iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

i don’t know what’s more beautiful: the rainbow in a late summer sky during an evening rain or the crowd of strangers gathered in the parking lot pointing it out to one another

photo of stormy sky with a rainbow over the supermarket building

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HAD @havehashad.com · 19/07/2026

How about a list of errands for Sunday? Today from Daniella Sinder "To divorce your pain from your personality and find that nothing remains To speak kindly to yourself" www.havehashad.com/2x6mb

July 19, 2026
Errands
Daniella Sinder
To lie in the mud first in childhood and later, eternally

To watch a former love grow old from behind a dog's Instagram account

To buy the bottle for its label and laugh at the first sip

To divorce your pain from your personality and find that nothing remains

To speak kindly to yourself (but only out of spite)

To manage expectations and still say, I love you

To envision a future held by arms merely reaching for the next morning

To fear the intuition you once fought to understand

To learn new terminology for your experiences and wish the world had fewer words

To fall asleep entwined and yearn for infinite language

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

delighted to be back in Rejection Letters with my new story “The Funerals” — so grateful to @kevinmkearney.bsky.social for his thoughtful edits, D.T., & any of you who read it in @rejectionlit.bsky.social 🪦 ♡ rejection-letters.com/2026/07/07/t...

Title: The Funerals
Author: Anna Vangala Jones
Image: a narrow alleyway behind a bar with a lit up red neon sign. nearby is a large tree under a gloomy sky.
Excerpt from the story: “For years, they’d all taken bets on who would be next. I tried not to resent anyone who guessed me. ‘We’re sorry, Diya,’ they said as they collected their winnings. ‘Where do you want the funeral?’

It began with Jill. After her divorce was final, she sent us formal invitations that insisted we wear black dresses and heels. At the cemetery, she placed flowers at the base of a tree before saying a few words. She claimed she did it to be funny, but she seemed to take the proceedings pretty seriously. Around the midway point, we went from finding the whole thing annoying to cathartic, finally telling her all our unspoken truths about their doomed trajectory as high school sweethearts turned bitter divorcees. We’ve since paid our respects at a mini-golf place, where Sarah’s first date had gone horribly but she married him anyway, and an old abandoned building, home to the lousy apartment Kavita and her ex had once shared. The last one was a bonfire in which Melanie torched every memory and smiled at the leaping flames. The funerals help us mourn and celebrate these endings. The drinks let us temporarily forget. Merlot at a classy restaurant after Jill’s. Yuengling at a dive bar after Sarah’s. Soju at a karaoke lounge after Kavita’s. Root beer floats at a drive-in movie after Melanie’s.”

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HAD @havehashad.com · 17/07/2026

POP-UP SUBMISSION CALL TIME! Open right now, until we hit 70. * any genre, but would love to see prose * any length, but shorter the better * two pieces ok, but encourage you only send one havehashad.submittable.com/submit/36274...

Submissions are open RIGHT NOW. Will be open for 70 submissions.

Open to technically anything, but would really love to see the teeniest tiniest pieces of prose you've got.

In other words...

- open to all genre, but would really love to see prose
- open to any word length, but the shorter the better
- you can send two pieces, but really encourage you only send one
no theme

Will probably do this same call sometime in the next 12–168 hours, depending on how fast I get through these and how life goes, so if you don't make this in time, keep an eye on our socials?

Thanks!
-Aaron

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

if you need me, i’ll be reading jack gilbert poems by lake wallenpaupack

photo of open poetry book against lake backdrop

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I have a new microfiction about grief & beauty & destruction in Bending Genres. read my story “Dishes” + all of Issue 51 🍽️ 🎨 grateful to @rgvaughan.bsky.social & the @bendinggenres.bsky.social editors ♡ bendinggenres.com/dishes/

Journal: Bending Genres, Issue 51
Title of story: Dishes
Author: Anna Vangala Jones

Text of story: “Louisa, my coworker, keeps telling me about this studio where you decorate dishes before standing on the rooftop to fling them at the ground—she says it’s therapeutic. Better than actual therapy. You wouldn’t be the only widow there, she assures me, lots of widows. She explains it’s nice because you get the soothing, artistic activity first and then there is the destruction. The ability to shatter into oblivion the beauty you’ve just created. Before anyone else can take it from you or ruin it. It sounds strange but I’d try almost anything at this point. I insist on going alone. The ceramic pieces are premade. We spend the first visit painting them and then they get glazed and fired in the kiln. We return a week later to admire our finished products before heading up several flights of stairs to the roof and throwing them as hard as we can at the vacant lot below. There’s not a lot of socializing that happens. I paint my teacup periwinkle and white while I lie to the old woman next to me about my husband by pretending he’s at home and still alive. “Does he question why you come here?” she asks. “My kids don’t get it. It’s good for my anger but they don’t understand what I’m so angry about. Neither do I,” she admits, “but I know I am and this helps.” I don’t tell him I’m here, I say. I like being able to tell her some truth. The day the dishes are ready, we don’t speak a word to each other or anyone else. Just indulge in the violence together and alone. I don’t notice anyone else’s debris but my own. I only see tiny periwinkle and white fragments sparkling on the pavement like millions of stars in distant galaxies.”

