Summer Brennan

Pro tip: if you're watching Pluribus (and you should), call the 202 number from the first episode this week.

They are betting AI will replace us. Make them lose the bet.

Opinion | I Was Once a Broken Reader. I Found My Way Back to Books.

I Was Once a Broken Reader. I Found My Way Back to Books. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/o...

Love this essay by @jeffgiles.bsky.social

At this point, our intro comp/first-year English course has been so heavily revised, it no longer includes a novel, or "extended reading" of any kind, no "specialized" or "historical" reading, mostly in-class assignments, no research essay...and we are still seeing a 40-50% rate of AI misconduct.

It's only a matter of time before humanities departments will be forced to accept AI-authored assignments, as part of revised university policy to cooperate with these billionaires. It's already happening, and our response needs to be decisive. Because our students' ability to *think* is at stake.

This long, heartbreaking thread. Whew. Reason eleventy billion why I'm completely anti-AI.

Students unable to think.

"billionaires hurling addictive technology at us."

Whew.

Have reached age where no longer understand technology. I added Messenger to phone to call someone only reachable that way, and it asked if I wanted to add my contacts, by which I though it meant my Messenger contacts, so I was like, sure. It sent requests to hundreds of people I've never heard of.

The Price of Remission: This Cancer Drug Saves Lives — but Costs a Fortune. I Wanted to Know Why. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked ...

Cancer drug Revlimid is one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of over $100 billion.

It’s also extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each pill, even though that pill costs just 25 cents to make.

By @davidarmstrongx.bsky.social

Tragically I was not able to make it to the tarte Tatin place, but I did get a little apricot pistachio tarte from the local bakery instead. Joyeux Jeudi de la Tarte Laïque !

Your Grace, I currently reside in a land with no Secular Pie Thursday, or perhaps here every day is Secular Tarte Day? I shall get some tarte Tatin in your honor and share a photo.

Sleep well and cozy Darth ❤️

Get some rest tonight, everybody. I'll expect to see your offerings tomorrow. The devil hasn't yet made the villain who can spoil Secular Pie Thursday.

EdwardCarey Original art by Edward Carey, author of Little, The Swallowed Man, Iremonger Trilogy, Edith Holler and B: A Year in Plagues and Pencils.

Looking for a gift? Edward Carey (my ball-&-chain) is selling original drawings of birds (grackle, barn, owl, even curlews) here:

edwardcarey.bigcartel.com?utm_source=i...

My Xmas gift thank you Summer Brennan

Going Through Old Notebooks Part 13: Trees and Their Absence I felt an affinity for that space, where a tree’s branches had swayed for over half a century, if not longer, and now did not

This was originally written in summer, but for all of us facing empty chairs this Thanksgiving—the chairs that once were filled and now are not, and the chairs that may be filled one day, with people who’ve not yet been born, or whom we haven’t met yet 💜 www.awritersnotebook.org/p/going-thro...

The least you could do is tell me I look nice today.

Going Through Old Notebooks Part 13: Trees and Their Absence I felt an affinity for that space, where a tree’s branches had swayed for over half a century, if not longer, and now did not

This was originally written in summer, but for all of us facing empty chairs this Thanksgiving—the chairs that once were filled and now are not, and the chairs that may be filled one day, with people who’ve not yet been born, or whom we haven’t met yet 💜 www.awritersnotebook.org/p/going-thro...

I renew my request that you all stop showing me the worst people in the world morning, noon, and night.

Going Through Old Notebooks Part 12: The Defining Moment of What Was Literary Twitter? Or "Discourse Person" On empathy, fiction, plagiarism, the woman as artist, the short story that launched a thousand takes—and the lost world we writers once shared online.

‪Forgive me for this, but since it looks like "Cat Person" is a contender for winning @literaryhub.bsky.social's "What Was Literary Twitter" bracket, I've decided to re-share an edited, slightly updated version of my own take from the time www.awritersnotebook.org/p/going-thro...

What happened then mattered then, and still does. Women still struggle to claim their own experiences and ability to write what they wish.

Don’t Let Your Husband Stop You From Meeting Your Other Husband (Plus some Boyfriends and Lovers...) Women in men's fields

"In 1931, Anaïs Nin opened the door to a Paris apartment, all cheekbones and cigarette smoke, and met Henry Miller, a hurricane disguised as a man." substack.com/home/post/p-...

Going Through Old Notebooks Part 12: The Defining Moment of What Was Literary Twitter? Or "Discourse Person" On empathy, fiction, plagiarism, the woman as artist, the short story that launched a thousand takes—and the lost world we writers once shared online.

“In fiction, female authors are constantly asked to explain how their personal experiences have somehow qualified them to tell the stories they are telling, and live under the constant suspicion that their fiction isn’t really fiction at all…”

open.substack.com/pub/summerbr...

@summerbrennan.bsky.social on “Cat Person” and discourses of yore (and ongoing projects to deny women as artists)

Pope Leo at the mic, ostensibly crooning

Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Going Through Old Notebooks Part 12: The Defining Moment of What Was Literary Twitter? Or "Discourse Person" On empathy, fiction, plagiarism, the woman as artist, the short story that launched a thousand takes—and the lost world we writers once shared online.

‪Forgive me for this, but since it looks like "Cat Person" is a contender for winning @literaryhub.bsky.social's "What Was Literary Twitter" bracket, I've decided to re-share an edited, slightly updated version of my own take from the time www.awritersnotebook.org/p/going-thro...

A cropped screenshot from a Canadian government website with the prompt "What's your occupation?" The answer "Writer" has been provided, generating the red text error response "Please enter a valid occupation."

Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.

Oh my god, they placed an adult content warning on this because it's a Bazille painting of nude bathers! Anyway, if you're a person with a few extra hundred thousand lying around and want to own a work by a truly great artist who was cut down even before his prime (LOVE Bazille), this is for you.

FRÉDÉRIC BAZILLE (1841-1870)Au bord du Lez signé et da... | enchères FRÉDÉRIC BAZILLE (1841-1870)Au bord du Lez signé et daté 'F.Bazille 68' (en bas à gauche)huile sur toile Peint en 1868signed and dated 'F.Bazille 6...

Alert for people with money: there is a FRÉDÉRIC EFFING BAZILLE painting going up for auction on December 3rd in Paris. It's been authenticated. I'd buy it if I had a spare €150 grand lying around but alas, I do not. drouot.com/fr/l/31454608

French toast in French is called "pain perdu" meaning lost bread, because it's supposed to be made from yesterday's bread that you "lost" because it wasn't eaten in time and got stale—now you can soak it in milk and egg and eat it anyway, to save it from being lost.

The reason that magnolia flowers are more rigid and less soft compared to other flowers is because magnolia trees belong to one of the earliest lineages of flowering plants, and predate bees. They evolved to be pollinated by beetles, and still are