iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My kid and I are reading Moby Dick aloud. Among the gifts in the experience is a discovery that it is a beauteous text to speak/perform. It’s creating connection between my kid and I, but also us and Melville. We’re convening with his impulses in a way I didn’t when reading the same text to myself.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My computer updated and was touting a new “extend” feature in the photos app, which is obviously AI. Out of curiosity, I gave it a photo of my family on a red carpet, figuring the carpet and step & repeat backdrop would be easy for it to “extend.” But instead it…imagined us into a warehouse.

A family of four stands on a red carpet with a step & repeat backdrop behind them.

An AI-warbled image of a family of four standing on a red carpet in front of a step & repeat backdrop with an AI-created warehouse behind the backdrop.

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Kate Elliott @kateelliottsff.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I am not first and will be far from the last to say this: I have purchased so many books because I saw them recommended or publicized here on bsky. I cannot urge you all enough to KEEP TALKING ABOUT BOOKS. I know it's easier to talk up someone else's book, but this also means you, the shy author.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is a delightful read by @johnhay.bsky.social with lots to think about by way of adaptation, what we introduce, the enduring nature of first impressions. And Derek. So much to think about, re: Derek.

theparisreview.org

On “Derek,” Captain Ahab’s Evil Half Brother by John Hay

September 21, 2026 – “Your worst enemy ain’t Moby Dick, it’s your half brother, Derek.”

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026

Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Do you think English former darts professional Denis Ovens gets confused for being associated with this subject a lot, or...?

A Wikipedia page for the Denisovans, an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human, specifies that the article's subject should not be confused with Denis Ovens, an English former professional darts player.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The world: The AI bots picked up on the human instinct to list things in groups of three. Writers shouldn't do it anymore. My brain: Sweet deal. I'll start listing things in groups of four.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

One thing about living in the same region as a hydroelectric dam called the "Glory Hole" is that inevitably, your history-curious 10 y.o. will announce, "I want to learn more, I'm going to Google, 'glory hole.'" and every adult in the room will urgently yell, "NO!" and then refuse to explain why.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Friends, I have acquired a 1950s electric typewriter and I have decided to draft my WIP on it. I'll draft initial pages on the typewriter and then retype them into the computer on a different day, finessing the prose as I do.

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Marielle Hellraiser 💀 @mags.colvett.online · 16/07/2026

Raffi you’re so right

Threads post from raffi_music:
stay creative. after Baby Beluga, I didn't worry about how can I top that.. just kept growing as a person and musically. 14 years later, Bananaphone!

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

A new short story by me is out today in The Brooklyn Review. I'm grateful for a robust editorial process with generous and smart editors on this one, and am honored to have my words paired with such stunning art by Cole Bespalko.

thebrooklynreview.com

It Was Always a Possibility | Lauren Harkawik

The shape of Jet’s thumb was not the first thing that changed.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I had lunch with an octogenarian friend the other day. Each time we're together I deepen my understanding of how similar our experiences of our time on earth have been. So far, this has been midlife for me: an awakening to how compressed our timelines are, how small the delta between generations is.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

::Sir David Attenborough voice:: Here is a writer in an unnatural habitat, the backyard barbecue. A man who works in finance has just suggested the writer, "Just use AI to write their stories." Now we watch as the writer decides: Do I explode? Pounce? Or flash a polite smile and exit gracefully?

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RedruM @dorsalstream.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake

By A Horse

Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food.

I am thinking I would like to try cake.

Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape.

Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy.

Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much.

I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on."

Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Since moving to VT 15 years ago, I’ve been hearing about how the state desperately needs young families to move here. As someone who drove 30 minutes on a rural mountain road through intense contractions to give birth at this hospital, I can assure you, this is not going to help with that endeavor.

reformer.com

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital plans to close birthing services

BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will close obstetric services, including the Birthing Center, within the next six to nine months while continuing to explore alternatives.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I've been working in a youth theater environment all week, bringing to life something I wrote and stuff others wrote, and it is the most wonderful human experience. That's all I have to say. It's absolutely 100% delightful.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

My husband’s Siri sounded different than mine tonight and I felt *very* threatened at the notion mine may have changed, so I asked her for the weather. She sounded normal, which was unfortunately a huge relief to me, so what I’m really saying is that we are (I am) cooked.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The piece doesn’t get into gender and lord knows there are ego-driven women. But reflecting on my decades of attending meetings that in retrospect I can see involved varying degrees of ego fluffing on the part of a leader, an outlier is a Big Deal tv/film company helmed by women.

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Sonia Sulaiman @soniasulaiman.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Please spread the word! I’m still open to submissions for the second volume of Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction! Professional pay rate for short stories. Deadline is the end of August. Here are the details: soniasulaiman.com/thyme-travel...

soniasulaiman.com

Thyme Travellers 2 – Call for Submissions

Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, will be publishing a sequel to the award-winning and acclaimed anthology Thyme Travellers featuring speculative fiction by Palestinian writers. Editor So…

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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 14/06/2026

You are not too sensitive. In fact it is the opposite. You are too powerful

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

A thing about my 5 y.o. is that she has no idea just how hard she’s winning an argument with me when she says, “No means no.” (I asked two — aka one-too-many — times if she would reconsider her stance on mashed potatoes by having a taste).

