Amy Stuber
@amy_stuber_
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Writer, worker bee. Forthcoming: SAD GROWNUPS (@stillhousepress Oct '24). Flash Editor @splitlipthemag. she/her.
Joined January 2017
huge thanks to anyone who has read/supported SAD GROWNUPS! It's been a thrilling week, and I'm so grateful! @Bookshop_Org @ravenbookstore @commonmag @SouthRevBooks @ChicagoRevBooks @ElectricLit @The_Rumpus @CraftLiterary @debutiful @coppernickel @NERweb @pshares @Missouri_Review
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Overheard neighborhood story: . First person: my husband goes out and hoots at the owl every night around 8 and it answers. Second person: MY husband goes out at hoots at the owl every night around 8 and it answers.
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For 2022, I want to read a lot of short story collections written by old women who’ve seen and done a lot of shit and are past caring what you think about them.
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@BetoORourke I appreciate the sentiment here. But Cruz and his colleagues are pushing policies that cause physical harm and extreme financial distress to their constituents. At what point do we stop being polite to protect our friends, family, and neighbors?.
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Taking a walk, came upon a person walking a pet rabbit. “He can’t walk but he wants to take walks, so this is how we do it.” Pet’s name: Rabbit.
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@HoustonChron Anyone who doubts white privilege: look at how this white cop killer is portrayed & compare to media depiction of young black men.
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Some places opening to submissions Sept 1 or soon after:.@AGNIMagazine .@asfmag .@_conjunctions .@coppernickel .@GrantaMag .@IowaReview .@kenyonreview .@NERweb .@parisreview .@sewaneereview .@subtropics.I know there are many more! Feel free to add to this list!.
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I'm just now figuring out how to write - maybe, kind of, a little - and I'm 53. Take your time. It's fine.
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I'm debuting at 54! My short story collection, SAD GROWNUPS, comes out in October (@StillhousePress). I would be thrilled/honored/elated if you pre-ordered it:.
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Apologies for self-indulgence: I turn 51 today. After almost three decades of story writing and failed novel attempts, I'm very close to finishing a draft of the first novel I never thought I could write.
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Also, humans are plentiful and repetitive. If two of them are doing something in one place, you can pretty much bet two more of them are doing the same damned thing in some other place.
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55 today. Ate chia seed pudding, walked on the beach, ate a giant chocolate chip cookie, read books, had a meltdown, apologized to everyone, walked on the beach some more. Felt sad. Felt grateful. All the things.
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Unbeknownst to me until yesterday, apparently comedian @bertkreischer has a funny owl bit. A few women have been like, "Huh, this reminds me of Bert K" and the men are like, "OH LOOK WHO WATCHED A NETFLIX SPECIAL AND NEFARIOUSLY STOLE THIS JOKE BC SHE'S AN INSECURE WHORE".
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I had an agent I found via querying. She then quit agenting. Then I had an agent who found me. We parted ways amicably after my novel didn't sell. I'm saying this bc writer twitter, with lots of happy pronouncements, can feel isolating, but here's to all of us in limbo.
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when you get a nice rejection and the magazine says, "keep us in mind for future whatever," and you're like, "but that was my best thing. i can't do any better than that.".
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In 2003, I went to a Joan Didion reading. Unbeknownst to me, my sister approached her after and gave her a hard copy of something I wrote. I thought nothing would come of it. A few weeks later, I got this in the mail. One if my literary idols. RIP Joan Didion.
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@goodnatureart They definitely are. But in this particular scenario, they were unknowingly (two people) hooting at each other.
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This is me lying on my dirty kitchen floor after getting news about the @nw_review contest. I’ve entered a lot of contests over the years. This is the first one I’ve won, and I really really cannot believe it. Thank you so much, @st_tremaine_ @nicky_gonzalezz & judge @EmilyNemens
CONGRATULATIONS to Amy Stuber whose amazing story "LittleHouseWomen" is our WINNER of the $2500 Northwest Review Fiction Prize!!!!!! Nice work @amy_stuber_ :)))))).
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I’m fine w short story collections that are just a bunch of good stories. As a reader, I don’t need a theme or a concept to unify them.
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yesterday, an editor sent me an email saying she taught one of my stories to her class, and it literally made my week. If there's a writer whose work you've read & liked, send them a message! Stories are published and quickly disappear, and this kind of feedback means everything.
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almost every time I decline something in Submittable, I think about someone who spent a lot of time crafting this (often really good) thing, opening the message and feeling terrible. For space reasons, lit mags have to decline a lot of very good stories, just saying.
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I'm really so tired of the narrative that every short story writer must produce a novel in order to sell anything to traditional publishers. I think a lot of mediocre novels we see were written by good short story writers who were told they had to write a novel to break through.
