iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 22h

Is there any one-line text more unsettling than “I read your book this morning”

Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

ICYMI This CNF only took 34 years to come together. Thanks to @the-big-quiet.bsky.social for the workshop nudge. flight-literary.ghost.io/lisa-thornto...

A beer bottle balanced on a rock with a label that reads Hello, My Name is "I Learned to Count at Seventeen" by Lisa Thornton.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Absolute starter pack, syllabus, meat for the week issue 🔥

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Got an email from the South Regional library in Lafayette, LA saying my card will expire in 6 mo. We moved away 9 yrs ago but that is where I did my taxes, checked my email, rented books & DVDs for my baby when we had very little $$. I feel sad letting it expire. Thank you South Regional library 🙏💛

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Have always walked past other people’s mums in awe. This year I got my own.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

If you are like me, the last paragraph of this story will take your breath away.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I tossed a pic of one of my drawings into an email to @sandandgravelpress.bsky.social on a whim. Do you have more? they asked. Never dreamed I would illustrate my own book.

An ink drawing of some buildings in my town on page 44 of “We’ll Be Birds” out now with Sand and Gravel Press.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The season of finding the items you left in your coat pockets last winter has begun

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Deborah @deborahzafer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Good morning! Do you need a poem today? Like this post and I will post a poem just for you and DM you to tell you why. Might be random. Might be because it makes me think of you. Might be because it is how I imagine you based on your profile. Let us see....

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JMWW Journal @jmwwjournal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

JMWW Best Small Fictions Nominations Congrats and good luck to our nominees! Click on the links to re-read their stories.

jmwwblog.wordpress.com

JMWW Best Small Fictions Nominations

Congrats and good luck to our nominees! Click on the links to re-read their stories.

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Claudia Monpere @claudiamonpere.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Three is how many days my grandfather spoke words that made no sense from his hospital bed, zero is how many of us understood his babbling. Two is the number of doctors who told us he was gone." Deeply moving CNF @thorntonforreal.bsky.social Briliant playing with numbers.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I started getting River Teeth's Beautiful Things in my inbox. This one 💚 riverteethjournal.com/beautiful-th...

riverteethjournal.com

Watering Can | River Teeth

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Electric Literature @electricliterature.com · 28/09/2026

🚨SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN🚨 All submissions will be accepted through our Submittable page. The portal will close at 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Sunday October 11 or when we reach our cap of 500. buff.ly/Wugh39V

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Steam rising from highway side ponds. I watched a flock of starlings this morning flying quick above the fog like it didn’t matter what was below.

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Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Planning on opening up Short Story, Long submissions mid-October. (Probably the 15th? But maybe a skosh earlier. And then they'll stay open thru the end of the year.) If you’ve got a killer 3k–8k word story, get ‘er ready! (I'll also be in need of a couple submission readers; hmu if interested!)

ashortstorylong.substack.com

Short Story, Long | Aaron Burch | Substack

Longer short stories, published biweekly. Click to read Short Story, Long, by Aaron Burch, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Thrilled to be included in @flightlit.bsky.social! Thanks to Frances and Will for their careful editing. Check out the whole 1st birthday issue here ⬇️ 🍻

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Corn down. Now we look at the skies until next year.

A freshly harvested cornfield under a blue sky with dramatic white puffs of cloud

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oktoberfest on Main St and the trucks lined up at the silo are brimming with corn. We pounded a nail into a log to see who could sink it first and then watched some guys competing for the title of The Man Who Can Hold a Full Beer Stein with an Extended Arm for the Longest. Had a twist cone.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This was so much fun. Thanks to the readers and everyone who attended including my deceased patient who I am 100% sure visited us thru the smoke alarm

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Embarrassingly large picture of my face. But it’s true! This is TONIGHT 🤓 🎤 📚

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Evan Williams @pahoehoe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is tomorrow! Join us to celebrate @thorntonforreal.bsky.social Lisa Thornton’s new chapbook of flash fiction. You’ve enjoyed her stories here on BlueSky, so you’ll be right at home.

A poster to promote Lisa Thornton’s book release over Zoom

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“When each tiny bud is smaller than a fingernail, the whole orchard sheds it petals and snows for a week. Blossom snow, catching in my hair and on my clothes, after school, fragrant as I imagine love will be. Transformative.” Gorgeous story today by K.T. Downs @jmwwjournal.bsky.social

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The weirdest day of the year is the birthday of the friend you don’t talk to anymore

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Literary Namjooning | Submissions Open! @lit-namjooning.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Good news, everyone! (yes, it's a Futurama reference). We're celebrating our Issue 3 authors with a LAUNCH PARTY!! Do come, hear them read their work, chat with Lit Nam Eds, and have a generally good literary time! Friday, Oct 2, 9:00 PM EST. Registration link : us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Why? some people have asked. Why did you write a book? I don't know the answer yet but I will try to by 8pm NYC time, Thurs, Sept 24 when you can hear excerpts from "We'll Be Birds" and readings by the six incredible authors listed below ⬇️ Join us? www.sandandgravelpress.com/lisa-thornto...

