Tess Callahan
@tesscallahan.bsky.social
Author of DAWNLAND and APRIL & OLIVER. Words in NY Times Mag, NPR, Electric Lit, Writer's Digest, AGNI, Narrative Mag. TEDx speaker. Bennington MFA. Substack/Podcast: Writers at the Well. https://tesscallahan.com/. https://tesscallahan.substack.com/.
Join @esdeebeewriter.bsky.social and me 6/20 at East End Books #provincetown for a reading and discussion of her new novel Westerly. The event will also be live-streamed through East End books Facebook page. Enjoy! eastendbooksptown.com/event/2026-0... #capecod #fiction #writingcommunity
Susan Bernhard “Westerly” in Conversation with Tess Callahan - Ptown
eastendbooksptown.com
Antonio Romani made a late-in-life move to Tuscany with his wife @marthacooley.bsky.social . His new book is a luminous account of how this timeless land transformed him. #authorinterview #galponpress #writersatthewell tesscallahan.substack.com/p/antonio-ro...
Antonio Romani
Dear friends,
tesscallahan.substack.com
Dr. Andrew Holecek actively goes into total darkness to incubate creativity, to “troll and farm the dimension of the mind where there are no limitations.”#darkretreat #andrewholecek #tibetanbuddhism tesscallahan.substack.com/p/andrew-hol...
Andrew Holecek on Incubating Creativity through Dark Retreat
What happens when you put yourself in total darkness for three days?
tesscallahan.substack.com
Enjoyed this conversation with #andrewholecek about incubating creativity through #darkretreat . #tibetanbuddhism #writingcommunity podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Andrew Holecek on the Power of Darkness to Unleash Creativity
Podcast Episode · Writers at the Well · May 18 · 1h 33m
podcasts.apple.com
Throughout history writers have cut through the obscuring political rhetoric of their time to place a squarely at truth’s door. They draw consciousness down from the press box of the mind into the lived experience of the heart. In moments of societal crisis, we need the writer’s unswerving eye.
Turning Her Real: a Poet Bridges the Distance between a Headline and a Life
A poem by Caprice Garvin for an Iranian schoolgirl.
tesscallahan.substack.com
Grateful to George Saunders for sharing my podcast interview and my essay in @electricliterature.com on his Substack today. Vigil is riveting, funny, and unsettling in all the right ways. A novel for our time. electricliterature.com/in-vigil-rag...
My essay on George Saunders' VIGIL is up today at @Electricliterature.com Saunders has long encouraged us to "revise toward kindness." But in Vigil, he asks what happens when empathy veers toward complicity? #georgesaunders #electricliterature electricliterature.com/in-vigil-rag...
In “Vigil,” Rage Is a Tool for Compassion and Liberation - Electric Literature
George Saunders’s new novel examines the line between sympathy and complicity
electricliterature.com
George Saunders' new novel Vigil is out today from @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social I had the pleasure of talking with George about writing, meditation and evoking fierceness and compassion in life and on the page. 0n “Writers at the Well" podcast & YouTube open.substack.com/pub/tesscall...
George Saunders on the Paradox of Fierce Compassion
Vigil breaks new ground while remaining signature Saunders
open.substack.com
Vigil by George Saunders is out tomorrow. I will be sharing my conversation with George about writing, meditation, and fierce compassion. Stay tuned! Thank you @penguinrandomhouse for the advanced copy. #georgesaunders #writingliife #writersatthewell
Greatly enjoyed my interview with @marthacooley.bsky.social author of The Archivist and now My Little Donkey from @catapultbooks.bsky.social. Writers and readers, says Cooley, are “the guardians of the collective imagination.”
Martha Cooley on Embracing Uncertainty as a Catalyst for Growth
“My Little Donkey” explores freedom, possibility, and the art of getting curious.
open.substack.com
Sometimes my mind spins like an unhinged carnival ride. This pocket practice brings me back to Earth. #thanksgiving #writingflow #mindfulness
Random Gratitude and the Art of Savoring
A pocket practice for bringing a touch of Thanksgiving to every day.
open.substack.com
Fascinating TEDx Talk by Andrew Holecek about Dark Retreat. #tedx #darkretreat #andrewholecek #tedxboulder
The Wisdom of Darkness | Dr. Andrew Holecek | TEDxBoulder
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
youtu.be
I’ll be reading from my novel Dawnland at East End Books in the Boston Seaport this Saturday 1018 at 6pm alongside @hickswriter.bsky.social author of The Gospel According to Danny. Come for stories, conversation, and a bit of magic by the water! #bostonreads #authorreading
Honored to interview Dr. Suzanne Mettler about Rural vs. Urban, co-written Trevor Brown. @princetonupress.bsky.social The book unpacks the current threat to democracy and how it can be repaired. A must-read for the moment at hand.
