Heather Christle
@heatherchristle.bsky.social
Two new books--
IN THE RHODODENDRONS: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Woolf
PAPER CROWN: Poems
both out now.
https://linktr.ee/heatherchristle
IN THE RHODODENDRONS: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Woolf
PAPER CROWN: Poems
both out now.
https://linktr.ee/heatherchristle
Reading the news right now is not great.
One of the hardest things about writing IN THE RHODODENDRONS was hearing the reactions--of people I thought I knew--to the fact that a man in his twenties brought me into an alleyway to have sex with me while I was drunk and fourteen.
One of the hardest things about writing IN THE RHODODENDRONS was hearing the reactions--of people I thought I knew--to the fact that a man in his twenties brought me into an alleyway to have sex with me while I was drunk and fourteen.
November 20, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reading the news right now is not great.
One of the hardest things about writing IN THE RHODODENDRONS was hearing the reactions--of people I thought I knew--to the fact that a man in his twenties brought me into an alleyway to have sex with me while I was drunk and fourteen.
One of the hardest things about writing IN THE RHODODENDRONS was hearing the reactions--of people I thought I knew--to the fact that a man in his twenties brought me into an alleyway to have sex with me while I was drunk and fourteen.
Reposted by Heather Christle
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 14, 2025 at 11:55 PM
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
Whenever I see this kind of tech advertised, I can't stop thinking about all of the unruly, interior parts of a life, which affect how we behave but are distasteful to the sensibilities of profit-seeking owners (and imagined users) and therefore doomed to be deleted from posthumous avatars.
November 14, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Whenever I see this kind of tech advertised, I can't stop thinking about all of the unruly, interior parts of a life, which affect how we behave but are distasteful to the sensibilities of profit-seeking owners (and imagined users) and therefore doomed to be deleted from posthumous avatars.
I remember buying my first not-for-a-class book of contemporary poetry at the Grolier Book Shop when I was a baby poet and tonight I am almost completely grown up and reading there with fellow adult @rvtrousdale.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 AM
I remember buying my first not-for-a-class book of contemporary poetry at the Grolier Book Shop when I was a baby poet and tonight I am almost completely grown up and reading there with fellow adult @rvtrousdale.bsky.social
Teaching Inger Christensen's Alphabet today and no matter what else happens that is an indisputable good.
November 12, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Teaching Inger Christensen's Alphabet today and no matter what else happens that is an indisputable good.
There's a lot of pressure on women to find innovative ways to ruin the workplace--let's team up and share some strategies that have worked?
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
There's a lot of pressure on women to find innovative ways to ruin the workplace--let's team up and share some strategies that have worked?
I really love Elliot's readings.
Today’s poem: Heather Christle, “The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data”
#lunchpoems
#lunchpoems
November 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I really love Elliot's readings.
Two more events this month and then I am done with book-travel until January. Next week Boston (see flier for details), then Madison on Nov 22. (Flier coming soon.) If you live in one of those places I would like to read poems to you with my actual mouth.
November 6, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Two more events this month and then I am done with book-travel until January. Next week Boston (see flier for details), then Madison on Nov 22. (Flier coming soon.) If you live in one of those places I would like to read poems to you with my actual mouth.
Reposted by Heather Christle
The “they’re rapists” line from racists is not about women’s autonomy or dignity; it’s not even about the wrongness of rape. It is about white men’s property interests over white women. It’s not “they’re doing something horrible”; it’s “they’re raping the ones only you have a right to rape.”
November 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
The “they’re rapists” line from racists is not about women’s autonomy or dignity; it’s not even about the wrongness of rape. It is about white men’s property interests over white women. It’s not “they’re doing something horrible”; it’s “they’re raping the ones only you have a right to rape.”
"[T]he formulaic is recast as reflecting human nature...as opposed to a feature of algorithmically generated content that usefully serves to shrink audiences' horizons and harden their tastes, thereby making it easier to predict what they will or won't consume next."
"This is not literature as 'entertainment,' no. It’s literature as propaganda." Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/literature-is-not-a-vibe-on-chatgpt-and-the-humanities/
November 1, 2025 at 11:48 AM
"[T]he formulaic is recast as reflecting human nature...as opposed to a feature of algorithmically generated content that usefully serves to shrink audiences' horizons and harden their tastes, thereby making it easier to predict what they will or won't consume next."
The word "boing" is one I find incredibly embarrassing to be associated with/be made to say aloud. So I put it in a poem. (This one.)
i love the formal tensions in this one from the recent @heatherchristle.bsky.social collection - beautiful, sudden accumulation of body-having revelations vs tradpoem-about-language
October 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The word "boing" is one I find incredibly embarrassing to be associated with/be made to say aloud. So I put it in a poem. (This one.)
Reposted by Heather Christle
Y’all here is a fun fact: Portland has a brand new volunteer organization called “operation inflation” that allows people to borrow inflatable costumes for protests. They just started a couple weeks ago and have like a 160 costume library (and counting because people keep donating).
OPERATION INFLATION
www.operationinflation.com
October 18, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Y’all here is a fun fact: Portland has a brand new volunteer organization called “operation inflation” that allows people to borrow inflatable costumes for protests. They just started a couple weeks ago and have like a 160 costume library (and counting because people keep donating).
