iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Megan Nichols

TRossi (she/her) @trossiwriter.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

@megjnic.sky.social and Lemon Grove Writers’ programming is fun and informative—a lovely and accessible writing event. And prompts to boot! Supplement your Hallowe’en calories and cavities with community!

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TRossi (she/her) @trossiwriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Boo!👻 More sweets for your treats! Subs open 10/10. Send literary candy and main courses—we’re hungry to read ‘em!

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

New interview all about the writing life.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Check this out for the funny story of being tipsy at the Lammys and the list of things I'm reading for the good vibes.

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What is life like after winning a Lammy? I interviewed @benkline.bsky.social to find out! Interview is up at @variantlit.bsky.social

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Variant Lit is able to increase our honorariums! Poetry and flash prose will receive $15 and longform fiction will receive $25. We don't charge fees during our open submission period and we try to reply within 2 months. Subs open Oct 10 - Nov 20. @variantlit.bsky.social

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's October and my brilliant writer friend and poetry midwife, Jessica Lohafer, wrote amazing spooky writing prompts last year such as...Writing Prompts Inspired by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"! lemongrovewriters.com/posts/writin...

lemongrovewriters.com

Writing Prompts Inspired by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (Spooky Writing Season Week 4)

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Free author talk this Saturday! Bring your questions!

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This Saturday! Bring your questions for authors Brenda Miller!! RSVP lemongrovewriters.com

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

You may know Brenda Miller from her new collection Love You, Bye or from Tell It Slant, the beloved craft book she co-authored with Suzanne Paola. Join our live Author Talk + Writing Sprint on Sept 19th to learn about Brenda's essay and poetry writing process!

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 19 at 9:00 AM PT! Lemon Grove Writers will host a live Author Talk with Brenda Miller followed by a co-writing sprint. Her latest book, LOVE YOU, BYE, is a moving collection of poems and essays about the loss of her parents.

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Bring your questions about creative nonfiction, braided essays, poetry, & putting a book together! You can RSVP here: lemongrovewriters.com/sprint

lemongrovewriters.com

Author Talk + Writing Sprint

Join Lemon Grove Writers for free Author Q&A's and co-writing sessions!

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Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

🚨Dream journal moment!🚨Beyond excited to have a poem in the new issue of North American Review alongside some absolutely rockstar poets and writers! Here’s to poetry, a little imagination, and the bizarre interplay of loss, lineage, and memory. @northamerreview.bsky.social

Glass Desk in the Hereafter

I made from my body a glass desk & from the glass desk, I made a wooden chair with mauve fabric. To my right, my brother's prayer card
resting against a framed black & white photograph of a dead dog. At my feet, another dog in her little brown bed breathing heavier
than she probably should. I sit more figuratively than I do literally.
I am sitting inside the paper doll-ness of my own girlhood. I am sitting inside
my mother & inside her mother & inside their teeth which are wider than their smiles. I am sitting inside my father & inside
my brother & when forced to move, I am walking inside the bones of a boy who died like a cliché in the bathroom. I am walking down the hall
& into the kitchen, into the microwave & into the coffee cup. & because my body is the space across which my entire life has unfolded, 1 am a thousand
ghosts that obscure my face in the mirror. I am rain in the hair, your tiny yellow rabbit, wildflowers at the side of the road. Sometimes,
I am a knife cutting through sky. Sometimes, I am carrying around the ball & chain of my own lousy architecture. Sometimes, my body grows
a separate body. I am the stray dog running loose on the interstate as well as God directing the oncoming traffic. Meaning, I am dodging
my own death while egging it on. Meaning, I am in the driver's seat, listening to Celine Dion & my brother is behind the wheel of every pick-up.
He is at the red light & the green light. He is parked at Dunkin' Donuts & just outside DeVito's coin laundry. Mostly, he is beside me with the windows
down, smelling of smoke. & because I am all body, I am breathing into the atmosphere & I am the atmosphere breathing. I am the glass desk & the mauve chair
& the brown bed & perhaps even the little white dog. & because the vast space of my body never changes, the poem is changing all the time.

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Malarkey @malarkeybooks.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Everyone should, in fact, talk about Terrestrial!

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Melissa Ostrom @melostrom.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

“…one where tenderness is not an escape, but a tool…” A wonderful review of @susanlleary.bsky.social’s gorgeous latest collection.💗📚🌸

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Thank you for reading, Melissa!

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Thank you @hfr.bsky.social ‬ for publishing my review of @susanlleary.bsky.social wonderful collection, More Flowers

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Very excited for this free online author talk + writing sprint! Happening July 18th!

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Today is the last day to submit!

