iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 28/03/2026

Committing to coming out of my day job/world is burning coma to move into a more creative phase and actually write again. Who is with me?

Tall window at the top of an old staircase - blue sky and clouds through window - curved stair railing in foreground. 1881 house with dark wood and old wallpaper

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 04/12/2025

The yearly Denis Johnson reread: “and you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you.”

Paragraph from Denis Johnson’s “car crash while hitchhiking” “it was raining. Gigantic ferns leaned over us. The forest drifted down a hill. I could hear a creek rushing down among rocks. And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you”

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 06/10/2025

Excited to be on this Ingram Spark "Short Story Standouts" list (via @bookshop.org), alongside the amazing @writesloud.bsky.social & Stillhouse press-mate @kristinaten.bsky.social

screenshot of Bookshop site with purple background, multiple bright-covered book covers listed here https://bookshop.org/lists/short-story-standouts?page=1

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 30/09/2025

this picture of my older child - long ago - popped up on my phone, and i love it so

Elementary-aged girl with light-colored hair in bun, striped black and white tip and striped colorful leggings, pink socks, sitting and reading. book in an orange chair next to a light wood table with a plant on it

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 14/09/2025

Love these thoughts about novel writing and reading, from Renee Gladman’s MY LESBIAN NOVEL @dorothyproject.bsky.social

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 10/07/2025

Little thing: if you are a person who likes notebooks, this is a very good one (bit of a notebook splurge). Also Wonder Fair in Lawrence, KS, has all the good notebooks and pens, and they ship anywhere and quickly.

Tan spiral note notebook by maruman with two pens sitting on top of it

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 07/07/2025

56 today. Family, walks, food, worked on the novel, talked, read, laughed, tried for a little to forget the world.

Teenager with shoulder length curly hair wearing red Kramer books t-shirt sitting next to middle aged woman with blonde-ish wavy hair in light blue button up - both smiling, against backdrop of stone wall

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 04/07/2025

I’ve never felt any patriotism. Loyal mainly to the idea of taking care of the earth and each other.

Country road at dusk- tall rows of green corn on the right - blue and pink sky, gravel road, grackles on a telephone wire

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 06/06/2025

Younger kid’s 17th birthday, tiny unbothered empty stone chapel on campus. Sitting on the floor while he plays an old beautiful organ, forgetting the whole world for a few

Stained glass windows - three - arching at the top, vibrant blues and purples. Reflecting on the light tile
Floor

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 30/05/2025

Came across this writhing pack of snakes today.

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 27/04/2025

I’m happy to be doing this Story Center Speaker Series event (in conjunction w Midcontinent Public Library and Rainy Day Books)! If you’re in the Kansas City area, I hope you’ll consider attending! May 14 at 7 pm. Register here www.mymcpl.org/events/10616...

Flyer for story center speaker series for event for sad grownups - by amy stuber - link to register for event is here https://www.mymcpl.org/events/106161/story-center-speaker-series-amy-stuber flyer is black background photo of Amy stuber, book cover which is horizontal blue purple and green strips on an off white background. Flyer has yellow and white lettering w event details - may 14 at 7 pm

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 12/04/2025

I promise to stop talking about this today (there are obviously far bigger things happening) but I did want to call out that these books are all from small/university presses. In a lit world where it’s really hard to break a collection out, I’m grateful for the attention to small-press books!

Screenshot of Pen Robert w Bingham prize finalist list announcement from here https://pen.org/announcing-the-2025-pen-america-literary-awards-finalists/

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 11/04/2025

Free speech protections fully invalidated. This is heartbreaking and terrifying

Pic of Columbia Spectator post with title “Louisiana judge rules deportation case against Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ‘24 can proceed

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 11/04/2025

This book - so many iterations and rejections and years of giving up and starting again - and now I’m so happy to see it on this finalist list. (Biggest thank you Stillhouse Press and Bingham judges 💚).

Photo of book covers of five finalists for the Pen Robert W Bingham prize for debut short story collection - lists here https://pen.org/announcing-the-2025-pen-america-literary-awards-finalists/

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 08/04/2025

When your kid is getting his braces off and this is the non-work to-do list

Spiral notebook with one note in all caps that says “buy corn”

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 31/03/2025

Wait, a cake picnic? I would have flown to San Francisco had I known.