Dr. Suzanne Mettler on Saving Democracy Before it's Too Late
The divide that threatens democracy can be repaired. Rural vs. Urban shows how.
tesscallahan.substack.com
I'm so happy to have "conversed" with the incomparable @tesscallahan.bsky.social in her Substack, "Writers at the Well" -- Tess is warm, welcoming, and asks deep, thought-provoking, soul-searching questions ❣️ Carrie Birde on Writing from the "Bright Wood" Within open.substack.com/pub/tesscall...
Carrie Birde on Discovering the "Bright Wood" Within
How a friendship with a Catbird inspired a literary fairy tale
open.substack.com
Happy #PubDay, Paula Saunders! STARTING FROM HERE is out today from #penguinrandomhouse . In our interview, Saunders shares her experience of writing to illuminate her past. In addition to this podcast, her written interview is available on my Substack, “Writers at the Well.” Enjoy! #books
Novelist Paula Saunders on Starting from Here, and Writing as an Act of Compassion
Podcast Episode · Writers at the Well · 08/26/2025 · 49m
podcasts.apple.com
For me, meditation is a way to access a more intimate, grounded, present experience of this wild ride we call life. These meditations draw from my 2-year training with Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield, and others. Free on Apple, Spotify, and Insight Timer. #meditation www.buzzsprout.com/1998903/achi...
Heart Haven Meditations
Weekly meditations to calm your mind, connect to your heart, and take refuge in love. These practices draw from neuroscience, wisdom traditions, and teachers such as Adyashanti, Tara Brach, Pema Chodr...
buzzsprout.com
I hope you enjoy as much as I did my interview with @agnimagazine.bsky.social & @arrowsmithpress.bsky.social editor/author Askold Melnyczuk on The Venus of Odesa, now out from MadHat Press. #ukrainewriter #ukraine #poetry #odesa
Askold Melnyczuk on What We Think We Should Write vs. What Wants to be Written
"Most of us have a natural field of action, an arena, in which we can assert ourselves and make some difference in the world."
tesscallahan.substack.com
Happy Pub Day, Holly Kennedy! Her new novel, The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, is a sensitive, cross-genre story about a 30-year old neurodivergent man who, in the process of fighting a murder charge, discovers unexpected truths about himself, his family, and the world. It's a beautiful read.
Holly Kennedy on the Intimacy of First Person Narration
Kennedy's new cross-genre novel embraces serious topics with sensitivity and grace.
open.substack.com
www.instagram.com/reel/DHnuZ7S...
reader_ceygo on Instagram: "📚 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 📚 𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 by @tess_callahan This is family drama at its best. Thank you so much to the auth…"
📚 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 📚 𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 by @tess_callahan This is family drama at its best. Thank you so much to the author for sharing this beautiful and heartbreaking book with me . Although you could ( and maybe should but I think not ) read April & Oliver first , I’m kind of glad I read this as a standalone . I think not having that background (let’s be honest I was like 30-40% in when I even realized there was another book and only because included into the name of it on the bookmark 🤦♀️) it made the story more mysterious 𝗠𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️𝗚𝗥 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 4.22 ⭐️ #ComtemporaryFiction ; 327 pages🐳 Keep watching for some whale watching videos … we were so close to this #humpbackwhale who spent about 45 min with us, that I couldn’t even get a good video without someone in it … I was so close that I even saw his eye 👀. #bestexperienceever 🐳 have you been whale watching or had some close encounters with whales ? 🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴 #Bookreview #readerlife #readerforlife #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #igbookstagram #igbooks #readerofbooks #igreads #bookfeature #spiveys📚club #readreadread #unboxing #unboxingreels #unboxingbooks #unboxingvideo #unboxingvideos #bookmail #bookmailisthebestmail #bookmailmonday #bookmail📮 #bookmailisthebestmail📪 #whalewatching #whalewatch #whalewatching🐳
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Novelist Brooke Lea Foster on the narratives we create in life and on the page. #books #authorinterview
Brooke Lea Foster
"Giving voice to the concerns of women is paramount in my novels."
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