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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett
@mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
1.3K followers 390 following 400 posts
Goat herder. Happy poet. Rhymes w/ gazette. Five books, including The ECHO CHAMBER (Milkweed) & CLOUDWATCHER (Copper Canyon) Translator of The Popol Vuh & Humberto Ak'abal NY Times Best Poetry 2018 NEA Fellow in Poetry & Translation michaelbazzett.com
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · May 1
Cover reveal!

I'm beyond excited to share that CLOUDWATCHER, winner of the inaugrual Stern Prize from @ampoetryreview.bsky.social & forthcoming from Copper Canyon, has a cover and is now available to pre-order (link in the replies)! 🌩️ 🌩️ 🌩️
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
junoryleejournalism.com
Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
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mark-bray.bsky.social
Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 1d
“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’
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jacobsoboroff.bsky.social
Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d
just talked to Gov. Pritzker who dared President Trump to “come and get me” after POTUS threatened him with arrest. But Pritzker said he thinks Trump will chicken out.
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 1d
Wow. Readings from two of the best books in recent memory, back-to-back tomorrow night... Lucky Houston!
waynemillerpoet.bsky.social
Wayne Miller @waynemillerpoet.bsky.social · 1d
Can't wait to read tomorrow (Thursday) with @emilybloodwolf.bsky.social at Basket Books in Houston! We start at 7:30. Come say hi!
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
waynemillerpoet.bsky.social
Wayne Miller @waynemillerpoet.bsky.social · 1d
Can't wait to read tomorrow (Thursday) with @emilybloodwolf.bsky.social at Basket Books in Houston! We start at 7:30. Come say hi!
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
clarajeffery.bsky.social
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 2d
Need help understanding—or explaining—how Trump is destroying the US soybean market through tariffs and they using tariff funds to helping to bailout the MAGAlike Argentine president who's selling to China instead of US? Here you go: youtube.com/shorts/8Gm60...
A 90-Second crash course in Trump’s betrayal of American soy farmers
YouTube video by Mother Jones
youtube.com
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
clarajeffery.bsky.social
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 2d
Trump would not be treating half the country (well, more than half, but half of all voters) this way were it not for the Electoral College.

It's an artifact of slavery and it has got to go.
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
irishali13.bsky.social
Alison Birch @irishali13.bsky.social · 6d
This poem is stunning. If you haven't read Dressing The Bear, it's a must-read.
Clean
~ Susan L. Leary
-I often worried when I got the call, I'd be unprepared. But the morning my brother dies ——💙
Clean By: Susan L. Leary I often worried when I got the call, I'd be unprepared. But the morning my brother dies, all the good clothes in the house are clean. So I tell myself to get on with it. x later, standing over my brother, I think whoever prepared his body must love what they do. Because he looks so clean. Cleaner, even, than when he'd doze on the couch midafternoons to Hank Williams or Johnny Cash. The fatigue of living wiped from his cheeks. & today, as then, the same stillness stretched across his eyes. The same tiny shovels for thumbs. & when I find the strength to rest a hand atop his, I shake him a little to tell him I wore his favorite dress: summery & sand-colored with splotches of blue. & while it seems so symbolic, it's all rather simple. I wear a blue-patterned dress because my brother loved the ocean. & because my brother was lonely & broken, he couldn't kick drugs. But I love my brother & the morning he dies, all the good clothes in the house are clean. So I tell him: Clean.
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
clarajeffery.bsky.social
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 6d
This by @katmabu.bsky.social is the best speech I've heard yet by any politician about what ICE/Trump/Noem is doing and it's not close.
bencollins.bsky.social
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 6d
I am just so fucking proud of her.
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 9d
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
seanthomasd.bsky.social
Sean Thomas Dougherty @seanthomasd.bsky.social · 12d
Bravo to Michael! Bazzett for winning the Stern Prize!

aprweb.org/news/2025/03...
American Poetry Review – News
aprweb.org
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
ryanvine.bsky.social
Ryan Vine @ryanvine.bsky.social · 11d
The Cave launches in two weeks! It would be lovely to see you.

