Dr. Melissa Chadburn

All I knew was that I was participating in the thing I’d wanted my entire life—and yet I was somehow failing at it, or at least failing to express how badly I wanted it, when it was the Want itself that had me caught like a rabbit in headlights.-https://adimagazine.com/articles/tilting-at-windmills/

Tilting at Windmills It’s the beginning of the semester, and fifteen of my students, from all over the country—also one from China and another from Korea—sit in a small bungalow trailer situated in the parking lot of a bu...

"It’s in the fissures, and the resistance, the all around mess where the real learning takes place."

@melissachadburn.bsky.social's essay "Tilting at Windmills," about day laborers in LA County, activism, and academia, is out today from Adi.

Read here: adimagazine.com/articles/til...

In reading my students' work I'm noticing a trend. Though the majority of my students are brunette, blonde blue eyed characters are the platonic ideal in their fiction. I wonder if it's because this is true of the majority of the stories they've read or if it's a reflection of popular culture...

A night with Claudia Rankine: Grief, collapse and ‘Triage’ - The Student Life On Oct. 15, acclaimed poet, playwright and essayist, Claudia Rankine, read excerpts from her upcoming book “Triage” to the Claremont community. Rankine’s writing often touches on the intimate fault li...

got to hear Claudia Rankine read from her forthcoming book Triage last week. What a joy: tsl.news/a-night-with...

today is the day of Whiting sadness for me...

Hello from Whidbey Island...

i discovered this incredible story by @samjmiller.bsky.social when perusing Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy in prepping for my courses next semester. www.thedarkmagazine.com/if-someone-y...

Right? Wowza

such a neat discovery.

stunner....

This is what I think of folks (who are not very well read and haven't spent any time on tending to sentences) who decide to quit their job to write a book.

My Savage Year | Jordan Harper From the Magazine

Read this perfect story today. Thrilled to teach it to my students next semester. Thanks @stephcha.bsky.social and @blacktopkid.bsky.social for your excellent selections in BAMS southwestreview.com/volume-108-n...

'Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor'-Virgil

Reposting this and a few other things for no particular reason today. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow and the next day, too.

Love this prose by Miriam Toews in @parisreview.bsky.social

What they aren’t showing on Fox News

BREAKING: A few minutes ago, a vehicle of three people was rammed by a truck belonging to federal immigration authorities in Boyle Heights, CA. According to security footage shown to me, they deployed chemical munitions & detained the driver at gunpoint. All are US citizens according to the wife.

Got a book length or longer project you'd like feedback on? I'm offering manuscript consultations over summer break: www.melissachadburn.com/consultations/

I Went to Find Trump's 'Rebellion.' I Ended up at a Birthday Party | Connecting California Reporting in Compton and Paramount on Saturday, I Saw Nothing That Justified Sending in the National Guard

I concluded this because these days, U.S. federal agents cover their faces, don’t produce identification, and won’t respond even when you ask them who they are. Living in a city of actors, I recognize their Method-style commitment to the neo-Gestapo role. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/i-went-to-fi...

Looking forward to doing this @dykestorytelling event @dynastytr.bsky.social on June 21st!

Ocean Vuong, author sitting with his arm extended out toward Tonya Mosley, journalist

What a delightful night, and leave it to Ocean Vuong to sit before a packed house, extending the admiration and recognition to @tonyamosley.bsky.social, who was also such an insightful interlocutor. I woke up today motivated with a full spirit. People are alright.

"I slept with a human Ed Hardy shirt."—@jeanho66.bsky.social
in her delightfully funny and moving story Kiki and Tombu in The Sewanee Review.

In Defense of Despair The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be so.

This essay by Hanif Abdurraqib on despair is such a stunner. www.newyorker.com/culture/essa... Also reminds me of a quote from Laurel Fantauzzo's The First Impulse, "Grief tinged amusement is a most Filipino condition." Malaise is my preferred affect. I love to swim around the slow thick of malaise.

I SURVIVED READING BANNED BOOKS ALL I GOT WAS SMARTER AND MORE EMPATHETIC

📚 ¿y tù? 📖