Rhian Sasseen

Walking the Camino in the Shadow of Belief I trudged through Spain as a rift grew within American Catholicism. I returned home with a renewed sense and understanding of faith.

For @thenation.com, I wrote about the summer that I—heartbroken, depressed, and as lapsed as a lapsed Catholic can possibly be—unexpectedly spent five weeks walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, and the question of belief in our fractious moment. www.thenation.com/article/arch...

Corridors of Grief | Rhian Sasseen In “Beckomberga,” Sara Stridsberg explores the repercussions that mental illness and addiction have on one family’s psyche.

At Beckomberga, the patients have too much time on their hands—and yet live somehow outside of it. @rhiansasseen.bsky.social writes on Sara Stridsberg’s melancholy novel of one family’s experience of mental illness.

Corridors of Grief | Rhian Sasseen In “Beckomberga,” Sara Stridsberg explores the repercussions that mental illness and addiction have on one family’s psyche.

For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about Sara Stridsberg’s novel Beckomberga, and how it looks at the history of institutionalization, the abstraction of time, and one family’s experience with mental illness. thebaffler.com/latest/corri...

tonight!

At the Threshold of a Dream: On Christian Marclay’s “Doors” The artist behind “The Clock” returns with a litany of passageways.

For MUBI Notebook, I wrote about Christian Marclay’s follow up to “The Clock”—“Doors”—and the doorway as possibility, transformation, and crossroads.

mubi.com/en/notebook/...

wish you were here: a prose reading | Partiful Featuring prose readings by Elvia Wilk, Rhian Sasseen, Kate Peters, Colleen Grablick, and Jack Sheehan. If you are interested in participating in the future, email us! katelyn.d.peters@gmail.com and ...

Tomorrow, November 18 — come by Bar Jade in Bushwick at 7 p.m. for the latest Wish You Were Here reading series I help co-curate! Tomorrow’s will feature Elvia Wilk, Jack Sheehan, Colleen Grablick, Kate Peters, and myself! RSVP: partiful.com/e/q8CbHkPnTT...

Review | How do you tell the story of a dying parent? Georgi Gospodinov reckons with the passing of his father in his autobiographical novel “Death and the Gardener.”

Oops, I didn't realize until now this was live — but last month, for the @washingtonpost.com, I reviewed the Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov’s new novel about the death of a parent, Death and the Gardener: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

I love that

The Immortal Poetry of Ron Padgett Pink Dust, a collection about aging and death, offers an optimistic vision of life as a continual act of reading.

For @thenation.com , I wrote about Ron Padgett’s latest poetry collection, Pink Dust, and life as a continual act of reading. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

A Novel That Understands Where Romance Is Going Claire-Louise Bennett’s new novel offers an unexpected take on the gender divide.

For The Atlantic, I wrote about Claire-Louise Bennett’s latest novel, Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, and what it has to say about the internet’s favorite topic—the relationship between heterosexual women and men: www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

The Pessimist — Angel Food cargo.site

I have a short story, “The Pessimist”—following a woman as she stalks her apartment building’s halls at night—in the dreamy new issue of @angelfoodmag.bsky.social: angelfoodmag.com/the-pessimist

Tonight!!

Tomorrow! I’ll be asking Eimear McBride some questions about her wonderful new novel, The City Changes Its Face, at McNally Jackson Seaport starting at 7 p.m.—hope to see you there! www.mcnallyjackson.com/eimear-mcbri...

For the fall issue of Kinfolk, I interviewed Vincenzo Latronico about the process of writing Perfection, the influence of Georges Perec on his work, what it’s like to be translated as a translator, and more: www.kinfolk.com/stories/on-t...

For the Poetry Foundation, I wrote about the Chinese poet Zheng Xiaoqiong’s incredible collection In the Roar of the Machine, translated by Eleanor Goodman and published by @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social, and the work of Chinese migrant worker poets. www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/172...

