Sign in

Seph Murtagh

@sephmurtagh.bsky.social
1.1K followers 580 following 250 posts

Writer. Fiction and essays in 3:AM Magazine, Minor Literature[s], & Socrates on the Beach.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Isabellettriste @minxmarple.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
“Saying I is also a form of experiment” The sublime Lisa Robertson talking about what’s my book of the year so far.
0153
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
It’s 50 years since Renata Adler’s incomparable novel ‘Speedboat’ was published: illuminative and dangerous as a lightning strike, bitingly funny, caustically insightful and marvellously stylish. Pub in US @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social, just reissued @wnbooks.bsky.social with intro by Hilton Als.
My tatty 1976 hardcover of Renata Adler’s Speedboat.
2026 paperback reissue of Adler’s Speedboat.
2395
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Jacob Wren @jacobwren.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
"Well, Genet had a phrase that I repeat often: ‘Difficulty is an author’s respect for the reader’, or rather, making him or her think, collaborate – the work is incomplete without the reader’s input…" - Juan Goytisolo
02711
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
16, attempting to hitchhike to Maine, standing on the shoulder of a highway onramp near Albany, with night coming on and 3 dollars in my pocket, when a guy in a white Ford Pinto rolls up and hands me $60 and a King James Bible. "Thanks man you saved my ass" I said. "No, God saved your ass," he said.
070
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Well this is pretty much as insane as I expected it to be.
030
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Greg Gerke / Socrates on the Beach @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
5 years of Socrates on the Beach... McElroy, Gass, Tudor-Sideri, Musil, Grill, Ariel Porte, Moore, Ulven, Blackwell, Craig, Theroux, Sims, Valéry, Stefanescu, Wood, Cărtărescu, Lutz, Hall, Haskell, Nutt, Ryder, Cárdenas, Khi Nao, Olsen, Handke, DeForest... socratesonthebeach.com
185
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Dorothy, a publishing project @dorothyproject.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Our editor (in a silly hat) talks about her latest book (Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social) and being a Dorothy fangirl at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social . . . www.cincinnatireview.com/interviews/a...
cincinnatireview.com
An Interview with Danielle Dutton - The Cincinnati Review
Danielle Dutton’s Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other is a collection of surreal stories full of haunted landscapes, literary experiments, and essays on the
0276
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
They carry it in my local Wegmans in Upstate New York which I thought was incredible (no Lyons)
010
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Checked back here for the first time in months and this is the first thing I saw. Happy Birthday Anthony!
120
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Renata Adler, bringing the goods in PITCH DARK. Extraordinary passage, extraordinary novel.
010
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Hyo Yoon Kang 강효윤 @hyoyoonkang.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Nothing thicker than a knife’s blade separates melancholy from happiness. -- Woolf, Orlando
1144
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Post45 Data Collective @post45data.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
"Representing the canon that scholars of Asian American literature have built, it is the most expansive dataset to date on Asian American literature." Data and essay: doi.org/10.18737/092...
doi.org
The Canon of Asian American Literature – Post45 Data Collective
This dataset traces the Asian American literary canon through nearly 1,900 scholarly citations from 1971 to 2023, capturing which authors and texts have shaped the field over time.
12212
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
The thing people who are terrified don’t understand about cities is that all you need to know is what is your business and what is not your business
3996
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Ah, the sour smell of fallen, trampled fruit fermenting on city sidewalks. It's one of my favorite smells of the year. Fills me with a great inner peace. We are nearing the end of the torrid heat.
030
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Yeah incredible right?!
110
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
I had to google “sun butter” lol
130
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Sitting in my office, starving, receiving updates from daycare that my daughter is being fed "sun butter and jelly sandwich, green beans and fruit cocktail"
170
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Thank you!
010
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Great new review of Jen Craig's Wall up over @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social's Socrates: "Her novels are at once obsessive attempts to give a full account of grief-laden lives, & a demonstration of the impossibility, the ridiculousness, even, of such a pursuit" socratesonthebeach.com/gus-oconnor-...
socratesonthebeach.com
Gus O'Connor on Jen Craig — Socrates on the Beach
0155
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Our home bar from those days (which is sadly gone now that we’ve entered our sober toddler parenting era. I’m an IPA guy now 😢)
020
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Found the hand-drawn cocktail book that my wife and I made during our drunken shut-in covid days.
240
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Addison Zeller @addisonzeller.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Got a lil bagatelle at beloved @hexliterary.bsky.social
43414
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Sunday morning writing mantra, via DeLillo, from inside my cocoon of dimmed lights, closed doors, and noise-cancelling headphones: "A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it."
1534
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
402335949
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
I believe these are the first four academic books to cite an episode of American Vandal, which, like, there will be prizes.
5739
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Wrote 1000 words on Gabriel Blackwell's DOOM TOWN, a strange and deeply affecting novel that I won't soon forget.
substack.com
On Gabriel Blackwell's Doom Town
I’m generally not a superstitious person, but there have been times in my life when catastrophes have piled up with such alarming speed and synchronicity, that I've been inclined to believe that the u...
011
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
The Dodge @thedodgemag.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
