it’s me! with an essay from my ~new book~

yes, a cyclist can kill a pedestrian. saying bicycles are as unsafe as cars is like saying knives are as unsafe as guns, just false.

me, a white trans guy with a red beard, wearing a bright yellow crop top that says trans athletes belong here

new favorite shirt dropped

I play Monopoly like 3x a year with my kids (who love it) and it truly makes me feel like i should be sainted for my sacrifice on those nights

i am a simpleton who has a hard time learning games. i only truly like trouble and scrabble.

i love trouble so so much

Gazans Are Dying of Starvation

My overwhelming memory from Hebrew school is being young and seeing images of ancestors starving in the camps. “Never again” was our religion. Here is the paper of record today. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

it feels like it’s about current administration and court bullshit but also about academic texts but i don’t know what they actually are so can’t really engage, which is rough. writing for the public does i think necessitate a little step-stool building for a general audience

without wading into the content of the current Trans Discourse essay, i just want to say i think academics writing for a general audience should actually quote/cite/gesture towards the things they’re arguing with/against so ppl from outside their discipline can do further thinking and reading.

editing a memoir is so so weird amirite

A copy of my book, I Wander the Earth, Hungry for Semen, peeking out from beneath a sculpture/bench. The sculpture looks like a bird but has four fingered hands.

In the foreground: my book, I Wander the Earth, Hungry for Semen. In the background: Leonora Carrington’s sculpture, Cocodrilo, in Mexico City.

Some folks have started receiving their preorders of I Wander the Earth, Hungry for Semen, and I’ve loved seeing your photos and messages. Thank you for sharing them with me! If you haven’t picked up a copy yet and would like to, it’s still available through @carrionbloombooks.bsky.social.

time to turn that pro con list into a food celebrity essay

The first yes, haven’t seen the latter two around so will check them out!

Worried my 9yo is about to enter intense slump after tearing through B.B. Alston’s Amari series and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. Any recs for what she should dig into next?

hi friends, I’m looking for volunteers to read for the Micro department @theoffingmag.bsky.social! no experience needed, but if you love short writing & can spare a few hours a week reading, plz apply/share! plz send a letter of interest & resume to daniel@theoffingmag.com

hope to hear from you! 🌊✨

A headline of an article by Caroline Kitchener in the NYT called “The MTV Reality TV Star in Trump’s Cabinet Who Wants You To Have More Kids”

I honestly think what these freaks truly get off on is watching women toil (and quite literally labor) endlessly for them in intimate proximity. Saying that as someone who has four children, more than any of my friends.

Screenshot of AP news front page with a bullet point reading "What to know: What caused the crash? That's unclear. An aviation safety expert told the AP that it's too early to know much about the cause of the crash, but it appeared to be very surprising at first glance."

Using AI to do bullet points makes your news coverage look stupid and grotesque

jj peña, Dina Relles, Jenny Boully, Nicole Walker, Diane Seuss

i miss the insurance (and other benefits) i had when i was a union k-12 educator so often. the worst is when a peds office doesn’t have a helpful on-call line to help with decision making around numbingly expensive ED visits 🫠 glad kid is ok.

this is going to be one of the best books of 2026--you're going to laugh, you're going to think, you're going to be so hungry while you read this book

Congratulations, Krys!

a book announcement: Author of THE NATURAL MOTHER OF THE CHILD Krys Malcolm Belc's WHAT I MADE FOR DINNER, exploring the questions of labor (in every sense of the word) and what we owe to ourselves and each other in the age of going viral, through food writing and the celebrities who let us into their kitchens, to Alicia Kroell at Catapult, by Ashley Lopez at WLA Books (NA).

wrote a food memoir that is also basically about everything else.

another great month editing one perfect essay at @splitlipthemag.bsky.social

Chipmunk — Split Lip Magazine I remember the house, can see it even now, though it was over a decade ago when I lived there.

I'm thrilled to have a new piece at Split Lip Magazine.

splitlipthemag.com/memoir/0525/...

Minimalist photograph of an adobe wall. Its sunlit, coral-and-salmon surface is etched with dancing cracks. Geometry and shadow are in sharp play against a boundless blue sky.

Here it is! Our ✨amazing✨ MAY ISSUE!

As always, much love & gratitude to our contributors 🥰
WORDS: John Jodzio, @joshdenslow.bsky.social , @cindyhouse.bsky.social & theoceanisgay.bsky.social
ART: Natalie Christensen
PLUS: Barrak Alzaid reviews noam keim

Start reading now! buff.ly/h13a7FK

this semester i got to design and teach a grad seminar on book length essays. i taught 6 cool books and now “grading” involves reading some moving, weird, inventive, surprising drafts the students cooked up. work is work but honestly often can’t believe i went from the work i used to do to…this.

So, this year I was on 4 thesis committees for MFA students at Minnesota and I want to briefly just put these writers on your radar: @smsukardi.bsky.social, Lily Ryan, Paula Molina Acosta, and Frances Ogamba

READ LORI OSTLUND

Essay Collection Incubator Generate, revise, and prepare your essay-collection manuscript for submission—with guest authors and industry professionals, craft lectures and exercises, and multiple rounds of feedback.

Applications are open for my next Essay Collection Incubator—an intensive 10-session class designed to help you complete & revise a full manuscript. There will be workshops, generative- & revision-focused assignments, & class visits w/ authors, agents, & editors. Apply by 6/4! bit.ly/4iYMEj3

a sunny shot of half a dozen everything bagels cooling on a rack. they’re very browned.

they have the lil blisters!

six pieces of bagel dough on a sheet pan

first time bagels. proofing overnight. fingers crossed.