B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
Ben. Literature scholar & writer; Ass. Prof. of English at Marquette University. He/him. Debut DRY LAND out now from UWP: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/D/Dry-Land
website: bpladek.net
website: bpladek.net
Pinned
B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
· Dec 2
New story from me @lightspeedmagazine.com, maybe the bleakest I've ever written. It's about:
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness - Lightspeed Magazine
USER: this is a message for Milwaukee Elementary’s curator Jude Towers, I hope this is the right address. anyway thanks for the story you had RIGHTR generate for my 10th graders’ Empathy Week. it was ...
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
guess it is December so here is my single award-eligible thing this year. fuck AI slop, the baby food of fascism
Reposted by B. Pladek
There's still time to kill these bills, Wisconsin:
NEW from @millbot.bsky.social at The Recombobulation Area: Bills being proposed in the Wisconsin State Legislature would have far-reaching implications on free speech that should "chill us to the bone."
Let's recombobulate:
www.therecombobulationarea.news/p/attacks-on...
Let's recombobulate:
www.therecombobulationarea.news/p/attacks-on...
Attacks on free speech are escalating in Wisconsin
Bills being proposed in the Wisconsin State Legislature would have far-reaching impact on the right to free speech in the state.
www.therecombobulationarea.news
February 13, 2026 at 12:34 AM
There's still time to kill these bills, Wisconsin:
personal disappointments are the annoying papercuts of the psyche -- the world is bleeding from the neck and so many people are facing unendurable suffering, yet you can't stop thinking about how your stupid little finger stings.
February 12, 2026 at 5:27 PM
personal disappointments are the annoying papercuts of the psyche -- the world is bleeding from the neck and so many people are facing unendurable suffering, yet you can't stop thinking about how your stupid little finger stings.
new Patricia Smith collection finally came in at the library & I’d never read her Olive Oyl sequence before—delightful & miraculous. Smith’s been GOAT for ages now, so it‘s not news to anyone that she can do whatever she pleases in a poem, but just listen to this: voca.arizona.edu/track/id/56239
"Olive Oyl Talks to People Magazine" | Patricia Smith - November 10, 2004
Differs slightly from published version.
voca.arizona.edu
February 9, 2026 at 1:05 PM
new Patricia Smith collection finally came in at the library & I’d never read her Olive Oyl sequence before—delightful & miraculous. Smith’s been GOAT for ages now, so it‘s not news to anyone that she can do whatever she pleases in a poem, but just listen to this: voca.arizona.edu/track/id/56239
Reposted by B. Pladek
"Medusa's Ship, or the Thing About Bodies" is out now! Formally Experimental Greeks in Space, anyone? www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/medu...
@bcsmagazine.bsky.social also did an incredible job podcasting the story. Listen, I am in awe: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/bcs-35...
@bcsmagazine.bsky.social also did an incredible job podcasting the story. Listen, I am in awe: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/bcs-35...
Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Medusa’s Ship, or The Thing About Bodies by Natalia Theodoridou
—she the ship recalls stories she never read of women and men in rivers weighed down their pockets full of stones she wonders at her cavities and hollows wonders am I an I am I my cargo does the I I a...
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com
February 6, 2026 at 7:08 PM
"Medusa's Ship, or the Thing About Bodies" is out now! Formally Experimental Greeks in Space, anyone? www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/medu...
@bcsmagazine.bsky.social also did an incredible job podcasting the story. Listen, I am in awe: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/bcs-35...
@bcsmagazine.bsky.social also did an incredible job podcasting the story. Listen, I am in awe: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/bcs-35...
Reposted by B. Pladek
having written upwards of 90k, fiction & nonfiction, about-or-thinly-veiled-about my favorite Modernist antifascist wife-guy Bryher (pictured), there's now the possibility I might get to publish a bit of it in essay form this/next year. fingers crossed it happens, & grateful for the chance.
