Reposted by Esther AllenOrdinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/a...nytimes.comDinaw Mengestu Resigns as PEN America President After 7 Months in RoleThe novelist Dinaw Mengestu was leading a literary group that has been divided by its response to the war in Gaza. 13115
Reposted by Esther AllenErin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 09/07/2026At the @nychistory.bsky.social for the reenactment of the toppling of the statue of George III by New Yorkers who’d just listened to the Declaration of Independence. T minus 20. Historically accurate “getting pumped by listening to a drum and fife” is happening. 721547
Esther Allen @eallen.bsky.social · 17/06/2026I'm proud to be on the Board of ALTA! This June we have a goal of 100 new / renewed / gifted memberships. Joining and supporting the ALTA community is one of the best investments in the literary arts you can make in these troubling times . Will you join ALTA by 6/30? tinyurl.com/4u83xd8stinyurl.comALTA 041
Reposted by Esther AllenKim Lyons @kimly.bsky.social · 04/05/2026A detail I didn’t know: “The Herald entered the Epstein series for a Pulitzer Prize that year, but it was not a finalist. Alan Dershowitz … who helped broker Epstein’s original deal, wrote a letter to the Pulitzer committee that year, urging them not to honor Brown’s work.” share.inquirer.com/THMiUZshare.inquirer.comJulie K. Brown receives Pulitzer Prize special citation for her work on Jeffrey Epstein caseBrown's 2017 and 2018 reporting was cited at the awards ceremony. “Her work, and the government’s release of the Epstein files, continue to reverberate around the world.” 467022614
Reposted by Esther Allen21st Century Schizoid Tran @grayathena.bsky.social · 26/04/2026Pour one out for the Hilton staff who are working perhaps the worst shift in food service history rn. 195222203258
Reposted by Esther AllenPhilip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 21/04/2026flat out identity theft 712642
Reposted by Esther AllenElizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 19/04/2026Look, for my money the absolute game changer technologies right now are batteries and biosciences, not statistically modeling a mid conversation, but you do you. 422971666
Reposted by Esther AllenAdam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 19/04/2026What’s interesting here is they say “culture” when they mean “people” but they think that this maintains a veneer of deniability about what they’re really saying. In any case it’s true that the “culture” of the tech billionaires is morally and intellectually depraved rot bsky.app/profile/elio... 461673320
Reposted by Esther Allenjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/04/2026mamdani being a cheerful normal guy that people project absolute insane things on is one of the things that make him very relatable to me, personally 109126231233
Reposted by Esther Allenjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13/04/2026i will vote for any candidate who offers up this slogan 164167833381
Esther Allen @eallen.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Friend snuck this photo last week on his commute. My life is complete now. 080
Reposted by Esther Allenjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13/04/2026not only is this exciting — the lt. governor’s office should, uh, contact me — but it is a not so subtle way to claim some of virginia’s most potent historical symbols — its universities and the affiliated figures, like madison and jefferson and george mason — for the libs 202429285
Reposted by Esther AllenHenryKöhler @henry1967.bsky.social · 30/03/2026#ItaloCalvino Portrait by my father Carl Köhler (1919-2006) 041
Reposted by Esther Allenjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27/03/2026i said last year that these people were segregationists and that “merit” just meant “white and male” to these people 219127633746
Reposted by Esther AllenPhilip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 27/03/2026ah - the great @elizkolbert.bsky.social already wrote this up with incredible video here: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...newyorker.comThe Astonishing Lessons of a Sperm-Whale BirthIn 2023, researchers witnessed a rare event—a sperm whale being born. Their findings suggest a previously unknown level of coöperation among whales. 25215
Esther Allen @eallen.bsky.social · 21/03/2026"Mother Tongue" by Osdany Morales, on @wwborders.bsky.social in my translation. It is about Italo Calvino. It is not about Italo Calvino. wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...wordswithoutborders.orgMother Tongue - Words Without BordersWith equal parts humor and pathos, Osdany Morales imagines an alternate life for the Cuban-born Italian writer Italo Calvino. 1165