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I mainly left Twitter for a year, and everyone said the #writingcommunity was dead. But this was the nicest thing - to feel cheered on by so many writers. Unexpected and makes my month (or year, really). Thanks for the kindness.
I'm debuting at 54! My short story collection, SAD GROWNUPS, comes out in October (@StillhousePress). I would be thrilled/honored/elated if you pre-ordered it:.
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last year, I'd given up on the idea of having a book. This year, I turned 55, and I am both shocked & happy to have a collection coming out in one month! I'd be very grateful if you'd consider pre-ordering @stillhousepress:
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I'm 52 today. 1) I never thought I'd be 52, so I feel grateful (and still like I'm 22 or 32 or 12 sometimes, maybe a lot). 2) I've only done some of the things I thought I'd do, which is fine. 3) I'm going to eat cake and listen to music and walk by the ocean.
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@ABC When the only people who want rollback of #NetNeutrality are the ones who stand to profit from it, you KNOW it's the wrong thing.
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I just got an acceptance from a place where I had my first real publication 30 years ago. 1) After lots of nos from them, I am very excited. 2) I am old. Writing and submitting is a journey.
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the one family thing we do together consistently is walking. tonight, my kid said to me, "I think walking creates empathy," which is something I'd never thought of. (As in, seeing people close-up, seeing into houses, lives, etc.) I liked this.
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@RogerMarshallMD Kansan here. The courts (many w Trump-appointed judges) have shot down 50+ cases. On what grounds are you questioning election processes and outcomes? Stop wasting our time and money, especially during a pandemic.
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I really want to write an aging/menopause/aging parents/later motherhood book - nonfiction. Am I too late? Has this been done too much already? Would it have to have a gimmick or a hook? Or can I just tell it all?.
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Is anyone else just in a constant state of pre-mourning climate doom? (Sorry, depressing).
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I've been submitting to @Missouri_Review since the time of worn-out copies of Writer's Market and ferrying big yellow envelopes to the post office. It's such a thrill to see my story in this beautiful issue. (Big thanks, @evelynsomers13!) Order here
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What are your favorite print literary magazines right now?.
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Aging is weird, with the increasing earbuzz of do things, make things, tick tock, alongside the growing sense that maybe it doesn’t matter, maybe it’s okay to just walk around at dusk and look at clouds while listening to the Velvet Underground too loud
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@NBCPolitics Actually, "Georgia's Republican governor candidate has been mass purging voter rolls before election.".
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I've had plenty of unpaid publications. I knew these journals didn't pay, and I accepted the terms. They're run by volunteers who want to share art. Would I prefer to get paid? Sure. Can every all-volunteer mag do that? No. Does that mean they should go away? I don't think so.
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Unpopular opinion: high school kids do not need syllabi littered w Western "Classics." Give them contemporary, engaging, literary texts, and turn them into life-long readers (w added bonus of moving away from what has been for so many a nearly all-white curriculum).
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My debut collection, SAD GROWNUPS (@StillhousePress) is officially out today! It’s been a journey, and I am so grateful! (Bookshop is offering free shipping today and tomorrow:
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My kid (Edie Patterson) and I are both reading at a Best Small Fictions ‘23 event with a bunch of great writers! . March 7, 8 PM ET- DM me for link!
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@SenFeinstein "Abortion-inducing drugs" -- that descriptor is also a fundamental mis-representation of what birth control pills actually do-- likely in attempt to further vilify women for wanting control over their bodies.
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@WPLGLocal10 He certainly didn't sign up for zero leadership, zero transparency abt the mission,&zero compassion from an amoral draft dodger. #fucktrump.
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If someone asks “why do you write” people say “because I love it” or “because I can’t not.” true, but what’s the underbelly of why you want to publish a book? (mine: envy, competitiveness, money, wanting to prove something to my parents, wanting to leave something for my kids).
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When I was a kid, seven members of my extended family died in a house fire on Christmas Eve. It wasn't really "my" tragedy; I was so young. Still, it hung over everything. I keep trying to write about it. Thanks, @goftyler & @havehadhavehad
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I turn 53 today, and somehow I still feel like an absolute baby. My goal for this year: joy, people, love, food, experiences over some stupid spreadsheet checklist of accomplishments and productivity. Not sure I’m capable of letting that shit go, but I’m trying.
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For once, let's not ask why he did it. Let's ask why anyone has or needs a semi-automatic weapon. Devastating loss of life. #GunControlNow.
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@WhatsupSteeners @jaketapper When the @GOP makes policy choices based on the wishes of a highly-funded lobbying group, they make it political. Giving a platform to the students affected by mass tragedy is news.
