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Joseph Osmundson

@reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social
4.8K followers 2K following 184 posts

scientist, writer, activist. VIROLOGY (Norton, 2022) "dazzling... love essays" -NYTimes Book Review, NBCC & Lambda Literary Finalist in Nonfiction

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Reposted by Joseph Osmundson
Humphrey Bogart's Hairpiece @onychomys.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
This convo between @adamconover.net and @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social is well worth your time. I mean, it starts out with Osmundson talking about a hot guy working for an AI music company being "the biggest boner stomp I've ever experienced". Can't go wrong with that. youtu.be/gAwK-Zh8bZU?...
youtu.be
Queer Parenthood, Grief, and Salmon with Joe Osmundson
YouTube video by Adam Conover
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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
« Tu prévoyais des dangers partout. » Language was the one way Christophe Bourdin could hold together a life threatening to come apart with his HIV diagnosis, and finding an English to convey this dread and this need was a breathtaking challenge. How moving that THE THREAD will now exist in English.
A yellowed copy of Christophe Bourdin's LE FIL, published by Éditions de la Différence in 1994, alongside a shiny Advanced Reading Copy of THE THREAD, in my English translation, to be published by Pushkin Press in Nov. 2026 (UK) and Feb. 2027 (US).Dear reader,
I am not a hypochondriac, but when Christophe Bourdin's sole novel, Le Fil, showed up in my mailbox one afternoon, a used copy yellowed by three decades out of print, its first sentence thrummed across the years with frightening immediacy: "You foresaw dangers everywhere."
The Thread is a novel of AIDS, but it offers no sweeping panorama of the epidemic; it is the deeply intimate story of one person in a circumscribed world of omnipresent risk, a life spent perpetually on guard, and as Bourdin's inordinately labyrinthine yet exacting sentences articulate that world closing in on him, they themselves all but close in on us. I couldn't shake how much The Thread felt like a dystopian novel-although so unlike any other that, in reading it, I felt compelled to translate it.
Rendering Bourdin's sinuous sentences has meant pushing the English language almost to the breaking point. Astonishingly, as I immersed myself in this world of disarray and disease, Bourdin's precision became my bulwark: no matter how heartbreaking or worrying the reality being described was, his words and his syntax offered a clarity that his world—our world-could not.
Bourdin died in 1997, just shy of 33 years old. The Thread, however, offers an ending remarkably different from any other AIDS novel I have read or translated—a glimmer of hope that has shined bright enough for the book to come back into print in France, and to find new readers in English.
Some books live only one life; others live many lives. The Thread, by some miracle, does both. Here it is, in your hands.
Open it and see where it leads you.
JEFFREY ZUCKERMAN
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Chicago Review of Books @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
"I often tell people that craft is how you survive the writing of the thing." @emilyfmaloney.bsky.social's interview with @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social on "Spawning Season" (Bloomsbury Publishing) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2026/06/18/s...
chireviewofbooks.com
"Craft is How You Survive the Writing of the Thing": A Conversation with Joseph Osmundson about "Spawning Season" - Chicago Review of Books
An interview with Joseph Osmundson about his new memoir, "Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood."
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Hugh Ryan @hughryan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Brilliant review of @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social 's latest SPAWNING SEASON newrepublic.com/article/2114...
newrepublic.com
Lessons in Parenting From a Salmon
Joseph Osmundson’s “Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood” is an utterly unique contribution to the often predictable genre of infertility and parenting lit.
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Sabrina Imbler @sabs.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
really generous behind-the-scenes look at @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social's journey through publishing, with insight, advances, and a deserved shoutout to the brilliant Kiese Laymon reluctantlyjoe.substack.com/p/how-the-sa...
reluctantlyjoe.substack.com
How The Salmon Sausage Got Made
SPAWNING SEASON is my first hardcover, e.g. big-boi, book
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Ella Dawson @brosandprose.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I always appreciate when authors are transparent about their paths to publication and what they've been paid per book. Thank you, @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social.
open.substack.com
How The Salmon Sausage Got Made
SPAWNING SEASON is my first hardcover, e.g. big-boi, book
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 03/06/2026
Two queer best friends dreamed of raising a child together. They almost made it real. What they did not anticipate was how complex their feelings would become once their plan was underway. nyti.ms/4dZga7N
“The idea was that I would be the sperm donor and my best friend would donate the egg and her partner would carry the baby.” - Joseph Osmundson, on “Modern Love,” talks about his plan with his best friend to raise a child together
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Greg Mania @gregmania.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
endlessly proud of and impressed with my bb @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social and his profound, tender, hilarious, and legacy-defining book 🥹🥹🥹 forever celebrating you!