We're excited to start off our featured author posts with Elvis Bego's work "A Part"! Check out the rest of his work on our website (link in bio) in our Summer 2025 Issue out now!
194
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Christopher Burlinson @cmburlinson.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
I've been reading Trieste by Dasa Drndic for the last few days and it has absolutely wiped me out. Reading it next to Celan, Pound, etc., and my head is spinning. What a work of fiction - as well as a historical and documentary indictment of the world that reads it.
Dasa Drndic, Trieste
3204
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Such an exceptional novel. Read it a few years ago and it blew my mind. Don't think I've ever read a work of fiction that so urgently challenges the willing suspension of disbelief. Nothing quite like it.
011
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Chris de C B @panthropology.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Happy Bloomsday to all who celebrate
10385130
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Adam Shaw @adamshaw502.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
New work in @havehashad.com today! Another cheesy little dad piece that might be the cheesiest little dad piece I’ve written yet (while also maybe the one I had the most fun with?)
7194
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
“She has an allergy to mosquitos" Me: “Yes, but what is it CALLED"
020
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
My 17 month old daughter has developed an allergy to mosquitos and I'm frankly annoyed that no one, from my wife to our pediatrician to her daycare providers, seems to want to use the official name for it.
110
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
No
000
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
great interview
120
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
“I don’t want to overstate the case, but what’s at stake is life and death”: An Interview with Ben Libman (@benlibman.bsky.social) —Cristina Politano (@monalisavitti.bsky.social) minorliteratures.com/2025/05/29/i...
minorliteratures.com
“I don’t want to overstate the case, but what’s at stake is life and death”: An Interview with Ben Libman — Cristina Politano
Ben Libman is a Paris-based Canadian writer who has mined the geographical specifics of his family’s history, from Nazi-occupied Austria to post-war Canada, in order to challenge the creation…
1105
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Alvin Lu @alvinlu.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
This is my ego as a novice lit mag editor talking, but I imagine someone, somewhere will benefit from reading this entire issue whole, preferably in order of presentation. yourimpossiblevoice.com/issue32/
yourimpossiblevoice.com
Your Impossible Voice #32 | Spring 2025
Featuring new work from Vincenzo della Malva, Molara Wood, Khalil AbuSharekh, Ian MacClayn, Karen An-hwei Lee, Austin Adams, Eric T. Racher, Mary Burger, Jerry Thompson, Shawna Yang Ryan, Steve Barbar...
0124
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Sinéad Gleeson @sineadgleeson.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Off here for now, but here’s a photo from today’s writing: Virginia Woolf’s bedroom at Monk’s House, from a 2023 visit. The fireplace features a painting by her sister Vanessa Bell of Godrevy Lighthouse in Cornwall, where they visited as children, and said to be an inspiration for To The Lighthouse.
3256
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Everything about this is a tragedy, every level, from cheated freelancers to authors obscured to readers who don’t get served either.
321398328
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Yay! (Although boo for this administration)
010
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I rarely leave Ithaca so I never meet anyone although I did meet Greg Gerke once.
110
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
It was before my time on the council but I have vivid memories of it!
010
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Took the Substack plunge (yes, sorry, I know) and wrote a little thing about Redbud trees.
substack.com
In Praise of the Redbud Tree
I have no name for them, the informal parks that sit in the middle of the residential blocks of my city.
151
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
"Despite the weakness of the light, the path ahead was still visible to everyone. Then Brother Kelpius answered [...] that if he could not find his way among lesser lights, then he would never find his way at all ..." — @unpaginated.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2025/05/15/b...
minorliteratures.com
Back Alley of the Universe: The Men of the Society of Women in the Wilderness — Matthew Spencer
Ancient Capital (1694-1695) Spring had come to the Wissahickon and Brother Kelpius was walking high along its banks when he chanced upon another hermit, an Englishman—their kind becoming common in …
097
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Addison Zeller @addisonzeller.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Still my favorite thing I’ve written, so I guess why the hell not share it again minorliteratures.com/2024/06/20/o...
minorliteratures.com
Old World, New World — Addison Zeller
“…it matters not if you elude my arms, my heart, when my thought alone can imprison you.” — Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (tr. Edith Grossman) I. Teotihuacan An empty grid with stone jaguars. Use…
02711
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
hollowing Virginia Woolf, from ‘Mrs Dalloway’
She put on her hat, and ran through cornfields — where could it have been? —on to some hill, somewhere near the sea, for there were ships, gulls, butterflies; they sat on a cliff. In London, too, there they sat, and, half dreaming, came to her through the bedroom door, rain falling, whisperings, stirrings among dry corn, the caress of the sea, as it seemed to her, hollowing them in its arched shell and murmuring to her laid on shore, strewn she felt, like flying flowers over some tomb.
2344
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Wife is horrified than I’m still eating peeps from Easter.
060
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Isabellettriste @minxmarple.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
"I would say my bottom line has always been language, form, and hallucination." I've been dying to read this interview with Diane Seuss, and it really does not disappoint. I love this bottom line.
0184
Seph Murtagh @sephmurtagh.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
🙏
010
Reposted by Seph Murtagh
Addison Zeller @addisonzeller.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
"how did it get there, he wonders, do the deer travel in the wind like ghosts, like spirits, and he raises his rifle, he steadies it against the metal frame of the stand and he fixes the deer in the crosshairs of his scope" Don't miss this piece by the always excellent @sephmurtagh.bsky.social
1124