Curated reads

Favorite Essays I Read in the Past Two Weeks:

Fall in love with writing againCan you see me?Other motherMy name is a mountainTo force a tenured professor to be done… to be out… to be giving up a tenureThe curl of timeThe rise of emotional divestment

Favorite Short Stories I Read in the Past Two Weeks:

Elbow in Zulu, Dara KellThat Chookaloski Mare, Ashley ThorupFortune’s Prime, Aryn KyleDog Days, The Masters ReviewBroken Animals, The Masters ReviewThe last days of Bohemia, Ann ManovWhat We Were Made For, Abigail Corfman

I didn’t expect an AI narrator would move me but I was, and I included this story into my The Best Short Stories I Read in 2024 folder.

Favorite Flash Fictions I Read in the Past Two Weeks:

Still, Casey Mulligan

A heart-wrenching flash story told in two sentences, one long sentence and one word.

• Swerve, Brenda MillerI hoisted them, two drug dealers, I guess that’s what they were, Diane Seuss

Favorite Sentences I Read in the Past Two Weeks:

“But make no mistake, remaining engaged with this world requires real courage.” –link“Our gardeners and maids and sentry men had all at some point asked—during one of the string of unfortunate personal crises they always seem to be having—if they could stay in our granny flats or our Wendy houses, even just for a weekend or a week or a month, but one has to say no to these kinds of requests otherwise the children come to stay as well, and then of course you can’t very well tell the children, No, you can’t swim in the swimming pool on a hot summer’s day, when one’s own children and grandchildren are swimming in that self same swimming pool.” –link“Our collective laughter felt something like love.” –link“You can only push teachers so far before they’ve got nothing left to lose.” –link“The sky wasn’t like my sky in the woods, but lighter, a pale sunset in pastels unlike the fiery bursts over the pines, the neon-pink streaks right as the coyotes start to howl.” –link“A woman’s life and work are not defined by her relationships or how other people feel about them.” –link“Education is collapsing.” –link“When the sun burned them in the high hell of afternoon, they shimmered like blood.” –link“The shock of that moment lives inside my body, the strength of her hands as she caught me from behind and the force with which she pulled me against herself, holding me as we looked up at the red mud pouring down the cliffs in rapids, the roar and crack of the great boulders falling and breaking, the lightness with which my feet left the ground when my mother lifted and carried me to the house, as though I was still a very young child, as though I was weightless.” –link

Favorite Paragraphs I Read in the Past Two Weeks:

“But make no mistake, remaining engaged with this world requires real courage. Facing your emotions and the emotions of others is frightening, and it’s a practice that’s not supported by our culture at this moment in history. But when you dare to confront the full force of your sadness, despair, shame, and anger, you’re not only clearing the way to feel the full force of your joy, you’re also learning new ways of spreading that joy to others.” –link“These days, it makes more sense to work at Chipotle than to try and become a tenured professor. And if that doesn’t have “social collapse” written all over it, then I don’t know what does.” –link

Favorite Writing Advice I Read in the Past Two Weeks:
22 things I learned from submitting writing, Blake Butler

Book Recommendations
Momma, Did You Hear the News?

A picture book about a Black family giving their two young sons “the Talk” about how to avoid being shot by the police.

• Here After (a memoir)Green Frog (a short story collection)A Kind of Madness (a short story collection)

Etcetera
How much is a planet worth?Open your senses to the joy and wonder of sound on EarthWhere are the African literary magazines?Good divorce?Validation as a writer?