iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

If you are a fan of nature and science writing, join us for @thomasonianmag.bsky.social virtual reading (Aug 22nd at 3PM PST / 6PM EST) 🌿 There will be an open mic afterwards, so anyone is welcome to read!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Thank you @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social for publishing this fun mixed media piece called "CAPTCHA," which pretty much sums up what working in a public library has been like lately. (Best viewed on a widescreen device!) To read the full piece, visit fifthwheelpress.com/anth9-backen...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

By the way, an update on my whale son 🥲

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

So honored to have a new poem out in the lovely @wildroofjournal.bsky.social ! In an age where technology and algorithms are robbing people of their sense of self, here is a piece to remind you of your humanity. 🫀 Check out the rest of Wild Roof Journal’s issue here: wildroofjournal.com/issue-33/

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Delighted that my eel story is included in Ghost Parachute’s anthology of flash fiction!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

At some point, a library patron dropped this in the return bin and I absently stuck it in my book, baggie and all. It’s been one of my “bookmarks” ever since.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

My whale is ON THE MOVE. GO, MY SON.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Looks like 2025’s story motifs were brought to you by altered realms of existence and the depths of the sea!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Had to stay cool and collected while working an author event for @danielkraus.com but internally I was thinking OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD DANIEL KRAUS IS AT MY LIBRARY TO TALK ABOUT HIS ASTONISHING WORK!!!!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Comments that made me smile, sandwiched among beta reader critiques. This linked short story collection is getting polished slowly but surely.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

“when you give a girl a goldfish” is in PRINT, accompanied by a bunch of great BULL shorties!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Here is an excerpt of “One Man’s Trash,” published in Fahmidan Journal. I am so proud of this story! www.fahmidan.net/issue-21/one...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Our library staff just found all of these books HIDDEN underneath our shelves. Disgusting behavior.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Ahh, actually my 2025 submissions are off to a great start! 🥹

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Revising a whole manuscript (this year) looks a lot different than cranking out individual stories (last year). The lack of submissions is making me uneasy, even though I am essentially putting in the same amount of work. 😅

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Tis the season for holiday angst! Here is a fun little micro I wrote for FlashFlood Journal about tension during the holidays. ❤️💚

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Someone applaud: I finally committed to using my stickers! 😆

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Here is a poem about a true encounter that still stumps my friend and me to this day. This is “Midwest Phantom,” published in Occulum. occulum.net/2024/12/14/m...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Here is an excerpt from my new story, "Partners in Crime." It's a queer-awakening western about two cowboys on the run. When I saw PULP lit mag's submission call for Queer Westerns, I dropped every project I was working on to write this. It was honestly so much fun. issuu.com/pulplitmag/d...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

double monitors 🤝 double stories to work on

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Time to start turning these purple tabs in the lefthand column to blue! After that will be revisions on the collection as a whole to connect these linked stories seamlessly.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Signs you’re still very early in your writing career: nobody shows up to your local writers workshops 🥲

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Do you ever find yourself beaming at your half-written project like this because you’re enjoying it so much? Or is that just me?

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Happy to share my poem/art hybrid “Spirit Box” in Moss Puppy Magazine’s new issue The Boneyard. 🤍 www.mosspuppymag.com/issue7

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

My best friend/critique partner and I have taken a vow of sentience—to wean ourselves of the addictive cycle of consistent doomscrolling, pull ourselves out of our own heads, and make decisions with intention rather than going through the motions. We hope to grow more in touch with reality.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 10/05/2024

Exposed Bone Vol. I is finally here! 🦴 My story “Domestic Labyrinth” kicks off an insane lineup of gorgeously unsettling pieces. I highly recommend giving this a read! www.exposedbonemag.com/vol-1

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 03/05/2024

This is my favorite story I’ve ever written—“Mind Junkie” published in The Hooghly Review 🧠 This is only part of it, but find my full story starting on page 203 and check out everyone else’s stunning work in this issue! www.thehooghlyreview.com/issues/issue...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 23/04/2024

I have a sapphic folk horror story that just released, published in All Existing Literary Magazine, titled “Lake Gossamer.” 💧🌿🖤 Read the whole piece and check out Issue 3 on All Existing’s site here! allexistinglitmag.wixsite.com/allexisting/...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

So happy to share a story about urban explorers dressed as ghosts, titled “disappearing act” — published in Roi Fainéant Press 👻 View the full story and explore the rest of this amazing issue here: www.roifaineantpress.com/post/disappe...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

BRUISER magazine surprised me with a publication for my short story “Greetings From the Milky Way.” 🛸🐄 This story is a fun one. Enjoy! www.bruisermag.com/cutkomp_milk...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 17/02/2024

Here is a sample of my saddest and most personal work of fiction yet: “Blizzard Brain” published in londemere lit ❄️ To read the full story and the rest of these gorgeous pieces, check out londemere lit’s issue Winter Reminiscence here. londemerelit.weebly.com/issues.html

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 06/02/2024

First time holding my writing in PRINT from an official literary magazine!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 28/01/2024

First double fiction publication—“Inside-Out Pockets Purge the Universe” and “Here’s the Catch” in Bullshit Lit. 🐟🥄💫🎣📎 Read the full stories here: www.bullshitlit.com/blog/bcutkomp

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 24/01/2024

Making my dreams come true as a writer!