February 3, 2026 at 5:32 PM
having written upwards of 90k, fiction & nonfiction, about-or-thinly-veiled-about my favorite Modernist antifascist wife-guy Bryher (pictured), there's now the possibility I might get to publish a bit of it in essay form this/next year. fingers crossed it happens, & grateful for the chance.
having written upwards of 90k, fiction & nonfiction, about-or-thinly-veiled-about my favorite Modernist antifascist wife-guy Bryher (pictured), there's now the possibility I might get to publish a bit of it in essay form this/next year. fingers crossed it happens, & grateful for the chance.
February 3, 2026 at 5:32 PM
having written upwards of 90k, fiction & nonfiction, about-or-thinly-veiled-about my favorite Modernist antifascist wife-guy Bryher (pictured), there's now the possibility I might get to publish a bit of it in essay form this/next year. fingers crossed it happens, & grateful for the chance.
Reposted by B. Pladek
I thought this was one of the scariest and most relevant stories I edited all 2025, so if you didn't read it then, be sure to read it now!
oh hey my "fuck-AI-in-the-literature-classroom" story from @lightspeedmagazine.com back in January made the Locus Recommended Reading list! rad, and also fuck AI in the literature classroom!
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
2025 Recommended Reading List
Welcome to the Locus Recommended Reading List… We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them! Our recommendations are compiled annually by the Locus re…
locusmag.com
February 2, 2026 at 5:40 PM
I thought this was one of the scariest and most relevant stories I edited all 2025, so if you didn't read it then, be sure to read it now!
"Teaching with AI... is a case study in how even well-meaning educators operating in good faith can become inadvertent agents of a pedagogical de-skilling & institutional dehumanization."
February 2, 2026 at 4:48 PM
"Teaching with AI... is a case study in how even well-meaning educators operating in good faith can become inadvertent agents of a pedagogical de-skilling & institutional dehumanization."
oh hey my "fuck-AI-in-the-literature-classroom" story from @lightspeedmagazine.com back in January made the Locus Recommended Reading list! rad, and also fuck AI in the literature classroom!
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
2025 Recommended Reading List
Welcome to the Locus Recommended Reading List… We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them! Our recommendations are compiled annually by the Locus re…
locusmag.com
February 1, 2026 at 5:05 PM
oh hey my "fuck-AI-in-the-literature-classroom" story from @lightspeedmagazine.com back in January made the Locus Recommended Reading list! rad, and also fuck AI in the literature classroom!
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
(story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)
Reposted by B. Pladek
locusmag.com/2026/02/2025... Notes from a Regicide made the Locus list!!
2025 Recommended Reading List
Welcome to the Locus Recommended Reading List… We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them! Our recommendations are compiled annually by the Locus re…
locusmag.com
February 1, 2026 at 4:53 PM
locusmag.com/2026/02/2025... Notes from a Regicide made the Locus list!!
Reposted by B. Pladek
It really is worth understanding what an escalation this is by the feds to be teargassing the big family friendly march
Just experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com
February 1, 2026 at 1:21 PM
It really is worth understanding what an escalation this is by the feds to be teargassing the big family friendly march
had a sad week for stupid whiny private reasons (in addition to the ongoing state evil) so am rereading LOTR for the first time in about a decade. good life choice
February 1, 2026 at 1:29 AM
had a sad week for stupid whiny private reasons (in addition to the ongoing state evil) so am rereading LOTR for the first time in about a decade. good life choice
It's esp shameful how limp these 'demands' are given the fash will simply make a promise & then immediately violate it. The dems know that (like they know only abolition/defunding will actually stop ICE). They're too chickenshit & conciliatory to even demand a stronger lie.
