Ryan

CHARLES RAFFERTY The Problem with Early Warnings People don't like to leave a party unless the house is actually on fire. Even then, if the flames are far enough away to be pretty, they'll finish their drink, take one more pass at the hors d'oeuvres. How things happen has always been unclear. Hurricanes begin in a place where no one lives. Agents of the government start to wear masks. Fascism is a word my neighbors won't use yet. They are following the law, they say, and the sirens are coming for someone else.

This hit so fucking hard today.

These Stories Teach Us How to Fight - Uncanny Magazine Chicago, October 2025. I need you to know we tried. I bought whistles and saline eyewash for my friends, students. The theatre bought 150 whistles. They were gone in days. A neighbor 3D-printed hundre...

My latest essay for @uncannymagazine.bsky.social is live!!

My editor: "I've never published a more important essay." 🥹

This story is likely part of the linked collection I'm working on. Give it a read if you have a chance!

It's surreal to be named the winner of anything, but especially based on pages from what I hope will be my debut novel. It makes me look forward to querying in the new year!

Excited and honored to announce that I am the winner of this year's SLF Diverse Writers Grant!

Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now Most likely, you think we hated the elephant, the golden toad, the thylacine and all variations of whale harpooned or hacked into extinction. It must seem like we sought to leave you nothing but benzene, mercury, the stomachs of sea gulls rippled with jet fuel and plastic. You probably doubt that we were capable of joy, but I assure you we were. We still had the night sky back then, and like our ancestors, we admired its illuminated doodles of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladies. Absolutely, there were some forests left! Absolutely, we still had some lakes! I'm saying, it wasn't all lead paint and sulfur dioxide. There were bees back then, and they pollinated a euphoria of flowers so we might contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask, Hey guys, what's transcendence? And then all the bees were dead.

this glacier plaque plus all the poetry on the skyline reminds me of this poem

The Mirror Test Is Broken Either fish are self-aware or scientists need to rethink how they study animal cognition.

Here's a gift article of a very interesting look at the problems with the mirror-test which has been held as the gatekeeper for which creatures possess theory of mind. Besides working with Elsie, it makes me think about SF creatures & if they would pass the test.

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Mark Up | Granta For an online series, Mark Up, we invited writers to tell us their thoughts on...

A Granta series on punctuation and grammar: lol's, transitive verbs, ellipses, quotation marks, line breaks, xox's... 🤗

For Being Green, There Is Great Hope On verdant words, emerald skin, and leafy witches

As the colors of the season fade, here’s a celebration of one of nature’s favorite hues from the writer of ‘Wicked'.

On the color green, verdant words, emerald skin, and leafy witches.

Reading in the Dark "The words move like transparent fish through the lightless world of the deepest sea"

In a lifetime of reading, it took decades for Jemma Rowan Deer to realize something about herself: she has aphantasia, or the total lack of the ability to produce mental imagery. She describes the condition in the bounds of a container she knows well: the literary review.

A reminder on Intersex Awareness Day: all intersex people deserve to live free of forced medical procedures and they should thrive with respect for their bodily integrity.

💜💛

Cover for Friday Black. In a variety of colours, and line-drawn lion, with a spider down at the bottom.

Cover for Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. An outline of a woman's head, neck, and hair, with various plants and animal parts emerging.

Recommended in FF#24: Need some new short story collections in your life? Find out why Yasmeen Amro recommends Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and why @ryanelz.bsky.social recommends Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu.

www.fusionfragment.com/issue-24/

We expect our body to understand when damage is being done to it. The messages—alert systems of the nervous system—connecting to some kind of information that can be processed. When there is too much, we overload like a computer. the new you / the impact of impossible momentum / ready for normalcy This text is overlaid on an image of a hand that's got half its palm and fingers replaced by robotic prosthetics.

Story #6 from FF#24: "Equilibrium" by @ryanelz.bsky.social.

What if the accident was past, the damage done, but the horrors of insurance coverage only beginning? What if, finally, you were ready to be the new you?

www.fusionfragment.com/issue-24/

🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave.

Tell them:
1. Vote NO on Cloture
AND
2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill.

Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.

TODAY is the showdown.
🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121

All I See and Hear Is Blue — Ghost Parachute I snip my fingers, and they land on the hair of the client sitting in front of me, and then they decide to pirouette across her scalp and arabesque along her hairline, so I coo come back, but the knuc...

New micro up Ghost Parachute! Check out everyone!! It's an amazing issue!!

ghostparachute.com/issue/march-...

"No Offense" Reveals the Hidden Fees of Being Queer in a Straight World - Electric Literature Jackie Domenus talks about the frustrations of wedding planning while gay and fielding invasive questions about their sex life

"Unless you are surrounded only by other queer and trans people, it’s nearly impossible to just exist without explanation. So, moments of happiness and celebration always come at a cost, they always have a qualifier."

