The only fair thing to do is to sit and watch him read, that way the experience will be equally unnerving for him
author of First Love and Negative Space
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The only fair thing to do is to sit and watch him read, that way the experience will be equally unnerving for him
Two trials will be repeated endlessly despite always producing the same results: 1) Does UBI work? (yes) 2) Does AI improve productivity? (no)
What is this guyās obsession with autism, seriously
Cats should always come in sets of one Big and one Little
ššš the inverse of my Big Cat Little Cat!!
Today's Paris dispatch: Went out for a quick espresso break from writing but it suddenly started pouring, so I had no choice but to sit in the cafƩ and stare out the window for an hour. Unsurprisingly, solved a plot problem in the process
Iāve seen itāI was remarking on how differently it was portrayed 20 years ago
It does feel very weird, as a child of the ā90s who was raised on the idea of perpetual progress, to see society slide so far backward so quickly
Watching an ER episode with a kid with measles and an antivax mom, and sheās portrayed as such an outlier freak show, the doctors can hardly believe it. Simpler times, simpler times.
Yikes. Big RFK vibes
First full day of my fellowship in Paris and Iāve: eaten an entire carton of perfect strawberries over the sink, written 600 words, walked around for two hours making three separate cafĆ© stops
Glad to know Iām not the only one who still has stress dreams about long-past service jobs
I know it wonāt, but yknow, when fantasizing why not go big
Sometimes I like to imagine itāll be like a vampire dying and the curse on all the other vampires they spawned is brokenāpeople across the country rubbing their eyes and turning off Fox news, going outside blinking in the sun, calling their adult children to apologize
Itās good to have things, or at least this one thing, to look forward to
Canāt wait to joke with my friends about bespoke movies none of them has seen. Or go to the con where everyone has seen a different movie and nobody knows what the fuck anyone else is talking about or whatever thing these fucking idiots donāt understand about shared experience.
I know everyone hates sending blurb requests and it's really tempting to let your publisher send them for you (if they're willing) but fwiw, it's much harder to say no to a personal note from an author than it is to a generic one from a publisher
I already signed on, you can stop trying to convince me!
Quick question, is it bad when the dictator gets to decide who is a Jew? Iām not familiar with history, how does that usually work out for us?
omg
Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldnāt write it
If we lived in a world that made any sense, this would be the definitive end of ChatGPT and everything like it
As a parent, as a human, this family deserves a settlement against ChatGPT that should put them out of business.
I managed to find one that can see me in November, but thank you!!
Silly me, I forgot nobody on bluesky knows what sarcasm is
I was being sarcasticāand even if I wasnāt, why donāt you be careful how you roll into other peopleās mentions sounding like an obnoxious scold
my neurologist's office is closing and I'm trying to find a new oneāearliest new patient appointment so far is Sept *2026*... but thank god we don't have free/socialized healthcare with those damn wait times!!!!
Should we continue investing in the technology that is becoming increasingly infamous for encouraging suicide? Sam Altman says of course!!!
I am! Thank you. I'm not actually bringing my cats though, just wishing I could
My husband is not coming to the residency with me, the cats will be taken care of. It's me I'm worried about!
Like just feels like a kinda wild time to leave, is all I'm saying. Who knows what I'll come back to.
Also the residency is in Paris and in addition to be excited about Paris itself, I'm also excited to be anywhere that's not the US... but also I kinda wonder whether the US will still be a country by the time I get back?
I preemptively miss my cats so much maybe I will just bring them instead of clothes and books
I'm leaving for my first month-long residency ever one week from today and I've wanted to do something like this for so long but now that it's approaching I'm like ??? how does one leave home for a month??
They gaslit you all throughout the election.
Growing up here you learn how to sleep on the subway on your way to school and your body clock sets to the stop so you wake up. If youāre afraid of it I will never stop laughing at you
I'm starting a movement. Every time you, or someone you know, gives AI agency, replace it with "Big Tech". See for example: "Big Tech" is killing my job. "Big Tech" is reading my CT scan. "Big Tech" is writing my paper. I asked "Big Tech" to be my girlfriend. Maybe that will speed up regulation.
just deleted a post about Gavin Newsom bc I refuse to discuss the 2028 primary in 2025
Speaking as a Chinese person, in the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of bribery.
I thought this was common knowledge?
This is so greatāsuch a balm in a time when so much is eroding
I just got mine lol, I always start itching for it in mid-August
I got mine this week... and it already has notes on the last page to transfer to the 2027 calendar when I get it next August. Some of us cope through planning, ok?
I'm also raising capital for an exciting new "superintelligence" product called "funding book publishers and newspapers"
I went to a very fun and good MFA and now you could too!
Happy to answer any questions about the low-residency model in general, and/or Randolph in particular! Shoot me a DM or email
Hey if you're considering getting an MFA, the absolutely amazing low-residency program I teach for is accepting applications until Sept 1... www.randolphcollege.edu/mfa-cw/apply/
Wow, this makes me a feel a little better about having "banquet" instead of "banquette" in the first printing of my first book... though at the time it literally kept me up at night
do you know that chimps will beat resource hoarding members of the troop to death and eat them? follow me for more excellent financial tips!
