Aaron Burch
LightNews LightNews
banner
aaronburch.bsky.social
Aaron Burch
@aaronburch.bsky.social
3K followers 740 following 4.7K posts
Author: A KIND OF IN-BETWEEN; YEAR OF THE BUFFALO; STEPHEN KING'S THE BODY; BACKSWING

Editor: HAD; Short Story, Long (on Substack)

https://linktr.ee/aaronburch
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
aaronburch.bsky.social
Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · Nov 13
cover! synopsis! preorder! out in feb!!

"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"

autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
ABOUT THE BOOK Inspired to “take a break from life” by the idyllic housesitting situation they were offered for the summer, Aaron and Amber find themselves in Aaron’s hometown of Tacoma, Washington. Amber works her remote job, Aaron tries to write and goes for runs along the waterfront, and they explore their temporary summer city on daily walks and regular excursions. Soon, noticing that the landscape seems to keep shifting around them, Aaron starts drawing a map of it all, attempting to document and make sense of the changes. When Tacoma starts to open up bigger and bigger with possibility and wonder, Tacoma starts to fold in on itself, becoming both more self-referential and more like the spontaneous, fantastical stories Aaron has been writing. A friend rides an orca to come visit. Pirates guard a wormhole in the forest. A secret doorway in the Tacoma Mall tunnels back to Aaron’s childhood bedroom. Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, Tacoma presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aaron Burch grew up in Tacoma, Washington.
aaronburch.bsky.social
I've got a box of advance copies of TACOMA. Would love to give a couple away. Maybe let's do this...

Tell me/rave about a fave piece on @havehashad.com.

I'll RT them from HAD and randomly select 2 or 3 tomorrow morning to send a copy to.
January 18, 2026 at 6:04 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
almost everything everywhere at all times seems awful, but gf made a chocolate dipping sauce for churros for new years and i've been using the leftovers in my coffee as a kind of at-home mocha and, paired with reading a short story every morning, it makes for a pretty wonderful start to the day
January 18, 2026 at 2:17 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I'm like your favorite writer's favorite writer's writer they've heard of.
January 17, 2026 at 6:11 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Evenson is easily up there among my fave writers, and he's one of the best people I've ever met, but I also think often about his career. His first book was a Big 5, and then next... 𝘧𝘦𝘸 were indie and university presses , and then he found a consistent home at a great small indie press.
aaronburch.bsky.social Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 1d
this book has been on my shelf forever (so long, in fact, it is signed to my ex, from when he came to town for her reading series when I was away in grad school; I guess I took it when I moved out? oops) but I've never dug in. grabbed it and read the title story for my daily morning read.
The Din of Celestial Birds, stories by Brian Evenson the first page of Brian Evenson's short story, "The Din of Celestial Birds": When he returned, stumbling down the mountain and out of the jungle, he could not remember anything beyond having entered the stone shelter and having seen, in the far corner of the dirt floor, a woven cage, partly covered in a feathered cloak. Even from the door, it did not seem that the shelter had been entered or the cage touched in months. He approached and brushed the feathers with his hand, brought his palm away covered with dust, and was surprised to hear a dull rattling from within or perhaps behind the cage. He remembered tugging off the heavy cover, feathers working loose in his hands, and then remembered nothing further until he was stumbling down the mountain, his body cut and bruised, his clothing torn and rotting away, his hair littered with leaves and feathers. Four mouths had passed. The villagers were surprised to see him. When he had first disappeared they assumed he had fled to join the rebels, which rumor said were massing on the southern portion of the island. Nonetheless, two days after his disappearance and at his wife's insistence, the villagers had agreed to search in the area he had last been seen, and accordingly a team of men had climbed the mountain, traversing the narrow switchbacks until they came, as he himself had come, to the old stone shelter constructed into the side of the cliff. They had looked into it with a torch, but found it empty, the dirt floor undisturbed and thick with dust. "And the cage?" he asked, when they told him of it after his return. "Cage?" said the leader of the search party. "There was no cage." "In the corner?" he asked. "Covered in a feathered cape?" The man shook his head. "Nothing had been in the place for years." Yet he was certain he had entered it. There were, he learned from the Indians living in the shanty at the edge of the village, certain rumors about the shelter. Some said it had belonged to a cilanuk driven out of the …
January 17, 2026 at 5:38 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
am so writerbrainpilled that I got a temporary crown yesterday that — pretty immediately upon getting home, which happened to be pretty shortly after the dentist closed for the weekend — fell out, and it has sucked but mostly I've been thinking about how to include it in a story
January 17, 2026 at 4:12 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
"I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye"... 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 making sure to credit the photographer. king shit, all the way down.
john-abernathy.bsky.social John Abernathy @john-abernathy.bsky.social · 1d
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
January 17, 2026 at 3:53 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
this book has been on my shelf forever (so long, in fact, it is signed to my ex, from when he came to town for her reading series when I was away in grad school; I guess I took it when I moved out? oops) but I've never dug in. grabbed it and read the title story for my daily morning read.
The Din of Celestial Birds, stories by Brian Evenson the first page of Brian Evenson's short story, "The Din of Celestial Birds": When he returned, stumbling down the mountain and out of the jungle, he could not remember anything beyond having entered the stone shelter and having seen, in the far corner of the dirt floor, a woven cage, partly covered in a feathered cloak. Even from the door, it did not seem that the shelter had been entered or the cage touched in months. He approached and brushed the feathers with his hand, brought his palm away covered with dust, and was surprised to hear a dull rattling from within or perhaps behind the cage. He remembered tugging off the heavy cover, feathers working loose in his hands, and then remembered nothing further until he was stumbling down the mountain, his body cut and bruised, his clothing torn and rotting away, his hair littered with leaves and feathers. Four mouths had passed. The villagers were surprised to see him. When he had first disappeared they assumed he had fled to join the rebels, which rumor said were massing on the southern portion of the island. Nonetheless, two days after his disappearance and at his wife's insistence, the villagers had agreed to search in the area he had last been seen, and accordingly a team of men had climbed the mountain, traversing the narrow switchbacks until they came, as he himself had come, to the old stone shelter constructed into the side of the cliff. They had looked into it with a torch, but found it empty, the dirt floor undisturbed and thick with dust. "And the cage?" he asked, when they told him of it after his return. "Cage?" said the leader of the search party. "There was no cage." "In the corner?" he asked. "Covered in a feathered cape?" The man shook his head. "Nothing had been in the place for years." Yet he was certain he had entered it. There were, he learned from the Indians living in the shanty at the edge of the village, certain rumors about the shelter. Some said it had belonged to a cilanuk driven out of the …
January 17, 2026 at 3:49 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
finally having a quiet moment to dig into @bulbregion.bsky.social... and there's two new stories!

