iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Robbie Maakestad

Last Syllable: A Longform Literary Journal @lastsyllablelit.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Submissions for Last Syllable are now open through October 15! We accept submissions for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and open genre pieces. Longform works ranging from 5,000 to 25,000 words for the fiction, nonfiction, and open categories are highly encouraged!

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Katie Manning @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Send my grad students your longform poetry and prose! Check out the open genre guidelines too! lastsyllablelit.com/submit

lastsyllablelit.com

Submit | Last Syllable Literary Journal

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Send my grad students your long-form writing. @lastsyllablelit.bsky.social is open until Oct. 15! lastsyllablelit.com/submit

lastsyllablelit.com

Submit | Last Syllable Literary Journal

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Megan Stielstra @meganstielstra.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I wrote about sadness for @therumpus.net. Thank you to @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social for his editorial guidance :)

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

@jawicks75.bsky.social and I are back with "Episode 28: EPs - Pixies & Flea," featuring FIGHT CLUB and an essay by Jason Magabo Perez. www.podbean.com/eas/pb-imf7d...

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Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

did i mention i used to be a boxer? check out my new essay about it therumpus.net/2026/06/26/s...

therumpus.net

Shorty - The Rumpus

People stopped to look. Visitors asked if I was one of Rodney’s fighters and everyone confirmed that I was.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

I'm pumped to be reading at the @therumpus.net offsite #AWP26 event with @roxanegay.bsky.social, @poetpatriciasmith.bsky.social, @lydiamwrites.bsky.social, @anneliesz.bsky.social & others. Free food, free drinks (for first 80 guests), outstanding writers!

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The Rumpus @therumpus.net · 03/03/2026

We're gearing up for AWP 2026 in Baltimore! Find us at BOOTH 1240, and click through to learn more about our Flash Fiction contest and offsite event with @roxanegay.bsky.social, @poetpatriciasmith.bsky.social, @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social, @lydiamwrites.bsky.social & more. ➡️ buff.ly/g6CdKGw

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Jen Palmares Meadows @jenpmeadows.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

I’m deeply proud to share my essay, “Knott’s Berry Farm, 1996.” Thanks so much to @therumpus.net for their continued support of my writing. This essay is 30 years in the making and a love letter to the time, to the age, to all the girls, and to that place, Knott’s 1996.

therumpus.net

Knott’s Berry Farm, 1996 - The Rumpus

At thirteen, we were not afraid to speak aloud what we already knew—we would rather die than let them see the secrets of our bodies exposed. They had taught us enough about hiya, that we feared the we...

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

It adds some nice tension to the Olympics coverage if you imagine that Mike Tirico isn’t allowed to leave the NBC studio set. That miniature chaise lounge??? THEY MAKE HIM SLEEP ON IT. That tiny half folded accent blanket??? HIS ONLY SOURCE OF WARMTH.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

In my grad workshop I taught Jamaica Kincaid's A SMALL PLACE alongside @misternagel.bsky.social's DUPLEX, CULDESAC, and his LITTLE ENGINES The Unintentionalist column. We examined humor writing and the art of digression in nonfiction. Here's my lesson plan:

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Today when we arrived at the MLKJ parade, my four-year-old shouted “MARTIN LUTHER KING PARADE JR.”

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Yesterday I had a blast teaching @elenavox.bsky.social's LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT in my grad CNF workshop. Picture 2 is of the books I passed around/used in the class period.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I'm a pacifist except I think that anyone who leaves up those massive yard skeletons year-round should be invaded.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Honored to be featured in @xraylitmag.bsky.social’s 2025 Sampler alongside Ryan Ashley Anderson and @writesloud.bsky.social. Many thanks to @saltpeterdraws.bsky.social for his edits on my Banksy essay! Check out these stellar essays: xraylitmag.com/x-r-a-y-2025...

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Drove past the Shell gas station from A Fault In Our Stars today and my father-in-law went on about how it’s crazy that they sell gas for .60 higher per gallon than anywhere else in the city

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

An amazing 2025 Across the Genres reading featuring Jason Magabo Perez, @margapinta2.bsky.social, and Halina Duraj.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

TONIGHTONIGHTONIGHT!!! Featuring readings by @margapinta2.bsky.social, Halina Duraj, and Jason Magabo Perez.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Overheard my 4-year-old patiently talking to my 1-year-old from the other room, "Noooo, we don't put grapes in the toilet."

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Alison Laurence @dinostalgia.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Earlier this year, in a season of anxious unemployment, I wrote about Chicago's pride and prehistoric joy—SUE the T. rex. It's an essay about fossils and faith; minerals and humble miracles; the conditions that enable transubstantiation. #FossilFriday @therumpus.net therumpus.net/2025/12/05/t...

therumpus.net

To Become a Fossil - The Rumpus

Some people made long pilgrimages to marvel at this superlative specimen. Other people, like the girl growing up in a nearby suburb, got to know SUE through happy proximity. And because her grandma—my...

