Sati Mookherjee

Every novel is a game the reader and the writer agree to play together, but some novels require more agreement than others. INVISIBLE CITIES really asks you to buy in. How to describe it?

I could tell you, I suppose, that it's a dreamy travelogue of invented cities—

💯

Kids Can Press company logo and logo and image of Franklin character with statement text,”Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”

YouTube video by The Hometown Holler ICE Detained an 18-Year-Old U.S. Citizen. This Is His Story.

An 18yo US citizen, surrounded by eight masked, armed agents of the state, taken into custody, not read his rights, not offered a chance to contact a lawyer, proof of citizenship ignored, handcuffed so tightly he later required medical attention.

Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.

Media bias

NYT isn’t worth reading because they are in the bag for Trump

The New York Times' story about Trump calling for the execution of members of Congress ran on Page 16 today, with an itty-bitty promo on the front about halfway down the page.
No wonder Trump thinks he can get away with anything.

Ancient Cypriot bowl resting in a gloved hand

Day 14: Heavy. Weight, bulk, heft are important aspects of the materiality of ancient objects, and hard to convey visually or through text. This Red Polished bowl is surprisingly heavy in the hand, like a full mug of tea, and it rests centred and self-contained despite its rounded base. #Museum30

Mono photo of a large ceramic jug with foot, decorated by dark stripes around the middle. The neck is narrow and has a long handle behind. On the front, the spout is formed of a tiny vessel, held in one hand by a pale female figure moulded onto the neck of the jug. Image from: KARAGEORGHIS, V. (2000). Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

🏺 Look at this gorgeous Iron Age jug from Cyprus whose spout is formed by another jug held by a tiny woman!
#Matriarcha

“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arres...

You probably saw videos of a nighttime raid in Chicago. Agents rappelling from a helicopter, bursting down doors, questioning brown-skinned immigrants.

We investigated -- and found little evidence to support the government’s claims about Tren de Aragua.

www.propublica.org/article/chic...

I’m delighted to be included in the “Best Spiritual Literature” anthology. Thank you to editor @luke-hankins.bsky.social and to The Inflectionist Review, who first published the poem. “Inversions.” is from “Deś,” forthcoming from @tupelopress.bsky.social … My cup overflows. 🙏🏽

AFTER LONG BUSYNESS I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk. Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars, not a trace of light! Suppose a horse were galloping toward me in this open field? Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

Another Robert Bly miniature. Really feeling the presence of his old friend James Wright in this one.

A Few Day-After-the-Election Thoughts The clearest read of what happened last night is that, as far...

Democrats "have a pretty good model: find candidates suited to their constituencies and focus on cost of living issues and opposition to Donald Trump’s autocracy. Full stop. It’s not more complicated than that. That’s your opposition message." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few...

Helen DeWitt is one of those writers who keep the hope - my hope - of a certain kind of literature, with its unique attendant pleasures - alive.

(Sorry for shitty sentence; frontal lobes not fully dosed / caffeinated yet)

‘Your Name Here’ has tortured its co-authors for 20 years Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff refer to the novel as a monstrosity, but it’s finally out in the world.

“It’s unwieldy and unruly, and that’s part of its charm — but you know, we totally understand that that’s what people hate about it, as well.” Sophia Nguyen talked to Ilya Gridneff and Helen DeWitt about their co-written novel, or "albatross." www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Harvard Gazette: Gazette: “You are the mother of two In ten years you have produced three novels and two short-story collections. Can you talk about your process and how you manage work and family?” Groff: “I understand that this is a question of vital importance to a lot of people, particularly to other mothers who are artists trying to get their work done, and know that I feel for everyone in the struggle. But until I see a male writer asked that question, I am going to respectfully decline to answer it.”

A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers
https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM

Random list of my favorite Italian poets in no particular order. Just because. You are welcome.

Eugenio Montale
Salvatore Quasimodo
Cristina Campo
Antonia Pozzi
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Maria Luisa Spaziani
Andrea Zanzotto
Alda Merini

Weds Nov 12 in Washington DC - SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE, the tour, hits Union Stage.
All tickets come w/a hardcover copy of the book.

Come join us as we film a book tour, with standup, in a rock club. tickets - UnionStagePresents.Com

2 versions of Jay Wright's Transfigurations: Collected Poems (Penguin Press, 2025), the 1st edition & the galley version.

I admit to being a 1-person PR spox for #JayWright but I'm glad to see his *Transfigurations* (aka Collected Poems Pt 1) is finally out now in the UK. Though he's 1 of the greatest living poets in the English language/greatest living Black poets this didn't happen until he'd reached 91 years of age!

It’s not the Nobel that’s of interest here, but a kind of writing that, from the romanticism of the 19th century onwards, constituted a subterranean stream in cultures dominated by the Enlightenment, and which made the literary such an inexplicable but powerful category in the modern world. One characteristic of this stream is an obsession with what another Nobel laureate, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, called the anavashyak, or the “unnecessary” or “superfluous”. It’s a way of thinking that is deliberately indifferent to the thematic. When the filmmaker Satyajit Ray said that some of the worst films have been made on the noblest of themes, he was speaking from the heart of this tradition. The stream seems to have dried up in the time of globalisation, not least because of the monetisation of the thematic, the “relevant” and the representational by publishing houses and the role these categories have played in the new morality of today’s sociologically driven humanities. But a counter-movement has been at work, in which Fitzcarraldo has played a significant role, restating literature’s oddity while downplaying what’s so important about it to the mainstream – its moral temper and cheerleading capacities.

Every now and then you come across a passage somewhere that so fully articulates something you've been trying to think about and express to friends for awhile. It's what people mean when they write, here, *this.* Amit Chaudhuri writing in @newstatesman1913.bsky.social on Jon Fosse:

!!!!!

You guys are the absolute best. Thank you for giving two poems from the collection a home in @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social 🙏🏽🩷

Thank you so much!

… And for your kind words

🙏🏽Thank you @tupelopress.bsky.social for offering “deś” such a beautiful home. And congratulations to Alison Granucci, Valerie Martínez, @mdsnediker.bsky.social and Mathew Weitman!

🙏🏽

Congratulations!!!!! 🏆

What happened to all the art, furniture and priceless historical treasures that were in the East Wing?

Did Trump just give it away to his buddies? Is it at Mar-a-Lago? Did Jared and Ivana just help themselves to it?

No one knows