicago." - Ken Griffin, worth $50.3 billion, triggered

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NQ...

Muppet Sing Along | Movin' Right Along | The Muppets

YouTube video by The Muppets

m.youtube.com

Spencer Fleury@spencerfleury.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Best adaptation of The Odyssey, wrong answers only.

Yellow Warbler: “Let’s-let’s-let’s-watch Jeopardy!” King Rail: “Hot flash! Hot-hot flash!” Tufted Titmouse: “Costco-Costco-Costco!” buff.ly/pqRZvBK

Common Bird Calls, as Identified by My Mother

May 9 2021 5/12/23 5/11/24 5/10/26

buff.ly

Elizabeth Zaleski (@greatfartsoflit.bsky.social) is making up for the countless hours of time lost on the serious side of academia by giving us this gem, courtesy of @literaryhub.bsky.social. Great quotes abound, but go read it for yourself. (Check out her book also! tinyurl.com/55mkncjc)

Seven of the Greatest Farts in Western Literature

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I spent the bulk of my twenties in various English programs writing papers with titles like “Metonymy and Violent Signifiers in Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend” a…

lithub.com

Highly recommend following. So many posts are like oil paintings or dark Impressionism

Lake Michigan! Live!@lake-michigan.live · 3mo ago

Current* conditions near Ephraim, WI:

A new story up at Be About It. @alexandranaughton.bsky.social couldn’t have chosen a better photo to accompany it. This also started in the @smokelong.bsky.social summer workshop beaboutitpress.substack.com/p/today-in-h...

Today in History

new fiction by Lori Barrett

beaboutitpress.substack.com

reading short stories this morning & admiring lines I wish I’d written counts as writing

Happy Earth Day.

Exactly one year ago today:

News Eye@newseye.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW: Growing fears of food shortages on USS Tripoli & other US ships in the Middle East. This photo is the kind of meals now being served. It was sent by a sailor to her family. Families are now trying to send food parcels to the ships. Full story 👉 www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

BREAKING: The ProPublica union is on strike today. The unionized staff at the non-profit outlet has walked out after two years of stalled negotiations. The workers core demands are AI protections, just cause employment provisions, layoff safeguards, and pay increases.

This is on a micro level what’s happening around the US with citizens being ignored when they vote against AI data centers or when they protest billion dollar war budgets. Money makes hearing difficult

Block Club Chicago@blockclubchi.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Francis Parker School's expansion plan draws backlash from Lincoln Park neighbors. blockclubchi.co/4sSNTWC

What You Can Do!: If Firestorm surviving and thriving is important to you, we welcome your support. Here are a few ways to pitch in. 🌈 Buy your next book from us, or tell someone who buys books about us! Not a physical media person? We also sell audiobooks through Libro.fm. 7/9

Cooperation, Connection, Collective Liberation

Firestorm is a radical bookstore co-operative & community event space in Asheville, NC. Browse staff picks, bestsellers, and more!

firestorm.coop

I dtarted this story during the fever dream days of COVID when I spent afternoons walking and staring at plants in my neighborhood. I’m so happy to be part of the DIHP community now.

Does It Have Pockets@doesithavepockets.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"Now her feet were heavy with responsibility and fatigue. Ben, on the other hand, had unearthed two nights a week for tennis." A fresh, witty, relatable, brilliant #fiction re-imagining from @lorimbarrett.bsky.social | www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/lori... Art @anchalastudio.bsky.social

On March 15, at 12 pm ET, Lit Match Collective is partnering with former OKD reader Tolani Akinola for a tell-all about the process of writing and selling a debut novel. Here’s your chance to hear what authors rarely say in public about each phase of the process! LMC members may register on Discord.

I‘m so happy to have a story in the March issue of Does It Have Pockets, a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Camille is a kind and responsive editor. Send them your work.

Pat Foran@pdforan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“‘I knew I smelled something mom-ish,’ one of them said, rolling his eyes.” @lorimbarrett.bsky.social in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/lori...

"No peaceful demonstrator should ever be killed for standing up to their government. Unless, of course, they’re a suburban mom in an SUV that’s driving away from law enforcement."

We Support Protesting Against Any Authoritarian Government Except Our Own

“President Trump called on Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against their government and warned that those responsible for killing demonstrat...

buff.ly

Chicago just named a snowplow "Abolish ICE" — here are the other winners: blockclubchi.co/4b6zwaQ

Submissions to Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine are free and open all year long. Send us your best today! #poetry #fiction #nonfiction #art #drama #bookreviews #litmag #indiepress #WritingCommunity #poetrycommunity #artcommunity www.doorisajarmagazine.net/submissions

Submissions

Door is a Jar is a print and digital literary magazine of poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, drama, art and book reviews. Our publication focuses on writing that is accessible for all readers.

doorisajarmagazine.net

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

I have a new story in Little Engines, born in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer. Another story where spreadsheets loom large. Grateful to Avery Gregurich and Adam Voith for taking this in. www.littleengines.pub/p/best-pract...

BEST PRACTICES by Lori Barrett

"Since then there’s been a blemish growing in my chest, like one of the knots or bolt holes he admires in barn wood."

littleengines.pub