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Melissa Hung

@melissahung.bsky.social
11K followers 850 following 1.1K posts

Writer & journalist. 📚Disability Intimacy, Body Language. Founding editor, Hyphen. Writing about immigrant communities, Asian America, culture, food, disability & more. melissahung.xyz

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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Dear @darthbluesky.bsky.social, @esmewang.com (who is not on Bluesky much these days) wanted to let you know that her sweet Daphne has died.
A screenshot from Esmé Weijun Wang’s instagram account featuring a closeup photo of her little dog Daphne with her head nestled  on her lap
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 03/09/2026
ok I had to force down a tear with this one reskeeting with alt text
Image of a page in a book with text reading as follows


THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO:

Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957. a decade before physicians in England could legally perform an abortion for any reason other than the health of the woman, took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year-old American on her way to India.

Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said, "You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life."

Dear Dr. Sharpe, I believe you, who knew the law was unjust, would not mind if I say this so long after your death:

I've done the best I could with my life.

This book is for you.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Fellow spoonies, my friend is teaching a class online tomorrow 9/1 on reclaiming your body. She is a dancer with Lyme disease who found a way to regain her agency through movement & now teaches it to others. thrivingwithlyme.com
thrivingwithlyme.com
Thriving With Lyme – Reclaim Your Body Today
Discover personalized support for chronic illness and auto-immune conditions. Join a supportive community of BIPOC & QTBIPOC folks to reduce pain and boost energy. Schedule a discovery call today to b...
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Abbie @kabbiearlish.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Gary, IN is still without power. Boost the below article, so folks know how to help and these people aren't forgotten.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Nooooooo, not Dolly
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
If you’re curious about what it’s like to live with a constant headache and chronic pain, I used to write about it for Catapult Magazine (RIP): magazine.catapult.co/author/melis...
magazine.catapult.co
Drum Head: Playing Through My Chronic Pain
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Happy anniversary to me & my chronic headache. 13 years ago, I woke up with a headache. It never went away. I didn’t know it that day, but my life changed. Not asking for advice BTW — I'm under the care of a great neurologist — just sharing as a reminder that anyone can become disabled at any time.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Happy anniversary to me & my chronic headache. 13 years ago, I woke up with a headache. It never went away. I didn’t know it that day, but my life changed. Not asking for advice BTW — I'm under the care of a great neurologist — just sharing as a reminder that anyone can become disabled at any time.
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betsy ladyzhets 😷 @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Today @thesicktimes.org: An in-depth feature on UCSF and PolyBio's VIPER program, by @davetuller1.bsky.social. VIPER plans to validate promising Long COVID biomarker candidates and fast-track them for clinical trials. thesicktimes.org/2026/08/11/v...
thesicktimes.org
VIPER aims to fast track Long COVID biomarkers. Here’s how it works. - The Sick Times
Led by researchers at UCSF, the research program plans to validate promising candidates for noninvasive tests that can be used to advance clinical trials.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Someone made a site where you can scan produce to see if it came from Taylor Farms. (They are behind many store brands.) Thank you to whoever made this. I've been cooking all my greens, but it's hot out here (and AC-less in my kitchen) and sometimes I just want a salad. www.taylordetector.com
taylordetector.com
Taylor Detector — Scan for Taylor Farms brands
Wondering if a product is made by Taylor Farms? Scan any barcode to instantly check brand ownership and affiliations. Free, no signup required.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 23/07/2026
📣 Local investigative journalists! There are less than five days left until the deadline to apply to ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. Newsrooms from 26 states can apply. Check your eligibility and submit here by July 27 at midnight ET 👇
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Local Reporting Network Fellow
Remote, United States
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
#BitOfJoy from the other day: swimming laps at the Chinatown YMCA in San Francisco while in the adjacent lane aunties do water aerobics to Bad Bunny, led by a distinguished gentleman with a ponytail.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
#BitOfJoy from the other day: swimming laps at the Chinatown YMCA in San Francisco while in the adjacent lane aunties do water aerobics to Bad Bunny, led by a distinguished gentleman with a ponytail.
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
A lawsuit alleges that ICE beat a man, causing his existing disabilities to worsen and get new ones. Once he was in ICE detention, the lawsuit says, he was mocked by detention staff and didn't regularly get his medication. New from me at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Lawsuit accuses ICE and private prison contractors of abuse a disabled detainee
Ulises Peña López says guards taunted him — telling him he'd never walk again — while withholding the medication he needed.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I’ve been off socials because I was at my first writing residency in a cottage in the woods on Whidbey Island. I wrote, but also rested a lot — much needed after these recent years of loss, grief, & health challenges. Thank you to Hedgebrook for this gift of time & care.
