Andrew Bertaina
@andrewbertaina.bsky.social
The body is a temporary gathering place (2024 Autofocus) . One Person Away From You (2021 Moon City Press)3x notable at Best American Essays. Work in The Best American Poetry, The ThreePenny Review, Prairie Schooner etc.
“The battle is always between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, is it not? Imagination is not what it’s cracked up to be. Same decided to forget the petty, bourgeois rite of eating food out of one another’s orifices for a while. He decided to just love Elizabeth”
Joy Williams
Joy Williams
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
“The battle is always between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, is it not? Imagination is not what it’s cracked up to be. Same decided to forget the petty, bourgeois rite of eating food out of one another’s orifices for a while. He decided to just love Elizabeth”
Joy Williams
Joy Williams
Last four reads
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle Tr Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori
The Point—What is Violence For?
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat Tr D.P. Costello
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle Tr Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori
The Point—What is Violence For?
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat Tr D.P. Costello
November 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Last four reads
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle Tr Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori
The Point—What is Violence For?
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat Tr D.P. Costello
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle Tr Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori
The Point—What is Violence For?
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat Tr D.P. Costello
Book reading? Not for you!
November 23, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Book reading? Not for you!
Should read more of these
November 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Should read more of these
Morning poetry
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
November 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Morning poetry
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Makes me think of The Tartar Steppe
November 22, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Makes me think of The Tartar Steppe
November 22, 2025 at 2:33 PM
“Because the light is not something you see, exactly. You don’t look at it, or breathe, you feel a pressure but you don’t look. It is like being in the same room as a man you love. Other people are in the room. He may be smoking a cigarette….A radiance is hitting your skin”
Anne Carson
Anne Carson
November 21, 2025 at 6:56 PM
“Because the light is not something you see, exactly. You don’t look at it, or breathe, you feel a pressure but you don’t look. It is like being in the same room as a man you love. Other people are in the room. He may be smoking a cigarette….A radiance is hitting your skin”
Anne Carson
Anne Carson
On photography and violence from The Point
November 21, 2025 at 2:05 PM
On photography and violence from The Point
Read these books this year to impress everyone on the internet, but it didn’t work, and they said I needed to write reviews of them as well if I really wanted to prove myself to them 😭
November 20, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Read these books this year to impress everyone on the internet, but it didn’t work, and they said I needed to write reviews of them as well if I really wanted to prove myself to them 😭
“For who could doubt that we live in a time which resembles theirs? That we are the Romans, heading for disaster. That the meltdown is already well underway? That we’re living in a world that can’t sustain itself for much longer.”
Solvej Balle TR Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
Solvej Balle TR Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
November 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
“For who could doubt that we live in a time which resembles theirs? That we are the Romans, heading for disaster. That the meltdown is already well underway? That we’re living in a world that can’t sustain itself for much longer.”
Solvej Balle TR Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
Solvej Balle TR Sophia Smith & Jennifer Russell
Good kid. Lot of energy for life.
November 20, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Good kid. Lot of energy for life.
Happy to get an acceptance from Tex and Kurt for a collaborative poem about Pee-Wee Herman :).
November 19, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Happy to get an acceptance from Tex and Kurt for a collaborative poem about Pee-Wee Herman :).
Our last 804 lit salon of the year will be held at Solid State Books and will feature: Kevin Kearney, Nick Gardner, Sam Liming, Diana Rojas, Sam Ashworth, and Ned Russin.
November 19, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Our last 804 lit salon of the year will be held at Solid State Books and will feature: Kevin Kearney, Nick Gardner, Sam Liming, Diana Rojas, Sam Ashworth, and Ned Russin.
“My eyes catch the shine on the water…It spreads like a white glimmer on the surface all around me like the fragile skin of loneliness we try and try to shed. My arm reaching up into the air as I breathe, I break through the surface momentarily and then glide back beneath it.”
Kyoko Mori
Kyoko Mori
November 19, 2025 at 1:45 PM
“My eyes catch the shine on the water…It spreads like a white glimmer on the surface all around me like the fragile skin of loneliness we try and try to shed. My arm reaching up into the air as I breathe, I break through the surface momentarily and then glide back beneath it.”
Kyoko Mori
Kyoko Mori
Childish excitement about continuing this book!
Volume III
On the calculation of volume by Solvej Balle
TR Barbara Haveland
Volume III
On the calculation of volume by Solvej Balle
TR Barbara Haveland
November 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Childish excitement about continuing this book!
Volume III
On the calculation of volume by Solvej Balle
TR Barbara Haveland
Volume III
On the calculation of volume by Solvej Balle
TR Barbara Haveland
“I am learning to be passive, to receive each day without reaching for it. And the days wash over me like an ocean. I bathe in blue refractions, in phosphorescent pearl. At night I fall asleep listening to the Mediterranean…when I walk across rooms, I wade through shallows.”
Susan Mitchell
Susan Mitchell
November 18, 2025 at 5:29 PM
“I am learning to be passive, to receive each day without reaching for it. And the days wash over me like an ocean. I bathe in blue refractions, in phosphorescent pearl. At night I fall asleep listening to the Mediterranean…when I walk across rooms, I wade through shallows.”
Susan Mitchell
Susan Mitchell
“Here everything is admissible—philosophy, ethics, divinity, criticism, poetry, humor, fun, mimicry, anecdotes, jokes, ventriloquism—all the breadth and versatility of the most liberal conversation..all are permitted and combined into one speech. “
Emerson on the essay
Emerson on the essay
November 17, 2025 at 5:58 PM
“Here everything is admissible—philosophy, ethics, divinity, criticism, poetry, humor, fun, mimicry, anecdotes, jokes, ventriloquism—all the breadth and versatility of the most liberal conversation..all are permitted and combined into one speech. “
Emerson on the essay
Emerson on the essay
Annual trip to sugarloaf and a brewery with the whole crew
November 16, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Annual trip to sugarloaf and a brewery with the whole crew