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

This artist-in-residence program for "writers, musicians and visual artists whose work is making a significant contribution to healing" seems exciting and it's in my (relative) neck of the woods. If you apply and get it, let's meet for coffee, because I want to hear about your work.

ploughandstarsproject.com

Artist-in-Residence — Plough & Stars Project

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I want the kind of day when you've been at the beach too long and your skin is full of sun and you somehow end up at a bar & grill and your sunburn makes you kind of cold but hot at the same time and you order a quesadilla and an ice cold beer and there's some guy playing guitar and it's all good.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I'm growing tired of people recommending I use AI in my work when writing for me is a cure for an impulse, an itch I must scratch, a way my soul is able to feel calm enough that I may continue being a human. The people who suggest AI do not know this; they don't have this impulse in them.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Setting off into my own literary weirdness for the day and as usual @tacobellquarterly.org is giving me the advice I need to live más

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

While there are numerous things to miss about the era of my writing life when I regularly followed food curiosities down rabbit holes and bravely tried new products in the name of informing the people, I am delighted to say I will not be trying Rocket Pop baked beans this Memorial Day.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I ran text created by my human brain through an AI detector yesterday. It came back as 38% AI. I ran it through the same detector again, with no changes made to the text. It came back 0% AI. I share this not to express an opinion about the discourse, but to say that humans are 100% living in hell.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I got a typewriter, and it does not have an exclamation point. It's brought up so many existential questions for me. (!)

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

In another life I'd leap at this chance, and have a whirlwind experience comparing this beachy existence to the one I've enjoyed as a small-town reporter in ski country. Please, someone, grab this by the horns and live it to the fullest.

vineyardgazette.com

Henry Beetle Hough Enterprise Fellowship Reporter

The Vineyard Gazette, an award-winning newspaper on Martha’s Vineyard with a reputation for rigorous, in-depth reporting, is seeking an experienced journalist for a newly created fellowship. Working w...

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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 05/05/2026

Fuck AI. You do it yourself over and over until it feels real. That's the whole point

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

A project has me reacquainting myself with the art of playwriting, and reader, I love her.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Suddenly wildly into plotting and it is so freeing in its prescriptive nature

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Today is a milestone day for me; it's 21 years since I started dating my husband. In celebration of that, here is a piece I wrote about long-term love, and about living a Big Life together. It's from 2022. autofocusbooks.com/mag/a-big-life

autofocusbooks.com

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The secret third thing: the way my heart beats when the tendrils of a story coalesce as if by magic, and something new about my world (internal/external) very suddenly makes sense, and whatever's contained in that tiny molecule of sudden clarity will never not make sense again

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

This conversation had a lot of morsels worth writing down and keeping, particularly the parts about the ever-evolving nature of our creative lives and identities.

open.spotify.com

Keep Paddling with Conan O’Brien

Spotify video

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Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

This chart also applies to writing fiction, FYI.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

From my desk today, I have a view of the sun casting shadows on snow while melting the ice off of a fledgling tree. Last night snow and ice shut down our roads. March is: this.

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Poets & Writers @pw.org · 09/02/2026

“That day of ‘solitude’ taught me that…I can also put [my laptop] down, engage with my notebooks, sketch out my plots in colored pencil…and end the day feeling like I was fully productive.” Read @laurenharkawik.bsky.social's writing experience without the pull of technology: at.pw.org/ComputerFree

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

The reason we have art is because artists' experience of humanity is that they (themselves) must create. You seeing/reading/hearing/loving/experiencing their work is a byproduct, not the point. The point is that for an artist, to be in the mode of creation/breakthrough/holy beauty is to be alive.

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Kate Knibbs @knibbs.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

X is hiring a creative writing specialist at $40 an hour to make Grok better at writing and a true LOL at the qualifications

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I said to someone the other night that, "January felt like it was 10 years long and now February will never end." Reader, when I said this, it was January 28.

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

My 6th-grade teacher is my best friend’s mom, but I knew my teacher before I knew my bff, so I think of her more as my teacher than I do his mom. Whenever I post about a win, she cheers me on, and it’s just so special. It’s like that 12 y.o. me still has the same team after all these years.

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Poets & Writers @pw.org · 17/01/2026

“I could go to the office and spend the day inside without my computer. This option felt, quite honestly, the least logical. What was a workday without my laptop?” Writer Lauren Harkawik forgets her laptop on a mini writing retreat and discovers new paths through creativity. at.pw.org/ComputerFree

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Lauren Harkawik @laurenharkawik.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

I have an essay in the most recent issue of Poets & Writers, on newsstands now. It’s all about a day when I didn’t have my laptop, kept at the work of engaging in creativity anyway, and found all sorts of new pathways into what I call “a productive day.”

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