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

find someone who loves you the way I love my own rough drafts immediately after writing them

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

get someone who looks at you like timothy olyphant looks at jennifer garner in catch and release

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

not at all, and my presence is sporadic at best. i’ve missed you too! so thrilled for your news!

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

whoa!!! *congrats* Sabrina!! this is so exciting!!

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Sabrina Hicks @sabrinahicks.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

It’s my pub day!! I appreciate the support of this literary community. Get your copy today! Thank you to AV @cowboyjamboree.bsky.social!

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

i want that pick-you-up-at-the-airport kind of love

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SarahJSloat @sjane.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

stay tender somehow a reminder from @dinalrelles.bsky.social and me

postcard of dog with collage and aphorism, writing in German from original sender at bottom

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

i can’t believe your paths have not crossed before now!! this must happen. i’ll be at the book fair tomorrow only & hope for hugs 🤍

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I’ll never manage to pull it off every day but any morning that starts with me reading & writing is always the best

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

late February and all i do is tap little texts to my ex-boyfriend in the winter storm

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

I have a tiny new micro today in @bulbregion.bsky.social. grateful to @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social & any of you who read this story! 🥭 🥃 bulbregion.com/Mangoes-and-...

Title: Mangoes and Tequila
Author: Anna Vangala Jones
Image of a large mango
Text of the story: My ex-boyfriend—who we now say is my best friend which hurts my actual best friend’s feelings though it’s not a real title accompanied by any sort of perks—helped me move into my new apartment in a faraway state today, so I tell him he can stay over for the night before his long drive back home alone. It’s only fair, I try to explain to my actual best friend over the phone but she laughs and says we’ll probably fall into bed together one last time for a wistful unhealthy goodbye. I think she’s wrong and this move is us starting fresh. Right now we’re at my neighborhood grocery store and I’m struck by that strange sense of being lost in a dream. I’m squeezing fruit like I’m touching the body of a new love while my heart is still longing for the familiarity of the one I’ve just left or lost. My ex-boyfriend / best-friend-in-name-only reaches for a mango at the same time as me so we can touch hands and pretend it is an accident of fate, but I pull away before he can prove my actual best friend right. In the liquor aisle, we hesitate but buy some tequila so as to make the temptation tonight almost too much to bear or resist. “Am I here because I come running whenever you call or because I can lift heavy furniture for you?” He’ll ask this when we’re almost asleep and I'll tell him, “you're here because you’re my best friend and I'm going to miss you.” That last part will be true.

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Ben Niespodziany 📚🎪 @neonpajamas.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

AWP 💥 BALTIMORE 🚨 Mark your calendars‼️ It’s all happening on March 4. See you there?

Neon Night Mic
AWP Offsite Reading
Hosted by [neonpajamas]

Alina Stefanescu
Jose Hernandez Diaz
Michael Martone
Annelyse Gelman
Nicky Beer
Chen Chen
Johannes Goransson
Alina Pleskova
Katie Jean Shinkle
C.T. Salazar
David Simmons
David Wojciechowski
Kenyatta Rogers
Henry Goldkamp
Matt Bell
Grant Wamack
Jon Woodward

@ Old Major
900 S. Carey St.
Batimore
Wednesday, March 4
Doors: 6:00pm
Readings: 7:00pm-10:00pm

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Split/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 15/01/2026

DEADLINE EXTENSION! We've had several folks reach out who'd appreciate a little more time to get their applications together. So we're extending the application window through 11:59pm CT on January 18th. Use your holiday weekend wisely! splitlippress.submittable.com/submit

blue square with green square showing the text; red X through "1/15" and rewritten as "1/18"

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

in my head, i read it as an aggressive command: “DIE, YOUR HAIR”

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

the damn shame of it is how hard it is to find a man who can spell

screenshot of an opening comment on a dating app: “Die your hair - you are beautiful but gray doesn’t fit you. Click block button now haha”

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The Bulb Region @bulbregion.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

