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Bendi Barrett

@bendibarrett.bsky.social
621 followers 117 following 63 posts

spec fic writer, sfwa member, assistant editor @ baffling mag, queer weirdo, etc. (he/him)

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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Exactly right! The one so wild I'm recounting it in such detail that I realize, too late, it would've taken less time for my friend/sister/partner to just read it themselves. A story sticky enough that you disappear into it.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I just KNOW these women have blistering tea on the comings and goings of that rakish young viscount
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
And I can't forget to mention The Umbrella Academy whose character Allison changes reality through lies when she says "I heard a rumor…" That's the kind of energy I'd love to see in these stories. Gossip and rumor changing the fabric of reality in ways big and small, metaphorical or not-so-much
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I think of Easy A, the Emma Stone film from 2010 which subverts the Scarlet Letter. Of course, The Crucible. Unexpectedly, I think of the Song of Ice & Fire series which does interesting things with how current events are interpolated into rumor by the lower classes who are further away from it
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Also, big cosign on the pettiness front: Submitters, don't be high-minded for our sake! Give us shitty, petty protags alongside virtuous ones. For me, the best stories for this call will be the ones I immediately call my sister about, saying, "Do you have a minute, 'cause I just read this story…"
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I'd love to see people going absolutely bonkers with the theme. Is gossip a virus? Are we seeing witch trials? AI hallucinations run amok? What's more important: the gossip or the person(s) telling it? Does it destroy communities? Protect them? Does the whisper network spell the end of an abuser?
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
gossip is a little communicable thrill, a method of social insulation, aunties sitting around a table with black tea and hushed voices, it's a hypothesis in want of hard evidence, and, of course, it's best served piping hot.
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Neon Hemlock @neonhemlock.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
hey @bendibarrett.bsky.social 🎙️ what does “gossip” mean to you?
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Pssst have you heard? @bafflingmag.bsky.social is doing a Gossip issue? Mmhmm. That's right. Well, you didn't hear it from me, but if you submit, you should put a little piece of harmless gossip in your cover letter. No names, of course. Again,you didn't hear this from me. I'd never say a word.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
We weren't fucking around with this one, y'all
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Mike Underwood @mikerunderwood.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
This afternoon!
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Kelly @khooliha.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Book 92: really enjoyed this novella! Sex magic AND a ravenous manifestation of a thing living in a sun showing up and bothering somebody?! I'd read more of this world and story, but sometimes it's the purpose of a novella to leave you hungry.
Cover of Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
No no you're cooking! There's definitely Gideon in there. It'd be hard to write queer space opera with horror undertones without touching on Gideon, I think. There's also a soupçon of Warhammer, a sprinkle of Gundam Wing, and a generous dash of Ninefox Gambit. Standing on the shoulders of giants.
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Ladz ❄️🖤🩸 @ladzwriting.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
my FUCKING GOD I was going to take my time with this roll-out, however, a bitch needs to go to urgent care !! in place of itch, we have two new store fronts to support me directly: digital works: payhip.com/ladz signed copies (US only for now): ladz-merch.square.site/shop/books/I...
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
It's like a morality play in which a marionette is lowered from the ceiling and we all learn a valuable lesson.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
My loves, if the market you're submitting to caps word count, please don't submit something that's twice as long. We'll both end up heartbroken. 🥺
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
HAPPY PRIDE, Y'ALL 🌈 🥹😤
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I acknowledge and keenly feel how scary it is right now for queer folks. But I'm not gonna flinch from a dollar store bigot in prefrosh drag. Grow up.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Shoutout to the guy on the street corner raving "you're an abomination" at the intersection of the queer health clinic... in boot cut jeans with a 2006 blink-182 haircut. Glass houses, bro.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Oh wow. Incredible. 💚
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Any day that someone mentions me in the same breath as the effortlessly formidable @haileypiperfights.bsky.social it's a good day.
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Joanne Merriam @joannemerriam.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
1/7 daily(ish) #Pride #SmallPress #books: The Crawling Moon edited by @davering.bsky.social (@neonhemlock.bsky.social) #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky 🌈📚 #PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈📚
Book cover for The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread edited by Dave Ring‬ (Neon Hemlock‬), where the moon and trees are drawn within a frame so the whole suggests a skull. Contributors include Sage Agee‬, Bendi Barrett‬, Winifred Burton‬, Amelia Burton, Jess Cho, Lyndall Clipstone‬, Donyae Coles, Dare Segun Falowo, Caro Jansen, Yeonsoo Kim, Marianne Kirby‬, M.L. Krishnan‬, Jes Malitoris‬, Chris McCartney, KC Mead-Brewer‬, Suzan Palumbo‬, Hailey Piper‬, E. Saxey‬, Jordan Shiveley‬, Caitlin Starling‬, Natalia Theodoridou‬, v.f. Thompson, E. Catherine Tobler‬, Shaoni C. White, Cynthia Zhang‬, and Tina Zhu‬.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/the-crawling-moon
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
This anthology has so many of my favorite people in it. Thanks for highlighting it, Joanne! 💚
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Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf @eliaseells.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
A vital and necessary anthology! AMPLITUDES is timely, at moments painfully so, rooted in persistent determination, and powerful in its hard-won perseverance. We have always been here and we will always be here, come flood and famine, beyond the atmosphere and in the heart of memory. A must read.
An advance copy of Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity ed. by Lee Mandelo on a white mantle alongside a prismatic rainbow wash.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Help us punch (also smooch, maybe????) some giant monsters!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Ahhh getting a shoutout among such a stacked cast gives me the warm and fuzzies. Thanks, Elias! 💚
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Stoked about all the metallic fisticuffs and nuclear breath weapons we're about to read.
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Baffling Magazine @bafflingmag.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
We'll be open soon for submissions of queer speculative SFF. Stand by for some thoughts on the Mecha vs. Kaiju call by Associate Editor D. A. Vorobyov, who'll be editing this particular theme issue. More info: www.bafflingmag.com/submissions
Open to submissions June 1-15.

