Sejal Shah

I was wondering why my friend Kyle (@kesemmel.bsky.social) named his Substack "Bright Boy." He wrote a wonderful essay in response and I learned more about him, which is maybe what we want in any writing. So many Substacks, some of them not very interestingly named. But "Bright Boy"? I love it.

Thank you so much for posting this! I'm sorry I didn't see it in time to repost, but I appreciate the post.

a wonderful evening of poetry at the Highland Bowl with readings by @kathryncowles.bsky.social @cathylinhche.bsky.social and @geoffreybabbitt.bsky.social -a huge thanks to Writers & Books for hosting and @robinweeg.bsky.social for hanging

10 Questions for Sejal Shah BY FRANCHESCA VIAUD

“I wanted people to know something about him other than his death—to know something more of Jim’s life—and to memorialize the kind of friend he was to me and to so many.”

@sejalshah.bsky.social writes for our #10Questions, available on our Substack: open.substack.com/pub/themassa...

@kenyonreview.bsky.social

I forgot I had written this piece about the wonderful journalist James Foley. Thank you, Andrew, for finding it and resurrecting it here. Thanks to @kenyonreview for publishing this on their blog.

Wow, Andrew- I had completely forgotten I had ever written this. Thank you for finding and resurrecting it. Thanks to the @kenyonreview for the opportunity to blog, now several years ago…

It was wonderful to hear you read and to be part of this evening of poetry!

If the IRS deprives Harvard of its tax-exempt status, that's very bad for Harvard but it's also a catastrophe for the IRS. Instead of a neutral agency that enforces tax law, it will become a tool of partisan warfare. It may never recover.

1. This is a legitimately courageous stance in a moment when many elites are choosing the path of appeasement

2. Strategic alumni organizing will be crucial to make it stick. What I'm saying is: if you went to Harvard and you want everyone to know but in a humble way, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT

“We need essays and stories and poems. We need these things that don’t make sense in capitalism—especially because they take time and reflect on the human condition.”

Wonderful words from @sejalshah.bsky.social

mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...

I loved this chance to write about my favorite Margaret Atwood essay, dance, meditation, and words from @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Terry Tempest Williams, Richard Hugo & more…thanks @briangresko.bsky.social & @writingco-lab.bsky.social

Pencil sketch of the Studio Ghibli character, Porco Rosso with a modified quote from the movie "Better a pig than a gen A.I. user!"

Better a pig than a gen A.I. user!

What Will You Do? What’s your “I am Spartacus” move to protect the more vulnerable, the targeted, the invisibled, the next-on-the-list?

"But of course it is nonsensical to feel contempt for systems. Systems don’t disappear and murder people; people do. Such malice is corporeal—it requires individual actors with actual bodies, with hearts that could fit in my chest." --@kavehakbar.bsky.social

www.thenation.com/article/acti...

Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the White House Counsel’s Office.

Hi, I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.

White people are crazy, man.

What Happens When a Drone Strike Has No Killer and a War Has No Dead? | The Walrus Language gives us the privilege to look away

Omar al Akkad on the language we use in armed conflict, and how it dispossesses people of their humanity. thewalrus.ca/what-happens...

Curtis Sittenfeld on Show Don’t Tell Bestselling fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell. Sittenfeld discusses the title stor…

NEW EPISODE: Bestselling fiction writer @csittenfeld.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell.

@literaryhub.bsky.social

lithub.com/curtis-sitte...

We have each other. We are the Resistance now. All of us.

These FREE trainings are super helpful and give you concrete steps on what to do in situations needing intervention.

Pretty darn thrilled to have my (tournament-winning! I couldn't believe it!) March Danceness essay from last year about Amerie's "1 Thing" in this forthcoming @marchxness.bsky.social edited @splitlippress.com anthology!

So incredibly stoked that this is happening, and that the very first @marchxness.bsky.social essay I wrote (about the Creatures & Virginia Woolf & menstrual blood & nu-metal, among other things) will be in it alongside so many faves! Coming March 2026!

These ten Democrats should just quit. To censure Green when there have never been consequences for MTG for egregious behavior whereas Green was protesting fascism. We are drowning in shit.

Some happy news at a grim time. #bookstagram #fiction #shortstories #storycollections #forewordreviews #multiculturallit

Thank you so much, @wvupress.bsky.social !! I'm thrilled to learn of this news. And thank you, @sarahburnes.bsky.social!

To President Zelenskyy, From Embarrassed Americans Over the past two years, everyday people have been showing up in support of Ukraine in both big demonstrations and small acts—including displaying the Ukrainian flag, publicly advocating for peace and...

We cannot allow the indefensible actions of our government to eclipse our overwhelming solidarity with the Ukrainian people. sign.moveon.org/petitions/to...

A Rogue and Necessary Kindness For a while, I knew where they were. The flags, three of them, that were received when my parents and my older brother became naturalized citizens. I…

"Did my brother get stuck in red tape because my parents did not know whom or how to ask or push? What are the consequences of...not understanding bureaucracy is meant to tire you out?"

Here's an essay I wrote about my family's immigration history: magazine.wellesley.edu/issues/winte...