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Ellen McGrath Smith

@ellenbreezely.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.8K following 1.3K posts

I write and help other people with their writing.

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Ellen McGrath Smith @ellenbreezely.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Getting older does have some perks. So happy to have my poem, "Skeleton Days," as part of Gyroscope Review's Crone Power issue. You can check out the issue here--and don't forget to take your Metamucil! www.gyroscopereview.com/2026/10/fall...
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John Cluverius @johncluverius.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Many of you would be shocked to learn that Jewish Americans are much further to the left on Israel and Gaza than Christian Americans or Jewish Israelis.
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social Joanna and Christine each face their own inner demons. One car ride can change everything. Read 'A Ride Share' by Terri Campion! It's free— so hop aboard! #litmag #playwrightsofinstagram #plays #kidney
The illustration for the play 'A Ride Share" by Terri Campion is the painting 'Premonition' by Nancy Panganiban, 12″ x 16″, Pastel on Velour Paper, 2019
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social What's up with Janey? Read Katherine Mansfield's classic short story "The Stranger" today in The Lemonwood Quarterly! Free for all readers! #litmag #writersofinstagram #shortstory #classic #free #Mansfield
The illustration for Katherine Mansfield's short story 'The Stranger' is the painting 'Bakero 2' by Nancy Panganiban, Pastel on velour paper, 18″ x 24″, 2022
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... The Summer 2026 Lemonwood Quarterly! This fabulous collection takes us from the depths of anguish to the hilarious and the inspirational. It's free! @ellenbreezely.bsky.social #writersofinstagram #shortstory #playscript #Litmag #fiction #writingcontest
Cover art of the Lemonwood Quarterly Summer 2026 issue is the painting Miao Dao by Nancy Panganiban, 16″ x 20″ Acrylic on birch panel, 2019. A girl in a dark hoodie holding a black cat surrounded by colorful, exotic flowers
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... Nancy Panganiban painted the gorgeous artwork in our Summer 2026 issue. So delighted to have Nancy as our Arts Editor! Check out her amazing art! It's free! @ronniecrocker.bsky.social @ellenbreezely.bsky.social #Litmag #shortstories #artofinstagram #plays
The artist, Nancy Panganiban, in her studio
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social Brilliant story! Read it for free in The Lemonwood Quarterly! #litmag #shortstory #sisters #writersofinstagram #kidneytransplant
The title page image for Maria Connour's short story 'Four Women and One Good Thing' is 'Night Bloom,' painted by Nancy Panganiban, 16″ x 20″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2019. A woman with pink tears in a colorful mushroom garden at night.
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... A heartfelt story of the deep-rooted connection between mother & daughter. Shannon Skelton's 'An Inventory of Bunnies' is free for all readers! @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social #litmag #WritersOfInstagram #shortstory #motheranddaughter
The illustration for Shannon Skelton's short story, 'An Inventory of Bunnies' is the painting, 'Equinox' by Nancy Panganiban, 23″ x 23″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2016. A rabbit sitting among venus flytraps, mushrooms , and flowers. Snakes hatching from eggs. A black spider with an egg sac
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ronniecrocker.bsky.social @ellenbreezely.bsky.social A 5-star romp through online reviews—very clever and comical! Read Sabrina Cleary's short story 'Select Reviews Posted by Bryce Darun' today for free! #litmag #writersofinstagram #shortstory #reviews
The illustration for Sabrina Cleary's 'Select Reviews Posted By Bryce Darun' is the painting 'Durian' by Nancy Panganiban, 10″ x 10″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2023. A dark-haired person's face, with a decorative pattern on the cheeks and forehead, and two hands holding a knife and forks with an open lychee-type purple spiky fruit between the hands. Background is alternating yellow and blue rays, like sun rays, centered on the fruit
