Katya Cengel
@katyacengel.bsky.social
Author of "Straitjackets and Lunch Money", "From Chernobyl with Love" and others with University of Nebraska Press and Woodhall Press. Feature writer with bylines in Smithsonian Magazine, Atavist Magazine and others. Talented at getting lost.
If the official release of the FBI's Big Foot files has you intrigued may I suggest reading my @atavist.com story The Truth is out There magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
November 25, 2025 at 10:53 PM
If the official release of the FBI's Big Foot files has you intrigued may I suggest reading my @atavist.com story The Truth is out There magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
The part about how they turned rubles into dollars using submarines and tankers is hilarious, absurd and frightening. Great read on @slate.com
slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
In 1990, One of the Great Forgotten Acts of American Subterfuge Unfolded. It Involved Pizza Hut.
A delicious caper of vodka bribes and world-altering salad bars.
slate.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:30 PM
The part about how they turned rubles into dollars using submarines and tankers is hilarious, absurd and frightening. Great read on @slate.com
slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Katya Cengel
Have any ideas on the types of journalism training opportunities you want to see? As we develop our program offerings at ICFJ, we’re prioritizing input from journalists themselves. Share your ideas with us in this survey: forms.gle/UULactvgC7DC...
November 22, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Have any ideas on the types of journalism training opportunities you want to see? As we develop our program offerings at ICFJ, we’re prioritizing input from journalists themselves. Share your ideas with us in this survey: forms.gle/UULactvgC7DC...
This article does a great job explaining the cultural context of scamming in India. Both illuminating and depressing, above all well researched and written.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
The Scammer Next Door — The Dial
In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.
www.thedial.world
November 22, 2025 at 8:23 PM
This article does a great job explaining the cultural context of scamming in India. Both illuminating and depressing, above all well researched and written.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
Weather forecast: rainy. The dog has snuggled the rain boots.
November 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Weather forecast: rainy. The dog has snuggled the rain boots.
This! "Maybe that money would have been better spent on multiple debuts, or on supporting a variety of authors at more advanced stages of their careers."
lithub.com/the-publishi... @mashawrites.bsky.social thanks for the recommend @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social
lithub.com/the-publishi... @mashawrites.bsky.social thanks for the recommend @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social
The Publishing Industry Gambled on Me… and Lost
Eight years ago, when I sold two books to an imprint of a Big Five, I was on top of the world. I was thirty-one and eight weeks pregnant, a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. My agent s…
lithub.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 PM
This! "Maybe that money would have been better spent on multiple debuts, or on supporting a variety of authors at more advanced stages of their careers."
lithub.com/the-publishi... @mashawrites.bsky.social thanks for the recommend @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social
lithub.com/the-publishi... @mashawrites.bsky.social thanks for the recommend @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social
In honor of November being National Memoir Month (who knew) I thought I would post some memoir stuff seeing as I wrote two of them. Below is a link to a past talk I did for the National Association of Memoir Writers. @univnebpress.bsky.social
February Virtual Book Club
Katya Cengel: Writing a Memoir in Two Voices
vimeo.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:41 PM
In honor of November being National Memoir Month (who knew) I thought I would post some memoir stuff seeing as I wrote two of them. Below is a link to a past talk I did for the National Association of Memoir Writers. @univnebpress.bsky.social
Don’t mess with her shoe, I mean pillow.
November 12, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Don’t mess with her shoe, I mean pillow.
My favorite thing about @atavist.com stories is what I learn while being entertained. I had no idea there was a social register for our American aristocracy and that robbers used it in the 70s and 80s. Great storytelling by Jack Rodolico The art is also nice.
magazine.atavist.com/2025/blue-bo...
magazine.atavist.com/2025/blue-bo...
The Hardest-Working Art Thief in History
The 'Social Register' was a who’s who of America’s rich and powerful—the heirs of robber barons, scions of political dynasties, and descendants of 'Mayflower' passengers. It was also the perfect hit l...
magazine.atavist.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
My favorite thing about @atavist.com stories is what I learn while being entertained. I had no idea there was a social register for our American aristocracy and that robbers used it in the 70s and 80s. Great storytelling by Jack Rodolico The art is also nice.
magazine.atavist.com/2025/blue-bo...
magazine.atavist.com/2025/blue-bo...
The last surviving Woolworth's lunch counter is officially open again. If you missed my Smithsonian story in the spring you can now find it on MSN
www.msn.com/en-us/foodan...
www.msn.com/en-us/foodan...
MSN
www.msn.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:25 AM
The last surviving Woolworth's lunch counter is officially open again. If you missed my Smithsonian story in the spring you can now find it on MSN
www.msn.com/en-us/foodan...
www.msn.com/en-us/foodan...