"The Democrats are pushing reforms that they know won’t work because they are doing performative, perfunctory opposition to try to quiet their base, instead of real legislating and fighting to dismantle Trump’s ICE and CBP." newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Senate Democrats’ ICE Proposals Are a Huge and Inexcusable Whiff
Their opening bid should have been eight or 10 bold proposals. But as usual, the Democrats start by negotiating with themselves.
newrepublic.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:15 PM
It's esp shameful how limp these 'demands' are given the fash will simply make a promise & then immediately violate it. The dems know that (like they know only abolition/defunding will actually stop ICE). They're too chickenshit & conciliatory to even demand a stronger lie.
enough people at the Wed-night -20C protest in MKE to block the downtown thoroughfare during rush hour; gives me hope that the city can mobilize to do the work & protect our neighbors when ICE shows up here
January 29, 2026 at 3:14 AM
enough people at the Wed-night -20C protest in MKE to block the downtown thoroughfare during rush hour; gives me hope that the city can mobilize to do the work & protect our neighbors when ICE shows up here
President of a police academy: what if the answer to cops is more cops
Supposedly Northern Essex CC (said cop academy of which the author is proudly president) is also an HSI, which is extra gross context I haven't yet seen in the many apt bodyings of this asinine piece.
Supposedly Northern Essex CC (said cop academy of which the author is proudly president) is also an HSI, which is extra gross context I haven't yet seen in the many apt bodyings of this asinine piece.
Opinion | To Avoid More Tragic Deaths, ICE Needs Higher Education and Training Standards
Higher ed can play an important role in making federal immigration enforcement safer. https://bit.ly/4bRR5fx
#EDUSKy #HigherEd #AcademicSky
Higher ed can play an important role in making federal immigration enforcement safer. https://bit.ly/4bRR5fx
#EDUSKy #HigherEd #AcademicSky
January 28, 2026 at 2:39 PM
President of a police academy: what if the answer to cops is more cops
Supposedly Northern Essex CC (said cop academy of which the author is proudly president) is also an HSI, which is extra gross context I haven't yet seen in the many apt bodyings of this asinine piece.
Supposedly Northern Essex CC (said cop academy of which the author is proudly president) is also an HSI, which is extra gross context I haven't yet seen in the many apt bodyings of this asinine piece.
This novel is wise & gorgeous & has made me cry in both versions I've read so far. It's about memory & family & fascism & theater & resistance & diaspora & cultural heritage (& the joy & disappointment of all these things). If there were ever a book for right now, this is it. <3
📣 New novel announcement:
ANNA DREAMS OF A DEAD REVOLUTIONARY is coming from @tinhouse.bsky.social in 2028. When people ask what it's about, I say it's like SOUR CHERRY, except the haunted house is Greece, and Bluebeard is fascism. 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈✊
Keep writing your queer, trans, antifascist books, friends.
ANNA DREAMS OF A DEAD REVOLUTIONARY is coming from @tinhouse.bsky.social in 2028. When people ask what it's about, I say it's like SOUR CHERRY, except the haunted house is Greece, and Bluebeard is fascism. 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈✊
Keep writing your queer, trans, antifascist books, friends.
January 26, 2026 at 6:53 PM
This novel is wise & gorgeous & has made me cry in both versions I've read so far. It's about memory & family & fascism & theater & resistance & diaspora & cultural heritage (& the joy & disappointment of all these things). If there were ever a book for right now, this is it. <3
feel gross self-promoting when ICE is murdering people so I keep reposting & then immediately un-reposting, but it's awards season & I'm proud of this story. anyway fuck AI, the baby food of fascism.
New story from me @lightspeedmagazine.com, maybe the bleakest I've ever written. It's about:
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness - Lightspeed Magazine
USER: this is a message for Milwaukee Elementary’s curator Jude Towers, I hope this is the right address. anyway thanks for the story you had RIGHTR generate for my 10th graders’ Empathy Week. it was ...
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
January 26, 2026 at 4:43 PM
feel gross self-promoting when ICE is murdering people so I keep reposting & then immediately un-reposting, but it's awards season & I'm proud of this story. anyway fuck AI, the baby food of fascism.
Reposted by B. Pladek
A friend passed this on. Please share and help besieged folks in Minneapolis:
www.gofundme.com/f/critical-r...
www.gofundme.com/f/critical-r...
