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Oct 27, 2021

The only thing I miss abt 2020 is how honest people were about their mental health. Now the charades are back with all the social rebounding. The pace picking up. The Monday complaining. The illusion of finished grief. I miss the bluntness that came with collective discontent.

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Mar 10

The best of creative writing happened last night—a dialogue tooled w/ a disability justice frame, set for queer engagement btwn folx who use storytelling to worldbuild for themselves & the communities they are accountable to. Thank you

@aaww

& The Connector

@brownroundboi

Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

Mar 10

Tonight was absolutely stunning. The richness of the work. Secondary only to the mutual magic of love, respect, and care. Thank you for this memory.

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@ZeynJoukhadar

Mar 10

Whewww. The way we make space for each other, care for each other, care for our younger selves. This event was incredible. If u were there u know!! Thank you @brownroundboi @aaww @kirinjaan @LFB27 Angela & everyone for coming!!

twitter.com/brownroundboi/…

brownroundboi (he/they/siya)

Mar 9

Tonight, friends, TONIGHT!

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@brownroundboi

Mar 9

Hello #awp2023 & friends, TONIGHT 6pm ET - here’s an accessible virtual event in beautiful conversation & writing! Revel introvert style with snacks & join us with @aaww @aawwunion @LFB27 @kirinjaan @ZeynJoukhadar & Angela Peñaredondo! ASL & Captions! aaww.org/curation/virtu

brownroundboi (he/they/siya)

Mar 9

The last reading I did was in 2016. I never thought about it Kay invited me to this. Since 2016, I’ve read my work at political sites—immigrant detention center protest, a rally for Black youth killed by cops. Tomorrow holds a different significance but political nonetheless.

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@brownroundboi

Mar 7

Hello wonderfuls, Join this #AWP Off-site #Queer & Trans virtual extravaganza event: Hybrid Possibilities: #Asian Queer Writing Across Genre with @aaww THIS 3/9 Thurs 6pm ET. Feat. @ZeynJoukhadar, @kirinjaan, @LFB27, & Angela Peñaredondo! Link here: aaww.org/curation/virtu

Alexander Chee: “Community always has a certain amount of struggle”

Oct 17, 2022

To converse with a beloved writer abt their craft is a privilege, but to converse with beloved writer who is also beholden to his communities & interrogates his own conscience is an honor. My deep gratitude for this exchange, Alex.

@alexanderchee

guernicamag.com

The 2022 Guernica Benefit honoree on the importance of building literary community

Sep 14, 2022

For the first time since 2019, I was on-site for a university talk with undergrads about publishing and writing. Ah, these students. SO bright. So earnest. My heart is a teacher. I want to do this more. There. I said it.

Aug 29, 2022

In these United States LOL

Aug 29, 2022

Imagine being a literary writer these days and believing political writing is something other people should handle. LOL

Aug 27, 2022

One of the most important practices of political transformation is allowing and accepting that people change. You don’t have to hold fast to what someone used to believe. Normalize evolution.

Aug 18, 2022

I received an email from a Venezuelan feminist organizer abt the impact of my antho, Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence. The bleak world continues to bark hyperindividualistic instructions for healing. Remember, tho: translation across borders is medicine.

Jun 24, 2022

Books are more important than ever. Stories are more important than ever. Voice is more important than ever. Collective healing is more important than ever. Advocacy is more important than ever. Community is more important than ever. Do not hide. Get out there. Bring everyone.

Jun 1, 2022

In January, I decided to take a 6 mo hiatus. In that interim, a health issue manifested and I needed surgery and time to recuperate. This is my first post of 2022, mid-year. And what a year it has been. Just checking in to say: I’m well. I’m strong. I’m still here.

Dec 30, 2021

I had to go to the bank to get something notarized. Next to me, an elderly woman stood in her social distanced line and told the teller loud enough for me to look over: “My two adult children died this year.” I’m out of words. I’m just going about the world as gently as I can.

Dec 28, 2021

For 2022, apply what you have learned: LEAN OUT.

Dec 28, 2021

After nearly 8 consecutive days of gatherings, I am home by myself with no one around asking, crying, begging, requesting, wondering, needing anything from me. And friends, what I can say without exaggeration is that the silence is almost orgasmic.

Dec 24, 2021

May the unvaxxed be visited by the Covid ghosts of past, present, and future tonight.

Dec 23, 2021

My feminist, literary, and religious godmothers have all died in the span of one month. Who wrote this closing.

