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Matt Weiland

@mattweiland.bsky.social

720 followers 820 following 180 posts

VP & Senior Editor at Norton; co-editor of STATE BY STATE, THINKING FAN'S GUIDE TO THE WORLD CUP, and COMMODIFY YOUR DISSENT; midfielder from Minneapolis. Yore: Ecco, Paris Review, Granta, The Baffler, MPR, Minnesota Kicks camp. www.mattweiland.com

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Nov 17

Delighted and grateful to fly here, to skies full of color and life. I publish books both colorful and alive.

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Paul Laity @paullaity.bsky.social · 28d

'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Paul Laity · After Martha

For the hospital, and for the NHS, it was a closed case, another preventable death: medicine is imperfect, such things...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 29d

A few years ago, @garyhornseth.bsky.social and I wrote an entire researched local-history article about the Minneapolis phone book that Robert Redford pulls off the shelf at the Washington Post in that scene from "All the President's Men"

Hennepin History magazine
Dialing Dahlberg: A Minneapolis phone book's moment of Hollywood Fame
tl;dr the movie production team went to great lengths to use the correct prop, but due to the unusual publication schedule of the annual phone book, they got or mocked up the wrong edition, not the one the real Woodward would have pulled off the shelf, if he hadn't just called Directory Assistance as in the book.

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Sep 14

"obliged to choose between complaint and comedy, I choose comedy"

Reposted by Matt Weiland

Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · Sep 13

I wrote a book called "Stories Are Weapons" which is a history of psychological war in the United States. In it, I describe how the US military came to a simple definition of rhetoric used for destructive purposes in war (so-called psyops) vs. for democratic debate. Want to know what it is? (1/3)

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Sep 14

It will delight me to send you a copy, Gerry!

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Bathsheba Demuth @brdemuth.bsky.social · Sep 8

Alaska reentry has its ups and downs but amazing reads are an up.

Book covers of Lance Richardson’s True Nature and Caroline Tracey’s Salt Lakes

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 26

"the jarring juxtapositions whiplash the viewer between bleak slapstick (the car is on the roof!) and horror (the car is on *the roof*)"
--Nathaniel Rich on Richard Misrach's photos of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath

New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · Aug 26

20 years ago, Richard Misrach took these never-before-seen photos of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. “Mr. Misrach’s images assume an uneasy new dimension. How long will it take for these visions of the past,” Nathaniel Rich writes, “to be mistaken for visions of the future?”

Opinion | ‘It Was Unlike Anything I’d Ever Seen:’ Hurricane Katrina, 20 Years Later

The jarring juxtapositions in Richard Misrach’s photographs of New Orleans whiplash the viewer between bleak slapstick and horror.

nyti.ms

Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 21

"a first-time crop artist"

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 21

Let's see...

$5.50 in 1965 was worth $17.21 in 1983.

A ticket to the 1983 Prince show for Minnesota Dance Theatre at First Ave cost $25.00.

Therefore Prince was 45% better than the Beatles.

Minneapolis Music History @mplsmusichistory.bsky.social · Aug 21

Sixty years ago today the Beatles made their one Minnesota appearance! Gift link.

Fans paid up to $5.50 to see the Beatles’ only Twin Cities concert in 1965

We revisit that landmark event 60 years ago with the Fab Four by the numbers.

www.startribune.com

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 21

Finally: the All That and a Bag of Chips scandal

THE CITY @thecity.nyc · Aug 20

BREAKING: Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips

www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...

Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips

THE CITY reported the incident to law enforcement and was promptly contacted by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office.

www.thecity.nyc

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · Aug 20

Delighted to receive my galley of @cetracey.bsky.social’s forthcoming masterpiece on our planet’s imperiled salt lakes—“a debut as gorgeous and vibrant as the lakes she loves,” as I put it in my blurb. Enamored of that pastel cover so evocative of Utah. Preorder below!

bookshop.org/p/books/salt...

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

jeff @jazyjef.bsky.social · Aug 12

On this day in 1958, Art Kane photographed 57 musicians at 17 East 126th Street in NYC for Esquire magazine. It was a Great Day in Harlem, 67 years ago today.

Sonny Rollins is the only musician from this photo still living.

#SonnyRollinsBridge

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 11

Speaking of water books...

"What his brilliant colleague Richard Powers has done for trees and oceans, Robert Macfarlane here does for embattled waterways."―Pico Iyer, @airmail.news

Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 11

^natural world

Obviously she writes better than her editor.

Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 11

Out early next year: SALT LAKES by @cetracey.bsky.social. A book that captures the nature world and the human one with rare clarity and feeling.

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 11

Out in paperback this week: the celebrated biography of Agnès Varda by @carrierickey.bsky.social.