Inside Out: On Lara Mimosa Montes’s “The Time of the Novel” - Cleveland Review of Books In "The Time of the Novel", these anxieties concerning what constitutes the real versus the fictional are pushed to their logical extreme: a young woman quits her bookstore job in order to instead, sh...

For @clereviewbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about Lara Mimosa Montes’s excellent ‘The Time of the Novel,’ and the book’s porous boundary between reality and fiction: clereviewofbooks.com/inside-out-o...

Rosalind Belben Reflects on the Foreplay of Wordplay - Electric Literature The author of “Dreaming of Dead People” discusses sexuality, double standards in art, and the vicissitudes of literary publishing

For @electricliterature.com, I interviewed Rosalind Belben in anticipation of the rerelease of her seductively strange 1979 novel ‘Dreaming of Dead People’ this month from @andotherstories.bsky.social: electricliterature.com/rosalind-bel...

Returning to The Wall On Marlen Haushofer’s ecofeminist classic.

Wrote a bit about Marlen Haushofer’s ecofeminist classic The Wall on my newsletter phrasebooks.substack.com/p/returning-...

The Crowd There is always a moment, when standing in a crowd, in which the press of bodies turns diffuse, oddly amorphous; the individual obscured by this mass of flesh.

Wrote briefly about the crowds I’ve been surrounded by the last few weeks—political crowds, crowds of tourists, parties— phrasebooks.substack.com/p/the-crowd

My Direct Debits Hit at Midnight | Los Angeles Review of Books Rhian Sasseen considers party-writing in Caleb Femi’s latest poetry collection, “The Wickedest.”

For the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about Caleb Femi’s panoramic poetry collection from earlier this year, The Wickedest, and writing about parties: lareviewofbooks.org/article/my-d...

Next Wednesday, May 28th! Come by Bar Jade in Bushwick at 7 p.m. for another reading organized by Kate Peters and me! Featuring work by:

- Jenna Klorfein
- Ismail Muhammad
- Alex Wolfe
- Rob Rubsam (@robrubsam.bsky.social)

See you there!! partiful.com/e/LhcoSXdMXe...?

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

The Time of Return | Rhian Sasseen In Mathias Énard’s “The Deserters,” history has a way of repeating itself.

For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about Mathias Énard’s incredible new novel, The Deserters, the end of the twentieth century, and time repeating itself both in fiction and in real life: thebaffler.com/latest/the-t...

I will be reading from the new novel at Bushwick's Bar Jade on Wednesday, May 28th. Many thanks to @rhiansasseen.bsky.social for inviting me to read alongside some truly fantastic people, and to try out what I've been writing these past months.

I wrote a newsletter about the Portuguese artist Helena Almeida, her use of the color blue, and the words “listen to me” phrasebooks.substack.com/p/i-turn-mys...

What Does the Literature of the Working Class Look Like? A portrait of life at a fast-food restaurant shows that there’s both dignity and drudgery in all kinds of labor.

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about Claire Baglin’s new novel On the Clock, a book that dares to take mundane work seriously www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Got the inaugural issue of @fallowmedia.bsky.social in the mail a few days ago, and it’s beautiful — plus, I’ve got an essay in it on the work of the Polish photographer Joanna Piotrowska in it

Announcing issue 1 of fallow, a new literary journal, featuring new work by @evagriff.bsky.social @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social Oisin Fagan, Ellen Dillon, Gabriel Josipivici, Helen Charman, Chris Beausang, Pascale Sardin @rhiansasseen.bsky.social & Patrick Nathan

the return of phrase books On Christian Marclay’s The Clock and Georgi Gospodinov’s Time Shelter

Some of you might recall that I used to have a newsletter called phrase books, mostly about literature and art mostly in translation. After ignoring it for, oh, two or three years, I'm bringing it back. This new one is about Christian Marclay's The Clock and more: open.substack.com/pub/phrasebo...

Rereading Georgi Gospodinov’s excellent, relevant Time Shelter (translated by Angela Rodel)