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Random writing thought: I’m 50 and only now feel like I’m maybe (maybe) getting close to where I want to be with my writing, stripping away the bullshit & sort of getting there. So this is just to remind myself that it is a process, always. Tell me where you are on this road. ?.
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exciting to spot my story on this Best American Short Stories "Other Distinguished Stories of 2023" list - this story, "Bears," originally published in @Colorado_Review, is the first story in the novel-in-stories project I'm working on!
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@pronounced_ing When my daughter was three or so, she loved to play with bulk bags of food. She named each bag and carried them from place to place and made up elaborate storylines. One year, this was what she wanted: more bags of lentils and couscous etc.
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books that read a little like a collection of related stories but work as a novel?.
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I see a lot of parents of young kids being really hard on themselves for not being productive as writers right now. I wrote no fiction for seven solid years while my kids were little, and that wasn’t even during a pandemic! I hope you can all give yourselves a break!.
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This book comes out in four days!!! Pre-orders are going out, I've been told. Exciting and nerve-racking in equal parts. Thank you to anyone who has read SAD GROWNUPS or ordered it! Available for pre-order or
I'm debuting at 54! My short story collection, SAD GROWNUPS, comes out in October (@StillhousePress). I would be thrilled/honored/elated if you pre-ordered it:.
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I’m too awkward to do one of those unboxing videos. But my book arrived today and it’s such a thrill to hold it in my hands! Thank you @StillhousePress & @BeccaBurke95 (SAD GROWNUPS comes out Oct 8 - pre-order here: or @bookshop_org)
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@ambernoelle Chatty people on planes can be annoying, but, wow, how people love to hate women.
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So I’m curious. How aggressive and relentless is the self-deprecating voice in your head? And if you don’t have one of those: how?.
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I wrote a story about a middle-aged adjunct dying of cancer who befriends two sorority girls. After many attempts @Missouri_Review over the years, I was shocked to find it was a runner-up for their Editors' Prize & will be published this summer. Many thanks, @evelynsomers13!.
And now. the WINNERS. Join us in congratulating the winners, runners-up, and finalists of the 31st Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize! -
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The book I'm working on has these things: mushrooms, postpartum depression, literary theory, and catfishing. Tell me the things in your work in progress. ?.
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Hot take for a Friday afternoon: I’m tired of propulsive fiction. I want meandering, digressive fiction that leads me into a weird abandoned cave for a while for no obvious reason.
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@justinamash @realDonaldTrump Knowing nothing about how government works is a hindrance not an attribute for a President.
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To what extent is society being held together right now by sheer anticipation of the next day’s Wordle.
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I just voted against Donald Fucking Trump, and it was glorious.
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I’ve been thinking a lot and writing about how we’re forever carting around these little kid versions of ourselves, trying to make them feel better, trying to calm whatever old sadnesses or fill whatever gaps, no matter what our current age.
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@lydiakiesling Also, Jewish student groups have helped organize this and other protests at Columbia. The utter simplicity of PP’s thinking - the assumption that all CU and BC students who are Jewish think just like she does.
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54 today. Gathering up the good moments, trying not to worry about next and next and next and stacks of things, trying to just look around and be.
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I published some stories I'm proud of this year, but this year will, for me, be defined by trying to, getting close to, and then not selling a novel. I look at the draft now and see it could be better, and I'm revising. Solidarity to everyone who has been through this. It's rough.
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I really don't want to hear another person say "you can't live in fear." Because I am here to tell you: yes, you can.
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At awp, got a lit mag rejection email, and kind of want to go to their table and say “you know, I get it, the story was flawed.”.
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The number of white wellness women refusing the vaccine but happily popping every untested supplement and magic “cure all.”.
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@samstein Unsurprising. And had Ford been even a little angry, she would have been called unsympathetic and shrill. The same people will likely call him brave and strong.
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I was in my 40s when I first got a Pushcart nomination. My kid: she's 16 and just got her first nomination. Yay, Edie Patterson (and thank you @FracturedLit! This is such an honor! We are thrilled!).
So excited to announce our 2021 Pushcart Nominations! Congrats @laughingyeti @raygunnoelle @sarahillswrites @byron_queen @C_Hartsuyker Edie Patterson!.
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In three days I’ll turn 55, and in three months my debut book comes out! It’s been a journey, and I’m grateful to the authors I love who read my book. Here’s a blurb from the amazing Kate Doyle! Preorder SAD GROWNUPS @StillhousePress
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my husband teaches high school english, and he was asking me for some flash and poetry recommendations. I went to the @splitlipthemag archive (, and it reminded me you can teach a whole class from material you find in lit mags. Teach living writers.
