iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Today marks the 190th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. Rather than "forgetting the Alamo," as some authors have suggested, we should remember it as a "testament to the complexity of historical understanding." bit.ly/4aWFKdm

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

A favorite #birddivination I keep coming back to. As always, find it as a solo print and part of the deck of 100, along with the story and process behind them, at almanacofirds.org

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

NetGalley 11/30 five star review of The Last Woman: "...the love the main trio of girls felt for each other and the way they built lives around protecting themselves resonated with me. I can definitely see this book as a dramatic period piece film starring Saoirse Ronan…"

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

"In 2023 almost half of Americans didn’t finish a single book. Surveys show that a big loser is fiction. Perhaps this plague of illiteracy has played a role in the disappearance of truth and, with it, liberal democracy." George Packer bit.ly/49xZtQd

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A Post-Literate Age

Journalism and fiction are both essential to a thriving democracy.

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

"We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leaving and letting go." On necessary losses: www.themarginalian.org/2023/11/21/n...

themarginalian.org

Necessary Losses: The Life-Shaping Art of Letting Go

“We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leav…

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Senator Bernie Sanders @sanders.senate.gov · 04/09/2025

We need an HHS Secretary who respects science and does not make policy based on conspiracy theories. Vaccines are safe and effective. Kennedy is threatening the health of our kids and all Americans. He must resign.

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

For me, the only good rejections are those very few that provide useful criticism. VERY FEW.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

“We live only as long as someone remembers us. Only as long as someone cares.”

Cover to Jess Walter’s novel SO FAR GONE

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

My novel manuscript and my scrap file are briefly exactly the same page count, which means I'm currently writing two words for every one that stays in.

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Forgetting — those who have left us, and the parts of ourselves we have left behind — is a kind of death, but we can come back from it through memory and love, which twine the lifeline tethering us to everything that is beautiful and enduring. www.themarginalian.org/2024/11/21/t...

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Here are some advance reviews of my novel The Last Woman from Goodreads.... bit.ly/47jMpNi

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

The man who had his doctor report that he’s 6’3”, 238 lbs fired the person in charge of reporting labor statistics.

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Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

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Julene Tripp Weaver @trippweavpoet.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

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Kathy @tortiegirl601.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

❤️

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Now Michael, that's the way to listen to this James McMurtry song!

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

No doubt about it. It's an excellent stimulus to be more creative and to work towards more clarity.

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TJ resists! Bluestormcoming! @tjjohnson.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

So. which Stephen king book are we doing today, folks?

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

My novel The Last Woman now available for preorder from TCU Press and listed on NetGalley! tcupress.tcu.edu/9780875659343/

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Biggie @biggienotsmalls.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Speak Truth.....

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

“…attention—to others but also to architecture, landscape, vanished histories—becomes a way of belonging; without it, people are alienated from their environments and become disturbed.” A novel about trying to forget terror and the toll forgetting can take. bit.ly/44gdWh9

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Killing Memories | Madeleine Thien

In 2016, when the Chinese writer Wang Fang (who publishes as Fang Fang) released her novel Ruanmai (软埋), she could not have known that within five years

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time." I keep coming back to Mary Oliver's meditation on creativity www.themarginalian.org/2016/10/12/m...

themarginalian.org

The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

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Scott Semegran @scottsemegran.com · 07/04/2025

Today the review for Starman After Midnight was published in Publishers Weekly Magazine (!!!) in their editorial Fiction section! My little novel-in-stories is featured next to books from the Big 5. Wish my parents were still alive to see this! When I told them in 1990 that I was majoring ... 1/2

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Congrats to TCU author Catherine O'Connor for winning two Spur awards and to another TCU author, Patrick Dearen, for being a finalist this year as well as a previous winner. bit.ly/4clh7Gu

bit.ly

TCU Press Author Wins Two Spur Awards

Catherine M. O’Connor’s debut novel, Dust Covered Lies, earned the two prestigious awards from the Western Writers of America — “the Emmys in the world of Western writing.”

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

"What is the use of safety if it deprives you of everything else?" This is a great review of what sounds like a compelling novel.

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Jonathan Danielson @jonathanin2k.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

We’re officially less than one month away from the release of my debut collection, THE LOWEST BASIN: ARIZONA STORIES, coming April 29th from @cowboyjamboree.bsky.social! (Screams)

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Book conversation online. You can sign up for our Patreon, which has free and low cost options, to support @refusing2forget.bsky.social

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Proud of Austin. The city is making plans to fill many of its vacancies with federal workers who have lost their jobs because of DOGE's draconian cuts. "We value public servants," said Austin's mayor. bit.ly/41xTPbs

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‘We value public servants’: Austin targeting federal staff let go by Trump administration

As President Donald Trump’s administration works to slash the federal workforce, the city of Austin is hoping to take advantage.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

“We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.” —Rick Rubin, THE CREATIVE ACT

“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not.

It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.

It’s like saying, ‘I’m not good at being a monk.’ You are either living as a monk or you’re not.

We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.

The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.” —Rick Rubin, THE CREATIVE ACT

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

If you would like to get out of Silicon Valley's pocket and stop letting algorithms decide what you see, give the Marginalian newsletter a try — an oasis of sanity, free, ad-free, algorithm-free, entirely human, made of feeling and time for 19 years running: www.themarginalian.org/newsletter/

themarginalian.org

sunday newsletter

If you yearn for depth and delight without the distraction of a social media feed, try the Marginalian Sunday newsletter, free and ad-free since 2006 — the week’s most inspiring and nou…

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Scott Semegran @scottsemegran.com · 20/02/2025

Here's a billionaire actually doing some good: MacKenzie Scott. Her $19 billion in charitable giving has been ‘transformational’ for nonprofits. Such a bad ass! fortune.com/2025/02/18/s...

fortune.com

3-year study finds MacKenzie Scott's $19 billion in charitable giving has been 'transformational' for nonprofits

A new report analyzes data from over 1,000 organizations that have received grants from billionaire MacKenzie Scott.

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

What are the connections between historical fiction and academic history? In what ways can historical fiction "fill in the gaps" of biographies and other historical works? Here are the views of Pulitzer winners Geraldine Brooks and Eric Foner. bit.ly/42zOB0X

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John Willingham @jwillinghamtx.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Richard Wright had next to no encouragement when he wrote Native Son. "You can believe in yourself too. Who knows what impact the art you make today will have? Let someone else tabulate the price of eggs, while you spend your time focused on sharing your most exceptional gifts."

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