iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Come see me at the @umasspress.bsky.social table here at @asalh-bhm.bsky.social meeting - always a great conference! Exhibit hall opens tomorrow (Thursday) at 9am.

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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The Republicans are trying to tell Americans who they are. I’ll give them that. We Americans need to remember that corporations, when expected to “self-regulate,” choose profit over people. The R’s are publicly choosing their side.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is my personality now and I have @smallbutfighty.bsky.social to blame for the opening of her book Why Sinead O’Connor Matters, with @utexaspress.bsky.social. And yes I know it’s Fiona Apple, read the book and it’ll make sense! 💔

m.youtube.com

Fiona Apple cover of The Whole of the Moon - Live version

YouTube video by Zelda Hallman

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It frustrates me that today's email from @publisherswkly.bsky.social includes a link to a Substack (already kinda sad) about McMurtry's Lonesome Dove in which the writer narrates his convo with an AI bot as he tries to figure out why people like this novel. This isn't news, but it is depressing.

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melanie newport @melanienewport.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I have had this quote by Lonnie Bunch from the back cover of The 1619 Project on my office door for ages.

Let us use history to inspire us to push a country forward, to help us believe that all things are possible, and to demand a country lives up to its stated ideals.
LONNIE G. BUNCH II
14TH SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN
Not the original back cover, my image of that is blurry. I dolled this one up in canva- white serif font on blue starry background

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

“he had the rare vision to see a thing, any thing, not just at the moment of acquisition but through its whole passage from mineral extraction, the mess of manufacture and transport to the consumer and beyond, to the desecration we call ‘landfill.’ He nudged us to do the same…” -Barbara Kingsolver

nytimes.com

Wendell Berry’s Message to Readers: All We Need Is Here

Barbara Kingsolver remembers the man she counted among her most important literary mentors.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Remember the Epstein Files? So far, only about half the files have been released — and a potential cover-up by the Trump regime continues to generate bipartisan political action. Here's what you should know. robertreich.substack.com/p/the-epst…

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Do you ever worry, when it rains, that your houseplants are jealous?

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Worth a read even if it gives you nightmares bc many people are deep in this nightmare for real and it’s only spreading, and this series of troubling and astute observations does result in a plan.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

We all have blood on our hands. It’s shameful what our government is doing.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Fair point, I suppose such language runs risk of personalizing it and even seeming more forgiving of the greed.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Their addiction is so powerful that they won’t share, they can’t seem to stop. But now they’re running the country and more and more of us are suffering from it. Their followers justify their behavior and deny their addiction - familiar behavior for many of us. It’s just so grim and exhausting.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

When called out, they fire back defensively claiming the accuser likes money too, having no sense of moderation (one can enjoy a drink/earn and save $ without hoarding and being addicted).

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

They are bending policy to feed their addiction, they are obsessed with ways of hiding wealth for later, hoarding it when no one is looking, sneaking it with others who share the addiction.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In a time where there is so much talk of addiction, it seems someone smarter than me can play out (or already has) the idea of wealth addicts. This incl our president, obviously, and so many (Kushner et al) surrounding him.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In fairness, it was the fault of the particular era’s fashion that made it “aesthetically terrifying.” I mean a few years earlier, Joe looked completely badass. But always “very woke.”

Late ‘80s cast pic of tv show “Facts of Life”

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Just 10 billionaires have already poured nearly $670 MILLION into this year's midterms. In the entire 2008 presidential cycle, the last election before Citizens United, total billionaire spending was $16 million. If you're wondering what the real threat to "election integrity" is, it's Big Money.

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Andrea Mann @andreamann.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"By writing, you are literally firing up your brain and therefore stirring up your conscious thoughts and something new emerges. You are not, or at least not always, transcribing something already present in your conscious thoughts.“ LOVE this piece. www.historians.org/perspectives...

historians.org

How Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around) – AHA

Writing is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words.

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Exquisite Winslow Homer painting— a Black man on a boat at sea, surrounded by sharks— is almost too spot on for the period after Reconstruction. I love the paintings that Homer did of people in the Caribbean.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

“He has his Summer, when luxuriously Spring’s honied cud of youthful thought he loves To ruminate, and by such dreaming high Is nearest unto heaven…” -“The Human Seasons,” John Keats Pretty solid tbh.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Tho I was there to bury my parents in the family plot, the Kilkenny Arts Festival in #Ireland is well worth a visit! They put on some fantastic shows, for the public and with ticketed events. A delightful surprise as part of the trip.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Starting a sentence casually this way isn’t great, @bostonglobe.com: “As small liberal arts colleges across the Northeast face a mass die-off…” it was a pretty sweet story about the Marlboro Music Festival in #Vermont, but this line jumped out in its flippancy, and hyperbole.