Millennial retirement planning
Omg
every. single. day. a new fuck-up that would have ended any previous presidency
Maybe he'll shut the fuck up if enough of us call and tell him to shut the fuck up
...Oh and as a representative of New York City, Congressman Jeffries should really know the difference between rent stabilization and rent control. Move on, do something that matters. Thank you.
...one of the most promising & exciting young Democrats who's actually mobilizing the baseāeven if he's jealous that he's not nearly as popular as Mamdani. Here's a tip: maybe he would be if he focused on issues that matter, rather than getting swept up in stupid infighting...
Message I just left at Jeffries' office (202 225 5936): I'm a New York City resident & I'm calling to remind the congressman, since he seems to have forgotten, that Donald Trump is the enemy here, not Zohran Mamdani. Jeffries should stop doing the republicans' work for them by attacking...
having one of those odd social media experiences where I'm seeing tons of defenses of Ocean Vuong, and outrage about people hating on him... but have not seen a single one of the criticisms people are apparently responding to
NEW HERETIC COVER [AND PAPERBACK!] COMING YOUR WAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 pre-order from my local bookstore to get it customized & signed! www.astoriabookshop.com/item/1sM1NJw...
šØ HEY DC šØ if you can participate in tonightās emergency ride to provide critical resources to your unhoused neighbors you should. MPD & feds are expected to sweep EVERY tent of EVERY encampment as soon as 6:30pm tonight. stand up for your community and show the feds whose streets these are
their pastries are good!
No way in hell
Truly an even worse conflation than my favorite pet peeve of using "indie author" to refer to both authors who publish with independent presses, and anyone who throws an unedited manuscript up on Amazon
I think we made a big mistake using the same word, "review," to describe both reviews written by professional critics (an actual craft that takes skill & knowledge) & reviews written by any & everyone who has interacted with the thing being reviewed (sometimes useful, but not at all the same thing)
Yeah I assumed it meant since the moment they met! (I also have always imagined that what she wanted to say was something blisteringly mean and possibly vulgar... and that's why she's never said it out loud. But fun to think that she'd still think it)
I repeat this line in my head more often than is probably normal. I remember so clearly the first time I "got" it, and the glee has never left me!
lol perfect
personally I have more of a Paulie Walnuts thing going on, what what're you gonna do
women only want one thing, and it's for their grays to come in as a Sontag streak
Truly, terrifyingly, has probably already happened
Iām Rendanda Beach
I donāt know if it would have occurred to me to think āI hope that man never eats another pierogi for the rest of his days,ā but now that itās presented itself thatās a pretty great curse that I will be using from now on
Finally got through to someone in my life who didnāt understand why Iām so distressed by AI making everyone stupider & lazier by saying āif youāre ever charged with a crime, people who have offloaded all their critical thinking to an algorithm that āhallucinatesā will be on the juryā
the most common experience of being an artist in any capacity is doing a lot of work seriously and rigorously for years and learning to be ok with it not finding an audience. this is like the inverse of that in every way
Would 100% watch a sitcom in which Cuomo and Dershowitz end up roommates, Dershowitz is denied a pierogi every episode in exactly the same way, and Cuomo runs for successively lower-stakes office each week, only to lose again.
Dropping this image into the doc where I keep various versions of my bio as a reminder to take it easy
lol oh no
This is incredible
Unfriendly reminder:
š
Unexploded Ordnance has a cover!
Thank you! I remember your project really clearlyāit's always a thrill to see work that I got an early glimpse at make its way into the world <3
It's gorgeous, congratulations!!!
why isnāt the left talking about where motherās face goes when we play peekaboo
Reading it on a kindle is strangely the closest Iāve been able to get to this feeling
2027 is looking mighty fine already at Autofocus! Thrilled to be working with @lillydancyger.bsky.social on this absolute gem of a book.
"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!" Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.
Same!!
Almost none of the things authors are encouraged to do (have a social media presence! Publish regularly online! Do readings/events!) have a measurable impact on sales individually. But all together they add up to being visible, and making connections with peopleāand those things do sell books.
Surprise! I'm writing a new nonfiction book!! About dance and chronic pain and the ways the body can both express, and be impacted by, emotion. Forthcoming from @autofocusbooks.bsky.social in 2027!
To have it recognized as such is really deeply meaningful
Yes thereās an essay in First Love called āKissing Girls,ā but Iāve always thought of the whole book as very queer in the way it approaches alternative family structures & community care, & rejects the rigid hierarchies & separations btw romantic, sexual, & platonic love bookshop.org/a/1925/97805...
So excited I can finally share that First Love is a @lambdaliterary.org award finalist in bisexual nonfiction!!!
I cannot stress enough that American Jews are significantly to the left of America as a whole, and that the deepest well of support for the genocide (and for repression of student protests, etc.) is Christians using us as an excuse
Zohran Mamdani being *more* popular among NYC Jews than among NYC voters as a whole is a wild fact, and completely belies much of the national narrative surrounding his candidacy. The people in the national media who talk a lot about antisemitism are often not listening to actual Jews.
Still taking book pitches for @barrelhouse.bsky.social, through Aug. 9. Looking for short books (25K-30K words) that combine criticism and memoir, exploring some pop-cultural artifact that's played an outsized role in your life, or that connects in some unique/interesting way to your own story.
I agree, we see it every time something happens that breaks through the fog for some peopleāthey're ridiculed for not seeing it sooner rather than welcomed and pointed in the right direction. The commitment to self-righteousness is really self-defeating