San Francisco legion of honor in background with rows of white table clothes tables in front of it, each tables covered with cakes of all shapes, sizers, and colors -
Probably hundreds of visible cakes

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 30/03/2025

How had I not read this before? So very good

The cover of Rebecca Lee’s book Bobcat - off white cover with pen and ink drawing of a bobcat with the tail feathers of a bird sticking out of its mouth).

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 21/03/2025

A mere 33 years into my writing career, I published a book. It's such a thrill to see it here. (much ❤️ Stillhouse Press! Big thanks @penamerica.bsky.social & judges@leahhampton.bsky.social Sarah Shun-lien Bynum @wendywimmer.bsky.social. (Happy to be here w my friend @janellebassett.bsky.social!)

Prize announcement for the longlist of the 2025 Pen/Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection including 9 book covers https://pen.org/announcing-the-2025-pen-america-literary-awards-longlists/

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 20/03/2025

Republicans in Congress somehow not bothered by the fact that under a dictatorship they too lose their power.

“If anyone is being detained or removed based on the administration’s assertion that it can do so without judicial review or due process,” said Jamal Greene, a law professor at Columbia, “the president is asserting dictatorial power and ‘constitutional crisis’ doesn’t capture the gravity of the situation.”

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 16/03/2025

You either believe in free speech, or you do not. And Chuck Schumer does not.

I’m curious how you think about how protests should be addressed, considering the context of what you just said. The Trump administration just announced it’s pulling $400 million in funding from Columbia University, giving the reason as “relentless violence, intimidation and antisemitic harassment.” I’m wondering what you make of that. Columbia did not do enough. I criticized them. And believe me, I believe in free speech, I believe in the right to protest, as you read in my book. I started my career protesting the Vietnam War. I say to some people, “If I were your age, I’d be protesting something or other.” So I get that, and I love it, and it’s about America. But when it shades over to violence and antisemitism, the colleges had to do something, and a lot of them didn’t do enough. They shrugged their shoulders, looked the other way. Columbia among them. So what did they do? They took away $400 million. I’m trying to find out what they took away. Are they taking away money from cancer research, or Alzheimer’s? What is the $400 million? It could be hurting all students. Students who go there who have nothing to do with the protest, students who might have protested peacefully, or Jewish students who were victims of some of those protests. So I think we have to see. My worry is that this $400 million was just done in typical Trump fashion: indiscriminately, without looking at its effect.

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 16/03/2025

It’s the little things right now. This magnolia tree’s branches outside my window

Blond wood piano with plants and books on it and dark-wood trimmed window outside of which are the branches of a small magnolia tree in bloom

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 16/03/2025

Distractions: long walk to the cemetery, an unexpected wishing tree + younger kid’s new records

Large tree trunk with tags of many bright and pastel colors ha going from it and a sign that says “wishing tree.” Each tag has a person’s wish written on it.

A series of records on a table William Onyeabar, wire, eno and fripp, the feelies

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 13/03/2025

Went out to the wetlands tonight to remind myself of the bigger world

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 09/03/2025

Good morning to my little Didion shelf

Bookshelf with a row of Joan Didion titles -including Book of Common Prayer and Salvador, two of my favorites

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 03/03/2025

I keep wondering when/if neglect or reckless endangerment cases will happen. Interesting/related study: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Screenshot with Excerpt from linked article - excerpt is: Most courts (7 of 9) considered vaccine refusal to constitute neglect. In the 4 cases decided in jurisdictions that permitted religious exemptions, courts either found that vaccine refusal did not constitute neglect or considered it neglect only in the absence of a sincere religious objection to vaccination.
Conclusions. Some states have a legal precedent for considering parental vaccine refusal as medical neglect, but this is based on a small number of cases. Each state should clarify whether, under its laws, vaccine refusal constitutes medical neglect.

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 28/02/2025

Economic Boycott Today - Feb 28. The tech oligarchs have publicly said they want us in kingdoms run by corporations, not government. Stop supporting them! No purchases from big retailers today if you can help it. Beyond today: buy local every time you can. Buy less. Please share.

Poster with turquoise background and bright red, black and white accents. Red cartoon rabbit with big ears and startled eyes looking forward at the viewer. Text says "Economic Boycot. Don't Buy Stuff Friday Feb 28. We have power. No Amazon Walmart Target Fast Food Gas. Ok Small Business. Use Cash (I don't know who to credit for the art - very sorry about that!)