Baffling.

Unthemed. 
Mecha vs Kaiju.
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Marty Cahill @mcflycahill90.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Tagging contributors to spread the word! 💜 @sentencebender.bsky.social @sarahgailey.bsky.social @bendibarrett.bsky.social @domsdickey.bsky.social @margaret.bsky.social @mayadeane.bsky.social @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social @megelison.bsky.social @katharineduckett.bsky.social @itsneonyang.bsky.social!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Right??
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Holy wow! This looks so cool!
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Marty Cahill @mcflycahill90.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
ICYMI! I wrote a @criticalrole.bsky.social book with some pretty amazing people, and I can't wait for you all to enjoy it!!!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
My story for this is so weird. 🫣
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Congratulations on the nom!!! Incredible! Brilliant! Baller!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Omggggggggggg incredible!!!!! I just came here to scream praise at you!!!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Imagine here that I didn't write "comparatively easy compared to..." like a noob. I hate editing on my phone (grumble, grumble)
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Learning the mechanics of writing is comparatively easy compared to learning the importance (and practice!) of creative momentum. Writing classes force you to keep moving, which is tremendously helpful, but it's not the only path to a muscular creativity.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Ideas are wind, you can harness them for power, but you can't keep 'em. Years ago my mom got stuck lamenting a fragment of a story she lost in a computer crash; it derailed her creative practice. I was in high school and by then, I'd already wrote & discarded two half novels. (awful novels)
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
The best training I ever got was doing writing sprints with my mentor in high school. He'd assign me a prompt and time me; I'd just write. It became second nature to be limber enough to live in a new idea on the fly. And it broke me out of the habit of being precious about ideas.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Dom/sub is OVER. Start writing sub/sub. Or are you a spineless coward??
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Kerstin Hall @kerstinhall.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Stories are allowed to resolve with failure. Characters are allowed to do wrong. Bad consequences are better than convenient ones.
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Neon Hemlock @neonhemlock.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Lovely to see EMPIRE OF THE FEAST by @bendibarrett.bsky.social on this rad list (alongside a few other favs ✨) (cheers to @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social for the rec) reactormag.com/backlist-bon...
reactormag.com
Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Black Speculative Books - Reactor
Here are a few titles that deserve to be on your TBR
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Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com · 14/01/2025
Need to make some fucked up art so I can at least filter out the people who think they can divine morality through somebody's creative output
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DNTLZ @dntlz.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
I hope this cover art by yours truly may be the last piece of art you see this year 🍆🐙
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Some real all-stars in this one, folks! Auspiciously, it was the first issue I read for. Destiny!
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Make jiggle physics for fat stomachs too, you fucking cowards.
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Sentences you never imagine yourself saying until you say them: "Oh my God, these fucking baseboards. What the fuck is happening here, dude?"
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
No but can you imagine?
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Random quotes from my partner: "... I wish Daft Punk had a Christmas album."
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Bendi Barrett @bendibarrett.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Hailey Piper on the runaway train to complete horror dominance! Congrats!
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