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... Read Ashley Krusen's unforgettable story Refuge—free in The Lemonwood Quarterly! She works at the animal refuge—cherishing life means many things. @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social #Litmag #writersofinstagram #shortstory #animalrescue
The illustration for Ashley Krusen's short story 'Refuge' is a detail from the painting 'Anomalia' by Nancy Panganiban, 28″ x 28″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2025. Baby crows crying in a bird's nest. A photo of Ashley Krusen. A quote from the beginning of the story.
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social Fabulous story of self-discovery, desire, and holding out for the endgame—McGrath Smith's 'Alone of All Her Sex'! Get it for free today! #litmag #writersofinstagram #shortstory #faith #catholic #lesbian
The illustration for Ellen McGrath Smith's short story 'Alone of All Her Sex' is a detail from the painting Aseo Flammeus by Nancy Panganiban, 15.75″ x 18.5″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2017, which shows a woman with an eye tattoo on her forehead, long dark hair and a black leather jacket, holding an owl with factory smokestacks in the background. Photo of author to the side. Story teaser reads: She was holding the six-inch statue of the 
Madonna... 'Mary’s playing,' she said. 'Can you deal her some cards too?'
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social A rip-roaring tale of a back-to-work mom and her trans son— Read Adam Kohut's Chuck Trombone for free in The Lemonwood Quarterly! #litmag #writersofinstagram #shortstory #transgender
The illustration to Adam Kohut's short story 'Chuck Trombone' is a detail from the painting 'Capra Malus', by Nancy Panganiban, 16″ x 20″, Acrylic on birch panel, 2024.
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The Lemonwood Quarterly @lemonwoodquarterly.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-... @ellenbreezely.bsky.social @ronniecrocker.bsky.social After a storm of disasters upends June's life, how can she find her way? Read Saari's heartwarming play 'Mornings with June' & find sunshine in unexpected places. It's free! #litmag #playwrights #radio
The illustration for Karen Saari's play, 'Mornings with June' is the painting Little Panther by Nancy Panganiban, 12″ x 12″, Acrylic on Birch Panel, 2017
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Ellen McGrath Smith @ellenbreezely.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Alone of All Her Sex lemonwoodquarterly.com/summer-2026-...
lemonwoodquarterly.com
Alone of All Her Sex
Alone of All Her Sex is a fiction short story by Ellen McGrath Smith. —"Too bad Mom's not here to see this."  Mary Fran Horvath, a statuette of
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Ellen McGrath Smith @ellenbreezely.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
So grateful to be part of Painted Pebble's summer issue, with a short lyric. Thanks to Sarah Ann Winn and the rest of the Painted Pebble team! paintedpebblelit.com/issue-8-summ...
paintedpebblelit.com
Issue 8 Summer 2026 - Painted Pebble Lit Mag
Barbara CrookerListenI want to tell you something. This morningis bright after all the steady rain, and every iris,peony, rose, opens its mouth, rejoicing. I want to say,wake up, open your eyes, there...
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Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The WH is pressing DOJ to charge Davey Hearn again When I was special counsel in the Obama WH, we had a memo on the wall keeping the president out of enforcement cases There was a reason for that memo, & we’re watching it right now More w/ @kaitlancollins.bsky.social👇 -TN
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
NOT-SO-FUN FACT: Trump’s war with Iran is projected to cost American taxpayers as much as $100 billion — an estimated $1,100 per household since the war started.
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Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
New per WaPo: US forces killed 153 civilians and wounded nearly 250 others last year in three attacks targeting suspected militants in Yemen, according to a Pentagon review that found significant harm to noncombatants who were not in any conflict.
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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 12/08/2026
Yesterday, a federal court blocked a key provision of President Trump’s 2026 executive order on mail voting. Learn more: bit.ly/4wYj6tR
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I proudly endorse this message from my grandparents ❤️
