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e.c. barrett

@ecbarrett.bsky.social
525 followers 265 following 102 posts

writer, teacher, printmaker, literary critic. former reviews editor for Reckoning. they/she. ecbarrett.com

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Reposted by e.c. barrett
Jennifer Savran Kelly @jsavrankelly.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's the last day of #BisexualVisibility Month, so please view my very pansexual novel! A New York bookbinder coming to terms with her genderqueer identity finds a love letter scribbled on the back of a cover torn from a midcentury lesbian pulp novel... www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jenni...
hachettebookgroup.com
Endpapers
It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she spends all day repairing old books but hasn't crea...
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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I’m not saying that SH is influential, but of the three longlisted books we covered last week, two have just made it to the Booker shortlist. M John Harrison and Rebecca Perry both in the running for the gong. Big moment for spec fic, I’d say, perhaps especially that The End of Everything is there.
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 25/07/2024
as someone who reads a metric ton of short speculative fiction: writers should write the weird thing and publishers should publish the weird thing
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Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pssst Have you heard? We're gathering an all-star team of ADHD authors on September 26th for what promises to be one of our best panels yet! If you've ever struggled to finish a book - whether you have ADHD or not - you'll want to catch this one!
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Tiffany Morris @tiffmorris.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hating nostalgia means I feel alienated from a lot of my peers who really, really love engaging with media from our past and media that engages with media from our past. I want to encounter new, serious, bleak, and innovative shit like 90% of the time. Make me learn something about the world, myself
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Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
‘We Were Always Here’: Ireland’s first permanent LGBTQ museum exhibition opens in Cork Congrats to Orla Egan and all who worked in this fantastic exhibition www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...
irishtimes.com
‘We Were Always Here’: Ireland’s first permanent LGBTQ museum exhibition opens in Cork
‘Too often the history of the LGBT community has been invisible, ignored or erased,’ said curator Orla Egan
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Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The reviews are in! As If by Isabel Waidner  reviewed by E. C. Barrett Link ⬇️ strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
cover of As If by Isabel Waidner featuring the backs of two partially overlayed identical people with their arms crossed with one wearing a blue shirt and brown vest and the other a yellow shirt and green vest. 

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As If is about what happens when you stop fighting for yourself and your art. Even with all that the novel has to say about the way the obstacles to artistic success can wear down a working-class artist, Waidner leaves the reader with a clear final message: It’s better than living as if you are already dead. Hear, hear.
reviewer: E. C. Barrett

17 August 2026
Reviews 
Strange Horizons S H logo
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Matterist Books @matteristbooks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
"Waidner’s keen eye is once again largely focused on the way social hierarchies limit the potential and opportunities of underprivileged artists." strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
strangehorizons.com
As If by Isabel Waidner
There is a deep vein of defiance in Waidner’s work that insists on the vitality and necessity of the work and perspectives of working-class and queer artists.
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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
A review by @ecbarrett.bsky.social of Isabel Waidner’s As If … both should be top of your TBR pile. “There is a deep vein of defiance in Waidner’s work that insists on the vitality and necessity of the work and perspectives of working-class and queer artists.” On who makes art - and how:
strangehorizons.com
As If by Isabel Waidner
There is a deep vein of defiance in Waidner’s work that insists on the vitality and necessity of the work and perspectives of working-class and queer artists.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
A site created by his former students
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Maureen Langloss @maureenlangloss.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Hey lit mag editors. We've been worried about AI companies scraping Split Lip's site to train their models. We just learned that our web host, SquareSpace, has a native feature that allows us to stop some of this. It was quick & easy for our web editor to put in place. I encourage you to do the same
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B. Pladek @bpladek.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
great state-of-the-problem essay that elegantly links the LLM-scandal newscycle's conseq for marginalized writers w extra/intracommunity discourses abt what counts as "authentic" rep & the industry's old, old racism problems; also applies to recent academic scandals.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 07/08/2026
heartened by the students here and amused by the "conscientious objector" language—as direct an acknowledgement as you could wish that recruitment into slop culture is an ideological war of conscription
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Tiffany Morris @tiffmorris.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
So apparently that HWA pro-AI newsletter also uses Indigenous water rights issues as a prop, trivializing the activism by Indigenous peoples to protect our water including specific anti-data centre actions. I guess they figured why not alienate Indigenous horror writers while they’re at it?
“Sure. Sure.