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Really grateful to have told this story if only because it might make other people feel less alone in this complex type of kid grief.
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Script @script.health · 26/05/2026
Ahead of the release of Spawning Season, Script spoke with writer and biologist Joe Osmundson (@reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social) about his experiment in queer parenthood. www.script.health/article/spaw...
script.health
In ‘Spawning Season,’ Joe Osmundson explores what it means to build a queer family
The writer and biologist spoke with Script about conception, queering family and grief
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Xtra @xtramagazine.com · 29/05/2026
We spoke with @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social about conception, queering family and grief.
xtramagazine.com
In ‘Spawning Season,’ Joe Osmundson explores what it means to build a queer family | Xtra Magazine
The writer and biologist on conception, queering family and grief
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Natalie Lima @natalielima09.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
My copy is here! So excited to dig in 😍 @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social
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Longreads @longreads.com · 09/04/2026
"'A doorknob is a rock for the hand. It opens a hole in the wall,' Siken writes, and I can feel the rock in my hand. There is no metaphor here, only a search for the meaning that comes before metaphor." — @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
lareviewofbooks.org
Bright, Built World | Los Angeles Review of Books
A reflection on how the poets Richard Siken and Anne Carson responded to losing their language.
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
THE GAYEST THE TWINZIEST!!!!
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
For LARB, I wrote a longform essay (remember those) on the writing of Anne Carson and Richard Siken from inside brains losing, or regaining, language itself. "The brain will make scientists out of us all, but our methods may well differ." lareviewofbooks.org/article/sike...
lareviewofbooks.org
Bright, Built World | Los Angeles Review of Books
A reflection on how the poets Richard Siken and Anne Carson responded to losing their language.
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
“Rowling has made it abundantly clear that she thinks attacking transgender people via the legal system is a worthwhile cause and a good use of her vast personal fortune…there’s no way to watch this show without supporting Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting…”
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Mg @themg.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Very excited. I clicked 'notify me' if the campus library gets a copy of Virology by @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social. Couple hours later, library has acquired a digital copy! Now I'm reading it :)
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I’ve had this debate in class with STEM students before. They NEED to believe that eugenics and scientific racism etc are things of the past and are ‘pseudosciences’ because ‘science is objective’ and the ‘scientific method defends from bias.’ It’s a dangerous way to think.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 28/07/2025
#Introduction: Theoretical physicist. Black Feminist theorist. Writer. I do: dark matter, neutron stars, & science studies. Web: chanda.science Newsletter: news.chanda.science Insta: chanda.prescod.weinstein Author of award-winning #DisorderedCosmos and now #EdgeOfSpaceTime, coming 4/7/26.
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 24/12/2025
Writing this academic book as a person with tenure and the complete support of my editor and press to be creative in all the ways I need to be has been utterly terrifying because I have total freedom and I have never let myself just do whatever the fuck I wanted with my craft
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 19/12/2025
I just wish someone would be honest and say “we are ending civilian science in favor of science that is focused on serving national security and war”
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
This is very good, and reminded me that I wrote, in 2014, about the weirdness that is the Western US "libertarian" far right. People in my hometown tried to secede from the US (!!) in the 1990s (!!!!!) and then appealed to the UN when it didn't work (!!!!) therumpus.net/2014/02/20/n...
therumpus.net
Notes from Freedom County - The Rumpus
I am trying to make sense of myself as much as the place. It is so easy to conflate ‘where I was from’ with ‘who I was there.’
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Well! I wrote a book. I've been pretty quiet about it. I'm generally open to a fault: depression, breakups, body issues. But this book charts a part of my life very VERY few people know about. I almost had a kid. And then I didn't have a kid. electricliterature.com/exclusive-co...
Book cover for SPAWNING SEASON: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood by Joseph Osmundson. The cover includes a prominent image of a salmon, trumpet vines, and a collage of images of nature and a vintage image of sperm approaching an egg.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 11/12/2025
Readers of my newsletter know that I hinted there was another queer science book coming next year and I can now say which one I was talking about! @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social has this beauty coming next May and now available for preorder! #BookSky 🌈🧪
bloomsbury.com
Spawning Season
NBCC and Lambda Literary Award finalist Joseph Osmundson chronicles his journey toward and away from parenthood to ask how we create and nurture queer families.…
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John Glover @jtglover.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
I’ll omit the depressing-for-a-writer comments that others have made on this excellent article. Instead, I’ll say that it’s disastrous for readers.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...
thewalrus.ca
The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus
Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it
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Jeanna Kadlec @jeannakadlec.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
I also think it’s very relevant that myself and @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social — the two writers who went on the record here — are very openly queer, writing very openly queer work. So… there is that.
