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Bud Smith

@budsmith.bsky.social
639 followers 303 following 158 posts

I wrote the novels Teenager (Vintage) and Mighty (forthcoming from Knopf) among others, and work heavy construction in the boilermakers union. coolgoodluck.com

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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 20/05/2026
In our most recent issue, @budsmith.bsky.social describes the day job he worked for fifteen years, writing on his lunch breaks, before selling a novel to a major publisher:
thebaffler.com
The Profession That Does Not Exist | Baffler Symposium
A partial history of the hidden labor that makes possible the poems, stories, essays, and books you read.
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Brad Pearson @bradicalpearson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I talked to author @budsmith.bsky.social about his incredibly zen approach to writing and balancing work and art
podcasts.apple.com
Episode 182 - Just Be Satisfied with Bud Smith
Podcast Episode · Self Worst · June 2 · 1h 36m
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
mostly through the minor revisions and copy edits to my memoir Work, getting a fresh reissue early this summer
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Jamillah @jemimahknight.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
This is just lovely. Like an ode to anyone who walks with a sketchbook or notebook wherever they go. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/10... by @budsmith.bsky.social
theparisreview.org
My Truck Desk by Bud Smith
October 29, 2025 – “Now that I had my Truck Desk, that vehicle was my very own rolling cubicle.”
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Here is a new short story called, Natural Selectors. In it, a man looks back at his parent's generation and recounts the atrocities of the gang they had in their youth. nicetrybudsmith.substack.com/p/natural-se...
nicetrybudsmith.substack.com
Natural Selectors
(short story)
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Here is an essay I wrote for @parisreview.bsky.social about building a desk for a pickup truck t.co/3Pf4Nl1WrN
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
I wrote an essay called “Summer’s Over” for Zona Motel. Topics covered: art making, impending demolition, an innocent mistake open.substack.com/pub/zonamote...
open.substack.com
ESSAY: Summer’s Over
It’s raining and the cars driving by our apartment sound like waves again. I’m on the couch, writing on a little yellow cart that doubles as a rolling coffee table. She’s on the other side of the pink...
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Needless To Say @needlesstosay.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Sergiu Ciochina
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Ben Loory @benloory.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Just remembered a dream I had last night where I was in a recording studio w/Tom Petty. He was dead, a skeleton, but up & about & sounding great on guitar. He was recording “You Don’t Know How It Feels” & wanted me to sing the vocals. I explained that was bad idea & eventually he came around. Whew!
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Have a new story called “Skyhawks“ in the fall issue of the Paris Review. t.co/LFMR359iCc
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House of Vlad Press/Vlad Mag @houseofvladpress.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Vlad Mag #6 (Part Two): “Bummer Summer,” edited by Brian Alan Ellis, is OUT NOW on the website! New work by @eyerarat.bsky.social (@filthyloot.bsky.social), @malsmart.bsky.social (@maudlinhouse.bsky.social), @budsmith.bsky.social, @formermissnj.bsky.social and others 🦩
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Sitting here listening to Bat Out of Hell, as always.
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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 25/06/2025
Join us on Friday, 7/11, to celebrate the release of our latest issue, “Player Haters.” We’ll be at the Francis Kite Club on the LES for an evening of drinks, dancing, and good sportsmanship. Featuring DJs Jamison Lung and Paula Martinez.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I’ve got a new short story up at Joyland today. This one is called “Shades” t.co/9FXFxW2ApU
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Other night I met a person in publishing, who misses the writing workshop group they had in grad school. Haven't written much since then. I said, Well you can change that, find 3 gifted people, w/ same goals (a novel/story collection) and be the leader, drive the thing, do it, meet in person monthly
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
saw a young dog walk by with the face of Skeletor
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
I've got some new short stories--the most recent issue of FENCE has one called "Nightsky", tomorrow I'll share a link to one coming out in Joyland called "Shades." This fall I've got one coming into print again at The Paris Review
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D. A. Denison @daveadenison.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
How bout a little #sports chat on here? Where are the BlueSky bowlers? #bowling #tenpins thebaffler.com/salvos/chang...
thebaffler.com
Changing Lanes | Dave Denison
How long can bowling endure the vulture capitalists buying up alleys around the country?
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LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
just got this in the mail and it's 🔥🔥🔥🔥
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mark leidner @markleidner.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
It is Disney canon that Huey, Dewey, and Louie moved in with Donald Duck after killing their biological father by putting fireworks under his chair and lighting them while he was sitting in it.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I have a new short story in The Baffler, called “Chipper” thebaffler.com/stories/chip...
thebaffler.com
Chipper | Bud Smith
He’d seen her do incredible things to dull people.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Here’s a new short story called “After Passaic” @farewelltransmiss.bsky.social farewelltransmission.net/2025/04/afte...
farewelltransmission.net
AFTER PASSAIC - Farewell Transmission
By Bud Smith Last night I broke a rib kicking a balloon. I went flying like Home Alone, Marv and Harry, landed on my side and damn it hurt. Sometime around sunset the following day I was at Miriam’s 8...
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I have a new short story in The Baffler, called “Chipper” thebaffler.com/stories/chip...
thebaffler.com
Chipper | Bud Smith
He’d seen her do incredible things to dull people.
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donni saphire @donni.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Never let your enemies give you a ride to the mall on the handlebars of their bike
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
been working 14 hour night shifts for the past five weeks, sometimes with Sunday off, but it’s almost over, just another few weeks, and then I can return to my real life again, as a semi-professional doer of nothing
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Tom McAllister @tmcallister.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Hope some Philly folks will stop by Tattooed Mom on Wed for readings by the extremely talented and cool Rutgees Camden MFA 2nd year students (I will also be there)
