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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 10h

#writers: Interested in learning about different kinds of essays? Beginning November 1, join me each Saturday for 6 weeks. Information and registration here: writingworkshops.com/collections/... #essayists #cnf #amwriting 💻 🖊️ 📖

Promo image including author photo and text: introduction to the art of nonfiction, Starts Saturday, November 1, 2025, 11:00 AM-1:00 CST

Side of building with windows and doors and text: We'll read and discuss (and you'll experiment writing): the personal essay, the memoir, the portrait essay, the speculative essay, the ekphrastic essay

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 5d

"Sometimes, we learn the meaning of words and it has nothing to do with dictionaries; the kinds of meanings we learn because we must live them."

"[H]e has become a shoebox of letters in the closet, on a shelf too high for me reach." — Allison Albino The Missouri Review

missourireview.com/albino/

“Coup de foudre” by Allison Albino | The Missouri Review

Discovering the best in fiction, essays, and poetry

missourireview.com

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 6d

"As we drove on, the miles slipping away beneath us, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were things that lived in the spaces between what my mother told me and what she kept hidden." —Fay Sachpatzidis @baltimorereview.bsky.social
A fascinating essay baltimorereview.org/summer_2025/...

Fay Sachpatzidis: Root Lady

Fay Sachpatzidis is a writer and poet based in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Normal School, and Bodega Magazine, among other places.

baltimorereview.org

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 7d

"As it turns out, I prefer the doorknobs as useless objects, tucked into the back corner of a closet. I suppose at some point they’ll no longer speak to me, and I’ll set them out on the stoop for someone else to take." — Katie Kitamura @yalereview.bsky.social yalereview.org/article/kati...

Katie Kitamura's Object of Desire

A flea-market find unlocks something unexpected for the novelist.

yalereview.org

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 12d

So wonderful to read your writing again! I have missed it (well, new writing—I always return to your essays.)

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 20d

“I just want to think out loud about the things that matter most to me.” @zadiesmith.bsky.social @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The Art of the Impersonal Essay, by Zadie Smith

In my experience, every kind of writing requires some kind of self-soothing Jedi mind trick, and, when it comes to essay composition, the rectangle is mine.

www.newyorker.com

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · 22d

"In elementary school art class, we studied the color wheel and contour lines and Vincent van Gogh, which is perhaps where I got the idea that mental illness is a prerequisite of being a successful artist." New @gabemontesanti.bsky.social Essay Alert! @anmlymag.bsky.social anmly.org/ap40/gabe-mo...

Gabe Montesanti – ANMLY

anmly.org

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Sep 19

November: I'm teaching an online survey course: the personal essay, the memoir/narrative essay, the portrait essay, the speculative essay, and the ekphrastic essay. Let's go! writingworkshops.com/collections/...

Nonfiction Writing Course: 6-Week Workshop with Award-Winner Talbot

Master creative nonfiction with acclaimed author Jill Talbot. 6-week online workshop covers memoir, essays & craft. Join award-winning writer's proven method.

writingworkshops.com

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Sep 15

Sue William Silverman's latest essay collection: Amazing. I knew it would be when I saw glowing blurbs by other amazing essayists: @paullisicky.bsky.social @jillchristman.bsky.social & Sonja Livingston. @univnebpress.bsky.social

Copy of Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader on a table

Back cover with blurbs by Paul Lisicky, Sonja Livingston, and Jill Christman with Silverman author photo

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Aug 21

bookshop.org/p/books/grey...

Greyhound: A Memoir

A Memoir

bookshop.org

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Aug 21

“Away from anything and everything familiar, I was where I wanted to be.” — Joanna Pocock gives us an immersive road narrative in conversation with other writers of the road, views from her past & present self, environmental geography & a celebration of the roadside motel. #ontheroad

Copy of Greyhound: A Memoir with vintage motel sign on cover

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Jul 29

Moved & proud to be a part of this anthology with a collaborative essay with Marcia Aldrich along with an impressive list of contributors. With thanks to an extraordinary editor, Stephanie Vessely. Pre-order here: www.fulcrumbooks.com/product-page...

