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McKenzie Watson-Fore

@mwatsonfore.bsky.social
113 followers 133 following 120 posts

(She/her) I write, dance, and watercolor my feelings. Catch me online at mwatsonfore[dot]substack[dot]com. Opinions and hot takes my own.

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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I took a field trip to the Focus on the Family headquarters in conjunction with @kkdumez.bsky.social’s LIVE LAUGH LOVE book launch event. Read my full recap here: open.substack.com/pub/mwatsonf...
open.substack.com
A Field Trip to Focus on the Family
and thoughts on evangelical insularity
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Absolutely loved this essay by Adelle Waldman in @thepointmag.bsky.social -- about how we are all, in different ways, limited by sexism, and whether or not, or to what degree, literature represents universal truths thepointmag.com/criticism/st...
thepointmag.com
Student of Desire | The Point Magazine
It’s one thing to think abstractly about what men want, as a literary or philosophical question, or even to decry sexism as a social phenomenon; it’s another to be a single woman in New York City seek...
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Nathan Schneider @ntnsndr.in · 20/08/2026
Thanks to @mwatsonfore.bsky.social and @boulderrl.bsky.social for a wonderful profile of our magicmountaintalks.org event series! boulderreportinglab.org/2026/08/20/i... Featuring @jeffsharlet.bsky.social more Don't miss tonight: GERTRUDE STEIN NO RECORDINGS 👩‍🎤
boulderreportinglab.org
Big-name writers. Free talks. No recordings. Inside Boulder’s Magic Mountain Talks at Trident.
The monthly series brings nationally known writers into an intimate, standing-room-only conversation with Boulder audiences.
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I just got a response on an essay that I submitted in July of 2024. I also paid a small submission fee for the honor of waiting over two years to hear that my work ‘is not right for them at this time.’
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
New work from @meganstielstra.bsky.social in @therumpus.net and holy cow IT IS SO GOOD therumpus.net/2026/07/10/a...
therumpus.net
A Potion for Sadness - The Rumpus
A nurse stood at the door—scrubs, clipboard, the whole nine yards. “We’re ready for you,” she said. I followed her down a hall and behind a curtain, where I changed into the robe, laid back in the whe...
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Teo Rivera-Dundas has written a dry, tender, and darkly funny metacritical novel about working in bookstores in NYC, and I reviewed it for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! @univnebpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2026/06/10/r...
full-stop.net
Slow Guillotine – Teo Rivera-Dundas
We are drowning, choking, and sputtering on the saline logic of late capitalism: water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
To be clear, it’s disheartening that not only is the New York Times super into lists now, but some of the lists they’re running aren’t even curated. “Here’s what will be popular” (maybe) is so different from “here’s what’s good.”
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Russtofferson @russtofferson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
This is excellent. And a good starting point for anyone who has maybe heard of Dobson but doesn't quite know what he was about pr why he's so reviled among an entire generation (or two) of exvangelicals.
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I wrote about Dobson in the Epstein Files, gender essentialism and r@pe culture. With references to @dlmayfield.bsky.social, @sarahmccammon.bsky.social, @kkdumez.bsky.social, @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social, @manongarcia.bsky.social, @politybooks.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social and more!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Happy pub day to @stephaniestalvey.bsky.social and her new graphic memoir, EVERYTHING IN COLOR! I reviewed it for @hippocampusmag.bsky.social and wrote some behind-the-scenes thoughts for this week’s Critic at Play. open.substack.com/pub/mwatsonf...
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Wanna talk about complicated mother-daughter dynamics, sexual agency, substance use, and tropes of femininity? Check out this panel on May 8! charisbooksandmore.com/event/2026-0... @lwwesterfield.bsky.social @shelbyhinte.bsky.social @bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social
charisbooksandmore.com
A Song of Mothers and Daughters: An Author Panel
Charis Books & More is the South's oldest independent feminist bookstore, celebrating radical and queer voices since 1974!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
So, when is Netflix going to produce the reality tv show where you forge a connection through a wall and then the production team reveals you’ve been talking to an AI? I suggest they call it, LOVE IS BL(AI)ND #ai #loveisblind
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Are you a writer eager to learn from other writers? Do you want to deliver your own craft talk at a small-scale residential writing conference in Boulder, Colorado? Now taking applications for the Thunderdome Conference 2026! mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/announcing...
mwatsonfore.substack.com
Announcing the Thunderdome Conference 2026!
Come teach and learn with me in Boulder this summer
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 27/02/2026
Trump: "Maybe we do one more term. Should we? Do one more term! We're entitled to it."
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I wrote a reading list of my favorite cathartic bathing scenes for @electricliterature.com ! Check it out ~ electricliterature.com/8-books-feat...
electricliterature.com
8 Books Featuring Cathartic Bathhouse Scenes - Electric Literature
The communal intimacy of a Korean spa offers a radical departure from the body-fearing purity culture of my youth
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
So thrilled to have my review of Anna Rollins’s fabulous book live at @christiancentury.bsky.social !
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
OMG what an honor to have my church camp essay among the top 25 of last year at @christiancentury.bsky.social!! Revisit it here: www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...
christiancentury.org
Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet?
At youth group and church camp, I learned to perform my own unworthiness. It took years to recognize the spiritual harm this...
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
@mauchmauch.bsky.social wrote this incredible essay about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now (published by @www.sneakerwavemag.org). Check it out — open.substack.com/pub/sneakerw... #fuckice #minneapolis #reneegood #alexpretti #georgefloyd