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Last week we had the absolute pleasure of @kfoslundquist.bsky.social joining the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social program to share her writerly wisdom. So grateful to her for a fantastic visit!

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Kristine Langley Mahler @suburbanprairie.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

SO PSYCHED to have Foxglove up at @therumpus.net: longing for the lost "wild" homes I shared with my great-grandfather (+ our irregular hearts), a healthy dose of mothering, health anxiety, and suburban yard maintenance! Take your Kali arsenicosum before you read it! therumpus.net/2025/12/04/f...

therumpus.net

Foxglove - The Rumpus

Foxglove grows in bells, a stalk with different chambers. When foxglove bells are plucked and dried, crumbled and served in a tea, they enter the ventricles of the heart. Foxglove works like a remedy....

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Happy letter of recommendation season to those of you who celebrate!

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Had a blast teaching @kfoslundquist.bsky.social’s BEARD last week in class. We discussed chapter beginnings and endings and discovered what we already knew from reading the book: that this is a memoir MASTERFULLY written.

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PLNU MA in Writing @plnuwritingma.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Join us tomorrow for an afternoon craft workshop and evening reading from visiting writer @kfoslundquist.bsky.social, author of "Beard: Memoir of a Marriage"!

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

It’s rainy today in San Diego, so when I dropped my kid at school, he started inside his classroom instead of lining up outside in the recess yard. The parents were in chaos trying to navigate this change to the drop-off because this was the first rainy day since school started.

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Colin Hamilton @colinhamilton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Don't we all love looking, as a wonderful poet observed, at dead things? A good season for that perspective. Thanks to @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social @mattweiland.bsky.social @therumpus.net. Companion piece from a WIP appearing soon in @revelliterary.bsky.social #booksky therumpus.net/2025/11/10/t...

therumpus.net

The Spurious Glamor of Certain Voids - The Rumpus

Don’t we all love looking, Diane Seuss wondered, at dead things?

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

New ROBBIE & JAMES TALK MUSIC Penny & Sparrow concert episode, featuring: — Two Penny & Sparrow tracks — @jawicks75.bsky.social talking horror films — Me talking @jillchristman.bsky.social‘s “The Avocado” & braided essays robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Today I made a Bloody Mary using a pack of Arby's horsey sauce, and even I am truly disgusted with myself.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Man, the pandemic really ruined it for all those people who wanted to name their first child “Covid.”

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Pumped that @jillchristman.bsky.social's "Spinning Webs in Space" at @therumpus.net got listed as a Notable Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2025. Shout-out to @darcyjaygagnon.bsky.social for editing Jill's essay. #RumpusEssays

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

My four-year-old suggested we "just buy a house for $1" so lmk if anyone here in San Diego is selling!

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Check out Episode 31: 1986 where @jawicks75.bsky.social and I look at music, films, and an essay from 1986. Featuring: - Music by Prince and The Cure - Tim Hunter's RIVER'S EDGE - Richard Ben Cramer's "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I'm loving Adam Curtis's SHIFTY. A found footage BBC documentary about Britain and Thatcherism. Well worth a watch as it informs today's U.S. political landscape in grim ways. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qtI...

youtube.com

1. Shifty: The Land of Make Believe Adam Curtis 2025

YouTube video by vegetative streaming 🇵🇸

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Not only was I not in Paris this weekend, but I also don't know how to ride a motorcycle or operate an angle grinder. PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT I RAIDED THE LOUVRE.

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Listen to Episode 30: Melancholy Songs if u like: - Sad music - @angermonsoon.bsky.social's essays - Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" - Up-and-coming Irish bands (DUG) - @thomyorke.wastehq.social defending sad songs - @jawicks75.bsky.social - the word "fluorescence" robbieandjamestalkmusic.podbean.com

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Okay, if nobody else wants to be the Duke of York, I can be the Duke of York.

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PLNU MA in Writing @plnuwritingma.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

@lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social will be here for in-person/live-streamed events, leading a workshop and discussing her book "Knock at the Sky" on October 29th! Purchase your tickets here! plnu.universitytickets.com

plnu.universitytickets.com

Point Loma Nazarene University | Ticketing - Ticket Office Home

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Robbie Maakestad @robbiemaakestad.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Last night in class we looked at structure and transitions in @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social‘s KNOCK AT THE SKY. Excited to have Liz out to @plnu.bsky.social for the @plnuwritingma.bsky.social Visiting Writers series!!! In-person and streaming tickets here plnu.universitytickets.com

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