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T. Benjamin White

@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social

Writer based in Portland, OR. Part of the Texas diaspora. Author of LAND OF DROUGHT AND FLOOD, out August 2026 with Falling Marbles Press. Literary Criticism at compostedbooksreview.substack.com

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Tuhin Chakrabarty@tuhinchakr.bsky.social · last wk.

👨‍⚖️ TL;DR: AI doesn't need to write high-quality books for non-AI book writers to get hurt. Cheap books at massive volume are enough and they've cut what the average human-written book earns in most genres and pushed human titles down the bestseller ranks. (10/n)

T. Benjamin White@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social · last wk.

This is so sad. His music has always meant a lot to me. I'm glad I finally got to see him perform live last fall. compostedbooksreview.substack.com/p/do-you-kno...

Do you know when you’ve created your life’s work?

And if so, do you carry on?

compostedbooksreview.substack.com

Glen Hansard@glenhansard.bsky.social · last wk.

With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning. We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time. . Photo by Mikolaj Rotowski

T. Benjamin White@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social · 3w ago

There are many reasons Animorphs hasn't had the cultural impact of Harry Potter (despite being much better). Much of the original readership aged out before it concluded, and the full series is hard to access today (having never been reprinted). compostedbooksreview.substack.com/p/animorphs-...

ANIMORPHS: The Greatest Achievement in Juvenile Fiction Turns Thirty

Or, how K.A. Applegate’s Masterpiece Taught Me to Read

compostedbooksreview.substack.com

pudgy puk@pudgypuk.bsky.social · 3w ago

i read animorphs, i preferred them to hp, they were excellent books for the most part, but they struggled to get recognition. arguably part of that was because of what made them excellent; they were downright subversive. hence why i put “save” in scare quotes in my later post, as perception…

T. Benjamin White@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social · 4w ago

I’ve been thinking lately about the non-cynical reasons to teach canonical lit. I wrote a bit about it here. open.substack.com/pub/composte...

What Makes a Book Great?

Reviewing Naomi Kanakia’s WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT THE GREAT BOOKS?

open.substack.com

Jeffrey Austin@jaustinedu.bsky.social · 4w ago

I agree, and (this may be contextual) an equally concerning problem is “we should teach Shakespeare because Doug Lemov told me to in the curriculum that he sold my school that I must use with fidelity.” As you’ve said, we should think about affirmative, non-cynical reasons to teach Shakespeare!

T. Benjamin White@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I started reading Angel Down, and I think I would be more interested in it without the “one long sentence” conceit. More importantly, though, I would be much more interested if it was actually written as one long sentence. Throwing “and” at the beginning of each paragraph doesn’t count!

T. Benjamin White@tbenjaminwhite.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Someone should write a romance novel about a girl who is popular on Bluesky (but secretly subscribes to a lot of Substacks) and a guy who runs a popular Substack (but has an alt Bluesky account where he constantly doom scrolls). Modern day Capulets and Montagues. You could sell this.