started with this @femmeintheory.bsky.social stunner. so good!

"If we don’t have a name for it, we can’t be punished, right?

Can you be punished for breaking a rule you didn’t know?"
Booby Traps, by Ryan-Ashley Anderson — The Bulb Region
Booby Traps — Ryan-Ashley Anderson THE FIRST TIME I KISS A GIRL, I’m nine years...
bulbregion.com
January 17, 2026 at 2:32 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
everyone piling on this about how far they've driven to see a movie, and: fair. but also, even more, to me, it reeks of a rich dude living in a big city having no idea that most people not in the biggest cities drive "to the next town" all the time, for everything, with no thought.
January 17, 2026 at 12:39 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
2026 daily short story cont'd...

1/13: "Crazy Menu" by Iphgenia Baal (finished the book)
1/14: "The Flautist" Katherine Dunn
1/15: no story
1/16: "Airwaves" by Bobbie Ann Mason

also finished PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico this week
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Man Hating Psycho, stories by Iphgenia Baal Near Flesh, stories by Katherine Dunn Love Life, stories by Bobbie Ann Mason
January 16, 2026 at 9:02 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
a relatively common sentiment across mfa application cover letters is expressing a desire/goal to become a "full time writer," and I'm just like, well, uhhhh.....
January 16, 2026 at 5:47 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
simultaneously cackling in hilarity and wincing with total disgust
dweinz.bsky.social David Weiner @dweinz.bsky.social · 2d
this alone is disqualifying and not even the worst thing he did these last episodes
January 16, 2026 at 5:07 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
new bummer of a bechdel test just dropped
djolder.bsky.social Daniel José Older @djolder.bsky.social · 3d
I read an interview today where Alison Bechdel talked about using chatGPT for a panel of her recent comic -- she prompted it and copied the results -- and I still don't know what to do with that. It genuinely feels in moments like this like so many of our art elders are failing us.
rj-palmer.com RJ Palmer @rj-palmer.com · 3d
Catching up with what James Gurney, the Dinotopia artist, is up to these days. Pathetic.
January 16, 2026 at 3:13 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
gonna do a "that was awesome" short story club hangout for this story ("Old Joy" by Jon Raymond)

three weeks from today. thursday, feb. 5 8pm

basically, a bunch of us read the story, hop on zoom, chat about it and hang out

will send out an email tomorrow. if interested, lemme know.
aaronburch.bsky.social Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · Nov 16
“What is sorrow but old, worn-out joy?”