"Enthralling."―The New Yorker
"Intellectually satisfying and inspiring."―WSJ
"One of the best books ever written about the intersection between a director’s personal life and their work."―IndieWire

Reposted by Matt Weiland

Cait_onthe_luce @caitluce.bsky.social · Aug 9

Today in: can I sneak read this book at the front desk galley mail: A Guardian and a Thief by @meghamaj.bsky.social coming from @aaknopf.bsky.social in October. Be nice to your future self and preorder a copy today! islandbooks.com/book/9780593...

Galley of A Guardian and a Thief on display at Island Books. Visible behind it info counter, posters on the wall, and an upsidedown rainbow umbrella hanging from the ceiling

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Dan Kennedy @dankennedy.net · Aug 8

The @apnews.com says that its ending its weekly book reviews.

AP to end its weekly book reviews

In a note from Anthony McCartney, AP Global Entertainment and Lifestyles Editor, on Wednesday, shared by Jeff Rowe:

Dear AP book reviewers,

I am writing to share that the AP is ending its weekly book reviews, beginning Sept. 1. This was a difficult decision but one made after a thorough review of AP’s story offerings and what is being most read on our website and mobile apps as well as what customers are using. Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews. AP will continue covering books as stories, but at the moment those will handled exclusively by staffers.

I want to thank you for your time and commitment to reviewing books for the AP. All current review assignments through Aug. 31 will be honored and your invoices will be paid. (Please submit those as you normally would, and file final invoices by Sept. 15.)

I want to take a moment to thank Carolyn, who has coordinated reviews and made sure relevant titles were covered, and Mark, who has edited the reviews and incorporated best practices for trying to get reviews to appear in search results and get as many readers as possible.

Thank you again for your diligence and work on reviews. I wish you all the best.

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 6

This is delightful.
Would pay premium for a social media platform that consisted only of people suggesting books for Anne Trubek's mom forever.

Anne Trubek @atrubek.bsky.social · Aug 5

Ok book ppl, need suggestions: my mother is a voracious reader constantly needing book recs. Nothing too depressing or dark. Nothing too commercial. Recent reads: Chaim Grade, the Condé Nast book, Doris Kearns Goodwin about her husband, new Shteyngart (didn’t love), Deaf Sentence, Anthony Horowitz

Reposted by Matt Weiland

Jennifer Szalai @jenszalai.bsky.social · Aug 4

Worth reading again: John Lanchester's profile of the BLS (which also appeared in Michael Lewis's recent book, "Who Is Government"). Gift link:

wapo.st/4l7AJjR

Opinion | The Number

How a country collects and interprets data reveals a lot about what it values.

wapo.st

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Aug 4

"In fact, the crowd was so quiet [hearing "Purple Rain" for the first time], producer David Z had to tweak the recording. 'I cheated and put a crowd from the Minnesota Vikings in the audience track.'"

Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · Aug 3

An excellent oral history of Prince and Friends' August 3, 1983 benefit concert at First Avenue can be heard (or read!) at The Current Rewind podcast webpage. The show is also the centerpiece for an exploration of Prince in Minneapolis at @placesjournal.bsky.social
placesjournal.org/article/prin...

The Current Rewind: Aug. 3, 1983

Most casual Prince fans know 'Purple Rain' was partially filmed at First Avenue. But did you know the title song is a live recording, taped at First Ave a few months before filming started? In this ep...

www.thecurrent.org

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Reposted by Matt Weiland

Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · Aug 3

42 years ago today, on Aug. 3, 1983, Prince "and Friends" (soon to be known as The Revolution) performed songs for the first time that would appear a year later on the soundtrack album and in the movie "Purple Rain."

Minneapolis Tribune, Sunday, August 7, 1983. Item in music news column with two photos from the Aug. 3 concert at First Avenue. One is Prince playing guitar with arm raised and a kind of wild look on his face, and the other is Loyce Houlton of the Minnesota Dance Theater with Prince beaming at her, on stage. The text says the concert, with tickets at the high price of $25, raised about $2,300 for the dance company. Houlton had caught Prince, who took classes the MDT, while the Purple Rain album/movies rehearsals were underway two weeks before. Crowd estimate: 1,100.

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Gerald Howard @ghoward1950.bsky.social · Aug 3

In the fifties the covers of Anchor Books were printed with a flat color process that limited them to three colors and black, each printed separately. Edward Gorey turned this limitation into a virtue and many of his covers, like this one, have a distinct Japanese woodcut flavor.

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Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Jul 31

prestige Sumerian myth

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · Jul 30

New Sumerian myth just dropped

News - Newly Deciphered Cuneiform Tablet Contains Unknown Sumerian Myth - Archaeology Magazine

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—A riveting lost Sumerian myth was recently rediscovered thanks to University of Chicago Sumerologist […]

archaeology.org

Matt Weiland @mattweiland.bsky.social · Jul 30

Some great worms of recent cultural history

1. Lowly Worm, in Richard Scarry BUSYTOWN books (1960)

2. Slimey, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm on SESAME STREET (1971)

3. Sandworms, in Frank Herbert DUNE (1965)

4. The ones in Carlo Ginzburg THE CHEESE AND THE WORMS (1976)

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