Cover of So Heavy a Weight: Creative Writers on Women’s Reproductive Health featuring flowers in bloom or not

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Jul 14

Published 10 years ago today! softskull.com/books/the-wa... #memoir #books #singlemother #memoirinessays #motherdaughter #roadnarrative #home

Copy of The Way We Weren’t: A Memoir (red balloon on cover)

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Reposted by Jill Talbot

Sonora Review @sonorareview.bsky.social · Jun 30

The results of our 2025 contest are in--congratulations to our sonorous winners and finalists. We are so grateful to everyone who participated in our noisy contest. Across the din and babble, your sounds ring true. Thank you thank you <3

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Jun 30

My friend, Liane Malinowski, has a wonderful guest essay in Jack Christian’s charming #Substack, Day Dates. I recommend both. open.substack.com/pub/daydates...

Mogan's

The world is your oyster house

open.substack.com

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Jun 12

I have so much admiration for (& experiential connections with) this memoir by Hala Alyan. A powerful memoir, but also a series of well-crafted, form-forward essays. And so much more. If you've ever waited & guarded your wanting. @simonandschuster.bsky.social www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ill-Te...

Copy of the memoir on a table. Cover includes a photo of the author and a photo of a landscape.

"I wish I could take my self off like a coat. Just for an hour. Just for an afternoon. I'll come back, I want to promise."

Longing. Even that word, the croon of it, the bay window of its soft o.

"I'd spent so much time. On the wrong things.:

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Jun 8

Today! The Lyric Essay | 4:00 EST Free registration: www.thepoetscorner.org/events/the-l...

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · May 30

Holy shit this is amazing writing. Hala Alyan @electricliterature.com electricliterature.com/an-excerpt-f...

Addiction Is a Story of Wanting Gone Awry - Electric Literature

An excerpt from “I’ll Tell You When I’m Home” by Hala Alyan

electricliterature.com

Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · May 19

"[W]e are all carrying a unique ache, or a unique memory, or a unique desire." — Hanif Abdurraqib @newyorker.com
www.newyorker.com/culture/essa...

In Defense of Despair

The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be so.

www.newyorker.com

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · May 6

So cool! A postcard chapbook in @newlettersmagazine.bsky.social by Courtney Kersten. Also available online: www.newletters.org/address-unkn...

Cover of journal issue: "Hometown Heroes" by Nicholas Erker

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · May 2

For Mothers—in every moment, in every phase, in every season. @wapress.bsky.social
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Last Year

Check out The Last Year - <p>"The moments that change us, the ghosts that follow us, the memories that slow us down or keep us afloat - Jill Talbot has found the language for all of that. Talbot, a lo...

bookshop.org

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · May 2

"I . . . write down the names of motels I pass, partly because they’ve devolved from Technicolor postcard destinations with mod geometric signs, to roadside slumps of peeling paint and mediocre marquee promises." @emdashphillips.bsky.social blackbird-archive.vcu.edu/v14n1/nonfic...

Experimental section of the essay with names of motels the way they appear on their respective signs

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Apr 26

"We’re all still here, with the windows down, suspended somewhere between then and now." — Melissa Faliveno @kenyonreview.bsky.social kenyonreview.org/piece/drivin...

Driving Around Central Ohio in my Dad’s ’07 Chevy Listening to the CDs of my Youth; or, Put the Past Away; or, August and Everything After - The Kenyon Review

Already have an account? Log in Join KR for even more to read. Sign up for a free account and read any five pieces a month. Sign Up and Read […]

kenyonreview.org

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Apr 25

Thank you! Always happy to join virtually in the future. Or to answer student questions via email. To longing!

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Jill Talbot @jilltalbot.bsky.social · Apr 22

Having fun with #Prequel #retro #blueberry #photo #app

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