Derek Mong

Indiana-WDA Indiana Writers for Democratic Action is a community of writers and readers committed to the core American principle that civil liberties exist for all. Our freedoms include the right to vote and have...

Hoosier writers old and young (including students!): we've got a chapter of Writers for Democratic Action (@indianawda.bsky.social) up and running, and we'd love for you to join! Resist authoritarianism--like Orwell did before you--with your pen. DM me to join.

sites.google.com/view/indiana...

I'm so proud of Lafayette and West Lafayette, where the #NoKings crowds were so huge that hundreds were turned back from crossing the Myers Pedestrian Bridge.

And big love to the "Hoosier Hogs Stand with Portland Frogs" guy. Yes to this. All of this. All the goddamn time.

No Kings As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

This administration is authoritarian--kicking journalists out of the Pentagon, unleashing the Army on our cities, and disappearing people into its ICE-sponsored police state. Join us at the No Kings Rally in Lafayette, IN at 2 PM. Meet at the Margerum Fountain. Stand up for democracy
www.nokings.org

Trump Administration Live Updates: Oregon Officials Vent Fury as California National Guard Head to Portland

You can add my fury, and my phone calls to my elected representatives, to theirs. Using American cities a military "training grounds"? Including the one where I was born and where my heart remains? This is authoritarianism, pure and simple. History is watching.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Our new issue of At Length is available! We're particularly excited to have our first translation piece edited by @affisher.bsky.social out in the world!

Tweet From Obama mentioning my firing from the Washington post. Wirh a photo of me

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama.

His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.

Now he is tweeting in support of me.

This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.

Or used to work.

"Shut the fuck up, Donny." -Walter Sobchak & Everyone in the United States Still Interested in Preserving Democracy

Трамп, иди на хуй!

D.C. dude hits a guy in battle gear with a sandwich, gets charged with a felony, and will likely go to prison, but 1,000+ folks, some in actual battle gear, break into the Capitol, and try to overturn an election--they get pardoned?

I cannot be any clearer about this: fuck this administration.

Writers for Democratic Action

Fellow Hoosier Writers! @shana-r.bsky.social is forming an Indiana Chapter of Writers for Democratic Action. If you'd like to attend our call out meeting on Thursday, September 4th (6 PM), please contact her or me. The meeting with be over Zoom. Thank you!

www.writersfordemocraticaction.org

It’s the Hair Color of Feminist Icons, Titans of Culture, and Me. One MAGA Figure Has Ruined It. I hate her politics. I love her hair.

As someone developing a similarly placed streak of gray hair, I'd like to remind us all that it was Susan Sontag's first, and that Tulsi Gabbard can fuck right off back to the Kremlin she shills for.

slate.com/life/2025/08...

"Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order rather than resisting it."

@timothysnyder.bsky.social, from ON TYRANNY - a book I read and taught in 2017, hoping it would lose relevance by 2025. Sigh.

Democracy Update in America: this President is a firing non-partisan labor statistician for telling the truth, has eliminated the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and continues his attacks on scientific research and higher education.

This is what authoritarianism looks like.

Saving the Great American Road Trip | The Saturday Evening Post It took Fourth of July fireworks and a stop on Route 66 to remind me of the promise of this place and its people.

It's me and Norman Rockwell, ya'll: my @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social essay on the American Road Trip was just re-published in the @satevepost.bsky.social.

Thanks @erynbrown.bsky.social!

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/savi...

We're back from Portland, but here are some behind-the-scenes pics from @affisher.bsky.social's interview with Emmy-winning TV host, Helen Raptis of AM NW fame!

Thomas Sayers Ellis, Poet of ‘Percussive Prosody,’ Dies at 61

Farewell, Thomas Sayers Ellis, whose The Maverick Room is one of the best poetry books from the 2000s. My copy, which Ellis signed in various colors of marker--on the cover no less--is well-loved and oft-taught and all the more cherished now that he's gone.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...

"Pioneer Summer" Translator Anne O. Fisher Shares Story Behind Gay Romance Novel Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova’s star-crossed gay romance is a #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that took readers by storm, made international news, and c

@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut, which I got to watch from within the studio. She made the camera guy chuckle! See the full segment below from KATU in Portland.

katu.com/amnw/am-nort...

If you missed our interview with Derek Mong in our Spring Issue, be sure to check it out! Here he discusses the long poem...read the interview in full theindianapolisreview.com/featured-poe... @derekmong.bsky.social

"Pioneer Summer" Translator Anne O. Fisher Shares Story Behind Gay Romance Novel Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova’s star-crossed gay romance is a #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that took readers by storm, made international news, and c

@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut talking about Pioneer Summer. And she bloody killed it! Watch below.

katu.com/amnw/am-nort...

Anne O. Fisher in Conversation With Lizzy Acker Event The Legendary Independent Bookstore

Portlanders! Annie reads from Pioneer Summer & chats with @lizzyacker.bsky.social tomorrow night at 7 PM. @powells.bsky.social on Hawthorne. Pack the house!

Or watch "AM Northwest" tomorrow at 9 AM when she'll also be on live TV. Because, you know, she's famous now.

www.powells.com/events/anne-...

Friends! Here's the longer (by about 100 words), slightly better, and paywall-free version of my essay on the American road trip. With thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!

I love that you can see the motel in question right here.

Contributor: The road trip — sublime, profane and (almost) reclaimed Driving the country's highways is one way to define the American psyche and a big, beautiful, flawed nation.

If you're reflecting on this beautiful & flawed & enormous nation right now--and the road trips that hope to capture it all--check out my latest essay in today's @latimes.com.

Thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Mike Braun is really giving Todd Rokita a run for his money in the Wabash-Alumnus-in-Politics-Who-Forgot-to-Live-Humanely Award.

Two friends wrote a gay romance — and had to flee Russia “Pioneer Summer,” by Elena Malisova and Kateryna Sylvanova, which sparked a backlash amid a government crackdown, is now available in English

Nothing to see here except my wife @affisher.bsky.social's new translation, Pioneer Summer, in a feature-length article in @washingtonpost.com. Thanks @sophianguyen.bsky.social for this thoughtful piece!

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Hey Chicago! Come see me read from #pioneersummer tomorrow night at City Lit Books, in conversation with the rad and talented Ali Kinsella!

We're marching on Saturday in the #NoKingsProtest. In solidarity with Los Angeles. In support of democratic ideals. And against the rising tide of fascism in the United States.

Join us at Margerum Fountain at 10 AM in West Lafayette. Thanks to Greater Lafayette Indivisible for organizing.

Creating fake emergencies to stoke fear & show power. Sending Marines into a city against a governor's wishes. To quell said "emergency." To display existing power. Lying on television about talking with said governor. Holding a b-day party with tanks.

If this isn't fascist behavior, what is?

The back of a frame. Featured image for "from 'Thend'" by Ben Doller, published by At Length.

Check out "from 'Thend,'" by Ben Doller on At Length!

In these self-aware, snappy sonnets from Doller's long poem, "Thend," Doller discovers his doppelganger, considers his mortality, and learns that “it’s hard to say when one’s saying goodbye.”

atlengthmag.com/from-thend/

My @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social colleague, Joe Mathew (@democracylocal.bsky.social), on the Feds in LA: "Living in a city of actors, I do recognize their Method-style commitment to the neo-Gestapo role."

A fantastic, on-the-ground look at this inflammatory Federal response.

A really talented (and grossly under-appreciated) poet.