Reposted by Esther AllenTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 15/03/2026I want to say that if this dragnet snags enough white people, we might finally get meaningful action. But I am pretty sure the elites have already called off even the pretense of caring about poor white people AND they’re actively making middle class white people poor. Sooooo… 101142275
Reposted by Esther AllenTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Let me just say that having been there, the idea of being a Black woman in labor in America and having to go before a judge is terrorism. 161634411
Reposted by Esther Allenelia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Ms Rachel talking to Deiver Henao, a 9yo in an immigration detention center www.instagram.com/reel/DVzUzoz... What a world 1773352497
Reposted by Esther AllenMother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/03/2026Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.motherjones.comAt Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP ReportsCamp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves. 59792646006
Reposted by Esther AllenClaire E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 03/03/2026I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago. 9535231534
Reposted by Esther AllenSasha Dugdale @sashadugdale.bsky.social · 01/03/2026I have two poems in the new @pnreview.bsky.social 288. One is a Propertius (via Grigory Dashevsky). You can read it here: www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/two-...pnreview.co.ukPN Review Print and Online Poetry Magazine - Two Poems - Sasha Dugdale - PN Review 288One of the outstanding poetry journals of our time. 0163
Reposted by Esther AllenAndrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 28/02/2026there are a lot of people working in the government right now who want to intentionally trigger an apocalypse to create the conditions for the return of jesus christ and I know how crazy that sounds but its absolutely true 314100262542
Reposted by Esther AllenThe Associated Press @apnews.com · 27/02/2026Callers to Washington state’s driver’s license agency who select automated service in Spanish are instead hearing an AI voice speaking English with a strong Spanish accent. bit.lyCallers to Washington state hotline press 2 for Spanish and get accented AI English insteadCallers to Washington state’s driver’s license agency who select automated service in Spanish are instead hearing an AI voice speaking English with a strong Spanish accent. 1301997726
Reposted by Esther AllenTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026My god this story. 424668
Reposted by Esther AllenThe Markaz Review مجلة المركز @markaz-review.bsky.social · 23/02/2026📰 [TMR EDITORIAL TEAM] Meet Abdelrahman ElGendy, our new literary editor and author of forthcoming Huna (Penguin Random House, Sept 2026), exploring dissent and erasure in post-revolution Egypt. #TheMarkazReview #TMRteam #AbdelrahmanElGendy #SWANALit 011
Reposted by Esther AllenThe Markaz Review مجلة المركز @markaz-review.bsky.social · 27/02/2026Behind the scenes with Managing Editor Lara Vergnaud: Why #MotherTongue is our first bimonthly issue theme. Mother Tongue goes live in a week, on March 6th. 011
Reposted by Esther AllenTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 04/02/2026I keep saying to people in my life that the problem with writing in these days is that you sound absolutely off your nut for simply saying what is happening. 192083264
Reposted by Esther AllenRónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 01/02/2026Latest Irish Times fiction in translation column is now online for subscribers. I have a couple of these in my TBR – lucky me, it seems. Translated fiction: books by Maria Stepanova, Édouard Louis, Anna Nerkagi, Michelle Steinbeck, Helle Helle and Pirkko Saisio www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...irishtimes.comTranslated fiction: books by Maria Stepanova, Édouard Louis, Anna Nerkagi, Michelle Steinbeck, Helle Helle and Pirkko SaisioNew books in translation from Russia, France, Switzerland, Norway and Finland 0113
Reposted by Esther AllenLA Star @lastar.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Current status of the fundraisers for those killed by ICE: Renee Good: $1,499,580 Alex Pretti: $1,289,249 Keith Porter, Jr. $302,423 Parady La: $45,848 Heber Sanchez Dominguez: $47,991 Luis Beltrán Yanez Cruz: $18,640 Victor Manuel Diaz: $2,538 Geraldo Lunas: $2,260 Luis Gustavo Núñez: $1,935 5330632666
Reposted by Esther AllenThe Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 24/01/2026They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth. 281895628
Reposted by Esther AllenRachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 16/01/2026"He said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, 'No puedo respirar' — Spanish for 'I can’t breathe'..." www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...washingtonpost.comMedical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording saysA fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at the ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3. 439105105293