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 20/01/2024

Here is my short story “Flirting With the Sun” - published in Wireworm Magazine 🪱 wirewormmagazine.wixsite.com/wirewormmaga...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 09/01/2024

This is my story "Smoking at Sunset" — published in Hearth & Coffin. 🔥 Evacuating an apocalyptic blaze soon to engulf their rural community, a pair of childhood best friends witness stubborn neighbors refusing to leave and dissolving to smoke. www.hearthandcoffin.com/post/smoking...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 30/12/2023

I’m honored that my story “Domestic Labyrinth” is going to be the opener for Issue I of Exposed Bone! Exposed Bone’s staff has been so incredibly kind and professional toward their writers. The hype is real. I’m SO excited for this issue’s release in 2024!

Exposed Bone’s first issue opens with “Domestic Labyrinth” from @bdcutkomp—where walls are filled with bees, multiplying to unmanageable levels for an old man armed only with a wiffle ball bat and the neighbor he taught how to swing it.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 02/12/2023

This is my poem "Specimen XX," published by Poetry As Promised Magazine in their Home Nostalgia/Where You Come From issue. Since I was a little girl, I've struggled with my own femininity. The body was not sexy or empowering to me. It was scary. Unfamiliar. Alien. And it never should have been.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

Just finished the most DEVASTATING story I’ve ever read in my entire life. This gorgeously crafted prose struck me with fists of wonder and grief. How will I ever recover from this? (Thanks @marburyjack.bsky.social for the recommendation!)

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 06/11/2023

“Nothing Good Ever Happens Behind a Dollar General” - published in @altmilkmag.bsky.social Now a witness to a stranger melting away their own identity, a dollar-store thief must either run from her own guilt or face it head-on. Read the full story here! www.altmilkmag.com/issue-no-2/b...

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 27/10/2023

The Summer 2023 issue of Mag 20/20 is here! Check out my short story “I See (Through) You” and the rest of these gorgeous pieces through the link below! www.magtwentytwenty.com/issues

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 04/10/2023

Read banned books! And not just the classics—check out what diverse stories are being challenged currently as well!

Library display poster: “Banned or Band?”

“Some of the books you see here have been censored or removed from libraries, bookstores, and schools due to content deemed controversial by individuals or groups.

Some of the books you see here feature themes of music and community.

Both of these should be accessible to readers like you.”

Library display for YA readers—Read Ban(ne)d Books. Featuring banned books and band books.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

Kimberly Ramos isn’t just a former university classmate and friend of mine. They are one of my favorite contemporary writers. Their evocative work captures the magic in the mundane by straddling divine and microscopic wonders. I highly recommend giving their gorgeous chapbooks a read.

THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MINOR GODS & OTHER SMALL SPIRITS and ALIVE, TODAY, AGAIN! by Kimberly Ramos

“Folklore for Missouri Boys” by Kimberly Ramos

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Cut away the skin, bone, fat
of some dolphins washed ashore
and you’ll find a boy nestled
in the slick, gray body.
Uncurling from sleep,
his eyes are dark as a deep sea vent.

We dress the boys in shirts and pants
and tell them how lucky
they are to have legs.
We send them into landlocked fields of grass
with hatchets and knives.
These boys, they only laugh when it rains.

These boys, they crouch low to watch
tadpoles at the creek, a sad hunger.
These boys, they long for salt and brine,
they fill their heads with water
and then they stumble home.
These boys, they kiss whoever’s closest—

a body to rise against them like a tide,
its breath,
its fickleness,
and finally, after a storm: stillness.
These boys, they get married
and on weekends, they go fishing.

They bait their hooks
with skin and nails
like the water
might remember them,
like every sewer might be a way
back to the ocean.

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 29/09/2023

Added two new favorites to my collection: THE SEA IS SALT AND SO AM I by Cassandra Hartt and ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD by Erik J. Brown. I adore everything about these two novels!

THE SEA IS SALT AND SO AM I by Cassandra Harry and ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD by Erik J. Brown

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

Four years ago marks my first publication ever, through my university’s literary magazine Windfall. This short story “Unanswered Questions” holds a special place in my heart, but I can’t believe how much I’ve grown as a writer since this piece.

Prose featured on the page of a literary magazine in print

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Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

Perks of being a librarian! So many fantastic names on this cover. I can’t wait to dive into these stories!

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