Sign in

Anya Johanna DeNiro

@adeniro.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.2K following 3.8K posts

Trans woman, writer, mom in St. Paul, Minnesota. Author of OKPsyche (novel) and From the Yew (poetry chapbook).

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 20h
Cover art by the wonderful Cokorda Martin, and you can see more of his work here www.debutart.com/artist/cokor... www.instagram.com/treasurecult...
debutart.com
Cokorda Martin: posters, characters, Illustration, digital - Artists - Debut Art - Debut Art
Cokorda Martin is an artist from Bali, Indonesia. he brings his childhood and culture into his work. He was introduced to traditional art from an early age by his father and grandfather and he spent h...
3549
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 20h
My third novel, HERO COME HOME, officially has a cover! Preorderable from the usual places us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
The cover of my third novel, HERO COME HOME. Four human figures centred, the main image being that of a bearded man looking back over his shoulder (that's Oro, the protagonist), with a circle of symbols behind him. We can see a swan and a key. In the foreground are three people: two women, one with a mysterious marking? scar? who knows!? on her cheek and the other carrying a sword, flanking an older, balding man holding up a pistol. The possibly-scarred woman looks ever so slightly amused, and that is certainly very like her. Everybody else is not happy to be here, or indeed, anywhere
47502170
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 13h
hate to be a broken record but there have been no updates to this and no response. Still my deadname, my old pic, everything. Even the changes I thought I could make myself didn't take. 👍
362
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 13h
For my wildflowers I have one that is bent in fucking half but still decided to give flower. I think there is something, to that.
Yellow Wildflower horizontal to its pot
040
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 17h
It is maximally profitable right now to either sell panic *about* trans people, or sell panic *to* trans people. Both impulses feed the media consumer's desire to feel mastery over events. One is simple bigoted conspiracism, the other is a defensive crouch that offers a false sense of security.
Emily: I think about this as a journalist and a novelist: I cannot control how the reader takes what I write. Especially when reporting, I try to be as careful as I can, but somebody might read what I write and conclude, Well, we're all going to die. And there's such an incentive structure to walk right up to the edge of catastrophe or even stick a toe over the line, and even publications I think are terrific will get as close to that line as they can because they know that drives subscription dollars and clicks. That's not just true of trans media; it's true of the media writ large. How do you think about that incentive structure, especially as it relates to social media?

Me: There's two ways to generate clicks about trans issues. One is to sell panic about trans people; the other is to sell panic to trans people. The social media incentive structure there, as it is with so many issues, is the septic, perverted version of that old classic about local TV news: If it bleeds, it leads.

Selling people that sense of control is, as I noted, the same thing at the root of a lot of conspiracism: not to trust mainstream sources who tell you things aren't quite so bad or things could get better or don't panic. It's the cinematic logic of a disaster movie where the people who are saying, "Actually, you should panic!" are correct. Think about everything from the narrative structure of Independence Day or Mass Effect. The catastrophizer is actually correct against all the people saying, "I'll calm down. It won't be so bad." That story structure is very, very popular, and it gets you invested in the protagonist with a pleasing sense of dramatic irony for the audience. They know something many of the other characters don't or refuse to accept.