A two-story cottage in the woods with the lights on, so it is glowing from within.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
"One of the reasons why I do what I do is I don’t want you to have to buy something, I want you to take what you have and give it new life and make it something that’s even better than what you originally bought it for, because now it’s one of one." - Ramell-Correen Frederick
vogue.com
The New York Artist Embroidering Knicks Merch on the Street
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Oh man I wish I were in nyc right now
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I saw Marjane Satrapi speak about her work at Smith College 19 years ago, and she said something I have thought about and taught ever since when I teach comics. “I draw what I can’t write and I write what I can’t draw.“
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
An essay with an important message: listen to your body.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Was just looking at an old journal entry from college where I said I wanted to tell my mom’s story but didn’t know how to do it. Mom, I’m finally writing your story now. This piece is from a collection I’m working on. Thank you to @inshortlit.bsky.social for publishing it in their new issue.
inshortjournal.com
Melissa Hung
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Was just looking at an old journal entry from college where I said I wanted to tell my mom’s story but didn’t know how to do it. Mom, I’m finally writing your story now. This piece is from a collection I’m working on. Thank you to @inshortlit.bsky.social for publishing it in their new issue.
inshortjournal.com
Melissa Hung
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
ICE agents pepper-sprayed Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey.
nj.com
ICE agents pepper spray protesters, N.J. senator in clash outside Delaney Hall in Newark
“It’s sad, it’s a sad day," says pepper-sprayed senator.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
My new enemies are a trio of pigeons. Has anyone tried the fake owls and do they work against NYC pigeons?
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liberation psychiatrist @libpsych.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The first Memorial Day dates to 1865 when members of Black churches re-buried Union soldiers from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp to individual grave sites. Memory of the event was later suppressed. apnews.com/31e1623c7565...
apnews.com
Charleston can lay a claim to 1st Memorial Day
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The city that plunged the nation into its bloodiest conflict can also lay a claim to holding the first Memorial Day observance honoring the dead from the Civil War. In a little...
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
A friend of mine who was TA’ing for an AmLit course found a copy of Moby Dick a student had left behind. It had only one marginal annotation, around page 100, that simply said “whale is important.”
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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
revisiting this Mary Oliver poem. or it’s revisiting me.
Don’t Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, 
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about 
to be. We are not wise, and not very often 
kind. And much can never be redeemed. 
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this 
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything, 
but very likely you notice it in the instant 
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the 
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid 
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Some things that have brought me #ABitOfJoy in recent months. 1. This swimsuit
A one piece swim suit with a vegetables print featuring lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and more. A green microfiber towel and swim goggles sit to the left
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Well this is delightful
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Two years ago this month I had a lumpectomy. A mammogram caught my cancer early. This is a reminder to get your mammograms, colonoscopies etc
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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Every day of Trump 2.0 I think “it can’t get more outrageous than this,” and I am wrong. This slush fund thing is so fucking rancid and unacceptable and I hate the feeling and reality that no politician is going to stop it, or call in Batman or something. This is not a country.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I'm with Jeff on this. "We've been burned before so often that it's easy to flinch at the first sight of a potential spark." (Also, there are bigger things to direct your rage at than a movie you haven't watched)
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Crying while drinking your morning coffee is writing
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Since 2019, I’ve made a Rejection Stamp Card every year for my literary rejections. Having this ritual helps take the sting out of rejections just a bit. Third rejection of the year came in yesterday but it was a nice one.
A notebook open to a page with a stamp card drawn on it and three squares stamped in red ink. The title of the page is “2026 rejections.” There is also a red stamp pad, a Micron pen with the cap off, and a set of Totoro stamps.
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Karen Carpenter’s Halloween @kellylink.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Today’s #BitOfJoy: the cherry blossoms are in peak bloom at @brooklynbotanic.bsky.social
Branches of a cherry blossom tree in bloom with pink flowers. In the distance people walk on a path.View of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden cherry blossom esplanade in bloom from an overlook. There are two rows of trees with pink flowers