Reposted by Heather Christle
the owlishness of certain people
Heather Christle, from PAPER CROWN
Heather Christle, from PAPER CROWN
October 10, 2025 at 3:58 AM
the owlishness of certain people
Heather Christle, from PAPER CROWN
Heather Christle, from PAPER CROWN
Curious how other people might answer this question
(borrowed from W. S. Graham)
(borrowed from W. S. Graham)
Join Heather Christle for a craft talk and reading: “What is Language Using Us For?” at Sarah Lawrence College on October 16th. We hope to see you there!
October 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Curious how other people might answer this question
(borrowed from W. S. Graham)
(borrowed from W. S. Graham)
Reposted by Heather Christle
"It’s a form of resistance that requires us to put aside ego, and the need for personal gratification, to become a node in a living network of care, support, and defense."
More than anything else I hope the legacy of this moment will be organized care everywhere
More than anything else I hope the legacy of this moment will be organized care everywhere
My latest is the story of how my community has rallied to protect and defend our neighbors in recent days, as ICE has targeted the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. "This is not a story about a moment of victory, but a moment of being reminded of our power."
They Came for Our Neighbors. We Showed Up.
Before long, there were dozens, and then hundreds of people in the streets, watching and responding.
organizingmythoughts.org
October 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM
"It’s a form of resistance that requires us to put aside ego, and the need for personal gratification, to become a node in a living network of care, support, and defense."
More than anything else I hope the legacy of this moment will be organized care everywhere
More than anything else I hope the legacy of this moment will be organized care everywhere
Going back and forth between
listening to podcasts about the Spanish Civil War
and holding a kitten
and reading about large language models
and holding a kitten
and writing about universities' capitulation to the loyalty oath during the red scare
and holding a kitten...
thank you, kitten.
listening to podcasts about the Spanish Civil War
and holding a kitten
and reading about large language models
and holding a kitten
and writing about universities' capitulation to the loyalty oath during the red scare
and holding a kitten...
thank you, kitten.
October 13, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Going back and forth between
listening to podcasts about the Spanish Civil War
and holding a kitten
and reading about large language models
and holding a kitten
and writing about universities' capitulation to the loyalty oath during the red scare
and holding a kitten...
thank you, kitten.
listening to podcasts about the Spanish Civil War
and holding a kitten
and reading about large language models
and holding a kitten
and writing about universities' capitulation to the loyalty oath during the red scare
and holding a kitten...
thank you, kitten.
Wrote about Vanessa Bell--Modernist artist (and Virginia Woolf's sister)--and the various kinds of host one can be, with a little light antifascism on the side.
"Both Woolf and her older sister, Vanessa Bell, knew well the dangers of becoming stuck in that role, forever passing tea and buns about the room, never speaking beyond decorum’s limits."
— @heatherchristle.bsky.social essay on Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell
www.thebeliever.net/vanessa-bell...
— @heatherchristle.bsky.social essay on Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell
www.thebeliever.net/vanessa-bell...
Vanessa Bell Is Not at Home - Believer Magazine
In Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, which celebrated its centennial in May, the title character remembers a friend mocking her years before; the young Clarissa had the makings, jeered Peter Walsh...
www.thebeliever.net
October 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Wrote about Vanessa Bell--Modernist artist (and Virginia Woolf's sister)--and the various kinds of host one can be, with a little light antifascism on the side.
TIL that the CEO of Core Civic
(the private detentions company who runs the only known ICE facility holding families...
(the private detentions company who runs the only known ICE facility holding families...
September 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
TIL that the CEO of Core Civic
(the private detentions company who runs the only known ICE facility holding families...
(the private detentions company who runs the only known ICE facility holding families...
Reposted by Heather Christle
Reposted by Heather Christle
Breaking news from Des Moines: ICE has detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Iowa's largest school district.
The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps."
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...
The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps."
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...
ICE detains Des Moines Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts
Iowa's largest school district had "no confirmed information" on why ICE detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent since 2023.
www.bleedingheartland.com
September 26, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Breaking news from Des Moines: ICE has detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Iowa's largest school district.
The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps."
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...
The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps."
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...
accidentally ordered a dinner that matches my book
September 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM
accidentally ordered a dinner that matches my book
One tech company's slogan is NEVER WONDER and another is literally called PANOPTO and in conclusion I have no words or expect that to soon be the case.
September 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
One tech company's slogan is NEVER WONDER and another is literally called PANOPTO and in conclusion I have no words or expect that to soon be the case.
Reposted by Heather Christle
seriously. The Big Dumb Algorithm can be bent as much by a twenty-second "loved it" as an eight-page screed.
Just a reminder that if you enjoy a book, please leave a quick review on Amazon or Bookshop dot org, or wherever. Even if it's only a sentence, it really, really helps get the word out to other readers.
September 26, 2025 at 3:28 PM
seriously. The Big Dumb Algorithm can be bent as much by a twenty-second "loved it" as an eight-page screed.
NYC TONIGHGHT
September 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
NYC TONIGHGHT
Seeking a term akin to proprioception but for the sense of one's mortality; does such a thing exist?
(I swear I am so fun to talk to.)
(I swear I am so fun to talk to.)
September 25, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Seeking a term akin to proprioception but for the sense of one's mortality; does such a thing exist?
(I swear I am so fun to talk to.)
(I swear I am so fun to talk to.)