I just got a response on an essay that I submitted in July of 2024. I also paid a small submission fee for the honor of waiting over two years to hear that my work ‘is not right for them at this time.’
McKenzie Watson-Fore
@mwatsonfore.bsky.social
(She/her) I write, dance, and watercolor my feelings. Catch me online at mwatsonfore[dot]substack[dot]com. Opinions and hot takes my own.
New work from @meganstielstra.bsky.social in @therumpus.net and holy cow IT IS SO GOOD therumpus.net/2026/07/10/a...
A Potion for Sadness - The Rumpus
A nurse stood at the door—scrubs, clipboard, the whole nine yards. “We’re ready for you,” she said. I followed her down a hall and behind a curtain, where I changed into the robe, laid back in the whe...
therumpus.net
Teo Rivera-Dundas has written a dry, tender, and darkly funny metacritical novel about working in bookstores in NYC, and I reviewed it for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! @univnebpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2026/06/10/r...
Slow Guillotine – Teo Rivera-Dundas
We are drowning, choking, and sputtering on the saline logic of late capitalism: water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
full-stop.net
To be clear, it’s disheartening that not only is the New York Times super into lists now, but some of the lists they’re running aren’t even curated. “Here’s what will be popular” (maybe) is so different from “here’s what’s good.”
This is excellent. And a good starting point for anyone who has maybe heard of Dobson but doesn't quite know what he was about pr why he's so reviled among an entire generation (or two) of exvangelicals.
McKenzie Watson-Fore@mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 3mo agoI wrote about Dobson in the Epstein Files, gender essentialism and r@pe culture. With references to @dlmayfield.bsky.social, @sarahmccammon.bsky.social, @kkdumez.bsky.social, @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social, @manongarcia.bsky.social, @politybooks.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social and more!
I wrote about Dobson in the Epstein Files, gender essentialism and r@pe culture. With references to @dlmayfield.bsky.social, @sarahmccammon.bsky.social, @kkdumez.bsky.social, @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social, @manongarcia.bsky.social, @politybooks.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social and more!
The Revealer@therevealer.bsky.social · 3mo agoOur May issue is here! Articles on James Dobson in the Epstein Files, vaccine hesitancy, evangelical disdain of Europe, movies on the Catholic Church, Palestinians on screen, & British Muslims from @nberlat.bsky.social, @mwatsonfore.bsky.social, @miguelpetrosky.bsky.social, & more! therevealer.org
Happy pub day to @stephaniestalvey.bsky.social and her new graphic memoir, EVERYTHING IN COLOR! I reviewed it for @hippocampusmag.bsky.social and wrote some behind-the-scenes thoughts for this week’s Critic at Play. open.substack.com/pub/mwatsonf...
Wanna talk about complicated mother-daughter dynamics, sexual agency, substance use, and tropes of femininity? Check out this panel on May 8! charisbooksandmore.com/event/2026-0... @lwwesterfield.bsky.social @shelbyhinte.bsky.social @bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social
A Song of Mothers and Daughters: An Author Panel
Charis Books & More is the South's oldest independent feminist bookstore, celebrating radical and queer voices since 1974!
charisbooksandmore.com
So, when is Netflix going to produce the reality tv show where you forge a connection through a wall and then the production team reveals you’ve been talking to an AI? I suggest they call it, LOVE IS BL(AI)ND #ai #loveisblind
Are you a writer eager to learn from other writers? Do you want to deliver your own craft talk at a small-scale residential writing conference in Boulder, Colorado? Now taking applications for the Thunderdome Conference 2026! mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/announcing...
Announcing the Thunderdome Conference 2026!
Come teach and learn with me in Boulder this summer
mwatsonfore.substack.com
Trump: "Maybe we do one more term. Should we? Do one more term! We're entitled to it."
I wrote a reading list of my favorite cathartic bathing scenes for @electricliterature.com ! Check it out ~ electricliterature.com/8-books-feat...
8 Books Featuring Cathartic Bathhouse Scenes - Electric Literature
The communal intimacy of a Korean spa offers a radical departure from the body-fearing purity culture of my youth
electricliterature.com
Electric Literature@electricliterature.com · 6mo ago"When I sit on a cedar bench and let the dry heat of a wood sauna penetrate every pore, the heat blossoms inside my ribcage and expands my sensory range. I become more permeable to the world." Read McKenzie Watson-Fore’s recs for books that feature the spa here:
So thrilled to have my review of Anna Rollins’s fabulous book live at @christiancentury.bsky.social !
Christian Century@christiancentury.bsky.social · 6mo ago“Through girlhood, marriage, and motherhood (the three sections of the memoir), Anna Rollins shows how her fundamentalist church emphasized the inherent dangers of the world and taught her to respond with hypervigilance.” – review by @mwatsonfore.bsky.social @eerdmansbooks.bsky.social
OMG what an honor to have my church camp essay among the top 25 of last year at @christiancentury.bsky.social!! Revisit it here: www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...
Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet?
At youth group and church camp, I learned to perform my own unworthiness. It took years to recognize the spiritual harm this...
christiancentury.org
Christian Century@christiancentury.bsky.social · 6mo agoHere are our 25 most-read essays from 2025. Let us know your favorite! Tags: @christhiessen.bsky.social, @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social, @jasongedwards.bsky.social, @texasbishop9.bsky.social, @mwatsonfore.bsky.social, @markglanvillejazz.bsky.social, @alexdemarco.bsky.social
@mauchmauch.bsky.social wrote this incredible essay about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now (published by @www.sneakerwavemag.org). Check it out — open.substack.com/pub/sneakerw... #fuckice #minneapolis #reneegood #alexpretti #georgefloyd
minneapolis calling
by Matt Mauch
open.substack.com
Cincinnati Romance Review’s new issue features my review of Anne Berest’s gripping “nonfiction novel,” LA CARTE POSTALE (The Postcard)—incredible storytelling and a chilling reminder about the costs of looking away from rising authoritarianism www.cincinnatiromancereview.org/current-issu...
La Carte Postale, by Ann Berest — Cincinnati Romance Review
One Monday morning in January 2003, Lélia receives an anonymous postcard bearing nothing but four names—Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie, Jacques: the names of Lélia’s maternal grandparents, aunt, and uncle,...
cincinnatiromancereview.org
If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power
David Dayen@ddayen.bsky.social · 7mo agoTo quote one source: “They’re terrified of being labeled anti–law enforcement. They want this to go away so they can talk about the cost of living more. Problem is, it’s not going away.” prospect.org/2026/01/21/j...
I wrote about golf and reading as a portal to empathy and quests that never end. Thanks to Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland for the inspiration, and to my dad for letting me borrow his book for three years. mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/on-reading...
On Reading Far Outside My Wheelhouse
Sports, sobriety, and unending quests
mwatsonfore.substack.com
Road tripping from Texas to Colorado (over multiple days, thank goodness), and my partner just put on a Phish song with a duration longer than a standard sitcom episode.
I reviewed Stephanie Schechner’s new translation of Mireille Best’s Hymn to Moray Eels (out now via the Pride List from Seagull Books) for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! A sharp interrogation of gender and heteronormativity, set in a French sanatorium. www.full-stop.net/2025/12/15/r...
Hymn to Moray Eels – Mireille Best
Why love a boy just on the basis of his boy-ness?
full-stop.net
Flu season is here, folks. Get yourself vaccinated, and then get yourself a cat-panion who will keep watch from the crook of your knee-pits.
"In Tait’s case, no part of his public persona allows him to name harmful elements of the theology he was raised with. Theology wielded to inculcate hatred or disgust rather than grace is one of the most destructive forces I know." @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...
Singing the Newsboys with Flamy Grant
The musician and drag queen is an exvangelical who came to see that holding on to a theology of self-loathing was just too...
christiancentury.org
Has anyone written a cultural history of the paint-and-sip?? I would love to read that. #culturalcriticism #arthistory #historyinthemaking
I wrote about the #michaeltait scandal and about the iconic Christian music drag queen, @flamygrant.bandcamp.com — read it now!
Christian Century@christiancentury.bsky.social · 8mo ago“It was just a coincidence that I was singing a Newsboys song with @flamygrant.bandcamp.com the night I would learn about Michael Tait’s misdeeds. But I think there’s something important in the contrast between these two artists.” – @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...
Gabriella D'Italia’s memoir, GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK, is out now from @unsolicitedpress.bsky.app, and I wrote about it for Heavy Feather Review! A dazzling contemplative journey for anyone with a material art practice alongside your writing practice. heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/11/17/d...
Nonfiction Review: McKenzie Watson-Fore Reads Gabriella D’Italia’s Debut Memoir Getting Dressed in the Dark
The crisis that catalyzes Gabriella D’Italia’s debut memoir, Getting Dressed in the Dark: An Artist’s Way Home, is a gruesome separation and divorce, when D’Italia learns that her partner of twenty…
heavyfeatherreview.org
@bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social’s memoir WORLDLY GIRLS offers readers a tender journey through intergenerational trauma, female relationships, and the narrative unmooring that comes after leaving high-control religion. Read my review here! @bookhugpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2025/11/12/r...
Worldly Girls – Tamara Jong
This narrative unmooring, while unconventional, strikes me as a byproduct of Jong’s departure from high-control religion
full-stop.net
Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet! #thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
What up, skidmarks? It's Bad Janet.
My annual Halloween costume essay? Featuring hell
mwatsonfore.substack.com
Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.
Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk. cjr.org/analysis/the...
There's a bigger threat to books than bans.
Access to e-books relies entirely on private distributors that have the power to shut them off at any moment.
cjr.org