Reposted by Esther AllenNimrod Journal @nimrodjournal.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Our free newsletter subscribers have just received Esther Allen’s (@eallen.bsky.social) essay from the new Winter 2026 issue—a Borgesian tale of petty feuds and international rights, obsessive friendships and tangled copyrights. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/borges-and...nimrodjournal.substack.comBorges and “Borges”An essay by Esther Allen 0124
Reposted by Esther AllenBoris Dralyuk @bdralyuk.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Esther Allen (@eallen.bsky.social) can spin the woolliest yarn with scholarly precision… You know who else was known for such things? 0145
Reposted by Esther AllenElizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 13/01/2026I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen *Everyone has stories like this* 349195878130
Reposted by Esther AllenCarl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 08/01/2026“.. In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u... 14642952320
Reposted by Esther AllenAnna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 04/01/2026on this sunday-est of sundays, syllabus-ing for a new term you're not alone against the oligarch agenda of cognitive deskilling, data capture, surveillance, and bias: we've got assignment ideas, memes, recommended readings, o' captain speeches, syllabus policies, and so much more against-a-i.comagainst-a-i.comAGAINST AI - 621287
Reposted by Esther AllenSonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 16/12/2025"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...publicbooks.orgFour Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public BooksWe are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education. 19889367
Reposted by Esther AllenMegan Giddings @megiddings.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Hello, at the University of Minnesota, we're hiring a visiting creative nonfiction writer for the next 2-3 years to teach a 1-1 (one grad class, one undergrad class) and potentially sit on some MFA thesis committees. This job will give you time to write you next book: hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/371... 03525
Reposted by Esther AllenNathan Ellstrand @nellstra.bsky.social · 08/12/2025How did the poinsettia become a symbol of Christmas? Check out this article below in Time Magazine by my dad Norman Ellstrand and I: time.com/7202847/poin... 36913
Reposted by Esther Allenf the new york times @fnyt.bsky.social · 06/11/2025The Full Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Speech (11/05/2025) f the nytnytimes.comThe Full Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Speech 022
Reposted by Esther AllenDeva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 20/12/2025I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense. 251070277
Reposted by Esther AllenNational Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize 02910
Reposted by Esther AllenPaul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Translating literature is itself a form of art. No algorithm could render into English Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" with anything like the beauty that William Weaver did. 194
Reposted by Esther AllenStoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 16/12/2025Today, we're excited to announce a new online open-enrollment class with the brilliant Carmen Maria Machado! Carmen's four-session class "Speculative Nonfiction: Four Lessons on Story, Memory, Speculation, and Invention" begins Feb. 25. Register now! buff.ly/PLEKu35 #writingcommunity 067
Reposted by Esther Allenmadeline lane-mckinley 🍉🍉🍉 @lalouverouge.bsky.social · 17/12/2025Really honored to be among the adjuncts and independent researchers whose work is featured on this list. Thank you @rcolesworthy.bsky.social & @hartmann-villalta.bsky.social for including Solidarity with Children and for honoring non-tenure track scholars each year! Solidarity with adjuncts ❤️ 0165
Reposted by Esther AllenSeyward Darby @seywarddarby.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Somehow this is the worst part. Yet again I'd like to thank the publishing industry, Hollywood, and Yale Law School for ensuring this bigot's rise to prominence. 551110783037
Reposted by Esther AllenDominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Article title: The NYT wrote more about Harvard last year than all community colleges combined I posted three main figure from the article below www.vox.com/2014/7/23/59... 137796
Reposted by Esther AllenRutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 25/11/2025I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1 337100455078