"what miracle is possible with finite time"—Mahogany Browne
"beautiful writing"—Ilya Kaminski
"crafty and beautifully crafted"—Mike Bazzett
"compact, driven, urgent"—Bart Sutter

www.facebook.com/events/14069...
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
jestabrick.bsky.social
Poetry in Ink @jestabrick.bsky.social · 20d
"Howl", Humberto Ak'abal
Translated from Spanish by Michael Bazzett
Wearingeul - Dracula
Leuchtturm a5 standard
@just-turnings.bsky.social red w/ blue abalone

#poetry #humbertoakabal #kichemaya #guatemalanliterature #fountainpensandink #fountainpensaustralia #30inks30days
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
katebbeall.bsky.social
Kate Beall @katebbeall.bsky.social · 20d
Humberto Ak’abal (tr. @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social) // Emily Dickinson
ESTALLÓ Estalló tu silencio y despertaste al loco que dormía en mi cabeza. Empecé a buscarte por esos caminos apagados. Me dicen que te volviste flor, me dicen que te volviste miel. Por tu culpa siento que soy abeja. RUPTURE Your silence exploded and awakened the madman sleeping in my brain. I started looking for you down every dead-end road. They tell me you turned into flowers, they tell me you turned into honey. It's your fault I think I'm a bee. (Humberto Ak’abal, from IF TODAY WERE TOMORROW, tr. Michael Bazzett) 808 The lovely flowers embarrass me, They make me regret I am not a Bee - (Emily Dickinson, Franklin edition) 620 Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye - Much Sense - the starkest Madness - Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane - Demur - you're straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain - (Emily Dickinson, Franklin edition)
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 20d
He read broadly and deeply, and famously so, so I've no doubt he's conversed with her in one way or another, as your sleuthing seems to suggest...
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 20d
I love that scene in the movie where Emily Dickinson comes waltzing into the saloon, slaps some money on the bar, takes a long pull of rye then turns to the card table and shrieks, Tell it Slant –– Motherfuckers, then cackles like a hyena and waltzes back out...
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 20d
Love this! 💜
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 21d
Or, might I offer:

Accept no order other than that of affinity, no timeline other than that of the heart, no schedule other than that of untimely true encounters.
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 23d
G has a snippet of southern Portugal and Spain, a slice of Morocco, and all the goodness of G-ville...
Reposted by Michael Bazzett
alexanderchee.bsky.social
Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 24d
Edward P. Jones is the new guest editor for the O. Henry Prize this year and his salty introduction does not disappoint.
A paperback book on a white table, cover is blue-green leaves on an orange background. Text reads: The Best Short Stories 2025 Edited by Edward P. Jones THE O. HENRY PRIZE WINNERS "Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction." —The Atlantic Monthly Introduction There were small reasons, there were large reasons that I was reluctant to be the guest editor for The Best Short Stories 2025: The O. Henry Prize Winners. I had not been keeping up with the world of published short stories and felt incapable of judging what was now being created and shared in the magazines not only in the United States but in other countries as well. Now and again, I had come across work that I did not care for, that I thought might be representative of what was currently popular-extremely short pieces, in some cases, works catering to societies of folks too busy to take in substantive structures, works that were just Snapchats, works that were, as William Faulkner said, "not of the heart but of the glands." There was, for example, a "story" about a woman sitting in a Starbucks-like shop watching people come and go as they bought sweetened swill-line after line of bland descriptions of people buying. Then, as if the writer had grown tired, the piece ended after two pages. That was it. And I feared "stories" like the one read by an author who once participated with me at a festival. To explain what he had written and to help the audience see the grandness of his work, this guy relied on a giant screen on which various images were projected. I… The Best Short Srories 2025: The O. Henry Prize Winners contains.. twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest edicor Edward P. Jones has curated a dazzling assemblage of stories by an array of talented writers. The stories are accompanied by an introduction by Jones, fascinating observations from the winning writers on what inspired their work, and an extensive and useful directory of magazines and literary websites that publish short fiction. Wendell Berry • Gina Chung • Addie Citchens Michael Deagler • Lindsey Drager • Clyde Edgerton Dave Eggers • Madeline fitch • Indya Finch • Alice Hoffman Jane Kalu • Thomas Korsgaard (translator, Martin Aitken) Ling Ma • Anthony Marra • Lori Ostlund • Ehsaneh Sadr Daniel Saldaña París (translator, Christina MacSweeney) Zak Salih • Yah Yah Scholfield • Chika Unigwe EDWARD P. JONES is the author of the story collections All Aunt Hagar's Children and Lost in the City, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Lannan Literary Award. His novel, The Known World, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. He has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and a PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of the short story. JENNY MINTON QUIGLEY, series editor, is the author of a mem-oir, The Early Birds, and editor of the anthology Lolita in the Afterlife.
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 24d
😂
Reposted by Michael Bazzett
saraelizaj.bsky.social
Sara Eliza Johnson @saraelizaj.bsky.social · 24d
yeah
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Reposted by Michael Bazzett
chenchenwrites.bsky.social
Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 26d
love caring about commas in the, uh, current landscape
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 27d
So good... And how about that fish poem? I love that suite of work!
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mikhailbazharov.bsky.social
Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social · 28d
"He who shits on the road
meets flies on his way back."

– West African proverb
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