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 17/02/2025

shameless self-promotion in dark times: I'm trying to reach 1000 sales of my debut collection, SAD GROWNUPS. If you like sad/happy/weird/moving stories, this may be the book for you! Please consider sharing for visibility 💙 #booksky #writingcommunity #authors #books bookshop.org/p/books/sad-...

A collage of press for the book, Sad Grownups - includes 20 small image tiles for interviews, reviews, and events.

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 15/02/2025

Excited about this little library haul

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 17/01/2025

Just an average morning of Zoom meetings, meetings, meetings, and then this very nice surprise. Thank you so much, @wendyjfox.bsky.social and @electriclit.bsky.social for reading and sharing SAD GROWNUPS - means so much to me! (available at Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/sad-...)

review text: Hi all, perhaps a discussion for the curr designers channel, but I wanted to ask her first to get a temp check. We're getting a request to support a district that's very remote and has no support so is willing to go with something less-than-ideal (you'll understand my preface when I tell you that it's for ELA k-2). My initial response to the internal discussion was this: very hesitant to work with K-2 ELA students. Everything is phonics based (much better in person and also materials we don't have and that can't easily be text based or assessed in text), and - as Anna said - virtual work is (from a behavioral and learning perspective) really challenging for these ages.

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 13/01/2025

Went to see “Don’t Look Back” last night at the little art theater where this story, “Cinema” is set. It’s such a lovely space! Anyway, I hope you’ll join @aaronburch.bsky.social in discussing this story about postpartum, ghosts, and living beyond the worst thing.

Old theater with painted sun in orange and yellow on ceiling and old glass chandelier and on the movie screen is a black and white shot of Bob Dylan’s with the movie title “don’t look back”

View of old theater interior - murals of planets and stars on the walls, ceiling has orange painted rafters with planets and suns and two glass chandeliers

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 07/01/2025

Treacherous but beautiful 4-foot icicles

Massive icicles hanging from white Eve with sun, tree branches, blue sky and snow covered rooftop in background

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 31/12/2024

Putting a book out is unnerving. You want big things for it! You want people to read it, but you’re sort of scared of people reading it. It means so much to me to have someone read SAD GROWNUPS as generously and with such a wonderful eye as Aaron Burch! ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/short-stor...

Review of Sad Grownups - full text here https://ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/short-story-longs-fave-story-collections

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 30/12/2024

On the way to the bird sanctuary!

Selfie if Four people in a car - two middle aged in the front seat- one with long blond hair and tan hat and one in green button up w beard and glasses - partially obscured. Two teenager in back seat - curly dark blonde hair, black coats

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 21/12/2024

Morning calm - books, coffee, music, sun coming in

Interior view of living room looking into dining room. In foreground, a leather footstool with books and magazines (The Anthropologists is visible and open). Then orange chair at left, light wood coffee table, bookshelf, view I to dining room w white chairs around wooden table and piano at far end of room w window above it, light coming in

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 16/12/2024

This is one of those poems that seems to have all the beauty and sadness of the world rolled into it (and so many stunning phrases). @maureenlangloss.bsky.social in Harvard Review

Picture of open Harvard Review and Maureen Langloss’ poem “Every Cut Has a Kerf” with a Harvard Review postcard on the right - the card has a kind of op art feel with turquoise blocky letters saying Harvard Review and a fish is and purple abstract background

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 14/12/2024

So pretty and misty today by the water

Blue gray foggy sky with blueish land mass behind lake water and tan shoreline in the foreground

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 14/12/2024

If you know of anyone who might like a "funny," "humane," "sensitive," and "deeply satisfying" short story collection, I hope you'll consider gifting them my debut book, SAD GROWNUPS - bookshop.org/p/books/sad-... Indie books need support - I'd appreciate if you'd share this for visibility! Thanks!

Bright blue background with review blurbs in white text and the names of review outlets in orange, yellow, pink, green, and turquoise (in that order). Review text reads:“In her debut collection, Amy Stuber writes toward hope in a world intent on taking it away...With stories full of clarity and hilarity, the stories in Sad Grownups showcase the true strength of the short story form.”
—Electric Lit

“A powerhouse collection from a promising author.”
—ALA Booklist

“A distinct yet relatable collection of stories about aging, relationships, decisions and (dis)connections. This is a smart, sensitive and satisfying debut.”
—Ms. Magazine

