Stephanie Austin

Excuse me but it is a brisk 62 degrees here in Phoenix this morning, and I'm renewed.

Thank you everyone who came out to Rift Wine Bar & Taphouse last night! And thank you to all the other readers for making it such an awesome experience!
@stephanieaustin.bsky.social
@mdbell79.bsky.social
@shipraagarwal.bsky.social
@haydenmcasey13.bsky.social
@sabrinahicks.bsky.social

Always good to see everyone!
We're gonna do it again in the spring!

What a joy to hear Phoenix writers read this afternoon : @mdbell79.bsky.social @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @shipraagarwal.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social @jonathanin2k.bsky.social !!! 👏👏👏👏

Tomorrow!

Next up in my all of 2025 interview series is with the fantastic Jonathan Ames. Author of books such as YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (made into a film by Lynne Ramsay.) He also wrote the fantastic HAPPY DOLL series
@jonathanames.bsky.social

Click on the link to read

mrbullbull.com/newbull/the-...

😮

Been bopping around online looking for second-person essays and found "Second Person" by Christine Boyer from a few years ago. I guess lately I'm just really into meta stuff? Anyway, second-person in essays > second-person in fiction?
tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/f...

Save the date! Next Saturday will be the 1st Desert Grit Reading Series at Rift Wine Bar & Taphouse in Scottsdale! Oct 4th at 3 PM!

Readings from

@mdbell79.bsky.social

@shipraagarwal.bsky.social

@sabrinahicks.bsky.social

@haydenmcasey13.bsky.social

@stephanieaustin.bsky.social

And me!

Exactly right.

We are making Lit Twitter into Real Life.

Wonderful to attend a reading by @andrewporter01.bsky.social and @sallywenmao.bsky.social moderated by @mdbell79.bsky.social at Changing Hands in Tempe yesterday. And it was great to see you @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social @rudribhattpatel.bsky.social @karakahnke.bsky.social 💜

Sad Grownups Check out Sad Grownups - <p><strong>For those who've been sad and tried not to be, seventeen stories about the absurdity of searching for joy in a dying world. </strong></p><p></p><p><strong><em>Winne...

I learned SAD GROWNUPS was removed from consideration for Kansas Notable Books (along w other books the deciders worried might endanger future federal funding). This isn't a bitter post. More sad that libraries feel compelled to make choices like these in these censor-y times.

Thank you again Melissa!

Please join us in congratulating our Best of the Net 2026 Nominees! Good luck everyone!

This story nails it in every single way.

Something about a Short Story, Long story Amber Sparks backwards life story is so perfect. Achingly perfect. Sad and funny and brutal. That line about people from your past as being more ghost that person... which is how we're haunted... It's one of those stories I don't even want to talk about because it's perfect and should be read and never spoken of. But I have to? Reminds me of Robert Coover's really short Out For A Beer story, for the lifetime thing but also in mood, the disaster and glimpses of hope, which eventually get snuffed out by death, even when death comes in reverse order. But the story's so perfect it makes these words look stupid and... forced.

Oh, the newest story on Short Story, Long, from @ambersparks.bsky.social, reminds you of one of my fave stories of all time? 🥹

Arizona friends, I’ll be reading with Sally Wen Mao as part of Virginia G. Piper Center Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at Arizona State University in Tempe. September 25, 2025 at 7 PM at Changing Hands Bookstore, followed by a conversation moderated by @mdbell79.bsky.social!

This is the way.

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

The cover of my book REFUSE TO BE DONE

I just found out that REFUSE TO BE DONE is going into its 8th printing! I've heard so many stories from writers whose projects have been helped along by this little yellow book over the past three years. Nothing makes me happier!

so important to be hot AND funny AND sad

!!

Desert Grit reading series October 4th, 3 p.m. at Rift Wine Bar, 431 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 85257 Matt Bell, Shipra Agarwal, Jonathan Danielson, Sabrina Hicks, Hayden Casey, Stephanie Austin

If you are in the Phoenix area, come see us October 4th at Rift! We're gonna read, and we're gonna hang, and we're gonna have a good goddamn time.

See you in Phoenix then.

Have spent the last few days with a rad back to school cold, and healed myself by drinking tea and binging The Lazarus Project, which apparently ended after season 2. If there is a petition to get a season 3 going, will happily sign. (Also, swear I'm thinking in a British accent now).

Some advance praise for my debut novel, IN THE DESERT, coming March 3, 2026 from @cowboyjamboree.bsky.social .

Many thanks to @sabrinahicks.bsky.social , @jmcm.bsky.social and @caseystegman.com . Every blurb made me cry! (joy)

Huge congratulations to Melissa for her book All and Then None of You!

Last chance to RSVP to hear an amazing line up of women writers! This Saturday, Sept. 6, 11 a.m. CA time. RSVP by scanning the qr code or visit melissafloresandersonwrites.com for the link.