Aaron Gwyn
@americangwyn.bsky.social
Novelist & Professor. Author of ALL GOD’S CHILDREN, WYNNE’S WAR, DOG ON THE CROSS, THE CANNIBAL OWL
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Aaron Gwyn
@americangwyn.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Last of the Cowboys
A short story written by Aaron Gwyn exclusively for Panoptica and our upcoming Stories of America series.
www.panoptica.ai
My new short story, “Last of the Cowboys,” just went live at Panoptica. Very proud of this one. If you’re interested, you can read it for free by clicking below:
www.panoptica.ai/a/last-of-th...
www.panoptica.ai/a/last-of-th...
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
A fun, thoughtful piece from Lincoln.
Wrote about the new @mcsweeneys.net, @benjaminpercy.bsky.social's The End Times, and the book as art project countercraft.substack.com/p/books-as-a...
Books as Art Projects
On books you want to hold in your hand or slip in your pocket
countercraft.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 4:51 PM
A fun, thoughtful piece from Lincoln.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
Wrote about the new @mcsweeneys.net, @benjaminpercy.bsky.social's The End Times, and the book as art project countercraft.substack.com/p/books-as-a...
Books as Art Projects
On books you want to hold in your hand or slip in your pocket
countercraft.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Wrote about the new @mcsweeneys.net, @benjaminpercy.bsky.social's The End Times, and the book as art project countercraft.substack.com/p/books-as-a...
Don’t be an American Canto. Be an American CAN.
December 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Don’t be an American Canto. Be an American CAN.
Photos from yesterday at the Cormac McCarthy Archive (the Wittliff allows scholars to take digital pics now).
Last two pages of BLOOD MERIDIAN with Cormac’s final emendations. This is the draft Cormac delivered to Albert Erskine at Random House before galleys were printed:
Last two pages of BLOOD MERIDIAN with Cormac’s final emendations. This is the draft Cormac delivered to Albert Erskine at Random House before galleys were printed:
December 5, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Photos from yesterday at the Cormac McCarthy Archive (the Wittliff allows scholars to take digital pics now).
Last two pages of BLOOD MERIDIAN with Cormac’s final emendations. This is the draft Cormac delivered to Albert Erskine at Random House before galleys were printed:
Last two pages of BLOOD MERIDIAN with Cormac’s final emendations. This is the draft Cormac delivered to Albert Erskine at Random House before galleys were printed:
The worst lie young novelists are told is that writing is therapeutic.
Writing is not therapeutic. Writing is work.
And like all work, it takes its toll on you.
Writing is not therapeutic. Writing is work.
And like all work, it takes its toll on you.
December 4, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The worst lie young novelists are told is that writing is therapeutic.
Writing is not therapeutic. Writing is work.
And like all work, it takes its toll on you.
Writing is not therapeutic. Writing is work.
And like all work, it takes its toll on you.
Over the years, I’ve written for Esquire, NPR, The Spectator, various other publications, but nothing has attracted more attention than my essay about Cormac McCarthy’s Gnostic Conservatism (10,000+ reads).
open.substack.com/pub/bloodmer...
open.substack.com/pub/bloodmer...
Cormac McCarthy's Gnostic Conservatism
The Cosmic Politics of Cormac McCarthy
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Over the years, I’ve written for Esquire, NPR, The Spectator, various other publications, but nothing has attracted more attention than my essay about Cormac McCarthy’s Gnostic Conservatism (10,000+ reads).
open.substack.com/pub/bloodmer...
open.substack.com/pub/bloodmer...
A weird thing about becoming a novelist in my 30s was discovering that my (many) defects of character, qualities which had been real liabilities in life, were actually assets on the page: my obsessiveness, the way conversations would echo in my head, etc, etc.
December 3, 2025 at 12:11 PM
A weird thing about becoming a novelist in my 30s was discovering that my (many) defects of character, qualities which had been real liabilities in life, were actually assets on the page: my obsessiveness, the way conversations would echo in my head, etc, etc.
Today I decided I’d try my hand at making soap. Here are bars from my first batch: beehive-themed.
December 1, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Today I decided I’d try my hand at making soap. Here are bars from my first batch: beehive-themed.
We lost Daniel Woodrell the day after Thanksgiving. He wrote about my people—the backwoodsmen of the Ozark highlands—more truthfully, more thoughtfully than anyone. I thought of his novels as friends.
Rest in peace, Daniel: I’ll do my meager part to ensure your work lives on.
Rest in peace, Daniel: I’ll do my meager part to ensure your work lives on.
December 1, 2025 at 3:05 PM
We lost Daniel Woodrell the day after Thanksgiving. He wrote about my people—the backwoodsmen of the Ozark highlands—more truthfully, more thoughtfully than anyone. I thought of his novels as friends.
Rest in peace, Daniel: I’ll do my meager part to ensure your work lives on.
Rest in peace, Daniel: I’ll do my meager part to ensure your work lives on.