Fusion Fragment #24 Table of Contents, along with cosmic space whale cover art: “All the Pretty Starships Fly Like This” by J.R. Dewitt: freedom from imperial control / mindships / hot fudge cherry berry “As Big As A Whale” by Avra Margariti: obsession / cosmic space whales / non-linear narratives “Equilibrium” by Ryan Goderez: the new you / the impact of impossible momentum / ready for normalcy “Guiding Star of Mall Patroller 4u-012” by Eric Schwitzgebel: robot liberation / achieving consciousness? / staring at the star “Lucinda Espinosa’s Twenty-Seventh Death” by M.R. Robinson: love in the multiverse / the chaser and the chased / a trip to the canyon “The Earthlight Bright Before Her” by Albert Chu: thoughts of home / the generational divide / abandoned on the moon “This Great Rumble” by Kate Lechler: unfriending / the secret tunnel cat(?) colony / searching for community “To Impersonate A Celestial Body” by Yasmeen Amro: a planet’s vessel / signing away one’s body / becoming Kepler-186f

FF#24 has arrived! Stories by J.R. Dewitt, @avramargariti.bsky.social, @ryanelz.bsky.social, @eschwitz.bsky.social, @mruthrobinson.bsky.social, @chubertwrites.bsky.social, @katelechler.bsky.social, and Yasmeen Amro!

Get your copy for free right here: www.fusionfragment.com/issue-24/

The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word 'transgender' from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website. This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals - especially transgender women of color - who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights. SIGBI followed by a next arrow

The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word 'transgender' from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website. This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals - especially transgender women of color - who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights. SIGBI followed by a next arrow

The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word 'transgender' from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website. This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals - especially transgender women of color - who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights. SIGBI followed by a next arrow

The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word 'transgender' from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website. This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals - especially transgender women of color - who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights. SIGBI

The Stonewall Inn released a response to the National Parks Service removing the word transgender from the park outside of the Inn. A great reminder that we have to look after each other

Excited to share I'm going to be participating in the Juniper Institute summer workshop this year as well! Keeping that writing energy going in 2025.

Stories by J.R. Dewitt, @avramargariti.bsky.social, @ryanelz.bsky.social, @eschwitz.bsky.social, @mruthrobinson.bsky.social, @chubertwrites.bsky.social, @katelechler.bsky.social, Yasmeen Amro, with reviews of Weird Horror from @undertow.bsky.social by @arielmarkenjack.bsky.social

16 LGBTQ+ Books That Defined 2024 From memoir to poetry to dystopian fiction, this year had something for every kind of queer reader.

Another listicle! Featuring a whole bunch of excellent reads (a couple double-dips from my NPR picks) including:

"The Shutouts" by @gabriellekorn.bsky.social
"The Future Was Color" by Patrick Nathan
and
"Wire Mothers" by @ferrifrigida.bsky.social

<3 <3
www.them.us/story/best-b...

Vol. 5, No. 11: November 2024 - Digital Pedagogy as Feminist Worldmaking · Reviews in Digital Humanities Vol. 5, No. 11 of Reviews in Digital Humanities, a peer-reviewed journal that facilitates scholarly evaluation of digital humanities work and its outputs, edited by Jennifer Guiliano (Indiana Universi...

We are pleased to share the November issue of #ReviewsInDH. This topic issue on “Digital Pedagogy as Feminist Worldmaking” is from our social justice topic editors @danicasavonick.bsky.social and Kush Patel. reviewsindh.pubpub.org/v5-n11

YouTube video by vlogbrothers Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment

This is one of those videos that you could work on forever, but suddenly it felt very important to make it, so I finally did: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Pn...

With some stylized design in the background (think "sports channel graphic), the text reads: Table of Contents Fusion Fragment 24 All the Pretty Starships Fly Like This - J.R. Dewitt As Big As a Whale - Avra Margariti Equilibrium - Ryan Goderez Guiding Star of Mall Patroller 4u-012 - Eric Schwitzgebel Lucinda Espinosa's Twenty-Seventh Death - M.R. Robinson The Earthlight Bright Before Her - Albert Chu This Great Rumble - Kate Lechler To Impersonate a Celestial Body - Yasmeen Amro

The lineup for FF#24 is finalized! Our February 2025 issue will feature stories by J.R. Dewitt, @avramargariti.bsky.social, Ryan Goderez, @eschwitz.bsky.social, @mruthrobinson.bsky.social, @chubertwrites.bsky.social, @katelechler.bsky.social, and Yasmeen Amro!