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The poor room looks like it has some sort of golden scabies. Gross to contemplate that this once dignified building is a ruin at one end and this Liberace nightmare rummage sale at the other.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Congrats to my friends at @beaconpress.bsky.social for the 📢 in @shelf-awareness.com of a new #fiction imprint, Fort Point, named after the #Boston neighborhood in which the Press now resides. Nice to see some city/ #publishing representation! #books

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Urgent notice about new #bookbanning legislation in the US Senate, thank you for advocacy @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social and @aupresses.bsky.social Write to your senators! (Trust @warren.senate.gov & @edmarkey.bsky.social are fighting it) #books

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

(Forgive editorial choices for reasons of space - original did not have & or b/c. This quote comes from hooks's essay "in and beyond the academy" from hooks's book *remembered rapture: the writer at work*, published by Henry Holt (!) in 1999, but essay orig appeared in Z magazine in Nov 1995.)

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

"I chose [collective South End Press], instead of seeking a larger corporate press that would have given advances & paid royalties consistently, b/c the women & men at SEP were committed to feminist movement, to ending domination in all its forms-racism, classism, imperialism, etc." -bell hooks

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Someone get me in a room with MacKenzie Scott’s folks and I’ll deliver my impassioned / well-constructed argument that it’s a moral imperative that she give $20 million to a new distributor specifically for nonprofit and small presses in order to offset her ex’s dismantling of the book industry.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A must watch for these times, things that shouldn’t have to be said, said very well.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

We at @umasspress.bsky.social are publishing - THIS EARLY FALL - the featured #OLAUG founder Susan Baur’s beautiful and funny meditation on all things #CapeCod ponds, #turtles, and trash, her memoir Swimming with Turtles. I’m so excited!

umasspress.com

Swimming with Turtles

A memoir of discovery, loss, and wonder that shows us how to slow down When psychologist and author Susan Baur first slipped into a Cape Cod pond with a sno...

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Antifascism looks like Pedro Pascal. It looks like Alex Pretti and AOC. It looks like 600 priests, imams, and rabbis in the cold streets of winter Minneapolis. Antifascism is gorgeous.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

When the billionaire class overwhelms you, may I suggest joining a union and going to a meeting and hearing your colleagues, many of whom you don't know personally, speaking about the very issues exhausting you on the daily. Thank you, PSU at UMass Boston. #unionstrong @massteacher.bsky.social

umasspsu.org

About PSU

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Looking at proofs for new collection of writings by Robert Francis, longtime #Amherst resident, really shows how much he predicted a natural way of living: anti-consumerist, quiet, peaceful, anti-competitive, anti-capitalist, gentle. I hope this gets nice attention. #books @umasspress.bsky.social

umasspress.com

Robert Francis

Rediscovering the quietly radical writing of a poet who chose simplicity, solitude, and contemplation over modern hasteAmerican author Robert Francis, whom R...

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Pardon my excitement about this pre-pub review from #KirkusReviews of our newest Bright Leaf title at @umasspress.bsky.social, Susan Baur's Swimming with Turtles, which I love as its editor, but also b/c #turtles, and #CapeCod, and Baur's writing. And it's a gorgeous cover FWIW. Out in September!

kirkusreviews.com

SWIMMING WITH TURTLES | Kirkus Reviews

Diving into nature.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Seems like we should be at the very least *very concerned* with the White House firing/forcing out remaining members of the Election Assistance Committee. No WH but esp *this* WH should control our #elections. When do we panic? #voting #votingrights

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 09/07/2026

The administration may have changed its P.R. strategy for Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The violence hasn’t changed at all. trib.al/puZ1vsR

trib.al

ICE Is Hoping You Won’t Notice the Man Agents Killed In Texas

The administration may have changed its P.R. strategy for Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The violence hasn’t changed at all.

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Brian Halley @brianbhalley.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Congrats to Hachette workers and their new union @hbgworkers.bsky.social and to the University of Chicago Press and their new union with @chicagonewsguild.bsky.social - welcome to unionized #publishing, friends! #unionproud

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