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@ambernoelle The anger I feel at people who've been unwilling to share the communal burden of this, unwilling to mask and vaccinate, is something many of us will not get over. How to live alongside people whose actions demonstrate they do not care if we and our children live or die?.
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@USAFan76 @itscedsworld @MattEdwardsAD So you don't have them. ? Also, I'm not one for the Twitter name calling. We're all people. I don't want to insult you. We're trying to discuss.
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@USAFan76 @itscedsworld @MattEdwardsAD I'm giving you my beliefs. They aren't talking points. Also, aside from going after teenagers, he's known for being racist and homophobic. Those things aren't cool with me, nor do I think they would be with Jesus.
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What??? What!?! My daughter Edie Patterson and I are both on this list, and I am so thrilled and grateful! Thanks @okaydonkeymag and @NoTokensJournal @BestSmFictions
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Just putting this out there: if you are a fellow sad person interested in writing a review of my sad-people book, SAD GROWNUPS, please reach out - I'd be happy to provide a copy!.
I'm debuting at 54! My short story collection, SAD GROWNUPS, comes out in October (@StillhousePress). I would be thrilled/honored/elated if you pre-ordered it:.
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I'm working on a novel (maybe, sort of, slowly, painstakingly, instead of in a few months like I tried the last time). Anyway, an excerpt from it made it to this shortlist. Thanks, @MastersReview!.
At long last, we are thrilled to share the fifteen writers who have been selected for this year’s Novel Excerpt Contest shortlist. Thank you to every one of you who submitted to this year’s contest—we couldn’t do this without you!. Learn more:
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@nwarikoo A contributing member of a community, a father, a good man, wrenched from his family? This is cruelty. We should be better than this.
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suspiciously simultaneous rejections. sometimes it feels like there's some hotline where they call each other, "are you ready? okay, send.".
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what are your favorite experimental novels? (I know this is a very broad term, but I'm curious still what comes to mind).
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@rgay It's one of the three things that always happen on almost every House Hunters: they make a bad joke about closets; they agree they can drink coffee outside on the deck in the morning; and they have wildly different ideas about price.
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@igorvolsky It was amazing. And yet a minute later, he's still condescending and dismissive. He still thinks he knows better than everyone in the room.
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Maybe you all knew this existed, but I did not. My aunt is a member of the "cloud appreciation society," whose mission is "fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky thinking.’" I feel like the writers I know would appreciate this. (Here is "Monday's cloud.")
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I was an AWP skeptic, but I woke this morning a full 10% less introverted and cynical (loved being in rooms full of writers!) Didn’t get many pictures, but thanks for the fun times @hazmatcat, @RPMirabella @MaureenLangloss @weoleson & all the people at @splitlipthemag’s table!
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My book, SAD GROWNUPS, comes out October 8! It's the culmination of a lot of years of writing, and I'm so grateful to @StillhousePress! Pre-orders here: (Also, if you happen to be interested in reviewing the book, please reach out!).
Cover reveal! The cover for Amy Stuber’s debut collection “Sad Grownups” is finally here! “Sad Grownups” will be available for sale wherever books are sold on October 8, 2024, but it’s available for exclusive presale NOW on Stillhouse Press’ website. Link in bio!
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@gdebenedetti @realDonaldTrump If he truly cared about the safety of Americans, he would tighten gun restrictions instead of loosening them.
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@lachlan I don't think this video could be used as evidence she's a white supremacist. But choosing to do work in support of the policies of Stephen Miller-- that's another story.
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I keep thinking about how Columbia has used its history of protest as a marketing tool.
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My book comes out in two months! I'm so grateful to these incredible authors for their kind words! Pre-order (@StillhousePress):
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I’ve never applied for a writing residency, and the idea of all that uninterrupted writing time terrifies me a little. I’m sure I’d squander it. I don’t think I can write anymore if not in ten-minute increments while someone is throwing a nerf ball near my head and yelling at me.
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@MarkAdamsFSU @angorellanah These are teenagers at college. Many of the protestors and organizers are Jewish. These are not Hamas rallies. The ask is to end the mass killing of civilians. I am pretty sure you will listen none of this. But please stop wishing harm on people’s children- it’s evil.
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Forget lit twitter drama. I just saw a great horned owl fly a squirrel across a darkening sky to two fledglings.
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my younger kid got a first poetry acceptance last week, and i am officially now more worried about his submittable than my own. (we are now four writers in one family, and i am not sure this bodes well for anything.).
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My kids are teenagers. One leaves for college this year. Everything feels like this lately: blurry, looking at the backs of things moving away quickly. Middle life is a weird place.
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My mom is out there hand selling my book. Watch out if you encounter an 80-something lady in a Harris/Walz pin in a Kansas City parking lot.
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