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#BlueStormComin1🌪️🦋🇺🇸 #Resistance 🦋🙌🏻 #Blues @bluestormcomin1.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Absolutely trying to save their asses. 🤬 #Blues #Traitors
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 12/07/2026
Lindsay Graham and I often disagreed on whether you should overturn Democratic elections, starve the hungry, bomb anyone and bomb everyone dark, but nevertheless I hope his loved ones stay off the internet and the rest of you have some fun.
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Kim Wexler's Ponytail 🐝💛🎗 @madisonkittay.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Black women have been telling everyone about Bernie and his bros for over a decade now. #KHive Platner’s Rise and Fall Revives Old Questions About ‘Bernie Bros’ and Women www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/u...
nytimes.com
Platner’s Rise and Fall Revives Old Questions About ‘Bernie Bros’ and Women
The collapse of Graham Platner’s Senate bid in Maine after a rape allegation renewed attention to a movement built by Senator Bernie Sanders that some say is too forgiving of male misconduct.
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Dr. Vin Gupta @vinguptamd.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The public didn’t ask for another slogan. Today’s Monsanto decision shows clearly that MAHA is what we’ve known it to be all long: clever marketing, little substance, and a public worse off than where we started. cc: @whitehouse-47.bsky.social
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John W Dean @johnwdean.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Vance dismisses Watergate scandal, says ‘deep state’ went after Nixon - The Washington Post. Vance seems remarkably ignorant of history. Republicans ended Nixon’s presidency and they have never before been called the “deep state.”
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BrooklynDad_Defiant! @mmpadellan.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
At some point we need to stop pretending these are "conservative" justices and start calling them what they've become: activist justices advancing a political agenda. Court expansion. Term limits. Ethics reform. Everything should be on the table. Doing nothing is no longer an option.
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 26/06/2026
SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett has 2 Black Haitian kids who she adopted. Today she ruled to expel 700K Haitians who were here legally. Proximity to white supremacy is not protection from white supremacy. And proximity to Black and brown people is not exemption from being a fascist and racist.
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I live in the Little Haiti neighborhood in Brooklyn and every single one of my Haitian immigrant neighbors has done more work in the last week than Megyn Kelly has in the last decade, and as far as values are concerned, being a racist nihilist like she is isn't something to aspire to.
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 26/06/2026
OK people. They think we’re dumb. And apparently blind. Trump claimed someone took a knife and cut a 300-foot slit in the Reflecting Pool. A lie. This is the video and the plea from U.S. Park Police to find this “individual” who reached their hand into the pool. This is the suspect. Come on!
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
pass our law or we'll try to overthrow the republic every time we lose an election. because we're criminal degenerates.
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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Today, billionaire investor & Epstein close friend, Leon Black, appears before House Oversight for his transcribed interview. Black paid Epstein $170+ million for what Black claims were "tax, estate planning, and other related services." Black's name appears more than 8000 times in the Files.
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Rep. Jim McGovern @repmcgovern.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
“We do a Watergate twice a day” is a crazy way to confess your own corruption…
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 25/06/2026
The Supreme Court just launched one of the largest attacks on immigrants in modern American history. Thousands of Haitians and Syrians now risk losing the right to live and work in the country they call home.