Both beautiful and terrifying, Katya’s sublime essay in yesterday’s New York Times is a piece of writing that needs to be read (at least) twice: once for its insights, once for the pleasure of its precise, lyrical prose. Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
Opinion | Your Phone Isn’t a Drug. It’s a Portal to the Otherworld.
www.nytimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Both beautiful and terrifying, Katya’s sublime essay in yesterday’s New York Times is a piece of writing that needs to be read (at least) twice: once for its insights, once for the pleasure of its precise, lyrical prose. Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
Pictured below: Jacques Derrida and Harold Bloom in the woods of Weehawken, New Jersey, agreeing to terms before their pistol duel.
November 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Pictured below: Jacques Derrida and Harold Bloom in the woods of Weehawken, New Jersey, agreeing to terms before their pistol duel.
“I will count my numberless blessings one by one.
I. My teeth are sound.
I. The roof of my cave is sound.
I. I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen.
I. Yet.”
I. My teeth are sound.
I. The roof of my cave is sound.
I. I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen.
I. Yet.”
November 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM
“I will count my numberless blessings one by one.
I. My teeth are sound.
I. The roof of my cave is sound.
I. I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen.
I. Yet.”
I. My teeth are sound.
I. The roof of my cave is sound.
I. I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen.
I. Yet.”
Something that’s always fascinated me about MOBY-DICK: it’s one of a handful of novels (ULYSSES and GRAVITY’S RAINBOW also spring to mind) that lends its reader the illusion of an education. Part of the reason for that has to do with all the texts Melville’s masterpiece is made of (e.g. the KJV).
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Something that’s always fascinated me about MOBY-DICK: it’s one of a handful of novels (ULYSSES and GRAVITY’S RAINBOW also spring to mind) that lends its reader the illusion of an education. Part of the reason for that has to do with all the texts Melville’s masterpiece is made of (e.g. the KJV).
I only got to enjoy my PhD for about 12 hours. The day after my dissertation defense, I walked into the comp class I was teaching and said, “Well, you can finally call me Dr. Gwyn.”
A kid in the front row nodded and said, “Dr. Gwyn…Medicine Woman.”
A kid in the front row nodded and said, “Dr. Gwyn…Medicine Woman.”
November 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I only got to enjoy my PhD for about 12 hours. The day after my dissertation defense, I walked into the comp class I was teaching and said, “Well, you can finally call me Dr. Gwyn.”
A kid in the front row nodded and said, “Dr. Gwyn…Medicine Woman.”
A kid in the front row nodded and said, “Dr. Gwyn…Medicine Woman.”
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
Our 51 Favorite Books of 2025! Congrats to @erikaswyler.bsky.social @americangwyn.bsky.social @imaniperry.bsky.social @nkolakowski.bsky.social @amiesouzareilly.bsky.social @melissafebos.bsky.social @venessakelley.bsky.social www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/our...
November 24, 2025 at 2:12 PM
You either die an English professor or you live long enough to see yourself teaching in the Human Narratives department.
November 19, 2025 at 11:19 PM
You either die an English professor or you live long enough to see yourself teaching in the Human Narratives department.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
I wrote about the indignity of being ruled over by these people. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 18, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I wrote about the indignity of being ruled over by these people. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Just found my retirement home.
November 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Just found my retirement home.
László Nemes’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Southern Gothic fairytale, OUTER DARK, is set to start filming early next year.
November 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
László Nemes’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Southern Gothic fairytale, OUTER DARK, is set to start filming early next year.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
Whipping Post
open.spotify.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:08 AM
We are poorer as a society for allowing politics to saturate every aspect of our lives: our relationships, our Literature, our idle entertainments. I suppose it might be less regrettable if we’d gotten something in exchanging our souls for the pursuit of power, but we haven’t.
November 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
We are poorer as a society for allowing politics to saturate every aspect of our lives: our relationships, our Literature, our idle entertainments. I suppose it might be less regrettable if we’d gotten something in exchanging our souls for the pursuit of power, but we haven’t.
The conditions fiction writers face today are far less grim than the ones James Joyce faced in 1914 when he began writing ULYSSES. While Europe became a slaughterhouse, Joyce wrote on. Artists are called to create works of lasting beauty, no matter the conditions. NOT doing so is grim.
November 14, 2025 at 12:18 AM
The conditions fiction writers face today are far less grim than the ones James Joyce faced in 1914 when he began writing ULYSSES. While Europe became a slaughterhouse, Joyce wrote on. Artists are called to create works of lasting beauty, no matter the conditions. NOT doing so is grim.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
I'm hearing that The End Times (a short novel told in the form of a newspaper delivered over the course of a year) is printing its first edition today. You've still got a chance to sign yourself or a friend up with @badhandbooks.bsky.social right here : badhandbooks.com/preorders/th...
The End Times by Benjamin Percy with Stephen King (Physical Subscription) — Bad Hand Books
FEATURED IN FANGORIA and FORBES : A YEAR OF EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING FOR ONE LOW PRICE. WE’VE EXPANDED OUR ORIGINAL PRINT RUN, BUT DO NOT WAIT TO BUY. Get ready for an immersive, seria...
badhandbooks.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I'm hearing that The End Times (a short novel told in the form of a newspaper delivered over the course of a year) is printing its first edition today. You've still got a chance to sign yourself or a friend up with @badhandbooks.bsky.social right here : badhandbooks.com/preorders/th...
This week reminded me of Will Rogers’s famous quote: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
November 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM
This week reminded me of Will Rogers’s famous quote: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”