iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

A particular thanks to the Temple University students who edited this special issue of Barrelhouse — they clearly have phenomenal taste and bright futures.

BARRELHOUSE
Note: This special online issue was edited by the students in Mike Ingram's Fall 2025 Writers at Work class at Temple University. Editors include: Teresina Bova, Charlotte Chadwick, Genevieve DeBlasio, Sydney Dietrick, Sara Glaze, Alexis Hammond, Jack Jones, Madison Kifolo, Aidan Kinniry, Cheyenne Kirby, Laura Lahee, Astrid Le, Christian Lopez, Nicky McKee, Christian Patrick, Idris Settles, L Singleton, Soc Son, Kenna Stewart, Caitlin Weissing, and Maggie Whitfield.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Spotted in the SF Bay Area. Feels like an inflection point for me, marking the moment when I can no longer maintain even the illusion that I have some tentative understanding of wtf is going on in the world.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

My “to read next” is a match …

The cover of the novel We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

A sighting in the wild never gets old, or I sure hope it doesn’t. Spotted Oromay at @greenapplebooks.bsky.social at SF airport, in proximity to fellow Iowa grad Xochitl Gonzalez’s novel. A good start to my Bread Loaf journey.

A photo of a bookstore’s Fiction section with many great books, including the English translation of Baalu Girma’s novel Oromay, an Ethiopian classic.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

I took Apple’s feedback survey for Apple Music and was surprised to see that for the question “How do you listen to Apple Music?“ the possible answers did not include “on my computer.” Which maybe goes some way towards explaining why the Mac Music app is so bad. @siracusa.social

A screenshot of an survey question from Apple asking:
How do you typically listen to Apple Music?
Select all that apply.
• On my smartphone
• In my car
• On my home speakers
• On my tablet
• On my TV
Other (specify):
Under “other” the user has entered “On my Mac.” And, in retrospect, wishes he had added several exclamation marks.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

If you were desperate to end your long-running podcast, murdering your co-host and claiming that they are “on vacation in Canada” would be one way to go. Like, hypothetically. Many thanks to @mikeingram.bsky.social & @tmcallister.bsky.social (rip??) for 13 years (!!) of Bookfight.

Screenshot of the end of an email that reads as follows: … I will definitely miss doing the show. But I'm thankful for all the cool stuff it's brought into my life, including how many of you I've gotten to meet, or even just chat with online.
-Mike (and Tom, in spirit)
(oh wait, that makes it sound like Tom is dead, and not just on vacation in Canada.)

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

A top ten moment of my life occurred yesterday when I opened the pre-made salad kit (I know, I know, I usually do make my own but this week is busy) and discovered that it contained TWO packages of shredded cheese. That, my friends, is the taste of victory.

Photo of a bag of Trader Joe’s Avocado Ranch Salad Kit showing that it mistakenly contained not one but two packages of shredded cheese.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

The retro/throwback sports apparel trend has officially gotten out of hand - I just saw an ad (below) for a “Retro Golden State Valkyries Logo T-shirt” from Homage. Folks, the Valkyries are an expansion franchise. Not sure how you can go “retro” during their very first season, but here we are. #wnba

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Isn’t there also a statue of his basset hound next to him? Asking for a friend. Two friends actually.

Two basset hound dogs looking at the camera and generally being adorable. #dogsofbluesky

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Joyeux 14 juillet! Had some very nice ones in France, grateful to everyone I worked with and got to know there. cc: @segovandevelde.bsky.social

A view of some French archaeologists (and wonderful people) eating at a table on the terrace of a medieval monastery looking out over a valley in St Thome, Ardeche, France.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Brave Basset Confronts Cowardly Lion

A basset hound sniffing a quite realistic plastic lion toy. #dogsofbluesky #bassethound

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Me when I realize it’s Wednesday and I should really deal with the emails etc that I put off until “after the holiday weekend”:

Roscoe the basset hound laying with his head tucked under a bush. #dogsofbluesky #bassethound

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Gracie confirms my working theory that every basset is adorable and also has resting hungry face.