We are all reared on some version of this story, and it seeps into everyday life. There's an excellent piece from CBS News in 1967 by Eric Sevareid reporting on the findings of the Warren Commission [whi
130056
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 18h
publicdomainreview.org/essay/philip...
publicdomainreview.org
Philip Sidney and the Extreme (Dis)graces of the Parenthesis
Erasmus called them “little moons” and George Puttenham praised them as “figures of tolerable disorder” (if used not too often “nor too thick”). For Philip Sidney, they were simply indispensable. Flor...
021
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Turing Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 19h
Sudan must have the largest proportion of "oh and I guess also them" mentions of any ongoing atrocity.
2534
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Kaya Skovdatter 🏳️‍⚧️ (She/They) @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social · 20h
I should be clear: I'll take whatever size gigs people have right now. Anything that helps me hit that total is welcome.
0119
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
"Joseph Donahue is a poet for whom poetry is the principal way of tuning a life to the deeper orders of the world, where even death’s irreparable rift is a complement to life’s wild loveliness." Dan Beachy-Quick reviews "Terra Lucida XIII–XXI." lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org
The Land that Secretes Light | Los Angeles Review of Books
Dan Beachy-Quick reviews Joseph Donahue’s “Terra Lucida XIII–XXI.”
065
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 22h
Apropos of nothing can’t wait for the Matthew Rhys led Anthropic movie in 2030 after everything collapses
static.klipy.com
Perry Mason on HBO Max featuring Matthew Rhys
ALT: Perry Mason on HBO Max featuring Matthew Rhys
030
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 22h
This is still going ! Let’s do fiction writing together !
011
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Mayor Her’s burner
000
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
While the whirlwind held me, who broke my bones? Who underbid me? -Joseph Donahue, 'bowls of memory'
001
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
disc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
X-Men is better than The Room.
1194
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“greater comfort” making the hierarchy explicit here. there are young people entitled to comfort, and others who are expected to supply it for them
924289
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
huck mason @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
we really need to start calling out these conservative christians for just straight up not believing in christianity. if you don’t believe christian teaching, nobody is forcing you to call yourself a christian! free yourself!
572003226
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I wonder what it would be like to write the same column, over and over again, endlessly. Seems like it’d be boring. But maybe it brings one comfort, like having your parents read you the same story every night before you go to bed.
Opinion
Opinion by Megan McArdle
The Great Awokening is over.
This lesbian bar shows why.
A meltdown over masking shows where cancel culture is now.
Today at 07:00 ET
1996245509
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Honestly just burn it all down
040
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
The bizarre culture that’s sprung up around Silicon Valley AI companies - which overlaps hugely with rationalist and effective altruist circles - appears to be seriously pressuring some women into attending sex parties for the sake of networking. This is, needless to say, horrifying.
taco belle
@ animalologist
Multiple things can be true at once
22h
The purpose of SlutCon is to help ease men who are scared of approaching women, and for women who simply enjoy flirting to be in an environment where that happens a lot, since there's generally a dearth of that
At the same time, many - probably most! - women do Not want to be flirted with or propositioned by men they don't know. When a small scene only has a handful of large, well-known events, each one has disproportionate impact on everybody's ideas of acceptable behavior among other members of their milieu.
Attending the same events = specific shared context. Means
you're somewhat on the same page.
I suspect that the men who publicly raised concerns about SlutCon's impact on the scene are being megaphones for private objections and distresses they've heard from women in the scene who would NOT be comfortable at an event like that, but who don't voice it publicly because they suspect they'd suffer socially for doing so. That going to SlutCon to be flirted with gives women social cachet, and squirming at the idea means you're [not cool, can't get with the program, are probably a wokescold or a prude etc etc other pejoratives] and therefore, that you'll be excluded or held at a distance
Now, if this scene were purely a social scene, that'd be perfectly fine. Don't go to parties that don't suit you!! The issue arises because it's NOT purely a social scene. This scene is inarguably tied up with Al safety, research, and the SF tech scene in general.
When consistently being invited to the right parties is professionally advantageous, and when SlutCon itself **is** going to be an excellent networking opportunity for people in those fields, it's not neutral that {sexual proclivities} are the filtering mechanism that determines who's in the room. It means that promiscuity & forwardness is explicitly professionally advantageous.
And, if the norms of SlutCon influence the norms of that milieu outside of the e…My suspicion is that men come out of the event more bold, more forward, and with the expectation that events attended by former flirt-girls are fair game for SlutCon-style forwardness. This creates a hostile environment for women who just want to socialize and work with these men, without being propositioned. And without pretending that they're cool with being sexualized for the sake of their inclusion in the scene.
I don't think we have solutions yet, but it's important that we can talk about it, at least.
Jakeup • @ myhandle
Sep 25
the purpose of SlutCon is to help men who are scared of women to start liking women, by putting them in proximity to women who like men and aren't scared of men
I'm not attending or involved in any way, but this is very aligned to my own mission and I'm rooting for their success
36
14
• 565 ul 83,695
422431349
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
VoteHub @votehub.com · 28/09/2026
NEWS — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear criticizes fellow Democrats who say transgender athletes should be barred from women’s sports. “That is not the party that we are. We start as a party of compassion and empathy.”
6855051011
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
One Story @onestorymag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
DEADLINE EXTENSION! Registration for our Fiction Workshop with Anya Johanna DeNiro is now extended through October 7. Use code FALLSEMESTER at checkout to save 25% at linktr.ee/onestorymag. #writingclass #fictionwriter #writingworkshop #writingcommunity
011
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In the most Bluesky-coded Episcopal service today our lesbian priest started by talking about hopepunk and Becky Chambers and made its way to the evils of the for-profit prison system, and Archbishop Romero. (‘Lesbian priest’ is almost a truism for the Episcopals I know )