From Chernobyl with Love is 6 today! @univnebpress.bsky.social
November 1, 2025 at 8:03 PM
From Chernobyl with Love is 6 today! @univnebpress.bsky.social
One of the best feature stories I have read in a long time. @nytimes.com journalist Emily Baumgaertner Nunn weaves the story of a trafficked young woman trying to escape alongside that of girls get pulled in.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street?
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM
One of the best feature stories I have read in a long time. @nytimes.com journalist Emily Baumgaertner Nunn weaves the story of a trafficked young woman trying to escape alongside that of girls get pulled in.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
Critics say Silicon Valley’s efforts to make A.I. chatbots integral to education amount to a mass experiment on young people.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...
Big Tech Makes Cal State Its A.I. Training Ground
www.nytimes.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Critics say Silicon Valley’s efforts to make A.I. chatbots integral to education amount to a mass experiment on young people.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...
I first learned about Big Foot scholar Jeffrey Meldrum while writing this story for @atavist.com Meldrum was a fascinating man who recently died.
Read about Meldrum here www.sltrib.com/news/nation-...
And the atavist story here magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
Read about Meldrum here www.sltrib.com/news/nation-...
And the atavist story here magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
October 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I first learned about Big Foot scholar Jeffrey Meldrum while writing this story for @atavist.com Meldrum was a fascinating man who recently died.
Read about Meldrum here www.sltrib.com/news/nation-...
And the atavist story here magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
Read about Meldrum here www.sltrib.com/news/nation-...
And the atavist story here magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
Happy Friday from Echo the rescue dog
October 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Happy Friday from Echo the rescue dog
The future of journalism looks good! College student input on why they got into journalism. @calpolyslo.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
The future of journalism looks good! College student input on why they got into journalism. @calpolyslo.bsky.social
I finally found a way to tie minor league baseball and youth mental illness together. Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. I will be talking about how my time in a children's psychosomatic ward led to Ukraine and other stories. At Maravilla, 5486 Calle Real, Goleta CA @univnebpress.bsky.social
October 18, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I finally found a way to tie minor league baseball and youth mental illness together. Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. I will be talking about how my time in a children's psychosomatic ward led to Ukraine and other stories. At Maravilla, 5486 Calle Real, Goleta CA @univnebpress.bsky.social
I love the way this feature by Tom Lamont weaves in fascinating insights on stains and our attitude toward them, making this piece about so much more than a human stain remover. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job | Tom Lamont
From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order
www.theguardian.com
October 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I love the way this feature by Tom Lamont weaves in fascinating insights on stains and our attitude toward them, making this piece about so much more than a human stain remover. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
Fascinating feature by @AbbottKahler on a woman who wrote a book on how to kill and what happened when it worked. archive.vanityfair.com/article/2025...
THE FLORIDA DIVORCÉE'S GUIDE TO MURDER | Vanity Fair
archive.vanityfair.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Fascinating feature by @AbbottKahler on a woman who wrote a book on how to kill and what happened when it worked. archive.vanityfair.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Katya Cengel
On Sunday, October 19, 1:35 pm, at the Berkeley Bird Festival, I will read poems featuring birds I have seen in Mexico, Costa Rica, and California. Chris Olander and Kirk Lumpkin will read with me. The festival will be at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. FREE. berkeleybirdfestival.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:40 AM
On Sunday, October 19, 1:35 pm, at the Berkeley Bird Festival, I will read poems featuring birds I have seen in Mexico, Costa Rica, and California. Chris Olander and Kirk Lumpkin will read with me. The festival will be at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. FREE. berkeleybirdfestival.org
Thanks everyone who came to listen to my book talk about Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back, refugees and deportees Saturday. @univnebpress.bsky.social
October 12, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Thanks everyone who came to listen to my book talk about Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back, refugees and deportees Saturday. @univnebpress.bsky.social
"Even if we could fully reanimate Holocaust survivors with AI, doing so would be to reject the natural and inevitable metabolism of memory and mortality that is required of us, no matter how painful."
Great essay by @bcgl.bsky.social for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Great essay by @bcgl.bsky.social for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM
"Even if we could fully reanimate Holocaust survivors with AI, doing so would be to reject the natural and inevitable metabolism of memory and mortality that is required of us, no matter how painful."
Great essay by @bcgl.bsky.social for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Great essay by @bcgl.bsky.social for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
This dog has a shoe fetish, doesn’t chew them just keeps them close.
October 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This dog has a shoe fetish, doesn’t chew them just keeps them close.