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Jay Jennings

@jayjenni.bsky.social
216 followers 174 following 191 posts

Writer: CARRY THE ROCK / Editor: CHARLES PORTIS: COLLECTED WORKS / Screenwriter: A TREACHEROUS COUNTRY and DOG OF THE SOUTH jayjennings.net

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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
In Gerald Mast’s book on Howard Hawks, the director told Hemingway he could make a “good picture” out of his worst book. When Hemingway asked what his worst book was, Hawks said, “That bunch of junk To Have and Have Not.” Though I doubt he really said “bunch of junk,” he did make a great movie.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Brilliant. Who was your dissertation advisor? I felt this intuitively when I was working on my book and found someone who was covering similar ground and coyly hoarding information while I shared all I had. It made me sad for rather than angry at that person.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I went to one Open City party where Dean & Britta were playing. Was that the one?
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Amazing. What’s the date of that issue?
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Always a winner.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
With the publication of a translation of The Dog of the South into Spanish by Barcelona-based @dirtyworks.bsky.social Charles Portis is getting some love from this leading literary site. The writer dives into the @libraryofamerica.bsky.social edition (and name checks yours truly as well).
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Buddy Miller / Chocolate Genius cover of Roger Miller’s “Dang Me” youtu.be/Aomq0Lh-kVg?...
youtu.be
Dang Me
YouTube video by Buddy Miller - Topic
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Thank you for that!
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Bootsie is out already
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I so admired his Slate tribute upon Portis’s death that after rereading it last year, I wrote to ask him if he had it in the can and updated it at the news. He said, No, he wrote it on the spot. I was astounded. Hands down one of the best Portis pieces I’ve ever read and I’ve read them all.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Disappointed that Rectify didn’t make the New York Times list and I would happily rewatch it over ninety of these. In fact, I think I will…
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I’m with you, Drew. It’s not his funniest but it is quite funny, while also being his darkest. Quite an accomplishment.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Kanopy rules.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Haha.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Congratulations, you’ve beaten Brooks Robinson’s time with the Orioles!
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Alas, he’s completely unknown to most people. DM me a good address and I’ll get a copy to you.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Gilbert Rogin’s novels What Happens Next? and Preparations for the Ascent. I can send you the volume that combines the two and for which I wrote the introduction.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The best…
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Daniel Radosh @radosh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Republicans have spent the last year trying to defund Dolly Parton
article about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Indianaarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Kentuckyarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Missouriiarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Washington
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This study is 2 years old but worth reupping. “When people write by hand, we see noticeably more nerve activity in the parts of the brain that deal with memory and interpretation of new information. This activity plays a key role in the learning process.” norwegianscitechnews.com/2024/08/writ...
norwegianscitechnews.com
Write by hand before tablets take over
We learn much better when writing by hand instead of on a keyboard. Using fine motor skills is important for children’s brain development.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I would be too. I’ve been reading the Library of America early stories.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Holy smokes! That’s like an Angels in the Outfield game!
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I’ve listened to every episode twice and I’m ready for another round. I have a Jan Robinson shirt with ladybugs and watermelons on it.
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Glen David Gold @glenqgold.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Swimming in Rob D’s wake but yes, Valley Heat is a riot and everyone should be listening to it. It’s Lodge 49 + Curb + Charles Portis + karate trophies.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Vesper Flights audiobook is one of my recent favorites. It’s magnificent.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Linklater should do Horace’s Odes.
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Neil C. Leach, Jr. @tonup800t.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Melba had been stirring her iced tea violently for about four minutes. She put her face in mine and winked and said, “I’ll bet I know what you like.” From her leering expression I thought she was going to say, “Nooky,” but she said, “I’ll bet you like cowboy stories.” The Dog of the South PORTIS