open.substack.com
minneapolis calling
by Matt Mauch
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Cincinnati Romance Review’s new issue features my review of Anne Berest’s gripping “nonfiction novel,” LA CARTE POSTALE (The Postcard)—incredible storytelling and a chilling reminder about the costs of looking away from rising authoritarianism www.cincinnatiromancereview.org/current-issu...
cincinnatiromancereview.org
La Carte Postale, by Ann Berest — Cincinnati Romance Review
One Monday morning in January 2003, Lélia receives an anonymous postcard bearing nothing but four names—Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie, Jacques: the names of Lélia’s maternal grandparents, aunt, and uncle,...
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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I wrote about golf and reading as a portal to empathy and quests that never end. Thanks to Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland for the inspiration, and to my dad for letting me borrow his book for three years. mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/on-reading...
mwatsonfore.substack.com
On Reading Far Outside My Wheelhouse
Sports, sobriety, and unending quests
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Road tripping from Texas to Colorado (over multiple days, thank goodness), and my partner just put on a Phish song with a duration longer than a standard sitcom episode.
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 30/12/2025
Whose inauguration? What?
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
I reviewed Stephanie Schechner’s new translation of Mireille Best’s Hymn to Moray Eels (out now via the Pride List from Seagull Books) for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! A sharp interrogation of gender and heteronormativity, set in a French sanatorium. www.full-stop.net/2025/12/15/r...
full-stop.net
Hymn to Moray Eels – Mireille Best
Why love a boy just on the basis of his boy-ness?
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Flu season is here, folks. Get yourself vaccinated, and then get yourself a cat-panion who will keep watch from the crook of your knee-pits.
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David Dark @daviddark.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
"In Tait’s case, no part of his public persona allows him to name harmful elements of the theology he was raised with. Theology wielded to inculcate hatred or disgust rather than grace is one of the most destructive forces I know." @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...
christiancentury.org
Singing the Newsboys with Flamy Grant
The musician and drag queen is an exvangelical who came to see that holding on to a theology of self-loathing was just too...
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Has anyone written a cultural history of the paint-and-sip?? I would love to read that. #culturalcriticism #arthistory #historyinthemaking
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
I wrote about the #michaeltait scandal and about the iconic Christian music drag queen, @flamygrant.bandcamp.com — read it now!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Gabriella D'Italia’s memoir, GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK, is out now from @unsolicitedpress.bsky.app, and I wrote about it for Heavy Feather Review! A dazzling contemplative journey for anyone with a material art practice alongside your writing practice. heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/11/17/d...
heavyfeatherreview.org
Nonfiction Review: McKenzie Watson-Fore Reads Gabriella D’Italia’s Debut Memoir Getting Dressed in the Dark
The crisis that catalyzes Gabriella D’Italia’s debut memoir, Getting Dressed in the Dark: An Artist’s Way Home, is a gruesome separation and divorce, when D’Italia learns that her partner of twenty…
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
@bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social’s memoir WORLDLY GIRLS offers readers a tender journey through intergenerational trauma, female relationships, and the narrative unmooring that comes after leaving high-control religion. Read my review here! @bookhugpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2025/11/12/r...
full-stop.net
Worldly Girls – Tamara Jong
This narrative unmooring, while unconventional, strikes me as a byproduct of Jong’s departure from high-control religion
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet! #thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
mwatsonfore.substack.com
What up, skidmarks? It's Bad Janet.
My annual Halloween costume essay? Featuring hell
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk. cjr.org/analysis/the...
cjr.org
There's a bigger threat to books than bans.
Access to e-books relies entirely on private distributors that have the power to shut them off at any moment.
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation mastersreview.com/a-conversati...
mastersreview.com
A Conversation with Natasha Lehrer, Translator of Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno - The Masters Review
McKenzie Watson-Fore first came across Natasha Lehrer’s work when she was reviewing her translation of Cécile Desprairies’s autofictional novel, The Propagandist (released by New Vessel Press in Octob...
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...
youtube.com
Reporter Tells of Michael Tait/Newsboys Scandal: Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll
YouTube video by Julie Roys
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags lithub.com/on-the-futur...
lithub.com
On the Future of Small Presses in the Aftermath of the NEA Grant Chaos
On Friday, May 2nd, 2025, DOGE and the National Endowment for the Arts terminated $300,000 worth of grants for 51 publishers. The email, a copy and paste job, trickled into inboxes at odd hours. 5:…
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech www.vulture.com/article/post...
vulture.com
Zero Tolerance
Five years after the George Floyd protests, many liberals blame “wokeness” for stifling open debate. So why can’t they handle being disagreed with?
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET #churchcamp
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!! #church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory
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McKenzie Watson-Fore @mwatsonfore.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
@therumpus.net your newsletter says you’re taking subs for #collaborativecritism (a column I’m so excited for!), but I can find the submission info. Inquiring minds (and collaborators) would like to know 🤓 #submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp
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