iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The AWP gods have elevated me from an attendee to a panelist. Stoked to go to Chicago and eat all the vegan food.

Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Television pitch: a medical drama for people who are squeamish. Basically just The Pitt but no close ups of all the gross things about the medical field.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The world needs to know that my partner woke up from anesthesia and complimented a nurse in scrubs on her outfit.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Had my hair in a ponytail, and I became a parent’s teachable moment to explain to their son to not point.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Got acceptances on the last 2 poems from my MFA from 10 years ago. Thought they weren’t good enough after one submission cycle. 9 years later, submitted unrevised on a whim and immediately taken.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Here is the writer crew at @vermontstudioctr.bsky.social. What an unbelievable residency with so many talented folks.

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Reposted by Brendan Stephens

Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

No homosexuality allowed in the core at A&M.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

At the Vermont Studio Center to crush pages.

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Reposted by Brendan Stephens

The Florida Review @theflreview.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

We are still currently accepting submissions for our annual chapbook contest! Follow the link in our bio to enter. #flreview

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

This just in, my partner is not thrilled that I have started to refer to finishing a novel as “beating a book.”

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Read this one in college, and I still think about it all the time.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Last year, my resolution was to connect with old friends with a goal of calling someone every week. I quickly found that NO ONE wants to be cold-called and that scheduling a chat with people in their 30-40s is like, “I’m busy this day, week, & month, but I’d love to catch up around 2030.”

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

I’m impressed that you got one song from each artist. My auto playlist has a lot of repeated artists.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Bianca: “I’m not into hunks.” Me: 👀

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Hey, in case you missed it, the new SmokeLong is out! So many excellent flash stories plus a little interview by me.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Sewanee is getting rid of publishing fellowships for needs-based scholarships. Weirdly torn. Stoked for more people to have access, yet a fellowship was a white whale for me. And since I got a stable career and won’t qualify for needs-based, I doubt I’ll ever make it to Sewanee.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

My take is that if believability is even an issue (rare), the fix is usually a sentence of foreshadowing or interiority. Like readers can believe in werewolf WW2 fighter pilots, so if a reader doesn’t believe a character would have an affair, a little setup goes a long way.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Ethical question: if a student sends me an AI email, should I give an AI reply? I just spent twenty minutes responding point by point to an AI email, pretending not to notice, and I kind of resent exerting any effort.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

My eyes landed on Alaska, and I was like, “Keith’s finally done it. An E!E! gig in Alaska.” This is cool as well though. Haha

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Reposted by Brendan Stephens

The Florida Review @theflreview.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Please join us in celebrating The Florida Review contributors Naomi Gordon-Loebl and Jason Brown, whose respective essays were honored as "Notable Essays of 2024" by Best American Essays. #theflreview

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I have a graduating student who is interested in being a reader or intern for a literary magazine or small press. Do any of y’all know of anyone looking for readers?

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

I recently learned that if I’d been a girl, my parents would’ve named me after a ski company called Kastle, pronouncing it Kass-ley. I have no idea what to do with this information and yet it feels very profound.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Bianca: “This song is about losing your virginity by having sex.” Me: “Is there another way?”

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Backing into a parking spot, I begin singing “What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.”

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

It’s me. Really tried to experiment with breaking a rule of fiction with this one. I wanted to try to show an epiphany that ultimately doesn’t provoke a change in the character. Bleak stuff. Enjoy!

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

I got a story in this issue along with a bunch of my favorite writers. Unreal issue!

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Just took some Tylenol so I think this means I’m about to go ASD super Saiyan.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

My followers on here skew literary instead of punk/metal, but I feel like it is still worth a little tribute to Tomas Lindberg, the vocalist for At the Gates and Disfear. Slaughter of the Soul was my first death metal listen and Live the Storm is the best dbeat lp ever. What a monster.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

In the middle of a classic DND session where an insulted NPC kindly asks the party to leave his house, so the party had no choice but to escalate to a hostage situation which quickly turned to a kidnapping.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Agreed on stop scrolling. What an ongoing nightmare. Anyways, my WIP is a memoir about my parents adopting a 30 year old man that I’d gone to school with that I never really knew. It’s my first long form nonfiction project.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

I had a reader point out that I overused “ever” and “just” in my manuscript, so I literally spent 2 hours with ctrl+f searching and changing wording. Can’t decide if this was my most productive or least productive writing session of 2025.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

I just found out a picture of me as a child has been sold as a postcard for like 30 years. Where are my residuals?

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

I have made a grave and terrible error by committing to a show with doors at 9 and music at 10.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

A close friend (and former editor of Gulf Coast and Black Warrior Review) was recently diagnosed with ALS. He’s lost most of his mobility and a lot of his medical care isn’t covered by insurance. He’s been a gift to the literary community and he could use your help. www.gofundme.com/f/support-ry...

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Ryan's Fight Against ALS, organized by DONNA BOLLENBACH

Support Ryan in his Fight against ALS At just 37 years old, our youngest son… DONNA BOLLENBACH needs your support for Support Ryan's Fight Against ALS

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The people who most baffle me are those that post online, “I hated this TV show with hundreds of hours of content on my first watch, but I really loved it by my third rewatch.”

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Bianca hates my faculty headshot, but all I care about is my students knowing I was having a good hair day.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

A note to all unpublished writers: please delete that Byron quote before submitting. Your piece doesn’t need an epigraph.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Every time there is a “We need a X on the left,” I’m baffled. Like, the left doesn’t circle the wagon to protect their own like the GOP. A “leftist Stephen Miller” would make a false claim, face backlash, and then immediately rebrand as a right winger because the internet was mean to him.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

It’s nine in the morning and I’m trying to find box office projections for The Naked Gun because deep down I truly want it to be a blockbuster, and oh my god what have I become?

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

The vegan cheese in this metaphor is in an off-grid commune with veggie hot dogs and organic kimchi.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

I’ve been editing out my beloved em dashes, and honestly, I’ll never forgive ChatGPT for making me use parentheses.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

This is me after moving back to Texas.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

I think about this movie all the time. It really hit me to see war from a non-soldier perspective, how it both impacts everything, even those who aren’t actively fighting. Really should be required viewing for all militia types and tankies.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

I miss the early seasons of Chopped, before the chefs practiced and cracked the code on transforming ingredients. Those early episodes were so good cause chefs would make a Michelin star seaweed salad and then sprinkle gummy bears on top.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Boosting one of my oldest friends.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Great opportunity for flash writers who want to see behind the curtain of lit mags.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Thanks Dan. Maybe someday we can both venture out to like Austin or Dallas to meet up.

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Brendan Stephens @bstephens.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Excited to announce I accepted an assistant professor gig at West Texas A&M. Stoked to explore Amarillo and Palo Duro Canyon.

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