The Scratch collective exists because we believe art matters, that artists matter, and that those who would have us believe otherwiseβbelieve in "content" aloneβare worth fighting head-on. My thanks to everyone who spread the word or shared kind ones of their own. Much more to come. talkscratch.com
04.03.2026 02:29 β
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The New Scratch
How is anyone who writes making any money right now?
βWe are living through a moment where the labor of writers is being exploited to create rapacious technologies that make everything stupider, exponentially hasten the demise of the planetβs ecosystems, and prop up fascists and dictators worldwide.β
Enter SCRATCH www.talkscratch.com/the-new-scra...
03.03.2026 18:49 β
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The meme of Jason Momoa ("Me") creeping up on Henry Cavill ("Bluesky writers discussing group blogs a few days ago").
03.03.2026 21:35 β
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This is an incredible team and project and I have never subscribed to anything so fast. Remember a few days ago when everyone was like "support independent media"?? Now is your chance to support and read really thoughtful writing about how culture workers live & make things in this economy.
03.03.2026 18:13 β
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Scratch
A weekly newsletter of interviews, essays, and real conversations about how writers are surviving. Launching March 2026.
Today in good news: Scratch is back!
@manjula.bsky.social's project to map out how writers make a living was a vital resource from 2012-2018. Today it relaunches, now a joint project with Manjula, @rahawahaile.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social & @latriagraham.bsky.social.
Subscribe!
03.03.2026 18:07 β
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Thank you, Joshua! (Answering your question in a future newsletter, but briefly: I am often very tired.)
03.03.2026 20:20 β
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I appreciate you saying so!
03.03.2026 20:07 β
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Thank you, Alex!
03.03.2026 20:06 β
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Scratch
A weekly newsletter of interviews, essays, and real conversations about how writers are surviving. Launching March 2026.
As a worker-owned literary collective, we've drawn inspiration from @theflytrapmedia.com, @aftermath.site, @hearingthingsco.bsky.social, @404media.co and other independent publications (*cough* @coyotemedia.org). We hope you'll join us! www.talkscratch.com
03.03.2026 17:49 β
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The New Scratch
How is anyone who writes making any money right now?
Writers of Bsky: Scratch is back! This time as a weekly newsletter/blog about how writers are surviving ~these times~, run by me, @manjula.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social, and @latriagraham.bsky.social. You can read more about why/what that means in our announcement post below.
03.03.2026 17:47 β
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This was great, Julia.
19.02.2026 17:17 β
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When @soleilho.com invited me to join COYOTE, I asked whether writers would be free to call a genocide a genocide. This article we published by them today does so and then some. It's an outstanding work of cultural reporting that I hope you find time to read. www.coyotemedia.org/pass-the-ric...
16.02.2026 19:34 β
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I nearly went with π£οΈFADE INTO GOO, but I know the limits of @emmaruthless.bsky.socialβs editorial patience.
14.02.2026 16:14 β
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The Art of Haunting
The email was innocuous enough. A woman wrote to me explaining how her partner had been talking about my work and how much heβd enjoyed itβin particular, heβd remembered me giving a TEDx talk about gh...
New from me, at @vqr.bsky.social: a few years ago two people contacted me about a TEDx talk I once gave, βThe Art of Haunting.β
When I replied Iβd never given a TEDx talk, things just got weirder.
On AI, ghosts, what it means to tell a story, and what Italo Calvino saw coming 60 years ago. Enjoy!
13.02.2026 14:04 β
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π£οΈMELT YOUR LIFE INTO PIECES: Today at COYOTE we're talking death, aquamation, and what it means to dissolve into nothingness. βοΈ: @nuala.bsky.social πΈ: @amir.photo www.coyotemedia.org/east-bay-wat...
13.02.2026 20:29 β
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Really looking forward to reading this.
13.02.2026 15:23 β
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on top of everything else, the amount of time & energy small publications need to spend on this kind of stuff now really seems unsustainable
11.02.2026 17:40 β
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I am verklempt!
11.02.2026 19:50 β
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Yes! I loved this piece and talked about it at length with the other writers at COYOTE, both as small publishers and as freelance writers ourselves.
11.02.2026 18:56 β
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Hi folks. We're dropping our paywall on this story about the scourge of AI pitches for the day, so give it a read and share widely. www.coyotemedia.org/how-coyote-a...
11.02.2026 18:39 β
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Black Music in the California Voice 1960-1980 zine
Idris Ackamoor in the California Voice 1978
Chain Reaction in the California Voice 1971
Sisters of the Ghetto in the California Voice 1971
Black History Month zine available @oaklibrary.bsky.social Magazines & Newspapers Room. The California Voice was a Black newspaper in Oakland that ran from 1919 to 20??. I went through 20 years of microfilm to find the coolest (mostly) local Black music coverage and ads in the paper. Dig it.
11.02.2026 04:46 β
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Every organization I work with, including The Flytrap, has noticed this every time we put out an open call for pitches and it gets picked up in an opportunities newsletter, just a deluge of AI slop we have to wade through.
11.02.2026 16:23 β
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If you're a book creator and people in your life don't understand why book bans are such a sore point for you then by god show them this film. It really gets people fired up.
11.02.2026 04:16 β
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And the rest of the piece, too!
11.02.2026 00:26 β
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Area Teachers Tired of Bullshit
San Francisco educators continue their historic strike, and parents and kids are on the picket lines alongside them. But donβt worry, Daniel Lurie is making Instagram videos.
Headline says it all. A short strike diary by @emmaruthless.bsky.social on the community rallies taking place in support of San Francisco's striking teachers.
11.02.2026 00:23 β
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A+ sign from the SFUSD community rally.
09.02.2026 22:32 β
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San Francisco public school educators are striking for the first time in nearly 50 years! @emmaruthless.bsky.social is reporting for COYOTE from Civic Center.
09.02.2026 21:41 β
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