Sign in

Asya Partan

@apartan.bsky.social
18 followers 38 following 17 posts

Writing about identity, multiculturalism and other sources of joy and confusion for The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Pangyrus, and you.

PostsRepliesMedia
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Kicking off my Substack career with ten reasons why this Viking man is so appealing to so many. IMO, he’s a sort of Colosseum. substack.com/@asyapartan/...
substack.com
The World Cup is long over...so why am I still thinking about Erling Haaland?
10 ways the Colosseum-like Viking has captured our attention
000
Reposted by Asya Partan
Punctured Lines @puncturedlines.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
How beautiful are these book covers! In Baltimore next week? Don't miss his one-of-a-kind reading that brings together poets, prose writers, and translators from Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet countries who now make their homes across the United States.
A collage of book coversBackground: Blue with a black X in the lower right corner
Foreground: Words in black read : Resistance + Reinvention
Words in Yellow Read:  Eastern European Voices 
March 6, 7:00-9:30 pm
Library Nineteen
606 S. Ann St, Baltimore MD, 21231

Words in white read : A benefit reading for Ukraine
Words in white read:This one-of-a-kind reading brings together writers from Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet countries who now make their homes across the United States. Taking place during the 2026 AWP Conference, the event celebrates a growing circle of poets, prose writers, and translators from complex, cross-cultural identities whose work is shaped by displacement and immigration, survival and resilience.

Featuring
Words in white read: Alina Adams, Valerie Bandura, Svetlana Binshtok, Daniel Blokh, Katie Farris, Katarzyna Jakubiak, Victoria Juharyan, Andrea Jurjevic, Ilya Kaminsky, Julia Kolchinsky, Maria Kuznetsova, Ellen Litman, Olga Livshin, olga mikolaivna, Asya Partan, Irina Reyn, Ena Selimović, Lucy Silbaugh, Lana Spendl, Alina Stefanescu, Natalya Sukhonos, Vlada Teper, Katherine E. Young, Tatsiana Zamirovskaya, Olga Zilberbourg, and Lena Zycinsky.
074
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Join us tomorrow in Baltimore! It's going to be an incredible night.
042
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
FLESH very quickly became one of my favorite books of all time, and I love this review of it. That it moves like a night train and that you will feel it in your bones is absolutely true. therumpus.net/2025/06/25/o...
therumpus.net
On Exteriority: David Szalay’s "Flesh" - The Rumpus
After a few more one-liners, it becomes clear István is living in pandemic-era England (he vapes now, etc.) and trying to log on to a Zoom meeting with his therapist
010
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
I'm thrilled to be working as Editorial Assistant for a collection I have loved for years, and hope you'll follow our countdown to the 40th issue of The Best American Essays! Day 0: From the Front Matter open.substack.com/pub/bestamer...
open.substack.com
Day 0: From the Front Matter
COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION begins tomorrow!
010
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
For @globeopinion.bsky.social, I wrote a piece about gym class names that I hope might add a bit of levity to your day. Massive thanks to the phenomenal Ideas editors for letting me foray into a new space. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/27/o...
bostonglobe.com
At my gym, I can vibe, ignite, achieve, bodypump, bodyjam, and more. If only I knew what that meant. - The Boston Globe
Maybe the real workout begins with the mental gymnastics of trying to decode my gym's class names.
011
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Absolute joy to speak with @nglipson.bsky.social about how her brilliant essays come to life. I wanted our conversation to go on forever. Thank you @dintywmoore.bsky.social and @andreafirth.bsky.social for giving us the space to explore!
021
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
@shubhasunder.bsky.social just won a @whitingfoundation.bsky.social award for "Optional Practical Training," and you can read my review of this exceptional novel here: therumpus.net/2025/04/01/s...
therumpus.net
The Relentless Impressionism of Immigration: Shubha Sunder’s Optional Practical Training - The Rumpus
Sunder’s impressionistic lens also reveals that, perhaps, only in stepping back from intense initiations into new spaces can we see them clearly.
000
Reposted by Asya Partan
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 21/03/2025
A posthumous memoir by the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, which detailed his fight against autocracy and corruption in Russia and was published eight months after he died in prison, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
nytimes.com
Aleksei Navalny Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
632810605
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
@shubhasunder.bsky.social's new novel on immigration transformed my understanding of a lifelong journey - and I'm so grateful to @jbrookewrites.bsky.social and @acreegrahammacam.bsky.social for sharing my thoughts and being the 5-star editing team they are. Review out soon!
020
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Thank you @cogwbur.bsky.social and @cloeax.bsky.social for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
wbur.org
For Ukrainians, it's been 1,000-plus days of life underground
Americans are grappling with the kind of humiliation-by-association that Putin has inspired in countless Russians -- including me -- and it’s heartbreaking to see, writes Asya Partan.
022
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
My fabulously talented professor Megan Marshall (a Pulitzer winner for her biography work) is coming out with a new book of essays. You can read about them here... www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
nytimes.com
Book Review: ‘After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart,’ by Megan Marshall
The standout essays in Megan Marshall’s “After Lives” recall her troubled father and the fate of a high school classmate.
000
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Last year, I wrote for @bostonglobe.com about the curse of Lenin's embalmed body. In this week's breaking mausoleum news, Lenin has been advised "to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from a mausoleum in Moscow in order to seal his legacy as Moscow's leader." Ha. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/27/o...
bostonglobe.com
100 years after Lenin’s death, his curse still grips Russia - The Boston Globe
The founder of the Soviet Union died in 1924, but his embalmed body remains on display in a country that doesn’t know how to let go of its past.
000
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
An important piece by @mashagessen.bsky.social as we enter Trump's second term and approach the 3rd warversary in Ukraine. "I Spent Trump’s Inauguration in Ukraine. This Is What I Saw." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Spent Trump’s Inauguration in Ukraine. This Is What I Saw.
“And Panama!” a Ukrainian military analyst said. “What did calm, peaceful Panama do?”
010
Asya Partan @apartan.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Deeply grateful to @therumpus.net for publishing my review. I hope everyone has a chance to read this extraordinary, laugh-out-loud funny, and devastating memoir. Part Navalny’s life story, part Russia’s, it is also a playbook on resistance that we very much need today.
010