A graphic for Lisa Thornton's chapbook release 9/24 at 8pm NYC time with a drawing of a silo and another of a hand and listing the readers: Sumitra Singam, Nora Maynard, Will Musgrove, Evan Williams, Claudia Wair, and Amy Cipolla Barnes.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Multitasking sometimes means sipping coffee, typing, and doing laundry. Sometimes it means talking to Poison Control on the phone abt the toxicity of roach control tablets while keeping a student from jumping off your cot and hitting their head on the ceiling.

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Jack Morris @jackmmorris.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@neitherfishnorfoul.com is still open. I’d love to see protagonists with some fire in their bellies & characters who do not go gentle into that good night. Folks who don’t accept their fates. I’d also really love to see some stories where men aren’t stereotypes too. 1/2

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In hospice they said more people die in the winter. They talked abt shorter days. But also are we not just like the corn and the tomato plant? I like to think of us that way.

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Will my family ever talk to me again? Results pending. But my truth’s all in these seven small fictions.

Eight copies of my new chapbook “We’ll Be Birds” out now with Sand and Gravel Press splayed out on a wood floor in soft morning light that does not capture my very real concern that my mother, father, and sister may not like what I’ve written in some of these stories but I’m too old to hide anymore

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I did in fact dress like Watts from Some Kind of Wonderful to drive my kid & his date to homecoming, so I guess now I head to the alley to play craps w the guys until I’m needed again

Watts with her chauffeur hat on squatting with a smoke and a pile of a cash

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Standing in the mud room watching the soybeans turn pink. Rumble of thunder. Coffee will not take my worries away but it will push them a bit further.

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shome dasgupta @shomedasgupta.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Say—here are about 78 literary journals opening for submissions in October. Some are open now or will close soon in September or October. Genres, themes, & guidelines vary—dates are tentative. These should be no-fee. There are more resources out there, too. Wish y’all well, friends.

Paris Review
Electric Literature
Quarterly West
Writers Space Africa
Reading Into Culture
Hoot Review
Petrichor
Encyclopedia Prismatica
128 Lit
Diamond Gazette
Brick
WayWords
The Gilded Weathervane
Shadowplay
Fiction
Amsterdam Review
Poet Lore
Room
Oakwood
Southern Quill
45th Paralelle
Apotheca Journal
MicroLit
Weird Lit
Gravity Of The Thing
Nimrod
Superpresent
Ink In Thirds
Beloit Poetry
Unbound Ink
New World Writing
Folio
Plume
The Shore
Banshee
Tractor Beam
SmokeLong Quarterly
Rome Review
Patrika Aranyak
Gyroscope Review
Letters
Forge
Two Hawks Quarterly
Seaside Gothic
The Rumpus
Westchester Review
Thieving Magpie
Kitchen Table Quarterly
Salamander
New Feathers Anthology
Shift
Portland Review
Barcelona Review
The Razor
Clockhouse
Tahoma Literary Review
Clackamas Literary
Gooseberry Pie
The Drift
Wigleaf
Craft
Pithead Chapel
Doric Literary
Reed Magazine
Harpur Palate
Trace Fossils Review
Ninth Letter
Black Fox
Redivider
The Meadow
Puerto Del Sol
Lolwe
Split Lip
Beaver Magazine
Lunch Ticket
Saw Palm
Bat City Review
Crab Creek Review

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Do not bother me I am in my litte boat. This is my little boat do not bother me.

A ladybug minding her own business in a green leaf shaped like a little boat with some yellow flowers beside

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Pull a cloud blanket up to your chin it’s an overcast day. We can pause here. Even the trees have permission to be sad.

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Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos @delgeo14.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Issue 10 / Submission Call 1st of January 2027 Prose & Poetry / Art & Hybrids Guidelines: rawlit.weebly.com/submissions....

Issue 10 / Submission call
1st of January 2027
Prose & Poetry / Art & Hybrids

Optional theme:
Struggle

Optional prompt:
"Man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself."
― Jean-Paul Sartre

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Stan J Wild @stanjwild.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Terrific readers on show for Lisa Thornton's (@thorntonforreal.bsky.social) book launch next week with @sandandgravelpress.bsky.social @pleomorphic2.bsky.social, @willmusgrove.bsky.social, @amygcb.bsky.social and more Congratulations Lisa. Looking forward to seeing it in print

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Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

One week from today! Join me and six amazing readers who’ve supported and inspired me in the years it took to write the seven stories in this book! Thursday, Sept 24, 8pm NYC time 🐦‍⬛ www.sandandgravelpress.com/lisa-thornto...

sandandgravelpress.com

Lisa Thornton Chapbook Release — SAND AND GRAVEL PRESS

Sand and Gravel is a small but mighty press dedicated to the miniature. We publish pocket-sized collections of flash fiction, standalone stories, and poetry.

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