Revelatory, bullseye details bring her characters into relief in a matter of a sentence. There are recurrent themes – adolescence, atonement, motherhood – but no sense of redundancy. The book is situated squarely in contemporary American life, though her characters often make unexpected decisions and utterances. It’s actually no surprise that this collection has sprung out fully formed, like a wise and battle-ready Athena.”
—Chicago Review of Books

Perceptive, inventive, surprising, and deeply humane. I binged these stories as if I were bingeing a dramedy…on Netflix. I recognized so much of myself — so much of my own sensibility — in these stories and in these characters…achingly beautiful.”
—Southern Review of Books

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 13/12/2024

My debut short story collection, SAD GROWNUPS: For those who've been sad and tried not to be, seventeen stories about the absurdity of searching for joy in a dying world. bookshop.org/p/books/sad-...

Text of reviews of sad grownups by booklist, electric lit, and Ms magazine - fully text of reviews at amystuber.com/book

Bright green at bottom third of screen and turquoise at top with text box on top w review by electric lit: In her debut collection, Amy Stuber writes toward hope in a world intent on taking it away. Confronting American consumerism, narrow versions of acceptability, and the worsening climate crisis, Stuber’s writing exhibits sensitivity, urgency, and care. With stories full of clarity and hilarity, the stories in Sad Grownups showcase the true strength of the short story form.

Book cover of sad grownups -
Off white background and then horizontal stripes - blue green, violet, with title and author name in off white on top of stripes

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 07/12/2024

I love all of @dseuss.bsky.social’s poetry, but the title poem of Modern Poetry is extra good (esp if you were someone roaming around in the 80s/90s, moved by poems while always feeling like a fraud). “I’m not complaining. It was all more than I deserved.” Buy this book if you can!

First page of three of the title poem of Diane Seuss’ book modern poetry. Book page in foreground and blue sky and gray tree branches in background. Book preview that includes this poem is available on the Google Books preview of Modern Poetry

Second page of three of the title poem of Diane Seuss’ book modern poetry. Book page in foreground and blue sky and gray tree branches in background. Book preview that includes this poem is available on the Google Books preview of Modern Poetry

Third page of three of the title poem of Diane Seuss’ book modern poetry. Book page in foreground and blue sky and gray tree branches in background. Book preview that includes this poem is available on the Google Books preview of Modern Poetry

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 07/12/2024

It’s been two months since SAD GROWNUPS was released. I’m hugely grateful to the people who’ve read the book! If you like sad/funny books about everyday people caught in weird, life-altering moments, trying to do better, order it it here: bookshop.org/p/books/sad-...

Peach background with a series of book blurbs and quotes about the book “sad grownups” - full text of quotes can be found here amystuber.com/book under “praise”

Violet background with a series of book blurbs and quotes about the book “sad grownups” - full text of quotes can be found here amystuber.com/book under “praise”

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 04/12/2024

Big thanks for including SAD GROWNUPS on this Best Short Story Collections of 2024 list, @electriclit.bsky.social - such an honor to be here w all these amazing writers! @anandalima.bsky.social, @nicoleharoutunian.bsky.social @lenavalencia.bsky.social, etc! electricliterature.com/electric-lit...

Bright green and aqua background (green is the bottom third
Of the screen and aqua top two thirds) with screenshot of review from electric lit’s best short story
Collections of 2024 -
Blurb about Sad Grownups - reviews found here https://electricliterature.com/electric-lits-best-short-story-collections-of-2024/

Yellow background w bright repérâtes
Covers of five books - ananda Lima’s craft, Lena Valencia’s mystery lights, Gina Chung’s green frog, penis aguda’s ghost roots, Jessie ren Marshall’s women in peril -
Link is https://electricliterature.com/electric-lits-best-short-story-collections-of-2024/

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 01/12/2024

Yearly revisiting of Laura Riding’s Anarchism is Not Enough

Violet cover with white title “anarchism is not enough” w a painting of woman w light skin, green eyes, brown bob with red scarf tied as headband. She’s wearing a black short sleeved top w five burnished brass buttons and a similar colored art deco necklace. The background of the painting is a mottled green and yellow. Author’s name is in orange

First page of text of laura riding’s anarchism is not enough. First 28 pages of the book can be found here: https://archive.org/details/anarchism-is-not-enough-text/page/9/mode/1up

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 28/11/2024

The biggest hypocrisy: he’s doxxing the leaders of a federal office his own company received funding from

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 26/11/2024

One big reason to live w another human

Text that reads “what’s your coffee situation” with time stamp 658 am

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