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Josh McColough

@joshmccolough.bsky.social
111 followers 134 following 41 posts

Gen X | Writer | Professor | Cubs | Gus, Bernedoodle // Writing in 'Best American Science & Nature Writing 2023', Missouri Rev, Witness, Chicago Qrtly Rev (coming Fall 25), Split Lip Mag, Puerto del Sol, Epiphany… //

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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Last night, I addressed our school Board RE: plans to deploy AI-based platforms in the schools. Until any regulations are placed on these tech companies & their sycophantic products, until parents & students can OPT OUT of any/all AI usage in school, AI can f*ck all the way off. Pass it on.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Octavia Butler knew…
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Why do I feel like I just got yelled at by my drunk uncle? And when is the last time an “insane asylum” was a thing? I know I shouldn’t expect…literally anything resembling sense, but…
media.tenor.com
charlie brown is sitting in a chair with a sad look on his face and says `` good grief '' .
ALT: charlie brown is sitting in a chair with a sad look on his face and says `` good grief '' .
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
A.) Trillium Lake, OR B.) “Trillium” the essay, based upon A.) C.) @chicagoqreview.bsky.social , home of “Trillium” the essay #litmags #booksky
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Proud to have a new essay ("Trillium") in the latest issue of the Chicago Quarterly Review! Really honored to be included with so many incredible writers. 🙏 @chicagoqreview.bsky.social #litmags #essay #writer #nowreading #booksky
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
In his speech, Franklin argued that the Constitution would last unless—or until—“the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.” Via @thefp.com www.thefp.com/p/things-wor...
thefp.com
Things Worth Remembering: The Imperfection of America
When the Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin acknowledged its flaws—then defended it magnificently.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Lit mags are opening again. Mine is the essay in the dark coat! #litmags #writing #publishing
media.tenor.com
a large crowd of people are gathered in a mall .
ALT: a large crowd of people are gathered in a mall .
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
“I work in the West Wing, you Pepperidge Farm ad motherf*ckers.” —Jonah Ryan, Veep
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Reposted by Josh McColough
Joe Pan @joepan.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
PBS book show "Between the Covers" gives FLORIDA PALMS a nice little shout-out for their Summer Series. Thanks Oline Cogdill for the nice words! I so appreciate it! #pbs #joepan #floridapalms #debutauthor #crimebooks @pbs.org @simonbooks.bsky.social
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
We #GenX can't catch a break this week. Malcolm, Ozzy and Hulk? We get it--we're all do-nothing slackers. Just keep your damn hands off the cast of "Facts of Life," pls thx
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Amen. I teach English Comp at a comm college. Why won’t universities at least draft position statements that both acknowledge AI’s utility & role in professional life and also state there may be classes in which critical thought is the point? @meghanor.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I leave the tiniest of doors a little bit open for these. But not today, Pringles.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
We will never not need Hanif. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/XC8Qyj
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
In Defense of Despair
The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be so.
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Reposted by Josh McColough
Sari Botton @saribotton.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
It's this week's "Memoir Monday" newsletter, featuring: Sofi Stambo, @tkdano.bsky.social, Catherine Hiller, Kristina Kasparian, Sheila Heti, Lilly Jay, Sayuri Ayers, @joshmccolough.bsky.social, @courtneykocak.bsky.social memoirland.substack.com/p/a-passel-o...
memoirland.substack.com
A Passel of Personal Essays to Read Over the New Year...
Plus: Our partnership with Literary Liberation and new workshops there, and Narratively's 2024 upcoming workshops...
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Really proud to have a new essay out in Witness about growing up amid child abduction panics of the 80s. How many of you #GenX got your fingerprints taken in case you were abducted & they had to ID your body? #GenerationX #litmags #authors witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/issues/winte...
witness.blackmountaininstitute.org
Child Catchers By Josh McColough- Witness Magazine
by Josh McColough Whenever I return home to visit my parents, they present me with a box of artifacts to sift through. They are purging my childhood home in anticipation of their deaths, which are not...
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Now is the exact time for nostalgia —back to a time when store managers could wield baseball bats at unruly customers. Let us never forget. #genx #80s youtu.be/mzfuo94KCe8
youtu.be
SEE IT: The wild story of the Cabbage Patch Kid Riots of 1983
YouTube video by Eyewitness News ABC7NY
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Celebrating two full days in normal sinus rhythm. #IYKYK
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Been here for a while now @chrislhayes.bsky.social
media.tenor.com
a man in a bathtub with the words welcome to the party pal on the bottom
ALT: a man in a bathtub with the words welcome to the party pal on the bottom
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
I’m currently reading a book called “Anticipating Walks.”
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 05/06/2024
Really captures the odd craft of writing when you have no "public" that is clamoring for your next...whatever. lithub.com/in-defense-o...
lithub.com
In Defense of Being a Slow Novel Writer
My parents are going through a phase where they’re obsessed with McDonalds—with its cheap coffee drinks and Big Macs with Special Sauce on the side. They are eighty-six and eighty-one respectively,…
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 04/12/2023
I cropped my family out of this picture b/c Guster whipping his ears around like a model flipping hair...
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 23/10/2023
Three days, three rejections, three separate pieces. If it weren’t so compulsively satisfying, I’d be more upset. 333 | 333 | 333
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 16/10/2023
This comes out tomorrow. !!!! !!!
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Reposted by Josh McColough
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 25/09/2023
👇👇👇
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 05/09/2023
Guided by Voices 40th Anniversary concert in Dayton this past weekend. Herein lies GenX--perfectly discontented and always ready to rock.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 21/08/2023
My surprise that the months old Pepperidge Farms Cinnamon Raisin bread is still soft/good is only eclipsed by my horror about what I'm putting into my body. Still...tasty when toasted.
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 14/08/2023
Dear god what happened to us? Did something happen to us? Am I the only one left???? Should I tell...Justin E.H. Smith I'm still here? harpers.org/archive/2023/09
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 09/08/2023
Sentinel... the birds are on notice
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 08/08/2023
And probably best to heed this review of me/my class on RateMyProfessors: "[I]f you don't attend class or put in the work, you may struggle a little." No truer words...
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 08/08/2023
Things are about to get real adjunct-y real quick. 🤓
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 03/08/2023
Taking the Kid back to UMich tmro for their sophomore year. Every bit the “sophomore” as evidenced by what will now be called The Summer Of Perceived Parental Stupidity
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Josh McColough @joshmccolough.bsky.social · 02/08/2023
This has been an exceptional summer for library writing. Have completed essays on child abduction epidemics (that didn't happen), moles (the diggy diggy kind), barbarism, lucid dreaming and a nearby bridge that has been struck +45 times. Now...what to do with these... (??!)
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