Yes, we know AI is using up resources. So does driving a car or a planes so does building a new home. So do a lot of things. Humans have always used up Earth’s resources and usually not nicely. There are reservations and other Indigenous communities in Canada that have never had clean water and have been ravaged by pipeline construction. But somehow that’s been okay for the past fifty or a hundred years, and very few people scream about that. But suddenly, AI is the enemy, not everything else we’ve been doing all along. Suddenly YOUR water might not be clean, so it’s a Big Deal”.
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This guy isn't scrabbling to produce content on no budget. He has money. He could hire a research assistant.
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Clarion West @clarionwest.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
For 40 years, CW has been supporting underrepresented voices in spec fiction. When you play The Story Oracle, you are not only investing in our mission, you get to take a choose-your-own adventure game leading to curated reading recs. And tomorrow (Aug 1) is the last day to play: bit.ly/44kuAuI
Over a light bright blue background of book illustrations, the words: "The labyrinth is closing August 1." Underneath the header is a crystal ball with the following figures inside: "$11,003.26 raised of $10,000. 111% raised, 217 donors." Beside the crystal ball are the words, "Your last chance to play Story Oracle is nearly here. Choose your own adventure and receive curated reading recs before the labyrinth closes at 9 PM PT on August 1." At the bottom is the "Play Story Oracle" logo, followed by "don't miss out" and "A fundraising game for Clarion West."
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 22/07/2026
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.
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Baltimore Banner Sports @sports.thebaltimorebanner.com · 20/07/2026
“We’re not asking for permission to be here. We’re playing.” In February, USA Rugby banned transgender women from competing in women's matches. It was, on paper, a massive blow to the Baltimore Ferals, one of hundreds of teams affiliated with International Gay Rugby. Instead, they kept playing.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/07/2026
shoutout the chucklefuck pundit who insisted once that “environmental racism” was a nonsense term
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Live your life so that when you pass, people share videos of you being kind and competent rather than memes about you burning in hell
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Dean Obeidallah @deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Michael Fanone's take on Lindsey Graham is one of the most powerful I've read:
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The ICE murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo deserves the same fury as Renee Good and Alex Pretti
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Has there ever been a situation before this when governments devoted so much money and effort into forcing people to adopt the products of a few companies, with so little evidence that they were useful?
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B. Pladek @bpladek.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
old hyperlocal histories of small towns are such bizarre & fascinating reading & it‘s sad that the internet/death of print journalism means they’re unlikely to be printed anymore
Cover of Mineral Point: A History by George Fielder; mineral point is where Wisconsin’s nickname “the badger state” came from—not the animal but a bunch of 1830s lead miners who were so fixated on striking it rich they never bothered to build houses or grow veggies but literally lived in dirty scrapes in the ground, supposedly like badgers tho that’s an insult to badgers
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
SFF, we need to talk. I'm not here to rag specifically on Bona, who did the right thing by going public. No, I'm looking at all of you. Or at least, 15 of you. Because this right here? This is buckwild.
Once we’d picked our hearts off the floor, we started digging: Bella had minimal online presence, first appearing in May 2025. Since then, she’d accumulated a remarkable publication record (we counted 15 published stories in 12 months), across name publishers and small or community-minded outlets, including several paying SFWA rates (like us).
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Karen Lord @drkarenlord.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
SF writers and readers are some of the nerdiest nerds on the planet. We love tech. We are so early-adopter that we imagined it before you built it. If you’ve lost us, you’ve lost the fight.
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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
It would be very good if there was a law that would put law enforcement officials in prison for 10+ years when they lie under oath. Nothing is more corrosive to a society than police corruption.
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Mary M. Burke @maryburke.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
CFP "Women’s Writing and Anger in Ireland." Ought to be an enormous volume when it's done call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/12/...
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu
cfp | call for papers
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 30/06/2026
Trans fam: your lives are precious no matter what the fuck these people say translifeline.org/hotline/
translifeline.org
Hotline - Trans Lifeline
Trans Lifeline’s Hotline is a peer support phone service run by trans people for our trans and questioning peers. Call us if you need someone trans
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Trans rights are human rights always and forever.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
helpful coverage from @elpais.com english.elpais.com/usa/2025-08-...
english.elpais.com
In the heart of the Miccosukee, the Native American tribe that shut down Alligator Alcatraz
The community found refuge from white persecution deep in the Everglades swamps centuries ago. Together with environmental groups, they succeeded in forcing the closure of the immigration detention ce...
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Two ICE agents tracked down a woman *inside a polling place* yesterday. Why? They demanded that she take down an Instagram post in which she named Jonathan Ross as the man who shot & killed Renee Good (after the Star Tribune identified Ross). www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06...
