iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Michael Metivier @grousehollow.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Thinking about $1.776 billion. My poem “Currency” from the July/Aug issue of Poetry.

In third grade you learned to fold a dollar
so that Washington’s head
looks like a mushroom, later
about wheat, buffalo, Augustus
Saint-Gaudens. You used beech
leaves for play money, tore them
off living twigs, brought an Aruban florin
to show-and-tell, felt the sound
of a Canadian quarter hitting the Coke
machine’s return as the sound
of thirst. Every coin its own
flavor and weight, every olive
branch, every Roman nose. Remember
when you learned how one thing
could stand for endless others,
how with a few creases a man becomes
a destroying angel.

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 15/11/2025

‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.

csmonitor.com

‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.

Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever. In a basement at Howard University, uncovered treasures have includ...

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

In case you have said in the last month or so that it feels too selfish to spend any time writing right now:

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

If you teach, you learned a couple of years ago that AI-generated prose has a distinct texture. Propaganda has a similar one, though it’s more oily. Bland, overly neat, and once you get a feel for it you can’t un-hear it.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Why are there so many bots on here, and what do they want with us? Why are they all pretending so hard to be Joe Normal? Genuinely curious.

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Jared Pechaček @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

came across this tweet in the wild, everyone loves the wine-dark sea

Screenshot of a tweet from user vandroidhelsing reading “dreamed I went to see a movie based on the lliad and when the ocean appeared in the first shot, the audience went absolutely wild shouting THE WINE DARK SEA! THE WINE DARK SEA!”

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

A powerful piece of art transcends its time and its maker: Rhiannon Giddens with Paul Simon, singing “American Tune,” with two lines altered in the final verse, and the best thing I could think of to bring forward today. m.youtube.com/watch?v=oTLk...

m.youtube.com

Paul Simon and Rhiannon Giddens “American Tune” Newport Folk Festival, 07-23-2022

YouTube video by MysticFollower

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Slippy @damnslippy.slippy.me · 11/01/2025

Sincerely delighted to discover, 45 minutes into this nearly-wordless three-hour documentary about French monks who take vows of silence, that among the reasons they *can* talk is "to make sure the monastery cats know when it's mealtime by making little kitty-calling noises at them."

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Susie Dent @susiedentwords.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']: Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

For my first post in the new year, I offer something fascinating to read:

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Thread: (1 of 4)Tomorrow is Winter Solstice, and that's when I begin my usual self-imposed reading and screen fast until New Year's Day. You can do it too if you want but there's no hashtag for it.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Tomorrow is Winter Solstice, and that's when I usually begin a self-imposed reading & screen fast until the New Year. It's just a personal thing, but you can do it too if you want. There's no hashtag for it.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

@michaeldowns.bsky.social Wouldn't ten-year-old Michael be thrilled about this one?

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I've never read a Conan comic before, but if @michaeldowns.bsky.social wrote one of the stories? I totally would.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

It was a nice gift out of nowhere to have a note from poet George Bilgere in my inbox, letting me know that my poem "Handwriting Analysis" appears in his free daily newsletter "Poetry Town" today. PS There's still little better than a manual pencil sharpener! georgebilgere.com/so/edPF0gdtk...

georgebilgere.com

“Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently,” Jean Cocteau.

Welcome to poet George Bilgere’s online newsletter. Every day George selects a poem by a writer he’s crazy about and he says a few words about why he picked it.

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Reposted by Katrina Vandenberg

kottke.org @kottke.org · 16/12/2024

HPV vaccines have been linked to a steep drop in cervical cancer deaths in young women. “We observed a substantial reduction in mortality — a 62% drop in cervical cancer deaths over the last decade.” (via @hcrichardson.bsky.social) [cidrap.umn.edu]

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

In the slow-on-the-uptake dept, I just learned that my essay "Water Lilies," from the fall @orionmagazine.bsky.social , was selected as a 9.27.24 Editors' Pick by @longreads.com & won Audience Pick that week, too. Thanks to editors here, there, & everywhere -- longreads.com/2024/09/27/t...

longreads.com

The Water Lilies - Longreads

"Reflections on time, aging, and Monet's cataracts."

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

@grousehollow.bsky.social You're the person who wrote that beautiful "Bloodroot" poem! My Monet essay is on the same page in Orion. I was so happy when I saw your piece -- "in spring my god is not the sun / but aperture." I would happily live in a world full of plant persona poems.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

There are three thirteen-year-old girls giggling and decorating cookies at my dining room table. My job is to provide things as needed and otherwise stay out of the way as much as possible. I did show up to check on everyone once, when I heard a big CRASH.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I am more of a listener than speaker, and on social media there is .... so much to listen to. And it goes by quickly. There should be a little ear you can click on, next to the little heart: tell me more. (As for "I don't want to hear any more," I guess that's unfollow.)

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I'm following people! I'm writing replies! I feel expansive! I remember this social media feeling... I feel a little drunk. I sincerely hope I don't wake at 3 am and regret this.

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

@noctambulate.bsky.social As the story about the CEO continues to develop, twist, and twist some more, I have thought of you. We were so glad to see you & HR on Sunday!

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Katrina Vandenberg @katrinavanden.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

This is my first social media post in more than eight years... what'd I miss?

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