Donate to Critical Rent Assistance for Central Neighborhood Families, organized by Sara Huelle
As ICE continues to move with deadly force through Minneapolis,… Sara Huelle needs your support for Critical Rent Assistance for Central Neighborhood Families
www.gofundme.com
January 24, 2026 at 5:29 AM
A friend passed this on. Please share and help besieged folks in Minneapolis:
www.gofundme.com/f/critical-r...
www.gofundme.com/f/critical-r...
Reposted by B. Pladek
Top Wisconsin Dem electeds (including top electeds in Milwaukee) could afford to be at least this clear that we won’t stand for an attack on our neighbors and that we need to defund and abolish ICE now.
Mayor Brandon Johnson calls to abolish ICE after Minneapolis shooting as Gov. JB Pritzker urges funding halt www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/24/b...
Mayor Brandon Johnson calls to abolish ICE after Minneapolis shooting as Gov. JB Pritzker urges funding halt
Illinois Democratic leaders speak out after federal immigration officers fatally shot a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis, where Republican President Donald Trump’s latest deportation campaign has unf…
www.chicagotribune.com
January 24, 2026 at 10:52 PM
Top Wisconsin Dem electeds (including top electeds in Milwaukee) could afford to be at least this clear that we won’t stand for an attack on our neighbors and that we need to defund and abolish ICE now.
Reposted by B. Pladek
this photo. minneapolis. 💜
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
January 23, 2026 at 10:04 PM
this photo. minneapolis. 💜
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
oh my goodness yes
NEWS! My next book, TRANSLUNAR, about a closeted trans woman who's an astronaut in the sixties, is coming out in fall 2027! It'll be on Wildthorn, Tor's brand-new general fiction imprint -- a dream, as it lets me work with @englelaird.bsky.social on my literary and historical fiction as well as SFF.
January 21, 2026 at 5:30 PM
oh my goodness yes
omg -- literally this week I restarting Merrill's Changing Light at Sandover & whining to the universe that I was craving narrative verse w bitchy queers & foodie sensuousness & a tasteful soupçon of allusion & a couplet or five, but, like NEW
& sometimes goddamn the universe delivers
& sometimes goddamn the universe delivers
OK nerds, ANNOUNCEMENT
I have a book coming out this May with @sevenstories.bsky.social!
it is called
The Dinner Party: A Book about Love"
it's a collection of five sequences or stories, all in verse. They are about different kinds of love. You can pre-order it here, if you are so minded.
I have a book coming out this May with @sevenstories.bsky.social!
it is called
The Dinner Party: A Book about Love"
it's a collection of five sequences or stories, all in verse. They are about different kinds of love. You can pre-order it here, if you are so minded.
The Dinner Party by Cat Fitzpatrick: 9781644215487 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Cat Fitzpatrick delights in this post-pandemic follow-up to her debut verse novel of present-day manners, The Call-Out— a trans community celebration of mores, gender theory, and rhyme. The Dinner...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:42 AM
omg -- literally this week I restarting Merrill's Changing Light at Sandover & whining to the universe that I was craving narrative verse w bitchy queers & foodie sensuousness & a tasteful soupçon of allusion & a couplet or five, but, like NEW
& sometimes goddamn the universe delivers
& sometimes goddamn the universe delivers
horribly exhausted this whole week, bc I guess grief and rage are tiring? (I know some folks are energized by rage; unfortunately I’m not one of them). bracing for another term of trying to find teaching energy amid all the evil
January 9, 2026 at 3:42 PM
horribly exhausted this whole week, bc I guess grief and rage are tiring? (I know some folks are energized by rage; unfortunately I’m not one of them). bracing for another term of trying to find teaching energy amid all the evil
Reposted by B. Pladek
They don't have capacity to terrorize more than 2-3 cities at a time.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
"The Department of Homeland Security plans to pause operations in Chicago — where Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, has led controversial arrest efforts — to support the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota."
Trump Administration Deploying More Border Patrol Agents to Minnesota
www.nytimes.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:17 PM
They don't have capacity to terrorize more than 2-3 cities at a time.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Reposted by B. Pladek
Good morning. They're going to sell you the lie of provocateurs.
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
January 8, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Good morning. They're going to sell you the lie of provocateurs.
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...