A photo of two bassets, Daisy (left) and Roscoe (right), eying the camera and wondering if there are treats to be had.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

For all future submissions to lit mags, my cover letter will just be a photo of the basset hounds. Feel like that will be better for everyone involved.

A photo of two basset hounds, Roscoe (left) and Daisy (right), looking at the camera.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

It seems we both have writing in the current issue of @barrelhouse.bsky.social and also both have basset hound(s)? If so, quite the coincidence!

A photo of two basset hounds, Roscoe (left) and Daisy (right), staring at the camera.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr dropping in at the first-ever Golden State Valkyries game. #wnba

A photo of the back of Steve Kerr’s head in the front row at the Valkyries game. (He’s the head coach of the Golden State Warriors.)

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Warming up for a whole new franchise - let’s go Valkyries! #WNBA #GoldenState

A photo at Chase Center of the Golden State Valkyries warming up in the background with a t-shirt in the foreground. The t-shirt says “Golden State Valkyries Inaugural Season ‘25”.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

I’m routinely amused by how the New York Times’ weekly news quiz reveals things about its readership. Today, for example, 95% of responders knew the type of treatment a baby received for a rare disease, but only 67% knew which NBA team traded Luka Doncic and got the #1 pick in the draft lottery.

A screenshot of a question from today’s NY Times News Quiz that reads as follows:
The New York Times News Quiz, May 16, 2025
KJ, a 9½-month-old boy, made medical history when he became the first patient of any age to receive which treatment, designed to fix his precise genetic disease?
Custom gene-editing treatment
Immunotherapy
Nerve allotransplantation
Tendon lengthening
Orphan drug treatment
Correct.
It's custom gene-editing treatment. The rare genetic disorder, CPS1 deficiency, affects just one in 1.3 million babies, and half of all babies with the disorder die in the first week of life. But KJ's treatment - which built on decades of federally funded research - offers a new path for companies to develop personalized treatments without going through years of expensive development and testing.
95% of 30,929 readers answered this correctly.

A screenshot of a question from today’s New York Times News Quiz that reads as follows:
The New York Times News Quiz, May 16, 2025
9 of 11
What team - which traded away its superstar player, Luka Doncic, earlier this season - won the N.B.A.'s draft lottery and will have the No. 1 pick?
Dallas Mavericks
Los Angeles Lakers
Atlanta Hawks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Philadelphia 76ers
Correct.
It's the Mavericks. The team won the lottery despite coming into the night with a 1.8 percent chance of doing so - the second-longest odds of any lottery winner in history. "It was kind of a crazy draft lottery," Cooper Flagg, the likely No. 1 pick, told The Athletic.
67% of 30,636 readers answered this correctly.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Prediction: The last survivors of end-stage capitalism will be purveyors of current event t-shirts.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I’m 100% opposed to racist sports names/logos, whose removal is virtually always a result of activism from the community. But the Warriors logo change occured before the occupation/reclamation of Alcatraz (began 11/20/69 vs start of NBA season 10/15/69; City logo introduced in 1966 per SF Chron).

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

When Your First Professional Job Was Being An Editor It Warps Your Brain, Part 72: Was re-watching the pilot episode of True Detective and got distracted by inconsistent capitalization in the label of the videos. It doesn’t matter, but I can’t help noticing.

Screenshot from True Detective pilot episode (season 1) showing a video of Woody Harrelson labelled “Statement of: HART, Martin Eric” with Hart in all caps.

Screenshot from True Detective pilot episode (season 1) showing a video of Matthew McConaughy labelled “Statement of: Cohle, Rustin Spencer” with Cohle capitalized normally.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Blurb Creep: made a rare visit to the Amazon UK website to check a listing and was surprised to see that apparently blurbs are now being appended to book titles !? (again, I was just checking some info - I buy books from indie bookstores or Bookshop dot org, not Amazon)

Screenshot of a listing on the Amazon UK website showing the title of a book immediately followed by a blurb, specifically: Rejection: 'Tulathimutte is a pervert, a madman and a stone-cold genius' Carmen Maria Machado Hardcover - 13 Feb. 2025
by Tony Tulathimutte (Author)

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Spotted this classic from @pamlhouston.bsky.social at @greenapplebooks.bsky.social SF Airport (pictured). Not pictured is the young woman who picked it up a minute later. I was tempted to say it was good, but then thought nah, no need - she’ll figure it out.