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Miguel Paredes @paredesmig.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Tune in next week to hear about amazing HIV work that has saved countless lives but continues to be threatened. Help us #SaveAIDSResearch . I’ll be presenting with @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social on mpox which affects many of the same communities as HIV and whose global funding is also under attack
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ceej @ceej.online · 14/10/2024
hey dude, I noticed you attempting to carve a small space for joy in the face of overwhelming sadness. kind of problematic considering all the horrors
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
I won a journalism award with @xtramagazine.com and all I can think about are these fucking Teflon pans. reluctantlyjoe.substack.com/p/i-won-a-jo... (Thank you @tmziniuk.bsky.social for being the best gay editor there is!)
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Tara-Michelle Ziniuk @tmziniuk.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Good news: I no longer have to keep a secret!! Because, good news: @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social and Nico Lang have won awards for their work @xtramagazine.com!! xtramagazine.com/inside-xtra/...
xtramagazine.com
Xtra contributors win awards in international coverage and blogging from NLGJA | Xtra Magazine
Contributors Nico Lang and Joseph Osmundson are being recognized by the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Made it to Friday, aka Fri-yay, but at what cost?
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Cuomo: New York *does* have an affordability problem! My nephew’s first cousin by marriage can’t even afford Uber Black anymore!
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
If you're seeing this, post an old photo of yourself that you still love.
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
So grateful to see this book still in the world!
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
New Substack writing on the box of former selves I go through every time I move, and what my next home may bring. reluctantlyjoe.substack.com/p/pennies-an...
reluctantlyjoe.substack.com
Pennies and the Tour Eiffel
Looking through artifacts and being surprised, and not surprised, by who I once was
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 08/07/2025
lmao someone on twitter has spotted an interesting discrepancy in eric adams' 'get ready with me' social media content
eric adams is pictured in front of a clock reading 11:00, with a text timestamp of 9:01 am
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/07/2025
internalizing american notions of race and ethnic division as timeless truths about the world is a shortcut to smoothing out your brain
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
if anyone at the NYT wants to talk about this rufo/mamdani/columbia leak clusterfuck, i’m marisakabas.04 on signal
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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
it actually seems like a newsworthy scandal that a white nationalist hacker stole decades of private student data from Columbia University and handed that data over to a trustee for a competitor institution. But on the other hand, the New York Times is worried about being "scooped" by neo-Nazis.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 07/07/2025
“As I have argued with colleagues in The Lancet, access to primary health care is the cornerstone for preventing disease outbreaks and responding to health crises.” thebulletin.org/2025/07/fewe...
thebulletin.org
Fewer clinics, unhealthier people, less warning: The ‘big, beautiful bill’ will make the US less prepared for pandemics
The so-called "big, beautiful bill" will lead to millions of fewer people having health coverage in the United States. It will make the country less prepared to detect and respond to a future pandemic...
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Todd Dillard @toddedillard.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
apropos of something I read recently: just because the words are good and the craft is good doesn't mean the thoughts are good. you have to sit with the thoughts even more than with the words and the craft. that's "the work."
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Lacy M. Johnson @lacymjohnson.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
This is hateful and ugly and you don’t know what tf you’re talking about. First, nearly 5 mil Texans voted for Harris, way more than the 450k who voted for her in Maine. Second, it’s harder to vote in Texas than it is in any other state bc it isn’t a red state but a voter suppression state.
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 03/07/2025
@benryanwriter.bsky.social Didn't waste much time getting this up on your personal website! Perhaps you could throw a cite out to the Guardian reporter who has named your very secret source in a March 2025 article?
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 04/07/2025
Wait WTF hahaha Benjamin Ryan subscribes to Cremieux!? So much makes sense now.
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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
NYT updated the story, bang-up job all around
included in a database of millions of student applicati ns to Columbia going back decades. The data was shared with The Times by an intermediary who goes by the name Crémieux on Substack and X. He provided the data under condition of anonymity, although his identity has been made public elsewhere. He is an academic who opposes affirmative action and writes often about I.Q. and race.
The data included information on applicants' citizenship status, national
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
so let me get this straight—the NYT accepted hacked information given to them by a substack white supremacist to be used against a mayoral candidate?
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Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Not to do TOO much Mamdani discourse this morning, but one of the reasons American racial categories are what they are is the idea that "African" is a single, coherent, and consistent racial identity. That belief is downstream of slavery ideology, and has no real salience for actual reality.
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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
NYT responds to criticism of its Mamdani story, likening the concerns about their source to “Wikileaks or Edward Snowden” (lol)
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Joseph Osmundson @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Can’t believe the sex-negative weirdo from mpox times who pivoted to being an anti-trans guy “just asking questions” also has white supremacist sources digging up dirt on a brown Muslim progressive. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.
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