Natalie Lima

CNF peeps: What are your favorite braided essays published in the last year or two??

The Spurious Glamor of Certain Voids - The Rumpus Don’t we all love looking, Diane Seuss wondered, at dead things?

This @colinhamilton.bsky.social essay about writers dying is NEXT LEVEL GOOD. @therumpus.net #RumpusEssays

therumpus.net/2025/11/10/t...

This was terrific (and dark) lol. Loved it.

So is Twitter officially over for the lit community? Have been kind of in hiding.

Is it just here and Substack?

Anyone need an awp panelist?? Add me so I can go.

I can talk about lots of nerdy things with y’all. Xoxo

Shoot me an email, if you need a replacement: natalielima09@gmail.com

✏️💗

PERIPLUS: An FAQ PERIPLUS: AN FAQ Updated August 2025 Hi! Thanks for your interest in Periplus, a mentorship collective serving U.S. writers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We're glad you’re here. Rea...

Periplus, a mentorship collective serving US-based early-career writers of color, is now accepting applications for our 2026 class of fellows! Apply by 9/20: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

You can learn more about Periplus (including fellowship eligibility requirements) here: bit.ly/periplusfaq

Trump administration is reviewing all 55 million foreigners with US visas for any violations The Trump administration says it’s reviewing more than 55 million foreigners who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation.

oh.

apnews.com/article/trum...

Yooo, none of the AWP panels I was asked to be on were accepted.

Please think of me if you need a person to add to your panel in the next couple of months. xo

Gorgeous

The fall 2024 Prairie Schooner spread open over my notebook, which is also open to the two pages where I copied “is the body ever truly naked” by ire’ne lara silva.

(Note that lineation doesn’t work in alt text, but the words are here) is the beautiful body ever truly naked what vulnerability is there in toned thighs and rippling abs unblemished skin seems a kind of armor it must be to have resisted scars and burns and stretchmarks and calluses everything the camera loves everything the light loves everything the eye has been taught to love would make you think no one ever loved and lusted after crooked little toes would make you think that it was impossible for hands to yearn for the soft yield of flesh that is neither breast nor ass would make you think that greying hair or wrinkling flesh or dark circled eyes could ever dim the light of the soul shining through would make you think that it wasn't the greatest measure of a gift to invite touch to say this my imperfect body will meet your imperfect body and we will say nothing of forgiveness because there is nothing to forgive

The issue held in my hand in front of a bookshelf. The cover image is of a white indoor hallway with brown leaves covering the floor.

Love this poem by Ire’ne Lara Silva in @prairie-schooner.bsky.social so I copied it into my notebook. Also, check out the amazing artwork by Song-Ming Ang! I am here for a hallway of crunchy leaves.

check out Edgar Gomez’s Alligator Tears if you haven’t yet. xx

A heartbreaking, achingly beautiful memoir of love, loss and resilience In 'The Murmur of Everything Moving,' Maureen Stanton relates how her passionate, tumultuous young love with Steve changed inalterably when he got sick.

Thrilled to have this review in my "hometown" newspaper. #memoirs #newbooks www.pressherald.com?p=7476949&uu...

Girl You Better Try To Have Fun Megan Stielstra on embodying many ages at once, and learning of Sinéad O'Connor's death the summer her father was dying. An excerpt of "Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O'Connor Means to Us"

I wrote about remembering how to feel for Nothing Compares to You, an anthology of essays on the legacy of Sinéad O’Connor. The book comes out tomorrow. Here, get your joy: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Nothin...

Thank you to @saribotton.bsky.social for giving this piece a home on @oldster_mag.

A few clients are announcing projects in new genres, new categories…

Remember, writer friends. You can jump around.

The oft said advice of “branding” doesn’t mean you need to stay in one lane.

It just means when you’re in a new genre or category, it still feels like a book from YOU. ❤️

“Before you become a writer you must first become a reader. Every hour spent reading is an hour spent learning to write.” ~ Robert Macfarlane

This is indeed a perfect time to support @theoffingmag.bsky.social. Patrons who give at the $10 level will receive a copy of our 10th anniversary anthology featuring work by @iamlisako.bsky.social @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social @natalielima09.bsky.social and so many others!

www.patreon.com/c/theoffing

Great topic if talking about fatness, fetishization, and the absurd, etc

Rumpus Prize in Nonfiction, First Place: Daniel B. Summerhill - The Rumpus A tight plot of land with poverty gripping the neck of its residents even tighter. The same way America held off on recognizing street gangs as an issue until blood was spilt outside of the hood in 19...

So pumped that @meganstielstra.bsky.social selected @bennysummerhill.bsky.social's essay "'Tell Me When to Go' Had Just Dropped and I Was from Oakland" as the winner of the @therumpus.net Prize in Nonfiction!!! A stunning essay.
therumpus.net/2025/06/05/r...

Omg I totally can 😆

BOMB Magazine | Megan Giddings by CQ Quintana Speculative fiction that grapples with spirituality, sisterhood, kooky academics, and seven mysterious portals.

I got to talk to my friend and former student CQ in @bombmag.bsky.social about Meet Me at the Crossroads, faith, how many nuns I'm related to, Severance, letting people have things as a treat, inexplicableness, academic kookiness, Lucille Clifton and Pure Michigan: bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

If anyone wants to add me to your #awp26 panel, holler Happy to talk about:

-Bodies/fatness/beauty standards
-Sex/fetishes
-Sobriety/recovery
-Humor/balancing tone
-immigration
-politics/current events in CNF
-the memoir plus
-memoir in general
-querying
-academia
-class/race/diversity

xo

thrifted outfit of the day. It’s how we cope w/ the chaos

This book is out TODAY! I put my whole heart into it. You can buy it wherever you buy books. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725681...

Paid Subscriber Benefit: Live Lecture Today! “Sentence Acoustics and Style”: This lecture on how to write better sentences and paragraphs will begin with theory and then proceed through a number of examples of excellent sentence-level craft, bre...

At my newsletter NO FAILURE, ONLY PRACTICE, I've started giving quarterly Zoom craft lectures for paying subscribers. Today's is on "Sentence Acoustics and Style," one of my favorite topics, and should be a blast. You can still sign up if you'd like to join!

Twitter is where i keep in touch w/ everyone for the last few years. I’ve taken a break from posting. But should I be using bluesky the same way? Or is the answer Substack?

Help! 😝💗

A long weekend is the perfect time to send us your work. No fees.

$200 prize for fiction and creative nonfiction.

duotrope.com/duosuma/subm...

Turn on my AC for the first time in over 6 months. I’ve never been so happy to be hot again 😆

a screenshot of Meet Me at the Crossroads cover and the following blurb by Lorraine Berry: Giddings deserves a wider reading audience. Her previous two novels have been lauded by critics for their combination of magical realism and modern social and political reality. Ayanna and Olivia are teenage twin sisters whose lives are changed by a mysterious worldwide event. Seven doors open, beckoning those who believe a better world exists through the portal. Giddings interrogates the meaning of fath in a heady novel about love and family.

helloooooooooo, Meet Me at the Crossroads is on @latimes.com's list of 30 Books to read this summer: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

the new pope is gringo