THE BULB REGION is now online! 🚀🚀🚀 Make sure to read our four inaugural pieces at: www.bulbregion.com —

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Dan Crawley @danbillyc.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

"I’m having an affair with distance. The morning house is settled and known. I sip coffee, listen to the lonely call of the 4am freight train,...." My lord. I love, love this piece by @dinalrelles.bsky.social so much. In @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social 💙💙💙 www.matchbooklitmag.com/mb/relles/me...

matchbooklitmag.com

Mechanical Pencils | matchbook

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Dan! thank you, thank you for this kindness 🤍🤍

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

said i love you to a stranger outside the thrift store the other day

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Nate's Myth @natesmith.dev · 02/01/2026

how am I supposed to take a year seriously when it starts on a Thursday

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

maybe they call it yearning because it persists year after year after year

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HAD @havehashad.com · 01/01/2026

start the new year off with this little poem of heartbreak & beauty & hope Bre D'Alessio South www.havehashad.com/0kwmp

January 1, 2026

My therapist asks me what gives me hope this week
Bre D'Alessio South

I tell her about the widow behind my house.
How she died three months after her husband passed.

The last time I saw her she handed me a basket of cucumbers
severed from her garden.
Pressed on tip toes she lifted them over a shared fence line.

Her eyes that permanent crinkle old people get
from years of laughing at the same shared joke.

I told her I would return the basket
but she patted my hand
and waved me off.

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Sarabande Books @sarabandebooks.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

✨ SUBMISSIONS OPEN for the 2026 Sarabande Annual Prizes through Submittable starting today Jan 1 - Feb 15. This year’s judges are: Kaveh Akbar (Short Fiction), Adrian Matejka (Poetry), and Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Essay)! Winners receive $2,000 and publication! Full details at link in bio ✨

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Split/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 01/01/2026

GOOD MORNING!!! It's a NEW YEAR, and that means it's a NEW OPPORTUNITY for you short fictioneers to find your book a home! We're now OPEN for your short story and flash fiction books. Our SS/FF editor @egreenberg.bsky.social + our fantastic SS/FF reading team are eager to read your book, so SEND IT!

blue background with the text "OPEN CALL: FLASH FICTION & SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS, Reading period January 1 - March 1, Submit at splitlippress.submittable.com"

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

thank you so much & happy new year to you!

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Sara! thank you, thank you, love 🤍

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

i’m sorting through old fragments of texts + ephemera & am thoughtful about this bit by Sarah Manguso: “I knew I was getting somewhere when I began losing interest in the beginnings and the ends of things.” i’m not there yet. endless love to all of you ruminating on + reveling in another ending 🤎

It was a failure of my imagination that made me keep leaving people. All I could see in the world were beginnings and endings: moments to survive, record, and once recorded, safely forget.

I knew I was getting somewhere when I began losing interest in the beginnings and the ends of things.

Short tragic love stories that had once interested me no longer did.

What interested me was the kind of love to which the person dedicates herself for so long, she no longer remembers quite how it began.

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

thank you so much for spending time with it, Kirsti. this means more than you know 🤍

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

just over here reading old love letters and listening to sad songs and crashing coffee cups to the ground as the year is about to turn

photo of a dropped coffee mug with splattered coffee all over the ground

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R.E.M. @remhq.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Michael, NYC 1986 📸 Ebet Roberts @michaelstipe.bsky.social

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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

after submitting & publishing only one or zero stories per year since my book four years ago, I am proud to say I had 9 new stories (+1 reprint) published in some very wonderful journals in 2025. thanks so much to the editors & readers. you can find links at my website: annavangalajones.com/writing/

Story titles, author, journals, images:

“Now it’s nothing but flowers” by Anna Vangala Jones in Rejection Letters (image of pink flowers)

“The Haunted House of Things Left Unsaid”; “Missed Connections”; “Maybe Someday”; “Our second date was meant to be unconventional and unromantic” by Anna Vangala Jones in HAD (image is a black and white drawing of skulls by Aaron Burch)

“My Clay Sister and Me” by Anna Vangala Jones in Monkeybicycle (image of hands sculpting clay)

“Two Old Friends and a Ghost Walk Into the Woods” by Anna Vangala Jones in Craft Literary (image of trees in the woods)

“Maybe Mary” by Anna Vangala Jones in Terrazzo Editions (image of mosaic pattern)

“A Love Story Told in Nine Lives” by Anna Vangala Jones in Short Story, Long (image is an illustration of a young couple—artist is Zoë Petersen)

Not pictured is “Mae and Me” by Anna Vangala Jones in Doric Literary

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Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

thank you so very much, dear Sam 🤍

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