Flyer for a reading featuring photo of cat trying to eat a Christmas light. List of readers names + importantly location and timing: Wed, 2/26, 7 PM, Tattooed Mom in Philly
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Autofocus Books @autofocusbooks.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
I heard a rumor that we're going to open for book submissions in the spring. (You can spread the rumor). I have no other information right now. I am possibly an unreliable source and am not available for comment. But I said what I said.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
here's a short story called "Tiger Blood" and some thoughts about it, from my collection Double Bird nicetrybudsmith.substack.com/p/tiger-blood
nicetrybudsmith.substack.com
Tiger Blood
a story from my collection Double Bird
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Day One: told my coworkers I was profiling them as a group for GQ — result, Yay! Flexing and raising the roof Day Two: went back to work and told them GQ rejected the pitch because they’re a bunch of weak ass suckers.
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Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Slept in a bit and didn’t have time for my “daily short story” this morning… but also need to prep for tomorrow’s class, and so: two birds, one stone! One of my fave things @budsmith.bsky.social has written.
Violets
Bud Smith
A day after we made our suicide pact, the bank sent a yellow letter saying we'd lose our house. That night, instead of just killing ourselves, Monique and I set the place on fire.
It was easy to start. A mountain of rags soaked in turpentine. Up it went, a solitary match. I ducked outside. The garage door came down on its automatic track.
We sat in the truck and watched the house the way we used to watch the creature feature at the drive-in. It was like waiting for drugs to kick in, giddy and impatient, doubtful. But then the smoke puffed out the garage door where the weather seal was bad and we exhaled.
Our shotguns were on our laps, loaded, ready to go. It would have been better to buy just one and share it, but then one of us would have had to see the splatter of the other. When I first tried to get the guns, the store declined my card. I returned to the truck empty-handed. After talking it over, Monique and I went into the store together and financed the guns same as cash for ninety days.
We lived all the way out of town, by ourselves on the edge of a dark ravine. When the fire department arrived, wed pull…
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House of Vlad Press/Vlad Mag @houseofvladpress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
☠️ WE OUT HERE ☠️
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franco luís @francoluis.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Disclosed to my wife that, as a young boy I was afraid to watch the Looney Tunes because I feared I would inadvertently enter that world
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Ygrene @ygrene.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
please install a ceiling fan in my coffin or i will simply get zero eternal rest
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shy watson 𓅯 @formermissnj.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
theseus's 1999 honda accord
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Kevin Maloney @kevinmaloney.net · 09/01/2025
Had an amazing conversation with @augstone.bsky.social about John Frusciante, Kurt Vonnegut, and the writing of HORSE GIRL FEVER. Hope you dig it 🔥 etceteraetc.podbean.com/e/episode-64...
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
I been reading 1001 Nights (unabridged 3 vol set from Penguin (trans by Malcolm and Ursula Lyon). Slays so hard, absolutely metal, and I’m not even talking about Sinbad and Aladdin and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. You should read one ‘Night’ per night this year w/ me. Takes about ten minutes a night
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
when you witness a good YouTube clip/reel/short the only sensible response is to chisel a description of how it made you feel into a stone tablet
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
A poem called “Take a Penny, Leave a Penny” open.substack.com/pub/nicetryb...
open.substack.com
Take a Penny, Leave a Penny
A stork flies over our lake, dropping a baby to a woman paddling a canoe.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
best christmas gift was a swipe card for unlimited ‘wake up tomorrow’s
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
coworker who just turned 30 said, “Bro, I better start reading books.” So this is what I gave him to get him started on a (hopefully) new lifetime of reading. Also—these books always work for guys just starting out imho
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
yesterday I heard a powerlifter, who squats nearly 1300 pounds, say that we are all just a fart in the universe and not only will an eternity occur after our life is over, but that each of us was preceded by an aloof eternity before our birth
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
saw an ad for ‘Genesis Cleaning Services’ on a telephone pole but didn’t take a telephone # tear-off tab because it’s probably a direct line to YHWH who’d gladly destroy the whole earth in fire and flood again if I called during dinner
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Brad Listi @bradlisti.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
‘The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.’ Happy birthday to Willa Cather. Born December 7, 1873.
American author Willa Cather.Excerpt from an article about American author Willa Cather.Excerpt from an article about American author Willa Cather.Excerpt from an article about American author Willa Cather.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Lancelot did the right thing; Guinevere did the right thing
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Hello, I am reading at this event at McNally Jackson (Seaport) next Tuesday in NYC. It’s for the release of Daisuke Shen’s amazing book Vague Predictions & Prophecies. Come on out. ❤️ www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/daisuk...
mcnallyjackson.com
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Try this, add one pull-up a day, to get to 1000 max rep pull-ups in just three short years. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; next day, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2; then next day, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2; then 5, 4, 4, 3, 2; followed by 5, 5, 4, 3, 2 / rest day. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 / 6, 5, 4, 3, 3 / 6, 5, 4, 4, 3 / 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, and so on.
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Here's two more tips: 1) go to work nearly every shift 2) when you 'call out', never elaborate, just say, "I'm not going to make it in" 3) if someone is not at work, tell everyone they had to stay home because they shit their pants on the drive in and had to turn around but sssh it's a secret
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Bud Smith @budsmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
If you use a Bluetooth connected keyboard to write a story on your phone (propped against a coffee cup or whatever), there's a couple benefits: 1) you won't get distracted by anything else on your phone besides writing the story 2) it's hard to nitpick/edit so you're stuck drafting and that rules
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