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Bruce Bromley

@bdbiii.bsky.social
197 followers 134 following 247 posts

Writer, musician, painter, teacher: Clinical Professor of writing at New York University. Author: _Guesting_ (Understory Books, 2022); _The Life in the Sky Comes Down (Backlash Press, 2017); _Making Figures_ (Dalkey Archive Press, 2014).

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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yes, and: neither is the botched treatment of these horrors by the university, which persists in arguing for its own righteousness.
Cornell 7
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In my bamboo green hat, I'm listening with joy to our students as we celebrate the publication of this year's _Mercer Street_, which honors New York University's finest undergraduate writing!
Me in my bamboo green hat
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
September 23: Birthday flowers and vase from my loving man!
birthday roses
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The chalk cliffs of Étretat: I walked for more miles than I could count and heard only the long vowels of the moo-cows and the sea slamming against the cliffs, as if it wanted to get in.
Étretat
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
From the superb Walt Odets' 2019 _Out of the Shadows_: For a land almost entirely populated by immigrants, America is conspicuously intolerant of real diversity. Nine black-robed justices ultimately decide who can be in love with whom and how that love may be expressed.
robes
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A searing question from one of my New York University students today about Raoul Peck's 2016 film, _I Am Not Your Negro_: "Is James Baldwin a relative of Alec Baldwin?" And: after I stilled a powerful photograph of Harriet Tubman on the screen and asked, "Who is this?," not *one* student knew.
Harriet Tubman
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
How they touch me.
flowers
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Sometimes, my dreams give me this kind of image. (A still from Jacob Adler's 2025 _Total Pixel Space_.)
dreams
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
August 30th: 25 years with Neil, the man I love--and a throng of flowers, too!
anniversary flowers
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The 25th anniversary: my current students at New York University seem disinterested in, estranged from, the events of 9/11. This essay looks at teaching on that day, on how futures lie hidden in the past—and deserve to be accounted for. brucebromley.substack.com/p/that-day
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Such joy to be nominated for a 2027 Best of the Net Award! A resounding, heartfelt thanks to _Rawhead Journal_!
my nomination
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
A little dreamy and serious, while meeting with a superb student whom I hadn't seen for 10 years. She was the only female student at NYU's Clive Davis Institute. She's applying to doctoral programs connecting musicology, cultural studies, and American history. We need more connectors like her.
me
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Ah, plump with life!
roses
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
About objects still behaving oddly--and that oracle in the window: brucebromley.substack.com/p/when-small...
my short fiction
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
All that *life*!
our window
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Some lovely news about my forthcoming new book!
my new book
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Something like love and like sex—off campus. “Out/In”: brucebromley.substack.com/p/outin
bed
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Yes! "Beatrice amid the Rectangles": brucebromley.substack.com/p/beatrice-a...
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Ah, to live in a greener world than the flaming one that our kind has made.
forest
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Coraline, with all that love in her face.
coraline
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
About those moments when objects behave oddly, if you look. brucebromley.substack.com/p/when-small...
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Peter Hujar's 1956 photograph of his lover, Joseph Raffael, when life was good and plentiful.
peter hujar photograph
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
They smell young and ready for life.
late june roses
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Here's Kae Tempest reading his poem, "Hold Your Own" (2014), which was a superb addition to the Polish series _Proud_ last night (episode 3) on HBO Max. Wonder upon wonder! www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFyE...
poet kae tempest
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
For Pride: We know that this yearning to go back bewitches all who submit to it, that the past was never so uniform as its manufactured picture. We’re here to be made narrow and small and to vanish. But how can the unseen refuse their invisibility? brucebromley.substack.com/p/stay
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
"The Fire House": in a nation and world where Pride is endangered, where we are endangered: "That's when Keith Haring appears to ascend from the floor, as if alive." brucebromley.substack.com/p/the-fire-h...
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Beauty *helps*.
orange roses
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Peter Hujar's 1970 poster for the first Pride Parade!
peter hujar photo
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Katherine Bradford's paintings hold me up, in this time of American slop and decline and heartlessness. She's 84 years old and still going, dreaming, making.
painting by Katherine Bradford
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
“I won’t be proportioned,” Mimi insists, “as though I were a lamb chop punitively over-trimmed": from "When Small Things Loom (1)," brucebromley.substack.com/p/when-small...
my short fiction
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
On the right, Paul Thek and some of his beauty in 1957!
Paul Thek on the right.
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Paul Thek and his visual longing in motion on the wall!
painting by Paul Thek
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Erika and Klaus Mann: how I love their *verve*.
erika and klaus mann
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
brucebromley.substack.com/p/guesting
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Love and more love!
love
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Sergey Nabokov (1900-1945), Vladimir's gay and betrayed brother. How my heart aches for the life that could have been.
Sergey Nabokov
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
And the horse keeps on moving.
horse in motion
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
I saw them in my dream last night.
in my dream
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
"America teaches its gay citizens about submission, to be silent or die, though the one will forever be the sibling of the other." brucebromley.substack.com/p/guesting
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I am so proud of my students and of their capacity for making things with words: "We begin by naming in order to serve reality; we end by mistaking the name for reality itself. The category becomes easier to handle than the living thing, and so the living thing is quietly asked to become smaller. "
Magritte, 1955.
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Magritte, 1928: I've been moved by my students' evaluations: "I thank you deeply, Bruce. You are a great educator and a wonderful human. An excellent example of continuous growth, exploration, and awareness and that you don't have to become lame as fuck and out of touch after youth. "
Magritte, 1928.
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
I dream of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: thermal energy that will outlast the current horrors of this nation and the citizens whose votes (willingly) made the horrors real.
cosmic microwave background radiation
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The last office hours--and they were a JOY!
me
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
How they stand up!
roses
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
From "Stay," first published in _Anti-Heroin Chic_: We know that this yearning to go back bewitches all who submit to it, that the past was never so uniform as its manufactured picture. brucebromley.substack.com/p/stay
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Roshi Joan Halifax: she and the Nomads Clinic bring caregivers to remote mountain villages in Nepal. Michael Pollan's new book details the problem: Been there, done that is the state to which most brains aspire.
Joan Halifax
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
My essay, "We Won't Need Saving," just published in the superb _Rawhead_! Link: rawheadjournal.org/rawhe.../bru... It took me over a year to find a home for this essay. But I kept on trying.
my essay
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The messenger has arrived!
mourning dove
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
My new essay, "Stay," just published in _Anti-Heroin Chic_! Link: heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/stay-by... "I know that the affirmation of visibility converts you into a sort of footed fire."
moonlight and window
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Bruce Bromley @bdbiii.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Love on the platform!
Love
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