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The book is partly a retelling of the folktale of Johnny Appleseed. But yeah, "Johnny epic" is not how I'd describe it.

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Right! Clearly not done by a human too.

Yeah, I mean it's not WRONG. (Or at least that part of it isn't!)

Looks like it's the publishers doing it. (Thanks to folks in the comments!) What a bummer. It's bad enough on its own, but truly sad that it's an inside job. I get needing to do SEO, etc., but we used to try to hide that we were!

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Yeah, I'm sure you're right. It's so discouraging!

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But it doesn't appear at B&N, so maybe not?

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Ugh. That's even more dispiriting. I did notice only my HarperCollins book has one of these...

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Yes, this is my question too!

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It's a sweeping Johnny epic, Erika! Who wouldn't want to read it?

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Is Amazon adding AI-generated subtitles to our novels now? Because "Appleseed: A Sweeping Johnny Epic – Climate Change and Manifest Destiny Across Multiple Timelines from the 18th Century to a Post-Apocalyptic Future" is fucking incomprehensible slop.

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That makes me very happy, Todd!

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It is! If anything, its action is a little too fast: you brush a key and it strikes.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 9h

Today’s typewriter poem had to be from our new Nobel laureate! From Carson’s SHORT TALKS, the first book of hers I read, probably 25 years ago. Still one of my favorites.

Early one morning words were missing. Before that, words were not. Facts were, faces were. In a good story, Aristotle tells us,everything that happens is pushed by something else. Three old women were bending in the field. What use is
elast use orat
it to question us? they said. Well it shortly became clear that they knew everything there is to know about the snowy fields and the blue-green shoots and the plant called "audacity," which poets mistake for violets. I began to copy out everything that was said. The marks construct an instant of nature gradually, without the boredom of a story. I emphasize this. I will do anything to avoid boredom. Is is the task of a lifetime. You can never know enough, never work enough, never use the infinitives and participles oddly enough, never impede the movement harshly enough, never leave the mind quickly enough.

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10 miles, 1300 ft of elevation gain, and one rattlesnake. Good run!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 12h

The epigraph from my A TREE OR A PERSON OR A WALL: “Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.” —Anne Carson, Grief Lessons

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I taught NOX in a class once or twice! The awe when I took it out of its box and unfurled it across the room was legendary. Then we spent the hour walking its length and reading it as a group. An all-time teaching memory.

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Ha! The legend lingers in the minds of the people!

“Some fathers hate to read but love to take the family on trips. Some children hate trips but love to read. Funny how often these find themselves passengers in the same auto-mobile. I glimpsed the stupendous clear-cut shoulders of the Rockies from between paragraphs of Madame Bovary...” —Anne Carson

SHORT TALK ON READING
Some fathers hate to read but love to take the family on trips. Some children hate trips but love to read. Funny how often these find themselves passengers in the same auto-mobile. I glimpsed the stupendous clear-cut shoulders of the Rockies from between paragraphs of Madame Bovary. Cloud shadows roved languidly across her huge rock throat, traced her fir flanks. Since those days I do not look at hair on female flesh without thinking, Deciduous?

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Often on my mind when I contemplate my brief run-ins with literary heroes!

I was reading Nicholson Baker’s HOUSE OF HOLES. She was, I’m sure, not.

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And so Anne Carson becomes the only Nobel Laureate I have ever met on a public bus.

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Kate Petersen @k8petersen.bsky.social · 22h

Haha, I was literally just thinking, here come the exposes that Carson drowns kittens or something…

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Six word story about these times: I typed ‘ungenerous;’ autocorrect suggested ‘ingenious.’

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Ash Ponders is looking for quick photo gigs @ashponders.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Listen, you've already read all 1200 pages of The Rouse, least you can do is read the other 4000 pages he's written.

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Reposted by Matt Bell

lol @mdbell79.bsky.social’s #theRouse book club is gonna peer pressure me into reading all the other Miéville novels before the next meeting.

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Backrooms! A bunch of my students have referenced it in relation to the film. Someone's making that connection out there. (I haven't seen Backrooms.)

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He's one of my all-time faves! So good, always.

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(From A Year of Last Things)

James Tate Hill @jamestatehill.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"Let us speak about our enormous flaws as told to us by others—accountants, wives before leaving—about how we deceived ourselves, even our dogs by ignoring their concerned pre-walk, tear-stained howls, though they rested often on our chests making sounds like old ships." —Michael Ondaatje

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Reposted by Matt Bell

1. write a great novel 2. time travel to previous decades to convince more people to read 3. profits!

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In the spring, when we talked about my next novel, we agreed I'd do two bits of work before submission. I was so in agreement that they were the right thing to do that I did it in the next couple hours. Easy! Then I waited 48 hours to send him the results, because I didn't want to seem hasty...

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Had such a good meeting with my agent that as soon as we got off of Zoom, I immediately started writing. This is probably one of the very best signs of a good agent.

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A sequel to Evenson's LAST DAYS, one of my favorites of his books—and a damn good sequel at that.

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Agreed! What a surprise to have a sequel to Last Days, and for it be so good. (Evenson never really misses for me!)

Oh exactly! So much work, impossible to compare so many books at this scale, and also a total pleasure.

In my opinion, 2026 was a very good year in fiction. More riches than any prize could highlight! In going to write something this week about some of the many many other books I loved this year.

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Congratulations to all the finalists for this year’s National Book Award in Fiction! It’s been such an honor (and such a difficult task!) to be a judge this year. I’m so grateful to have gotten to spend so much time with our finalists, our longlist, and all the other great books we read this year.

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First run of the fall that was completed entirely in the dark! Thankfully there’s nothing to be afraid of out there…

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