Let the Loss Become Fuel fight week re-cap

Wrote about last weekend's fight: fightweek.substack.com/p/let-the-lo...

"Every time I thought about the event I felt like vomiting on my shoes"

Laura Van Den Berg on stage fright - something horribly familiar to most writers - and how to dull it into submission

The Edge of the Cliff notes on performance & fear

Wrote about having terrible performance anxiety & how I worked through it: fightweek.substack.com/p/the-edge-o...

Thanks for coming out!

A woman standing between bookshelves at a microphone reading from her novel

@lauravandenberg.bsky.social reading from state of paradise

NYC! We'd love to see you at Florida Night! tomorrow (July 1), 6:30 PM, at P & T Knitwear. Super excited to be joining forces w Kristen Arnett, Gabriella Burnham, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, & Lynn Steger Strong. We're gonna have a good time. ptknitwear.com/events

Tennessee’s law expressly classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status, so the Constitution and settled precedent require the Court to subject it to intermediate scrutiny. The majority contorts logic and precedent to say otherwise, inexplicably declaring it must uphold Tennessee’s categorical ban on lifesaving medical treatment so long as “‘any reasonably conceivable state of facts’” might justify it. Ante, at 21. Thus, the majority subjects a law that plainly discriminates on the basis of sex to mere rational-basis review. By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.

Justice Sotomayor's dissent in Skrmetti (which she's now reading from the bench) is deeply pained, accusing her colleagues of abandoning "transgender children and their families to political whims" and badly damaging "bedrock" principles of equal protection. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Hudson Valley people: wildly excited to help host Catherine Lacey TONIGHT for The Möbius Book: 6:30 PM, Northern Spy Reading Series at Left Bank Ciders in Catskill. This will be very fun & you do not want to miss it!

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Come out to P&T Knitwear on TUESDAY, JULY 1ST at 6:30pm, where our lovely @lauravandenberg.bsky.social will appear for FLORIDA NIGHT to talk about her novel STATE OF PARADISE!

#florida #lauravandenberg #stateofparadise

Cake | Laura van den Berg Rita has exorcised her mother’s superstitions, but that hasn’t kept her from developing her own.

Baffler no. 79 features new short fiction from @lauravandenberg.bsky.social‬. In “Cake,” every treat is a burden, and every burden is an opportunity.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming Democratic primary for New York City mayor — delivering a jolt to the crowded race with less than nine days until early voting starts: bit.ly/45bpiU6

The Loneliest Sport on what makes a community hold

I wrote about boxing as the loneliest sport + what makes a community hold: substack.com/home/post/p-...

🌴❤️

It seems to us that if you're anywhere near the Southeast, this is the event you should be headed to on July 1. That lineup is bonkers.

Wildly excited for this night of Florida lit at P & T Knitwear on July 1, with @kristenarnett.bsky.social, @kaylakumari.bsky.social, Gabriella Burnham, & Lynn Steger Strong. You can get your tickets right here: www.eventbrite.com/e/florida-ni...

A delight & an honor to interview @mcrane12.bsky.social on FIGHT WEEK!

What Happens on Fight Week plus my first ever AMA

New newsletter is up! Wrote about what happens on a Fight Week + AMA. fightweek.substack.com/p/what-happe...

April newsletter is on finishing what we start: fightweek.substack.com/p/the-deep-end

Last call to register for this 2 session class on character! We will talk craft, read, write, Q & A. We will do deep dives into what characters need to do & do not need to do & what allows a character to feel alive-alive on the page. www.eventbrite.com/e/kinderhook...

A reminder that this magic is happening on Saturday in New Orleans. Come see @kristenarnett.bsky.social & @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social talk books & life & clowns & how to be a dirtbag and more!

Max Developing Soapy Erotic Thriller ‘Your Second Wife’ From Jamie Rosengard, Adele Lim, Sugar23 & Jessica Rothe Max has taken in for development Your Second Wife, a soapy, erotic thriller series based on Laura Van Den Berg's short story of the same name.

"Your Second Wife," a story from my last collection, is getting adapted! deadline.com/2025/03/max-...

The Birthday Clown of Your Queer Fantasy - Electric Literature An excerpt from STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE by Kristen Arnett, recommended by Laura van den Berg

A clown explores how much of life is a joke in this excerpt from "Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One" by Kristen Arnett (@kristenarnett.bsky.social), recommended by Laura van den Berg (@lauravandenberg.bsky.social).

Joy of joys to introduce @kristenarnett.bsky.social's marvelous latest for @electriclit.bsky.social!

Making a Claim on Language: A Conversation with Adania Shibli - The Paris Review “In Palestine, the obscurities one encounters are often the only things that can be experienced. How is one to transform that from a destructive force into an intimate way of being in the world, unkno...

Extraordinary interview with Adania Shibli: “Language is not immune to acts of genocide and annihilation. It too can be destroyed, become unable to endure, get lost.” www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/03...

y’all it’s the last week for preorders - i know you don’t need me to tell you how important preorders are because you’ve heard that shit a million times but please go grab one from this link right now - you’re not only supporting a queer floridian, you’re also supporting a florida indie bookstore

The Clock on shaping time

March Substack is on shaping time on the page & in the ring (+ my dad’s pet buzzard, the brilliance of Jenny Erpenbeck, & what happens when someone’s shoelace comes untied in a boxing match): fightweek.substack.com/p/the-clock

Looking for some new ways to think about character? I’m excited to be teaching this class in March / April w/ Kinderhook Books. Link to sign up is right here: www.eventbrite.com/e/kinderhook...

Very happy to have a new story, "Ghost Horses," in The Sewanee Review: thesewaneereview.com/articles/gho...

Currently reading STATE OF PARADISE by @lauravandenberg.bsky.social and it’s exactly what I’m in the mood for right now. 💜