VR Hickman

This thread is solid good news all the way down

If you're not writing your long book what are you even doing. It's the summer of writing your long book, not the summer of experiencing happiness

I am weary of New York mayoral race updates, but I’ll make an exception for this post 🏆

Taps the sign. 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans kids deserve health care, cool haircuts, clothes they love, oh and basic human rights.

I like Instapaper!

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87 Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Oh, this is sad news.

I just read it this morning and I know I’m a few days late, but this from Paul Tran is the poem I needed for Mother’s Day www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home has a “six-minute chocolate cake” recipe that is vegan and amazing

I almost gave up when I got to the first notebook section, but I am persevering

A magnolia tree full of pink flowers

A plum tree full of white flowers

Yellow and white daffodils and purple flowers in the grass around two trees (maybe birch?)

A redbud tree full of (yes) red buds

#FlowerReport from today’s trip to the botanical gardens

Good evening, I’m here to make an extremely belated recommendation for bell hooks’ essay “Women Artists: The Creative Process,” which is excellent and which somehow I hadn’t read until today

tomorrow is indie bookstore day! come see us for:

🥳10% off ALL SIGNED BOOKS
🥳10% off select staff picks (a whole table full of em!!)
🥳15% off ALL ROOM MERCH
🥳IBD EXCLUSIVE MERCH
🥳A GOLDEN LIBRO.FM TIX -- whoever finds it gets TWELVE FREE AUDIOBOOKS

AND MOOOREEEEEEEEEE <3

Telling my students I invented the most American literary device ever called “Rambo’s gun”, based on Chekhov’s gun, in which after an object like a gun is introduced into a story it’s THE ONLY THING the character uses to solve a problem.

Friends, I was not prepared for The Golden Notebook. I’m thirty pages in and we’re still on the first scene. And the adverbs! So many adverbs!

Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.

Coming in September! Kate Zambreno’s ANIMAL STORIES, an exploration of mortality, alienation, boredom, surveillance, and how we regard ourselves among the animals, part of our Undelivered Lecture series, is now available for preorder ✨

www.transitbooks.org/books/animalstories

All I’m saying is, The Sea The Sea is one of those novels you probably shouldn’t try to pull unironic self-care advice from

SAME

I’ve been shopping more at Ace Hardware—the stores are locally/individually owned, at least in my area, and have a surprising range of stuff. Haven’t tried ordering from them online, but it might be worth a try?

Stonewall National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights a...

This is where you go to tell the National Park Service to restore the word "transgender" in its entry on the Stonewall monument.

(Scroll down.)

The cover of the new issue of Bookforum, which is full of pink, yellow, and purple pansies.

At the risk of turning this into a Bookforum fan account: woooo, new issue of Bookforum! AND look at all those pansies, which are honestly bringing me back to life

I’ve seen several people move from substack to ghost? Might be something else to look at?

Look at these lovely prints!

This is the level of pep talk I need right now

Four panels. In the upper left, a pink hand reaches out from blue water as if drowning. Text reads Trans people’s healthcare being banned. Upper right: a pink hand reaches from above as if to help. Lower left: the descending hand delivers a high five that turns the sky pink. Text reads “Uou don’t need HRT to be valid!” Lower right panel: first pink hand descends into the water, bubbles rising.

Thalia Williamson asseses her attempts to talk to allies about Trump’s systemic assault on trans people and offers some invitations. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Fellowships & Residencies BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981.

Bomb magazine literally just sent one out! bombmagazine.org/discover/fel... You can scroll past the visual art ones to get to the ones for writers.

Smitten kitchen is reliable goodness

BELL PEPPERS

Ok well these both sound fantastic, guess I’ll go ahead and block off October for reading