—Jon Raymond, “Old Joy”
January 16, 2026 at 1:14 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
A+ cover letter
Cover Letter Hey Aaron! Quick note to say 'thanks' for passing on a list of comic novels last year. Had never read True Grit or The Sellout - and loved both.
January 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I read the story "First Blood" by Kyle Siebel. I thought it was disorganized, haphazardly written, with a conclusion that made no sense and out of left field, and, I loved it! I really do not know how to describe the piece. It is about.... how characters in a story fully exist in the story presented and only there. If you take the character out of the specific story, they cease to exist. Yes, you can plunk the character into another story, Jackie as a stripper, but Jackie, as we knew her in "First Blood" is gone. You cannot get her back. There is some sort of weird, existential -dilemma- that happens in "First Blood". And, the dilemma represents life, in reality. I think we have many versions of ourselves over a lifetime. We shed one version of us, and inhabit a new one, time and time again. To think like this after reading a short story in a mag is unique. I enjoy a publication that makes me think differently. with first sentence, "I read the story "First Blood" by Kyle Siebel. I thought it was disorganized, haphazardly written, with a conclusion that made no sense and out of left field, and, I loved it!" highlighted "They had us in the first half, not gonna lie" football player meme
January 15, 2026 at 10:01 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
New interview on @vol1brooklyn.bsky.social.

"Burch has managed to craft a deeply personal, open and honest story that deals with change, beauty and wonder, but also has wormholes, hidden doors, pirates, and a literal nostalgia trip through a shopping mall."

www.vol1brooklyn.com/2026/01/15/a...
Aaron Burch On the Making of “Tacoma”
Much of Aaron Burch’s writing explores the myriad ways our past affects our present. Now, over two decades after founding the indie lit journal Hobart, and after publishing a novel, a novella, an e…
www.vol1brooklyn.com
January 15, 2026 at 5:07 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I love publishing fun weirdo bonkers shit on HAD... but also sometimes we get to publish the just best, most heartfelt stuff out there, and I super love that, too.
havehashad.com HAD @havehashad.com · 3d
today's Kaitlan Bui poem is one of my fave things i've read in a while. so honored to get to share it.

"when he was my age, my grandfather would comb the scalp
of the forest for shells, then write letters to the families
of dead bodies he found."

https://www.havehashad.com/3vdnr
shells by Kaitlan Bui
when he was my age, my grandfather would comb the scalp of the forest for shells, then write letters to the families of dead bodies he found. dog tags, they were called, because war makes humans…
www.havehashad.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:50 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
!!!!!
hand holding paperback copy of TACOMA by Aaron Burch, from Autofocus Books
January 15, 2026 at 1:35 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
what a stupid journal with such a stupid system lol
screenshot of Submittable email showing "Project has reached its submission cap" at 12:00 PM (submission call opened to 150 submissions at 12:00 PM)
January 14, 2026 at 6:02 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
“It takes a long time to sound like yourself. But when you get there, it's like flying. It's the best.”
— @keersteemack.bsky.social on @lofipod.bsky.social

From Lo Fi Lit: Kirstie Mackenzie, Dec 30, 2025
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
January 14, 2026 at 4:09 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I'm kinda sure it'll probably happen at some point by accident (?) but I hope to die without ever having looked at ChatGPT.
angeloslh.bsky.social Sarah Ford 🐍🎨🖥️ Time Zone Era @angeloslh.bsky.social · 5d
RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open 'just to do quick research'
January 14, 2026 at 2:16 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
If you missed it yesterday, I've got this new story, on the beautiful new journal, @bulbregion.bsky.social.

It's real short. But with big heart! Thanks.

bulbregion.com/Big-Things-S...
Big Things Small Town, by Aaron Burch — The Bulb Region
Big Things Small Town — Aaron Burch THERE’S A TOWN —Casey, Illinois—in the...
bulbregion.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
emilyrinkema.bsky.social
I love the image of the family standing in the world's largest mailbox. Great story @aaronburch.bsky.social.
bulbregion.bsky.social The Bulb Region @bulbregion.bsky.social · 5d
Aaron’s (@aaronburch.bsky.social) short prose piece, “Big Things Small Town," is a knockout of an opener! And it accomplishes lots of remarkable things in such a modest space. Don’t miss the big-small world of Casey, Illinois—home of the World’s Largest everything:

bulbregion.com/Big-Things-S...
Big Things Small Town, by Aaron Burch — The Bulb Region
Big Things Small Town — Aaron Burch THERE’S A TOWN —Casey, Illinois—in the...
bulbregion.com
January 13, 2026 at 11:01 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
every time I see anything about Calvin & Hobbes or Watterson on my timeline, it makes me excited and proud anew to have a tattoo from a strip
crobertcargill.bsky.social C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 5d
Just a reminder that you've never seen a Calvin & Hobbes animated movie or cartoon is because Bill Watterson didn't want to give Hobbes a voice so he could always live inside your head exactly the way you imagined him. And to this day you have no idea who he ever has voted for. But you can guess.
Calvin & Hobbes, sitting on a rock, Hobbes (a stuffed tiger) reading a treasure map and Calvin in a pith helmet holding a flag.
January 13, 2026 at 10:43 PM