A photo of a plethora of books on a table labelled “Green Apple Choice”. Among the books is Cowboys Are My Weakness, an excellent short story collection by Pam Houston. That book is circled in the photo.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Good news everyone, Bluesky just got better: the wonderful writer and awesome person @erintheswan.bsky.social is here! Her first novel, Walk the Vanished Earth, blew my mind. So much so that I got the French edition too.

A photo of two books, the English and French editions of the awesome novel Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan. The French edition was translated by Juliane Nivelt.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

My basset named Daisy just had a birthday as well (March 17)! All best wishes to the birthday girls!

A photo of an adorable basset hound named Daisy, laying on the grass and looking right at the camera. #dogsofbluesky #basset

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

So Meta used 27 of my published scientific papers to train its “AI” model. That’s basically my entire output as a researcher, used without permission. Wonder how Meta would react if I scraped Facebook to make a commercial product? Kudos to @theatlantic.com & @alexreisner.bsky.social for reporting.

A screenshot of a web tool built by the Atlantic that allows you to search the LibGen archive of (pirated) writings by author name. Screenshot shows that a search for DeGusta yields 27 results. Court documents show that Meta used LibGen to train its LLM for “AI”, per the (excellent) reporting by Alex Reisner for the Atlantic.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Feel like I know what song the Missouri band is rehearsing. #marchmadness

A screenshot of the bracket for the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament showing that sixth-seeded Missouri will play eleventh-seeded Drake on March 20.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Same, except I refer to it as “basset mode” - following their example and limiting my focus to naps, food, and walks.

Photo of a basset hound, half asleep and ensconced in a dog mat.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

TV Writing Shortcut: When your protagonist needs access to the digital archive in a high-security research facility, he can … spot his co-worker’s username and password helpfully printed out on a card?? Would have been better (and funnier) if they were on a post-it note on co-worker’s monitor.

Screengrab of a tv show (that will remain unnamed) from a scene inside a high-security research facility showing an officially issued card that helpfully lists the “Archive Login Details” including both the username and password.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Happy “we get fed an hour early!” day to all who celebrate. 🐶

Two basset hound dogs looking up at the camera. #dogsofbluesky

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The thrill of being surprised by a book in the mail is always a good feeling, and even better when it’s from @csittenfeld.bsky.social her awesome self (thanks!). I’m excited to dive into the stories of Show Don’t Tell - one follows up on Prep! Available everywhere this Tuesday Feb 25.

The cover of the new collection of short stories, Show Don’t Tell, by Curtis Sittenfeld.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Little Shop of Horrors, but the killer plant is a LLM.

A poster for Little Shop of Horrors, which was first a B movie in 1960, then adapted into a musical, which was then adapted into another movie. Those productions, and the poster, feature “Audrey” - a large human-eating plant (picture an oversized venus flytrap).

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Yup. That doesn’t diminish the tragedy for those involved, but it’s (sadly) normal. www.ntsb.gov/safety/data/...

Graph of annual US aviation accidents from 2014 through the present from the NTSB, broken down by fatal versus non-fatal. Except for 2020 (covid shutdown), the former is usually about 1400 per year or so and the latter is about 350-400 per year.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

The place to go when your dog eats the cat who ate your rabbit.

A sign for the Montecito Pet Hospital with overlapping silhouettes of a dog, a cat, and a rabbit.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

On this day in 1984, the Ethiopian writer Baalu Girma vanished, almost certainly kidnapped & murdered by the Derg regime in retaliation for his novel Oromay. The brutal regime’s attempt to silence him failed, as Oromay is a beloved & popular classic. Thank you Ato Baalu. We remember. #bannedbooks

A black-and-white photo of Baalu Girma, the famous Ethiopian writer. A formal portrait in suit and tie.

The original cover of the Ethiopian novel Oromay, published in 1983. The top line of Amharic text says Baalu Girma, the second line is Oromay. The cover was designed by Tibebe Terffa for Kuraz Publishing.