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
So happy to see you pop up in my feed!
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Recently a Kroger checkout person told me I looked like “that guy from Princess Bride” and I thanked her, then at my car realized she meant Wallace Shawn not Cary Elwes. Ah, life’s rich pageant.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
“No” was the answer, followed by the reply “I’m sleepy,” perhaps from consuming lotus fruit.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
My mother was a classics major at Randolph-Macon, class of 1952, and I have her copy of the Odyssey (in Greek), a 1948 edition first published in 1870. Some images from the book…
Title page the Odyssey,  books 1-12, with introduction, notes, etc. by WW Merry, rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, first published in 1870 by Oxford University press with this addition being the impression from 1948. On the opposite page is a description of three different parts of a Homeric ship.PREFACE.
The very cordial reception of this School Edition of the Odyssey, first published in 1870, is a satisfactory proof (if one were needed) that the fascination of the Story of Odysseus does not decline as the world grows older.Five lines from book 7 that my mother has marked in the margin “me “. I’m guessing that this was for her to translate in class as there are other lines on the page marked with names that are presumably other students.Notes on the inside front cover that are apparently an exchange between my mother and another student. One writes, “Did she take roll?” The other writes “No.“ The reply is “I’m sleepy.”
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The world needs more bad-ad fan fiction.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
An excellent thread on Donna Tartt’s magnificent audiobook narration of Charles Portis’s True Grit.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I was surprised recently when my daughter listened to Allan Sherman‘s “Camp Granada” with its lines, “And the head coach says he wants no sissies/so he reads to us from something called Ulysses.” A time when a reference to Ulysses could get a laugh in a parody song.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I don’t know so much about Appalachian but he definitely drew upon family stories he heard from his Alabama branch and ultimately South Arkansas or ArkLaTex locutions. As for structure and other aspects, I’d have to ponder that. For True Grit, he read a lot of 1st person frontier accounts.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I’m happy to announce that my book CARRY THE ROCK, about Little Rock Central High’s 2007 football season and the city’s history of race relations, reissued in 2023 by @uarkpress.bsky.social, is now available as an audiobook, narrated by the great Henry Leyva. www.audible.com/pd/B0H6GMCS3...
audible.com
Carry the Rock
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. In 2007, as the fiftieth anniversary of the fight to integrate Little Rock Central High School approached, veteran sportswriter and native son of Little Roc...
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Enjoy! I envy your getting to read this for the first time.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Saw him play live in Dallas in 1985 or so and he invited two or three teenage bass players one by one onto stage and let them play his guitar. So classy.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Proud BOW here.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
A good enough reason to re-up this from @oxfordamerican.bsky.social and Max George. oxfordamerican.org/magazine/iss...
oxfordamerican.org
Homecoming Queen
North Augusta Baptist Church is a humble house of God, steepleless and cast in brick, with a pair …
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
C’mon. Al Hrabosky did it best.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I assume football is next.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Paul Theroux’s latest, Burma Sahib, about young Orwell.
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Elizabeth Nelson @paranoiacs.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Happy birthday to Lowell George, whose wandering spirit and slanted and enchanted imagination enlivens us more with each passing day, even as we lament his tragic absence. A few years back I wrote about Lowell and Little Feat for Oxford American. I'm still willing. oxfordamerican.org/magazine/iss...
oxfordamerican.org
Lowell George in Eight and a Half Songs
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
This is so great. I miss working with you on these brilliant deep dives.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
90 trips! That’s like the Empire State Stair Climb!
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
This is why I do farmer’s carry at the gym.
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Jay Jennings @jayjenni.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The full set but you need the Library of America volume as a topper for the Chronology and Notes.
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Levi Stahl @levistahl.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
We are having our library shelving rebuilt, which means 200–250 trips from the second floor to the basement carrying shopping bags of books. Jenkins joined me for the first dozen, then tapped out. It’s nice seeing the books. Hello, you wonderful weirdo.
A stack of books by Charles Portis, including two copies of True Grit and a hardcover of Escape Velocity.
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