McKenzie Watson-Fore

Flu season is here, folks. Get yourself vaccinated, and then get yourself a cat-panion who will keep watch from the crook of your knee-pits.

Singing the Newsboys with Flamy Grant The musician and drag queen is an exvangelical who came to see that holding on to a theology of self-loathing was just too...

"In Tait’s case, no part of his public persona allows him to name harmful elements of the theology he was raised with. Theology wielded to inculcate hatred or disgust rather than grace is one of the most destructive forces I know." @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...

Has anyone written a cultural history of the paint-and-sip?? I would love to read that.

#culturalcriticism #arthistory #historyinthemaking

I wrote about the #michaeltait scandal and about the iconic Christian music drag queen, @flamygrant.bandcamp.com — read it now!

Nonfiction Review: McKenzie Watson-Fore Reads Gabriella D’Italia’s Debut Memoir Getting Dressed in the Dark The crisis that catalyzes Gabriella D’Italia’s debut memoir, Getting Dressed in the Dark: An Artist’s Way Home, is a gruesome separation and divorce, when D’Italia learns that her partner of twenty…

Gabriella D'Italia’s memoir, GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK, is out now from @unsolicitedpress.bsky.app, and I wrote about it for Heavy Feather Review! A dazzling contemplative journey for anyone with a material art practice alongside your writing practice.
heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/11/17/d...

Worldly Girls – Tamara Jong This narrative unmooring, while unconventional, strikes me as a byproduct of Jong’s departure from high-control religion

@bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social’s memoir WORLDLY GIRLS offers readers a tender journey through intergenerational trauma, female relationships, and the narrative unmooring that comes after leaving high-control religion. Read my review here! @bookhugpress.bsky.social
www.full-stop.net/2025/11/12/r...

What up, skidmarks? It's Bad Janet. My annual Halloween costume essay? Featuring hell

Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet!
#thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell

mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...

Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.

There's a bigger threat to books than bans. Access to e-books relies entirely on private distributors that have the power to shut them off at any moment.

Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk.
cjr.org/analysis/the...

Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette

Ugh I will never stop loving this essay. It gets me every time.

My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation
mastersreview.com/a-conversati...

YouTube video by Julie Roys Reporter Tells of Michael Tait/Newsboys Scandal: Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll

“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal

www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...

So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse

On the Future of Small Presses in the Aftermath of the NEA Grant Chaos On Friday, May 2nd, 2025, DOGE and the National Endowment for the Arts terminated $300,000 worth of grants for 51 publishers. The email, a copy and paste job, trickled into inboxes at odd hours. 5:…

Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags
lithub.com/on-the-futur...

Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!

Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!

Zero Tolerance Five years after the George Floyd protests, many liberals blame “wokeness” for stifling open debate. So why can’t they handle being disagreed with?

Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech

www.vulture.com/article/post...

Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET

#churchcamp

Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!

I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary

“Grasping for sins to get a piece of the agony”!! Yes. Such a perverse incentive system.

💛💛💛

I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!!

#church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup

This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂

What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.

Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!

A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory

I’ve been reading Rachel Syme’s #SymesLetterWriter (it’s so gorgeous and fun) and I’m on the section about sending recipes in the mail! What synchronicity

Actually, why limit yourself? I’m curious about both of them.