Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 11d

Ominous portents this evening

A torn paperback copy of a book titled 20/20 Thinking on the sidewalk under a power pole that’s been seeping creosote so it looks like black ooze is snaking out from underneath the book

Two red hatchback cars parallel parked on a street; they aren’t the same model but very close, like siblings but not quite twins & there’s something striking about their likeness and proximity and how bright their red is—the shade of red is the same

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 14d

Kitchen disco, 8 a.m.

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 14d

@davidnaimon.bsky.social we’re in here somewhere

S P A R K S @sparksofficial.bsky.social · 14d

Thank you, Portland!!

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 21d

I don't think anyone's figured out how best to keep promoting a book once it's no longer brand new (if you have, lemme know!), but SGC is in great company on Split/Lip's backlist.
And wow, look at that, this weekend you can get 2 SGCs for the price of 1 (16 cow legs total):
bsky.app/profile/spli...

Split/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 22d

As we state in our press mission, we want to see the dark AND the light side of the moon. We're embracing the fall equinox a day early with a HALF OFF sale on 9/21!

Preorders: check! Ebooks: check! Backlist AND frontlist: check!

www.splitlippress.com/store

HALF DARK, HALF LIGHT, HALF PRICE: EQUINOX SALE. September 21, 2025 only, use code EQUINOX at splitlippress.com from midnight through 11:59pm CT to get half off all books

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 21d

I was also lucky that anyone paid attention to this book! Reviewers at @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social, @necessaryfiction.com, @fullstopmag.bsky.social, & @haydensferryreview.bsky.social, as well as @alissahattman.bsky.social & @eyesonindie.bsky.social were generous with their time, attention, & care

Press & Events — COLLEEN BURNER

www.colleenburner.com

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 21d

my 1st book, Sister Golden Calf, was released 2 years ago today by @splitlippress.com. I don't think anyone can predict how a book launch will go, but I got real lucky with the Split/Lip team & the events I got to do in Portland w/ David Naimon, Alissa Hattman, Thea Prieto, & Bishop & Wilde Books

the cover of Sister Golden Calf: a peach-colored rectangle hovers in front of a landscape of red rock formations and blue sky. On the peach rectangle are the title of the book and my name, in front of a pile of 7 cow legs; 1 cow leg hovers mid-air. Designed by David Wojciechowski.

David Naimon and I in front of the audience at Powell's City of Books

Me reading in front of a wall of books at The Stacks Coffeehouse

Promo graphic for my reading at Bishop & Wilde on 10/4/2023. Five people showed up for this reading, but now I'm actually friends with all of them, and the oddly intimate reading situation should not be dismissed!

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Reposted by Colleen Burner

performative male @milesklee.bsky.social · 23d

thank god i'm not alive to see this

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 26d

how the emails are finding me this morning:

Three pictures of sun bears, which look dazed and goofy as hell standing on hind legs, the wonderful ape-dog creatures everyone knows them to be. They’ve never been sent emails and I envy them that.

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · 28d

I can’t believe we’ve only watched TWO of these together (& that you didn’t list any of The Matrix movies (matrices))

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Sep 8

& speaking of review outlets, a boon for my Monday just came in the mail

The latest issue of The Anarchist Review of Books

“In this year of war, fear, and rage, we have found ourselves returning again and again to W. S. Merwin’s poem The River of Bees. “We are the echo of the future,” Merwin writes, “On the door it says what to do to survive/ But we were not born to survive/ Only to live”
ALL POWER TO THE IMAGINATION
ALL POWER TO LIFE

The Editorial Collective
August 15, 2025”

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Sep 8

what if I (or anyone) started a publication for reviewing books that have been out at least a year...? 🤔

Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · Sep 8

For real, if you've ever been considering reviewing / interviewing / etc. someone but stopped yourself because the book was released months ago... do it! We love getting coverage after pub day.

Justin Taylor @justintaylor.bsky.social · Sep 8

Worst thing to happen to book crit was getting mercilessly synced to pub dates. writer gets 97% of the coverage they're ever getting by the end of week 2, & if the book is widely reviewed (positive or not) in prestige places some of your would-be audience burns out on takes & skips the book itself.

