iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 14h

Outstanding in his field.

Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A draft is born! 104K words, 445 pages. My biggest book to date, and my favorite. I have never had so much fun writing a novel in all my life. Rough, of course, but into the drawer until my November residency in Scotland, when the real work begins. Today we celebrate.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Returning to teaching in January and looking to refresh my Novel 2 syllabus. I structure the whole course around a single book. Here are the finalists, help me choose!

8 novels in a vertical stack. Includes Baldwin, Ferrante and Nunez.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

@amitava.bsky.social has the crowd eating out of his witty hands at the 2026 SALA Festival in Atherton. Great talk with Manil Suri and Vikram Chandra.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Happy paperback pub day to Marisa Silver! If you missed this one, I urge you to catch it now. Funny, wise, moving. A book for grown ups. 🥂👏🏻

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Berger & Berger, occasional series pairing John Berger quotes with my dog Berger. JB: The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Berger:

Berger & Berger, occasional series pairing John Berger quotes with pictures of my dog Berger.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Berger & Berger: “The precondition for thinking politically on a global scale is to see the unity of the unnecessary suffering taking place.”

My dog Berger paired with a quote from his namesake, John Berger.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Happy George Lazenby’s Birthday to those who observe.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I want to wish the happiest of pub days to my former student and dear friend, Andre Hardy. I am driving my ass down to LA tomorrow for the privilege of sitting with in conversations at Vroman's as we discuss the incredible journey of this pulse-pounding debut. Please come join us!

Advert for 9/2 event at Vromans in Pasadena.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This has hung over my desk for years. RIP Wendell Berry.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

All of which were original ideas at one time ...

Indiewire post: Another 'Pride and Prejudice,' a new 'Blade Runner,' and a 'True Detective' reunion rep the best new shows of fall 2026 in IndieWire's TV preview.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

LA friends, this is just a few weeks away, hope to see you all there to celebrate my former student's debut novel!

Vromans Event 9/2: ANDRE HARDY in conversation with Mark Sarvas

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Bond fans are noting that Ian Fleming died this day in 1964. Also, he was 56 and he looked like this, so maybe a diet of martinis and three packs of smokes a day is suboptimal ...

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I have probably seen THE WRATH OF KHAN around 35 times (no exaggeration) and I still always, always, always tear up at the end.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

First shot from new machine. I think I’m in love. What have I been drinking until now??

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Inhaled this, just loved it. Deeply moving, rich, dense. She accomplish so much in this plain, unfussy register. She is a marvel. I do wish the title was less on the nose, but that's the worst I have to say!

Cover of THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY by Elizabeth Strout

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

What goes up does, indeed, come down ...

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Even better today. The gift that keep giving!

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Hiding from LA heat with @susanamonso.com’s fascinating book PLAYING POSSUM. (Research for novel 4) Highly recommend! Very accessible to the general reader.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

From Jean Grenier's "Considerations on the Death of a Dog" ... (Berger is fine, no cause for alarm!)

Excerpt: "In the morning, animals seek you out, wishing to show their affection for you. Their day begins with an act of love and confidence. They, at least, have a certain flair."

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Daily I envy his equanimity in the face of certain doom.

Berger the dog not giving two fucks about Trump, FIFA, the Odyssey, climate change, et al.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

The great Daniel Mendelsohn in the NYRoB. This is, literally, the review I have been waiting for, the only review of The Odyssey that might have gotten me into a theater. I've been exhausted with Nolan for years; will sit this one out. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

But whatever his lifelong fascination with the epic, Nolan has merely remade Homer’s hero in his own image, just as he has imposed on Odysseus’s adventures values utterly foreign to Homer. Is his new vehicle for Odysseus’s tale impressive in its visual impact and distinctive in its narrative ingenuity? Yes. But is its “essential” Homeric? On that I’ll let Penelope have the last word: “The structure is nothing without the people’s respect for its meaning.”

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

There goes my day/weekend/week/month …

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

A bit from my 2025 novel @UGMAN in which the soon-to-be-proclaimed stiff is (sort of) name checked ...

Section of my novel @UGMAN making glancing reference to Mitch McConnell.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

End of residency report: 23,000 words, bringing total to 58,000. But more importantly, structure has been unlocked. A clear road ahead to finish a first draft. Deep gratitude to Chateau de Lavigny for the gift of this month of writing time. #writing #amwriting

Entrance to Chateau de Lavigny with vintage rocking horse.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

My smashing cohort of talented fellows got a lovely write up in one of the area papers. Chateau de Lavigny is, indeed, an Eden for writers …

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Letters actually coming down at last. (Image via NYT)

Worker removing excrement from the Kennedy Center

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Surprised by how sad I feel about David Hockney. Sitting over lunch doing a mental inventory of so many individual images that have moved me and/or delivered such great pleasure over the years. What a great loss.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Heading off for residency number two of 2026, a month at Chateau de Lavigny. My intention is to have a near-total internet/news fast for the month (we shall see how my willpower is), so I will see you all again in July. Have a safe and happy summer.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Will never, ever set foot in Langer's again.

Norm Langer, the owner of the historic Langer’s Deli, who has said he’d consider closing his restaurant if the city fails to address public safety in nearby MacArthur Park, recently appeared with Pratt in a social media video.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

New DND sign for my writing office:

Two sided DND sign. Front: finishing the hat. Back: look, I made a hat.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

At least he travels to his spa in style …

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I am thrilled to hold the debut of my former student and current dear friend, Andre Hardy. I saw this book in its earliest form way back at UCLA and never lost faith in Andre’s journey. Even sweeter to me: it was sold by my brilliant agent. Some days, the fairy tale really does come true.

Galley cover of Andre Hardy's debut novel TEAR THE CITY DOWN

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

This would be an excellent moment for my comrades on the left to reacquaint themselves with this fundamental essay. harpers.org/archive/1964...

Perhaps the central situation conducive to the diffusion of the paranoid tendency is a confrontation of opposed interests which are (or are felt to be) totally irreconcilable, and thus by nature not susceptible to the normal political processes of bargain and compromise. The situation becomes worse when the representatives of a particular social interest—perhaps because of the very unrealistic and unrealizable nature of its demands—are shut out of the political process. Having no access to political bargaining or the making of decisions, they find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed. They see only the consequences of power—and this through distorting lenses—and have no chance to observe its actual machinery.

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Hard to see because all the repros are so lousy but suspect the third is in the hair over the year, a favorite spot for hiding Ninas ...

A Hirschfield drawing of Gershwin and Thomas with hidden NINA's circled ...

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Mark Sarvas @marksarvas.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Sound up. Mistral in Provence.

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