Derek Nystrom

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19

I saw him open for Jonathan Richman. Not an intuitive pairing, until you realize that they both deal in raw, unprocessed emotion, just at different ends of the spectrum. Anyway, he played that song, and it slayed everyone in the room.

High School English and the Making of American Readers Abstract. The high school English classroom is the most influential literary institution in the United States, and the most overlooked by literary scholars

As some of you may know, I’m writing a book on the history of high school English in the United States, and I’m excited to share a new article from that project—“High School English and the Making of American Readers”—out today in American Literary History! 🧵

academic.oup.com/alh/article/...

It does really hit you that American artists of color continue to make these aesthetically incredible, thematically rich works of art and the white supremacists that rule this country are just complete dullards

america could be such a cool fucking place if we’d just let it be

Oh no!!!!

Letter From Minnesota: “If They Take Me and Leave the Children…” Today is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. I got gas for the first time this year by myself. The gas station was mostly empty. I drove into the station, heart thudding in my chest. I did everything as f…

This is brilliant writing. And a devastating read.

lithub.com/letter-from-...

We’re just not a free country.

Any American watching this play out between regime forces and journalists overseas would recognize it for what it is.

Dan McQuade, 1983–2026 | Defector Dan McQuade, our friend and colleague, died this week at the age of 43. He is survived by his wife and young son. At the end of 2024, Dan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. The news of his diag...

Oh this is truly sad news.

defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

It seems clear Alex Pretti, a healthcare worker, was murdered for engaging in the exact kind of community care we hope all care workers to embody: the kind that doesn’t stop at the threshold of the hospital, the clinic, but that aims to care for and support the community where and how they can

Yall outside of MN need to know that observers are STILL out protecting their neighbors. Right now. They know the news and they’re still out there.

So great that they got the Grain Belt bridge sign in the shot.

A picture of the Mary Tyler Moore statue in downtown Minneapolis, depicting the iconic moment from the show where she throws her hat in the air. But the hat has been covered over with a protesters cardboard sign, reading “FUCK ICE.”

On a downtown street in Minneapolis, as people stream out from the massive march, Mary Tyler Moore says “fuck ice.”

"They were detained but acting as first responders to the man who had detained them." ...
'I was hit so hard with the fact that this man would not do this for me, [Amundson] said. ...
'We were willing to do for this man, this human, what they were not willing to do for Renee Good,' Zemien said."

Man, my hometown looks fucking beautiful.

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

An excellent thread.

Image from A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)

It is embarrassing that I had not seen this until last night, but good golly, what an absolutely delightful, cockeyed movie. I can't think of another film with its kind of comic sensibility.

pulling this reflection on white silence/fear over here, too:

Likewise!

Amazing! Congrats, Josie!

Re-watched this the other night, and literally every shot has something funny happening in it.

Not helping someone who got stuck in snow or ice is the Minnesota equivalent of taking a shit on their car hood.

This is an excellent and terrifying essay.

they’re abducting our neighbors and putting them in concentration camps and they’ll shoot you in the fucking face if you don’t cheer them on while they’re doing it.

I am enjoying the latest Knives Out, but it's 144 minutes? I fear that young people will grow up thinking that 90 minutes is not an appropriate length for movies--only for individual episodes of a limited series British police procedural.

Amazing!!!! Congrats, Xander!

That said, my Quebecoise partner routinely refers to him as James LeBron.