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Kevin A. Risner @mrdecember.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Three virtual readings over the next few weeks: -- Night Light, Thursday at 9pm -- A book release party w/ Match Factory Editions 6/23 at 7:30pm -- A Hundred Pitchers of Honey 7/9 at 7:30pm If you need assistance with registering, let me know. Hope to see you at one (or more!) of these events. 💙🩷🩶

The main playbill: Blue background and pink text for all. Pic of me in Cape May with a sign in the sun. "Summer 2026 Virtual Readings for Kevin A. Risner's "It's Easy to Lose Your Breath" Night Light, Thursday, 6/18 (9pm ET), Launch Party w/Match Factory Editions, Thursday 6/23 (7:30 pm ET), A Hundred Pitchers of Honey, Thursday 7/9 (7:30pm ET)

"Reading 1: Night Light, Thursday 6/18/26 (9pm ET) To register go here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IltAk5mlST2BJk90JBGy_Q "

Also a pic of the aurora, green swirls of light with a pink and purple sky. A leafy green tree in the lower right hand corner

"Reading 3: A Hundred Pitchers of Honey, Thursday 7/9/26 (7:30pm ET) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/g9MwjJ2bQw21DPrGa0Xt3w "

There's a photo in the middle of a honeybee on white aster flowers with green leaves surrounding them and green lawn in the background.

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Ahhhh! The most exciting news!

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shovda @shovda.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Hi, I have a poem in the newest issue of @variantlit.bsky.social about acceptance and womanhood and my MFA program. variantlit.com/issue-twenty...

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Joanne Merriam @joannemerriam.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: It Was Never Supposed To Be by @benkline.bsky.social, @variantlit.bsky.social & Queer Enlightenments by Anthony Delaney, @groveatlantic.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for It Was Never Supposed To Be by Ben Kline, Variant Literature: Shortlisted for Gay Poetry in the Lambda Literary Awards (winners announced June 12th): https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/. It Was Never Supposed to Be contains multitudes: of desires, of risks, of fears, of fluids, of loves, of assignations, of histories. “I’m in a doom generation,” Ben Kline writes early in the collection as he charts the “one step forward, two shoves back” of change arched between “one plague pitted against another.” Occupying the familiarity of traditional form and the heady rush of innovative forms, Kline builds a uniquely queer structure, a house where freedom and desire, history and progress, risk and reward coexist. https://variantlit.com/product/iwnstb/

Book cover for Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers by Anthony Delaney, Grove Atlantic: A ground-breaking history delivered in a refreshing new voice, Queer Enlightenments details eleven overlooked stories of eighteenth-century queer people who lived extraordinary lives of resistance and joy. Shortlisted for LGBTQ+ Nonfiction in the Lambda Literary Awards (winners announced June 12th): https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/. https://groveatlantic.com/book/queer-enlightenments/

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Pat Foran @pdforan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

“*You’re funny*, said Beatrice. Her ex-boyfriend was dull and didn’t like to joke. *You’re beautiful*, said the ant. *Like a flower.*” @noramaynard.bsky.social in @variantlit.bsky.social variantlit.com/the-peony-ant/

variantlit.com

The Peony Ant

Visit the post for more.

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Don't forget to register for this free workshop with @thebrandonhaff.bsky.social !

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Kevin A. Risner @mrdecember.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Another poem to share with you all from my soon-to-be-out collection thru @matchfactoryeds.bsky.social! This time it's a prose poem published in @somewordslit.bsky.social. Huge props to @juscarts.com for starting this fun little online messageboard-y space. :-) somewords.boards.net/thread/16/ke...

somewords.boards.net

Kevin A. Risner | Some Words

A Blue Jay Flies Into the Window I see my reflection where I never expected it. One of my good friends brings scotch to celebrate our birthdays. We pull our masks down

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Free workshop, June 18th! @variantlit.bsky.social Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Submissions are open for the @variantlit.bsky.social Poetry Prize! variantlit.submittable.com/submit

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Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

In Terrestrial, Suzy Eynon renders the Arizona desert as both landscape and signal, a place where loneliness sits just beneath the surface and connection often feels out of reach. Read our latest interview with author @suzyeynon.bsky.social variantlit.com/arizona-alie...

variantlit.com

Arizona, Aliens, and the Limits of Connection: A Conversation with Suzy Eynon

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Free poetry workshop happening May 21st! Don't forget to register! variantlit.com/free-poetry-...

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Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

New work from managing editor @megjnic.bsky.social in Oxford American

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The Dodge @thedodgemag.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

We're so excited to feature Todd Dillard @toddedillard.bsky.social and his poem "Strike" from our Spring 2026 Issue OUT NOW! Read the rest of "Strike" and check out his other poem "Emperor of Floods" on our website, linked in our bio!

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Oxford American @oxfordamerican.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

“In some food pantries, the line between helper and helped is clearly drawn. That is not the case here.” Megan Nichols profiles the work of the Stone County Community Food Ministry in Arkansas and the volunteers who help keep their neighbors fed. 🔗: shorturl.at/6Soce

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Megan Nichols @megjnic.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I'm so excited to share that my article about the volunteers and recipients of the Stone County Community Food Ministry appears in this issue. I am so grateful to Oxford American for publishing work about food insecurity and for their editorial guidance. Can't wait for my copy to come in!

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Trio House Press @triohousepress.org · 08/04/2026

Stock up on @triohousepress.org titles during poetry month! Buy one get one free, including pre-orders!! triohousepress.myshopify.com

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Read A Little Poetry @readalittlepoem.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

“Eyes shut, I could be anywhere; we could be anything.” — Megan Nichols . . . This poem appeared in The Baltimore Review, Fall 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

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