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Aug 13

It’s too hot to think about quilting. And yet.

A six-pointed star made of fabric with a pattern of orange and blue polka dots floating over a white background (the dots are about dime-sized and have gradation so they almost look spherical), with a solid light orange hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed star made of fabric with a pattern of orange and dark teal dotted lines arcing over a light sagey green background (the lines are crossed by coordinating orange and green dots here and there, they look like olives or beads), with a solid orange hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed star made of fabric with a pattern of white, light blue, and dark blue flower shapes and angular shapes (very kiki and bouba), with a solid blue hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed star made of fabric with a pattern of leaves in stems curving around a white background (the colors are Mardi Gras shades of yellow, green, and purple), with a solid purple hexagon at the center of the star

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Aug 10

It’s a heatwave in Portland so I’m looking back ever so longingly at quilting progress from a couple weeks ago

A six-pointed quilted star made of fabric with dark brown polka dots (smaller than a dime) on off-white, with a light brown hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed quilted star made of fabric that looks like a very small scale Yayoi Kusama net painting in coral over white, with a solid pink hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed quilted star made of fabric with a stylized daisy print in dark blue with overlapping grid and checkered patterns, with a blue hexagon at the center of the star

A six-pointed quilted star made of fabric with a print that’s really hard to describe—light brown background with a pattern of dark brown, yellow, and green on top, in sort of crisscrossing and diamond shaped routes but made of u-shaped marks—it’s very late ‘60s I think, with a light brown hexagon at the center of the star

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Aug 2

I’m Out Of Office for the next week but please fill our inbox with your weird short fiction in the meantime

surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · Aug 1

the window is OPEN! send us your stories from now until Sept. 15 〰️ guidelines and more can be found at surelymag.com/about

about — surely

surelymag.com

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Jul 29

“Let us come together to celebrate literature without lending these banks the shine of our collective dreams for a better future, without helping the reputations of those who profit off death in the shadows.” 📣📣📣

David Naimon @davidnaimon.bsky.social · Jul 29

Open letter to the Portland Book Festival
“We ask you to say ’no’ to sponsorship from banks that profit from and facilitate the destruction of Palestine.”
Consider adding your name:
lithub.com/an-open-lett...

An Open Letter to the Portland Book Festival

We, the undersigned writers & literary organizations, many of whom have been a part of the Literary Arts ecosystem in some way—whether the Portland Book Festival, as finalists or winners of the…

lithub.com

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Reposted by Colleen Burner

D. A. Powell @dapowell.bsky.social · Jul 29

This beautiful summer poem by Rosalie Moffat.

THE SUMMER THE COLLIES

died and were buried beneath fir trees,
I had two kinds of apple: red and red-yellow.
I had a three-legged aluminum ladder, a bucket, a wasp's nest the size of my fist.
I fit between
the branches, filled, first my hands and pockets
and then the bucket. A wasp with the face
of my oldest dog stung me twice. It takes a long time
to leave. My father's green bulldozer will break down
in the purple-headed thistles some August
and then stay and stay there. A tractor outlasts
a person. It's never worth it to haul it away.
There are monuments, in the country, everywhere.
If I talk too often about wasps it's because they're inescapable.
They'll be under the hood in no time--here, no emptiness
goes uninhabited. I always want to put Christ's heart back
in his chest, like returning a jar of jam
to the cupboard. I make the bruised apples into sauce,
ladle it hot into jars. What is sown as perishable
is raised imperishable--a joke I make
to myself about the buzzing soul
of the bulldozer, existing here on earth
long after it's died, as something venomous
and intelligent.

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Jul 25

Get his ass, Ron 😤

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · Jul 25

"Epstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex trafficking network, and the details on how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet." https://trib.al/ZTn3IyO

Reposted by Colleen Burner

Jeanne Thornton @jeannethornton.bsky.social · Jul 24

Request: could everything just kind of stop for one (1) month

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Colleen Burner @colleenburner.bsky.social · Jul 24

@robertlong4man.bsky.social what have you done?? Weird Pig can steal my car anytime; he’s one in a million (I would’ve read it sooner but needed to save it as a reprieve for an especially dark season & it really came through)