iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

What a glorious description! Thank you, Matthew.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Anne! Thank you! This note made me laugh and made me very happy.

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Reposted by Lori Ostlund

Jenny Shank @jennyshank.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

I've got four spots left! Come join us to discuss "Just Another Family" by @loriostlund.bsky.social and many other wonderful short stories (in person or Zoom options are available). bit.ly/3WrL9B2

bit.ly

Upcoming Workshops and Events

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Thank you, Leslie! What a lovely note to find waiting for me.

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Reposted by Lori Ostlund

Andrew Porter @andrewporter01.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

One of my favorite mail days of the year! Congratulations to @loriostlund.bsky.social, Madeline Ffitch, Zack Salih, and others included in these pages! I was especially happy to see Jane Kalu’s story “Sickled” from America Short Fiction included, one of my favorites of the past year!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Thanks, Jennifer! Thanks, Daffy! I love this photo.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Thank you, Washington Post! "Don’t let ARE YOU HAPPY? pass you by: There’s not a word out of place in these brilliant Midwestern sketches. They’re lonesome, for sure . . . But they’re also hilarious."

washingtonpost.com

A treasure trove of new books to read during Pride Month

From novels and short-story collections to genre-defying nonfiction studies, these works capture the range and diversity of LGBTQ life.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Join me and Eric Puchner—whose work I have always loved and that includes his brilliant new novel DREAM STATE—as we converse with Nate Brown for the Greedy Reads Lost Weekend Book Festival in Baltimore this weekend--Sunday, June 1, at 11 am.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Thank you, Leslie, for interesting and fun questions!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Thanks, Laurie! And thanks for being there last night.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Check out prompts at StoryADay, including my prompt about bathrooms!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Big THANK YOU to Lit Hub for featuring "Clear As Cake," one of the stories in ARE YOU HAPPY?, which is out today!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Thank you to Electric Literature for featuring my story "The Gap Year" and to Kristen Arnett, for taking the time to write this generous introduction in the midst of all the fanfare regarding her brand new novel Stop Me If You've Heard This One. My collection is 8 days from launch!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

So looking forward to my book launch on May 6 with @ovillalon.bsky.social, fabulous interviewer and editor of @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social, where two of the stories from ARE YOU HAPPY? first found homes.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

So grateful to NER for giving my story such a great first home!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

5. PLEASE, anyone with connections to journalists, human rights activists, anyone who might know a way to help, DM me. Any suggestions are welcome—we don't know what to do. We have been working with this friend for a long time to get them to Canada, and they are so close.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

4. Why is this happening? Because the European Union has given Tunisia money to keep the refugees from coming to Europe. Google "Tunisia rounding up refugees" and you will find plenty of stories and videos.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

3. Our friend can't sleep or leave the apartment or eat. Their landlord is kind but says if the police come, he doesn't know what he could do to save them.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

2. We just got off the phone with this friend (not giving specifics about gender or country of origin here); today, their friend and everyone in her building was swept up and taken. Our friend sobbed and sobbed throughout the conversation—they know they will probably never see this friend again.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

1. Every morning, the first thing my wife does is check her texts to make sure that there is something—some word—from our friend, a refugee who is living in terror in Tunisia, where they are once again picking up Sub-Saharan refugees and dumping them in the desert to die or be sold to traffickers.

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Reposted by Lori Ostlund

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 01/04/2025

American caregivers miss as many as 126 million workdays each year, far too many of them unpaid, to care for themselves and their families during illnesses. nyer.cm/lo1juR4

A quote from Kathryn Shulz that reads, “A nation that allegedly believes in the importance of family and hopes to boost its falling birth rate should probably accept that having kids means needing sick days.”

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

& @shanders.bsky.social also looks for: 2. Voice—tell me who I'm dealing with and how they see the world! 3. Surprise—how will this subvert my expectations? What would I never guess by reading the title?

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Iheoma Nwachukwu: 1. A sense, in the first few paragraphs, that desire is being contemplated. Or that desire exists. Or that the characters yearn. And the spread of that yearning through the life of the story. 2. Realistic dialogue. 3. Humor.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

@rachh.bsky.social: "I love a story that is rich in detail, especially with details of place or setting. And I'm in awe of stories that are both funny and moving. The humor makes the sad parts even sadder."

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

@shanders.bsky.social says: 1. Specificity—carefully chosen details that help me trust in the writer's intimate knowledge of the world they're creating!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I asked the screening judges for the FOC Prize: What are 2 or 3 things that really grab you about a short story?

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Today, the FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION officially opens for submissions! Link below to guidelines, my statement/advice sheet, & bios of our great screening judges: @shanders.bsky.social, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Iheoma Nwachukwu, @carolrohspaulding.bsky.social @rachh.bsky.social

ugapress.org

Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction - Georgia Press

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Oh, Matt. I am so sorry to hear this. My condolences to you and your family.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Seeing, supporting, celebrating!

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

The countdown to May 6—launch day for ARE YOU HAPPY?—begins...

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Join us this Saturday, San Francisco! Or find a HANDS OFF protest in your city.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

an experience one judge calls “transcendental.” The panel—which includes editors, reviewers, professors, & scholars—offers insight and advice for those working on or trying to publish story collections; trend observations; and thoughts on how & why reading for the contest altered their own work.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Making the Cut: What Judging Story Collection Contests Taught Us These five panelists—all of whom have published story collections—discuss what they learned from reading about seventy-five story collection submissions to the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, ...

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

AWPers: I will talk to 4 writers who have served as screening judges for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction about gleaned insights. Michael Wang, @jennyshank.bsky.social, Hasanthika Sirisena, & @toniannj.bsky.social on Fri, 3/28 at 1:45 in Rm 404AB, Level 2, Conv. Ctr. Description below

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

I am so excited to announce this year's screening judges for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction! Check out their story collections & prepare to submit your own: Apr 1 - May 31. Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, @shanders.bsky.social, Iheoma Nwachukwu, @carolrohspaulding.bsky.social, Rachel Hall.

ugapress.org

2025 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction Judges - Georgia Press

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

I am absolutely thrilled to see Iheoma Nwachukwu's collection, JAPA AND OTHER STORIES, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, on the longlist for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Story Collections! Congratulations, Iheoma!

pen.org

Announcing The 2025 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists - PEN America

PEN America is honored to announce the Longlists for the 2025 Literary Awards, which will confer over $350,000 to writers and translators.

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Lori Ostlund @loriostlund.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Stephanie! Thank you so much for this note! So so appreciated.

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