040
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just an update on this. I had a block of extra time trying to fix this and it's a fucking mess. My deadname is unable to be edited or moved or deleted because it's the 'canonical name', which only moderators can edit. Even though it has a field for 'legal name'.
4102
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
in breath; in smoke; in tigresses; in ash
030
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
whoever runs for the Democrats in '28 would do well to run on an anti-gambling platform as a way to help save young men from ruin. be fierce about it. the amount that these ghouls have ruined countless lives is vastly underreported.
081
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026
Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story. For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards. Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵
Selfie taken by ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson, a man wearing a backwards baseball cap and an orange T-shirt.
19595923530
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
me with my lack of executive function to go anywhere
030
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Your daily Inland Empire screenshot @bluetomorrows.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
13310
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Oni Blackstock, MD MHS @oniblackstock.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Stanford used "AI" to remove a Latino student from a photo and replace him with an "AI-generated" Black woman. The two other students in the photo were made thinner. There are so many aspects of what happened that are egregious. sfstandard.com/2026/09/22/s...
sfstandard.com
Stanford University replaced a Latino man with an AI-generated Black woman in a photo
University slammed for AI-generated race swap in photo in back-to-school banner.
415255
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I saw in one place it said 'pen name confirmed' for my real name. Bite me
1101
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
the Internet Science Fiction Database has the listing of ALL my books and stories under my deadname, and my books with my real name 'written as Anya Johanna DeNiro'. Obviously not a legacy system but a choice. It's exhausting to deal with this shit 10 years after I legally changed my name.
4345
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
younger folks might not (?) be aware of the Five Geek Social Fallacies, and while it's very old, it still has relevance today I think. (I don't know why it's showing a Twitter logo, this is NOT on Twitter--it's a good old fashioned blog from 2003!) plausiblydeniable.com/five-geek-so...
plausiblydeniable.com
Five Geek Social Fallacies
Within the constellation of allied hobbies and subcultures collectively known as geekdom, one finds many social groups bent under a crushing burden of dysfunction, social drama, and general interp
2103
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026
We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/
a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans
15597447
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
disc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I usually try to explain it like this: picture Steve Irwin as Jane Fonda. Now imagine they're Irish. Doesn't look so much like the Carnian pluvial episode was caused by clout sharks mocking Denmark now, does it?
0232
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
amdiamanti @amdiamanti.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Jake Tapper’s fair and balanced question while moderating the 2028 GOP primary debate: Do you think the Democrats have sufficiently renounced the Western Massachusetts lesbian bar?
0334
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
after about 60 days, my anti-slavery Kenshi run is beginning to look like the third act of Heat. 😫 also fuck the United Cities
020
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Things can be bad if they only hurt trans and intersex people, too.
118528
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The most successful left-leaning business owners in my area have set a pretty firm boundary of "You're welcome to visit here, hold space, wear a mask, hold support groups. You are not welcome to tell other customers how to behave or to tell me how to run my own business."
285643
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That boundary is necessary because there are always a certain number of people who weaponize the language of social justice as a cudgel. They are never happy, never satisfied, spend very little money, and will run your business into the ground if you try to cater to them and blame you for it.
1096351
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Sending this to that person who has been thirsting for Nancy Mace on Bluesky
030
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Hector Diaz @iamhectordiaz.com · 24/09/2026
a friend’s dad was taken by ICE and they’re looking to raise money for legal representation. share and donate if you’re able to www.gofundme.com/f/our-dad-wa...
gofundme.com
Donate to Our Dad was taken by ICE, organized by Victoria Rudenko
Our dad has called the United States home since 1996. He came here 30 years ago and has s… Victoria Rudenko needs your support for Our Dad was taken by ICE
4254218
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Skye Kilaen @skyekilaen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Queer authors, if you will be publishing a book on ITCH DOT IO and/or KOBO PLUS between now and Dec 31, please make that book known to me below. Especially if you're not publishing on the Evil River! Pre-order link is best, itch profile is great (so I can follow you), or whatever ya got. 🌈📚
21117106
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
evergreen
[most viscerally personally unpleasant person you've ever met] I'm going to lead a mass movement of the workers
060
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Kuha @kuhachoco.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Last Ditch lesbian bar Bar Rescue episode
2142
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I feel like Ana Mardoll attended this somehow
010
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
converting a Word doc to a PDF in Acrobat should take 10 seconds tops. It used to. Instead in the year 2026 I try this and Acrobat crashes and I get sent to an AI slop "Elite Performance Hub - Inspired by Real Madrid'
050
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
If furries were driven from public life and employment this country would fall apart in weeks
081
Reposted by Anya Johanna DeNiro
I Know What You Did Last Year At Marienbad @montresaurusrex.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Wait a minute! This lesbian bar doesn’t require KN-95 masks!
Homer Simpson at a lesbian bar
115525
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Just an occasional reminder especially on Bi Visibility Day that my novel OKPsyche is ALSO incredibly bi-focused along with being very trans-femme focused bookshop.org/p/books/okps...
bookshop.org
Okpsyche
★ "DeNiro's novel is a lyrical, emotionally powerful story . . . of queer parenthood, of the reality of the sharp fear of trans lives, and of complicated self-discovery." - Booklist (starred review)In...
097
Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Mark Cuban Taking Notes on Shark Tank
ALT: Mark Cuban Taking Notes on Shark Tank
140