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Scott Kurashige @scottkurashige.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I was blessed to have @melissahung.bsky.social work with me on this book. We discussed some key changes that I believe made the book much better. If you need an editor or assistance with writing projects, you'll be very luck if Melissa is available.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I guess it’s less surprising that a shoe company that touted being sustainable & natural would pivot to AI when you remember that at one point they were the sneakers that everyone in Silicon Valley was wearing.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
It’s April. It should not be store-your-chocolate-in-the-fridge-because-it’s-melting weather in NYC and yet it is.
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Gus Bova @gusbova.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Texas' only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a Raymondville detention center. She’s lived in America for 35 years: www.texasobserver.org/immigration-...
texasobserver.org
Longtime Immigration Court Interpreter Arrested by ICE at South Texas Airport
The state’s only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a Raymondville detention center. She’s lived in America for 35 years.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Last year I helped on a developmental edit of an ambitious book. And now it’s out in the world. Congrats, @scottkurashige.bsky.social! This history of anti-Asian racism (& how it shaped Asian American activism) is on a difficult subject, but it’s a necessary read. www.ucpress.edu/books/americ...
Book cover for American Peril: The violent history of anti-Asian racism. By Scott Kurashige. The cover is blue and black with large type.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Last year I helped on a developmental edit of an ambitious book. And now it’s out in the world. Congrats, @scottkurashige.bsky.social! This history of anti-Asian racism (& how it shaped Asian American activism) is on a difficult subject, but it’s a necessary read. www.ucpress.edu/books/americ...
Book cover for American Peril: The violent history of anti-Asian racism. By Scott Kurashige. The cover is blue and black with large type.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
For @texashighways.bsky.social’s Night Issue, I wrote about Houston’s 24-hour diner with the iconic neon sign that’s been serving comfort food for nearly 60 years, Dot Coffee Shop. The April issue is on newsstands now, but you can also read this story online here:
texashighways.com
Inside the Houston Diner That Never Closes
Dot Coffee has served up scratch-made comfort food at all hours for almost 60 years
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
For @texashighways.bsky.social’s Night Issue, I wrote about Houston’s 24-hour diner with the iconic neon sign that’s been serving comfort food for nearly 60 years, Dot Coffee Shop. The April issue is on newsstands now, but you can also read this story online here:
texashighways.com
Inside the Houston Diner That Never Closes
Dot Coffee has served up scratch-made comfort food at all hours for almost 60 years
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
"Attacking a hospital is a crime, full stop. Doctors must treat patients without fear or favour. If a child is in cardiac arrest, I will not stop chest compressions to interrogate the political affiliations of her parents.” By Seema Jilani
theguardian.com
Israel got away with targeting healthcare in Gaza. It's no surprise it is doing it in Lebanon too | Seema Jilani
As a doctor who has worked in a conflict zone, I’ve seen spaces that were once considered sacrosanct become fair game in war. This has to end, says Seema Jilani, a paediatric physician
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 09/04/2026
Today is a good day to follow news outlets that have strong guardrails against Generative AI slop: go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Good news for San Francisco Chinatown! Proud of the people i know involved in this, who have been working hard to keep Chinatown Chinatown against forces of displacement.
sfchronicle.com
Exclusive: Chinatown nonprofit buys Empress of China building, betting culture can revive downtown S.F.
A nonprofit’s purchase of this iconic San Francisco building is set to feature a new museum that would anchor a growing cultural campus in the neighborhood.
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Jaya Saxena @jayasaxena.com · 06/04/2026
Today, my fellow founding worker-owners and I are launching a subscription drive to @feedravenous.bsky.social. We are a group of experienced and award-winning food journalists here to publish thoughtful writing and incisive reporting from around the food world. www.weareravenous.com
weareravenous.com
Ravenous Is a New Worker-Owned Food Culture Media Company
For too long, food media has felt toothless. Help us take a bite out of it.
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Melissa Hung @melissahung.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I was so nervous & emotional watching this. (First live launch I’ve watched since Challenger.) Godspeed, astronauts.
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Gutting story of the US bombing of the Iranian school, told through the eyes of the parents Even after identifying their own children's tiny, mangled bodies, many went back to the site to dig for other people's children www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
‘It didn’t matter whose child I rescued’: parents of Iran school bombing victims describe their worst day
Hours before the world learned that a US missile had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, parents were already searching the rubble for their sons and daughters. In this exclusive report, four families descr...
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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 25/03/2026
Thinking of my beloved tiger queen Alice Wong today, and what better a way to celebrate than with her work; Alice was so many things, and among them was an incredibly sharp, talented writer with a luminous love for words.
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