This decision will cause enormous pain across the five boroughs. Here in New York, it falls hardest on our Haitian community, one of the largest in the country, alongside Syrian families.

I joined labor leaders with 1199SEIU, elected officials, and advocates to send a clear message to immigrant New Yorkers: You belong here. We will not turn our backs on you.

The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs will share additional information and resources soon. If you have questions about your status or need legal assistance, call our Immigration Legal Support Hotline at 800-354-0365.
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Malena-PRO-CHOICE 🌊 🟦🟧Fighting Tyranny! @malena.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
We are watching the accelerated Nazification of our country. A rogue President has systematically dehumanized everyone he sees as an adversary. His followers & LE ignore the law & Constitution & justify #ICELawlessness, racism, violence & torture. Not 1 Republican speaks against it. Will you?🧵
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Ken Martin @kenmartin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
11 years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed what so many of us long believed and fought for: that no one should be denied the right to marry the person they love. Love wins!
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maryburns.bsky.social @maryburns.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
No truer words than this.
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Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) @axidentaliberal.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD Trump directed his Postmaster General to INTERFERE WITH YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE Pursuant to an Executive Order the USPS proposed a rule where they’ll REFUSE to carry mail-in ballots from certain states YOU HAVE UNTIL JULY 2 TO OBJECT You can do so HERE: apwu.org/news/submit-...
apwu.org
Submit a Comment Objecting to Vote-by-Mail Takeover | American Postal Workers Union
Tell USPS: Hands Off Our Right to Vote-by-Mail Under pressure from the White House, the Postal Service is trying to rewrite the rules on who gets to Vote-by-Mail, and we urge postal workers to speak u...
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Melissa Jo Peltier @melissjpeltier.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Ya think? 🙄
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Ellen McGrath Smith @ellenbreezely.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Ellen McGrath Smith: Declined Post to a Right-Wing Troll Who Asked "What Is a Woman?" voxpopulisphere.wordpress.com/2026/06/20/e...
voxpopulisphere.wordpress.com
Ellen McGrath Smith: Declined Post to a Right-Wing Troll Who Asked “What Is a Woman?”
On a Post about How Conservatives Didn’t Understand the Lyrics to “Born in the U.S.A.”
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
I have an ideas to cut back on political violence: hold accountable the political leaders who promote violence, pardon and praise violent thugs, and accelerate the distribution of guns in our society. Trump owns this violence. He is its primary author.
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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
“The horrible but undeniable fact right now is that America has a terrorist president. And the whole world knows it. But we still have a chance to show the world that he is an aberration, that we are not a terrorist nation” @pkrugman.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
open.substack.com
The Terrorist in Chief
It’s time for us to face up to the ugly reality
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Meidas Charise Lee 💙🌊🌴🥥🫘 @chariselee.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
The scammers #Grifters #ConflictOfInterest
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
El País: Spanish citizens think that Donald Trump (81%) is a bigger threat to world peace than Vladimir Putin (80%), according to a new poll. About 71% say the same of Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
[WARNING: This is a bit graphic.] A Marine Corps veteran protesting Trump’s War on Iran had his arm broken by Capitol Police and GOP Senator Tim Sheehy. It appears to be a compound fracture.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The design of the Constitution divided warmaking authority between Congress and the executive to prevent a president to take the country to war by themselves for any petty or self-serving reason. You know, like a king would. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The authority that Trump has asserted in taking America to war against Iran is, like many of his other power grabs, an expression of the very tyranny the Framers were seeking to prevent.

“Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object,” a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1848. This was “understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.” This quote, incidentally, is immortalized on the House’s website, if any members of Congress are looking for it.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
🚨BREAKING: The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about her role in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) incomplete release of its files on convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena Bondi over Epstein Files
“The American people want answers on the Epstein files, and so do we,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who introduced the motion to subpoena Bondi, said.
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 27/02/2026
This is because the Pentagon and Trump don’t like Anthropic’s language preventing their tech from being used to surveil Americans or for autonomous weapons. Which means the Pentagon wants to use their tech to surveil Americans and build autonomous weapons apnews.com/article/anth...
apnews.com
Trump orders all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology
President Donald Trump says he's ordering all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology after the company’s unusually public dispute with the Pentagon over artificial intelligence safe...
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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
So let’s think about this. A private company refused - on principle - to yield to the government’s demands. The government then cancelled its contracts with the company and has set about destroying it
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Rep. Jamie Raskin @raskin.house.gov · 27/02/2026
Justice for victims or coverup for their traffickers? Health care for all or corrupt self-enrichment for the president? The Bill of Rights or a catalogue of escalating wrongs against the people? The battle lines are drawn in Congress.
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