this week's post is about the torment nexus, AI dystopia, and self-driving cars that will take you to jail margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/when-they-...
Marguerite Sheffer
@mlensheffer.bsky.social
Author of THE MAN IN THE BANANA TREES (Nov 2024, Iowa Short Fiction Award from U of Iowa Press) writer and teacher in New Orleans stories in Asimov's, Lit Hub, The Dread Machine, The Pinch and others
Come write with us tomorrow at Sports Drink from 11 AM to 1 PM!
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · last mo.Hey folks! Here goes our July event calendar!
Parents are fed up with friends and relatives giving their kids “personalized” AI-generated storybooks with characters resembling their kids. Apart from data privacy concerns, literacy experts say these garbled and convoluted narratives could be an impediment to learning how to read.
Boomers Can’t Stop Gifting Their Grandkids AI-Generated Slop Books
Parents are getting fed up with garbled bedtime stories that feature characters based on actual photos of their children.
wired.com
We Are Losing the Ability to Discover What We Didn’t Know to Ask. “Scientific breakthroughs, artistic leaps, technological innovation — these rarely emerge from efficient retrieval of known information.” [nytimes.com]
Opinion | We Are Losing the Ability to Discover What We Didn’t Know to Ask
What used to be a meandering journey is now an immediate arrival at your destination.
nytimes.com
Hey folks! Here goes our July event calendar!
Cozy in for our next Fiction Sessions reading over at Big Couch! This quarter's theme: Southern Gothic!!
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 2mo agoHello! Here is our calendar for June! Hope to catch you at an event :)
Hello! Here is our calendar for June! Hope to catch you at an event :)
Do I happen to be connected to any writers or readers in Edinburgh or Glasgow? Hit me up!
Do I happen to be connected to any writers or readers in Edinburgh or Glasgow? Hit me up!
IT'S GIVENOLA DAY! When looking for communities to support, please consider sending a donation our way. These funds help us continue all of our FREE literary events such as workshops and Page to Stage. We could not do any of this without you! www.givenola.org/organization...
$483 away! www.givenola.org/organization...
Support Third Lantern Lit on GiveNOLA
We aim to lower the barrier to entry to the writing community by connecting New Orleans writers to others with a shared passion so that we can learn, write, and grow together. With events geared towar...
givenola.org
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 3mo agoBTW we're $800 away from our goal of 3k!
I have a smaller, freelance-life list this year, Third Lantern Lit is among the orgs on it. As are The 18th Ward and SOUL, both facing fed/local funding cuts under the ripple effects of this administration.
Marguerite Sheffer@mlensheffer.bsky.social · 3mo agoGiveNOLA Day is today! Please consider supporting @thirdlanternlit.bsky.social if you have attended our events (or want to!) for writers in New Orleans. These donated funs keep things free, accessible, and help us pay local writers for their generous time. www.givenola.org/organization...
GiveNOLA Day is today! Please consider supporting @thirdlanternlit.bsky.social if you have attended our events (or want to!) for writers in New Orleans. These donated funs keep things free, accessible, and help us pay local writers for their generous time. www.givenola.org/organization...
Support Third Lantern Lit on GiveNOLA
We aim to lower the barrier to entry to the writing community by connecting New Orleans writers to others with a shared passion so that we can learn, write, and grow together. With events geared towar...
givenola.org
@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social is 1/3 of our way to our big 2026 fundraising goal ($3000) to keep all our programming free, and to keep paying New Orleans writers to support New Orleans writers! I love this community. www.givenola.org/organization...
Third Lantern Lit
thirdlanternlit.org
In this workshop, we will discuss examples of famous revisions that improved literature. Attendees will participate in writing exercises, and attendees are invited, but not required, to bring along an excerpt of something they've written! The workshop will be led by @mauricenow.bsky.social !
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 3mo agoOUR MAY CALENDAR IS HERE!
Ada Palmer & Bruce Schneier: AI Learns Language From Skewed Sources. That Could Change How We Humans Speak – and Think. “Our sense of the world may become distorted in ways we have barely begun to comprehend.” [theguardian.com]
AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think | Bruce Schneier
Large language models aren’t trained on real-life conversations. As we encounter their language, it could affect our own
theguardian.com
3 things that happened this week that my state, Louisiana, was involved with: - the temporary blocking of the distribution of a mail order abortion drug - The erosion of the VRA - overturning the election of a democratically elected would-be official We're crushing it no notes
It's time to get some writing done! Come join your fellow writers this Tuesday the 28th to tackle that favorite project of yours ✒️📖 (Excuse the date typo on the graphic!)
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 4mo agoAPRIL EVENT CALENDAR!
“In a new book called “Israel: What Went Wrong?,” [Israeli professor of Holocaust & genocide studies] Omer Bartov argues that Zionism has morphed into an ideology of extremism that led to genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7th.” [newyorker.com]
A Genocide Scholar Asks “What Went Wrong” in Israel
The Israeli historian Omer Bartov argues in his new book that a “state ideology” of Zionism has led to what he calls genocide in Gaza.
newyorker.com
It's time to get those projects written! Join us at 12 Mile Limit this Saturday to tackle your latest project along with plenty of writers ready to cheer you on. We can't wait to see what you're working on!
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 4mo agoAPRIL EVENT CALENDAR!
@colsonwhitehead.com making my day, putting it better than just about anybody so far. Thank god for the writers, the artists, the jokesters, the weirdos like us. Humanity sucks! Let's do the work, it's the only thing worth doing! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o... (this skeet written by the Gooch)
Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This
nytimes.com
NEW: A new pre-print study offers the first causal evidence that outsourcing reasoning tasks to AI can rapidly erode users' independent performance AND their will to persist despite difficulty. "People’s persistence drops... they’re also not willing to try without AI.” futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Use Appears to Have a "Boiling Frog" Effect on Human Cognition, New Study Warns
A new study claims to offer the first causal link between AI dependency and cognitive erosion. Researchers warn of long-term implications.
futurism.com
Helen DeWitt on turning down a $175k Windham-Campbell Prize because she wasn't able to handle the prize's mandatory publicity requirements. Imo a moving, deeply relatable, and darkly funny story about money, obligation, mental health, & executive dysfunction paperpools.blogspot.com/2026/04/we-l...
We lose again: Windham-Campbell Prize manqué
Was going to post this on Substack, but they don't let you indent blocks of text. Today’s insanely long installmen...
paperpools.blogspot.com
For all of our witches and magically inclined folks, local witch Veronica Varlow will be teaching us spells to unlock inspiration, break past blocks, and summon opportunities to us. Come with an open mind and be prepared to call forth your full power 🌙✨
Third Lantern Lit@thirdlanternlit.bsky.social · 4mo agoAPRIL EVENT CALENDAR!
Tomorrow April 8 we open for our next Guest Editor issue... NABOKOV'S SUSPENSION Edited by Jehanne Bell 👅🧵👻🎤✍️ We are looking for flash fiction about the things that fall away, transform, and negotiate new bodies as the words that create either their home or their prison shapeshift around them.
if a position of authority can be misused in this way, that position of authority should not exist. It's clearly not enough to simply change who is in that position, no more than praying that the next king be better than the last.
We are excited to announce the stories for our issue “Ghosts & The After Life” edited by Ai Jiang @aijiang.bsky.social 👻 EC Dorgan “Flehmen Grimace” Samir Sirk Morató “unwell naturalist’s historic fairy collection” @spicycloaca.bsky.social Emmi Khor “The Art of Rebirth” @emmikhor.bsky.social