Dec 23, 2021

As they both exit, it’s hard not to imagine Joan and bell musing what we are going to do with what they built.

Dec 23, 2021

My teen nephews asked me for dating advice: “Tita, tell me what to do. She’s pinned me.” Like against a wall? “No. Tita. PINNED me. At the top.” Of what? “Her phone. I’m pinned so she never misses a message from me.” Oh! I have a mom’s group thread pinned in my phone.

Dec 21, 2021

My morning was spent in deep meetings & comms w cis & trans Black women writers on healing cooptation & spiritual misunderstanding. All I can share is that the books on the 22 &23 horizon are being tested by fire. This is a pandemic era yes but there are writers emerging aflame.

Dec 16, 2021

Someday I’ll write the essay about the moment I asked bell hooks why she chose to live in Berea, KY when she could be anywhere in the wild world. Quite simply: Her response profoundly helped me then as a diasporic writer struggling very diasporically in Ohio, to live well.

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Dec 15, 2021

For us, the feminists of color who used Black feminism as a theology, therapy, map, and arsenal to heal ourselves and survive this kyriarchal world— bell hooks was a founder of love. This loss is so deep.

Dec 15, 2021

She was the first Black woman to show me on the page what feminism could be for the world, for me. These mother losses are crushing.

Dec 15, 2021

I close my eyes. I bow. Words later. Rest in all the infinite power, bell hooks.

Dec 14, 2021

Good morning to the writers in their book trenches who talk about giving up but deep down know they will not.

Dec 13, 2021

Rec request—Looking for works of any length in any genre except fiction that explicitly explores motherhood as a site of political identity and/or activism. A very big please and thank you! (ps. I already got the anthology Revolutionary Mothering)

Dec 13, 2021

As a Filipinx American writer decolonizing the roots of the Catholic faith I was raised in, I am grateful for Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's scholarship & practices which I find spiritually expansive & resonant. I articulate from a deeper place after metabolizing her work. Read up!

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

@TheRaDR

Dec 13, 2021

Moses, a privileged kid raised by the daughter of the tyrant enslaving his people, finally sees their oppression. And he tries to intervene. And it goes— badly. Because he hasn’t yet learned to be an ally, let alone an accomplice. 1/x thread. lifeisasacredtext.substack.com/p/how-to-show-

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Dec 12, 2021

There's some chatter about whether this is the "first" or not, but regardless, Imma celebrate. As ever—thrilled for dreams and spaces to open for Asian and Asian American literature, storytelling, and community.

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katie yee

@prepartynap

Dec 12, 2021

12.11.2021: new york gets its first asian american-owned bookstore

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Dec 11, 2021

Extended fam asked for my want list so.... rare oils, rare books, indulgent bites, small biz made body butter The humble, domestic asks are over.

Unpopular writing truths 2021 taught me: Boundaries are the new 8c of water a day. Creative dehydration is caused by self-neglect.

Unpopular writing truths 2021 taught me: Write exclusively, ruthlessly for myself. Edit for the reader. Repeat.

Unpopular writing truths 2021 taught me: Closure is overrated. And, often, inaccurate.

Unpopular writing truths 2021 taught me: the more I consistently curbed idle social media scrolling, the closer my writing grew to what I truly wanted it to be. Such is the art, calling us closer; always, to be intentional with our time.

I handed over an essay that I privately thought was stuck to a writer I deeply admired & he told me he thought it was perfect. My takeaway is not only that creative writing is subjective but to keep offering labored work to readers. Don’t sit on it too long. It’s probably ready.

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Rose Himber Howse

@rosehimber

Dec 9, 2021

just got yet another rejection on the short story that got me a Stegner fellowship -- writing is so subjective, and more than a little bit of a crapshoot, and often I am reminded of this and wondered if anyone needed to hear it

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Dec 9, 2021

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed folx of color writers can change the world of your manuscript. Indeed, it is the the only thing that ever has. - Me and Margaret Mead

Dec 8, 2021

All the book authors I’m working with in 2021 have asked for extensions. Every single one. Myself included. Maybe there’s a lesson there for all of us in publishing—stay loose, advocate for quality, normalize humanity & say, “Of course. Let’s adjust to what feels right for you.”

Dec 8, 2021

I flew for the first time in two years and the return flight was a sleepless red eye. I skipped a couple time zones and am now back home, recovering. Judging by my body’s response though, you’d think that I went to Mars and back instead of California.

Dec 8, 2021

This morning my kids go to school fully vaxxed. As it should be. Thank you scientists.😭