The cover of the English translation of Oromay, the UK edition from MacLehose.

The cover of the English translation of Oromay, the US edition from Soho Press.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Okay, I know timeline coincidences amuse me more than they do most people, but this one is just the best, with the cats eyeing the crabs right above them in my (ahem) feed. @emlyne.bsky.social @annacats2.bsky.social @karlykingsley.bsky.social

A screenshot of two adjacent posts in my feed, from different people, that makes it look like the two cats pictured in the bottom post are eyeing all the crabs pictured in the top post.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

If, like me, you are confused by how so many people are so invested in the outcome of a football game - a sport that destroys bodies and brains - I would recommend @tmcallister.bsky.social’s “Bury Me In My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly.” It’s out of print but not hard to find.

A photo of the cover of Tom McAllister’s book “Bury Me In My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly”. The cover features vintage Philadelphia Eagles football items and old family photos.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

How about a cooler with a cooler?

Poster for the movie The Cooler, starring William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

If you get a National Science Foundation grant for research, you are required to use a US airline for any air travel paid for by the grant, even if it is more expensive/less convenient than a non-US airline. (I’m not taking a stand here on whether this is good or bad policy.)

• nsf.gov
b. Use of U.S.-Flag Air Carriers
(i) The General Services Administration issued an amendment to the Federal Travel Regulations in the November 13, 1998 edition of the Federal Register (Vol. 63, No. 219). The amendment relates to the use of U.S.
Flag air carriers under the provisions of 49 USC §40118, which is commonly referred to as the Fly America Act.
(ii) Any air transportation to, from, between or within a country other than the U.S. of persons or property, the expense of which will be assisted by NSF funding, must be performed by, or under a code-sharing arrangement with, a U.S.-Flag air carrier if service provided by such a carrier is Davailable (see Comp. Gen. Decision B-240956, dated September 25, 1991). Tickets (or documentation for electronic tickets) must identify the U.S.-Flag air carriers designator code and flight number.
(iii) For the purposes of this requirement, U.S.-Flag air carrier service is considered available even though:
(a) comparable or a different kind of service can be provided at less cost by a Foreign-Flag air carrier;
(b) Foreign-Flag air carrier service is preferred by or is more convenient for NSF or traveler; or
(c) service by a Foreign-Flag air carrier can be paid for ir excess foreign currency.
(iv) The following rules apply unless their application would result in the first or last leg of travel from or to the
U.S. being performed by a Foreign-Flag air carrier:
(a) a U.S.-Flag air carrier shall be used to destination or, in the absence of direct or through service, to the farthe interchange point on a usually traveled route;

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

The 2/10 announcement is for Grants for Arts Projects which (despite the name) is for organizations, not individuals. The individual grants are separate, under Creative Writing Fellowships and Translation Project Fellowships. I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed those in July 2025, but so far no.

Grants for
Organizations
CHALLENGE AMERICA
The Challenge America grant program has been canceled for FY 2026. We encourage applicants who may have planned to apply to Challenge America this year to review the Grants for Arts Projects guidelines to learn more about funding opportunities.
GRANTS FOR ARTS PROJECTS
Grants for Arts Projects is our principal grants category. Grants are available for arts projects of all sizes in a wide variety of artistic disciplines.
Deadlines: March 11 and July 10, 2025

Grants for Individuals
CREATIVE WRITING
FELLOWSHIPS
The Literature Fellowships program awards grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Grants to individuals are only available in Literature.
* Deadline: March 12, 2025.
TRANSLATION PROJECT
FELLOWSHIPS
Through fellowships to published translators, the NEA supports projects for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English.
* Deadline has passed. New guidelines anticipated in July 2025.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

And edited this gem back in 1986 …

A photo of the cover of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop Cookbook, edited by Connie Brothers and illustrated by Peter Nelson.

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David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

As far as spam voicemails go, I’m … actually kind of okay with this one?

Screenshot of a transcript of a voicemail left by a spam call: "Thank you Thank you have a great day I repeat hello This message let you know that you did it Please call us for further assistance Thank you Thank you Have a great day...”

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