syracuse.com
Federal agents track down Syracuse woman, demand she remove Instagram post about ICE
She believes the warning was related to a post about the ICE agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.
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Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
As a horror writer, a movie with A24 was a dream for a long time. Now they went AI, so fuck them. See? It’s not that hard. I have plenty of other dreams.
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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 24/06/2026
“The report by the UN independent international commission of inquiry examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war in Gaza, and said about 30% of the people killed by Israeli forces have been children.”
theguardian.com
Israel continues to commit genocide by targeting children in Gaza, UN inquiry finds
Independent report says by aiming at children Israel is undermining capacity of Palestinian people to exist
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Firestorm Books @firestorm.coop · 23/06/2026
Holy shit this is terrible, even by the terrible standard set at *every* previous point in this case 😭
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Tim Carvell @timcarvell.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I like that “Widow’s Bay” is from a “Parks and Recreation” writer and answers the question, “What if they made a whole show out of the Pawnee City Hall murals?”
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B. Pladek @bpladek.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
SH is a vital magazine in the SFF short fiction ecosystem, committed to uplifting marginalized voices & promoting a horizontal editorial model. They're also one of still-too-few outlets for excellent reviews. Please support them if you can!
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Molly McKew @mollymckew.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
It’s a pretty weird week when a guy who wants to be a trillionaire is simultaneously getting headlines for the economy-shattering IPO expected Friday and the racist pogroms he is accused of stoking — but these stories are viewed as separate and in no way connected or prescient of the future.
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B. Pladek @bpladek.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
the toilet museum and my MC: a thread. for my novel DRY LAND (2023) I found photo referents for chars. my MC was based an unknown guy in a 1930s horseshoe team pic I saw in the dinky basement museum of the Kohler Design Center—a bath/toilet showroom in Sheboygan WI that features a wall of toilets
my protagonist Rand Brandt, a weedy man in glasses and a collared shirt -- I don't actually know his namethe wall of toilets at the Kohler Design Center, featuring one of the many tasteful nude mannequins posed among the cans
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Noooooooooooooo!
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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
UK publishing generated £7.4 billion in revenue last year. Compare that to: Premier League football: £6.6 billion Home entertainment: £5.6 billion UK film industry: 2.8 billion Now tell me again why authors don't deserve fair contracts and better pay.
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e.c. barrett @ecbarrett.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
@bpladek.bsky.social is brilliant and this is sure to be a fabulous night of spec fic for anyone in and around Madison, WI!
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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
ProPublica used leaked tax returns to calculate that through complex tax avoidance schemes, Jeff Bezos pays a tax rate of 0.98% www.propublica.org/article/the-... So if we doubled the taxes he pays, that would mean he'd still be paying less than 2%.
propublica.org
The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, ev...
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Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Sounds like the usual damage control, but at least she got enough of the message to realise that this is something to be ashamed of as an artist, even if she's not actually ashamed.
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Only a rich person would think it’s rich people who produce food or create a nation’s wealth.
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The contribution of sewing in the history of engineering often gets overlooked. In the early days of aviation, even well beyond WW1, the skin of the wings, fins, and rudders of airplanes were made with fabric, and most of that work was done by women.
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e.c. barrett @ecbarrett.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Finger lakes writers: the annual Spring Writes Literary Festival starts this Thursday! Over 40 events, free to attend (though registration is helpful for the organizers). I'm co-leading a workshop on Sunday, 2:15-3:15, come write with us! springwrites.org
springwrites.org
Spring Writes
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Clarion West @clarionwest.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Love building projects or the vibes of the in-person Clarion West Six-Week Workshop? Need some good news for a change? Learn about our exciting new initiative to rehabilitate the El Rey building in Seattle and develop an artist residency program (and contribute) here: www.wagives.org/organization...

Image description: over a teal background with books, the Clarion West logo and the words, "GIVE, MATCH, and SHARE. Clarion West supports emerging and underrepresented voices by providing writers with world-class instruction to empower their creation of wild and amazing worlds. We're partnering with CAM (Common Area Maintenance) to rehabilitate the El Rey building and develop an Artist Residency Program." Additionally, the image features the GiveBIG 2026 logo with the URL to support Clarion West: wagives.org/organization/Clarion-West
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Alina Stefanescu @alinaetc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Nothing is as urgent as class warfare right now. The billionaires control our lives and our dreams and the aspirational fantasies of our children. All politics on this planet is tied to the rule of the billionaires right now. #endbillionaires
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