Michael Welch
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mbwwelch.bsky.social
Michael Welch
@mbwwelch.bsky.social
800 followers 380 following 130 posts
EIC at @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. Words in Electric Lit, Prairie Schooner, Kenyon Review, North American Review, & more.
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Michael Welch @mbwwelch.bsky.social · Jun 23
Preorders are open for "On an Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes," coming your way from @beltpublishing.bsky.social on March 10, 2026!

Featuring everything from shipwrecks & ice caves to zebra mussels & manoomin, & 32 writers on why the lakes loom so large.

beltpublishing.com/products/on-...
On an Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes, Edited by Michael Welch
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
We are so thrilled for @poetpatriciasmith.bsky.social, who just won a National Book Award!! In 2023, @recycledgiraffe.bsky.social interviewed her about “Unshuttered” (@nupress.bsky.social), check it out as we celebrate her win in Chicago 🥳
chireviewofbooks.com/2023/03/13/u...
Summoning the Past Through Words and Images: A Conversation with Patricia Smith About "Unshuttered" - Chicago Review of Books
A list of Patricia Smith’s achievements in poetry could take up much of this interview. A poet, playwright, essayist, educator and mentor, she’s deservedly won nearly every accolade and award, includi...
chireviewofbooks.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
levistahl.bsky.social
Chicagoans: This is going to be a very good and fun book. (And if you’ve not yet taken one of Will Quam’s brick tours, hie thee to his website and book one. You won’t regret it.)
Fire and Clay
A remarkable exploration of Chicago’s architectural history through the humble brick.   By the late 1920s, at its peak of brick making and consumption, Chicago was making over a billion bricks a year ...
press.uchicago.edu
November 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
bencollins.bsky.social
talkin' about the AI bubble
November 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
rebeccamakkai.bsky.social
Somehow in all the excitement over on the @storystudiochicago.bsky.social account, I didn’t manage to share this news (from a couple weeks ago) directly myself: We were awarded a $100,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation and could not be more excited 🧵
November 19, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
atrubek.bsky.social
Here's a great poem for everyone to enjoy, especially @mbwwelch.bsky.social and @awestfell.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
storystudiochicago.bsky.social
ANNOUNCING! Pub Crawl 2026 is open for Early Bird registration! Come learn, pitch, publish with us in February 2026 at our month-long ONLINE publishing intensive designed to hone your craft, learn about world of publishing, and get you published!

Reg and more info here: buff.ly/mDepC3N

#writers
November 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
mbwwelch.bsky.social
Let’s talk writing!!!
gregzimmerman.bsky.social Greg Zimmerman @gregzimmerman.bsky.social · 15d
@mbwwelch.bsky.social and I are helming this one. Grab a ticket and come say hello. I’ll buy you a drink!
storystudiochicago.bsky.social StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 15d
Join us on Dec. 2 at the American Writers Museum's Get Lit: Santa's Book Fair event! Along with area bookstores, we'll have a table at the event -- come meet StoryStudio staff and grab some swag and a drink or two. Use code STORYSTUDIO10 to get your ticket for $10!

More info here: buff.ly/k7MgCuB
November 12, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
"Each of these nine stories is, of course, an entity unto itself, and each is excellent in its own way."

Don Evans's review of “The Plan of Chicago” by Barry Pearce (Cornerstone Press) is out now.
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/11/11/o...
Following Up on Daniel Burnham's Dream: Barry Pearce's Story Collection Explores Chicago's Plan - Chicago Review of Books
Barry Pearce’s The Plan of Chicago: A City in Stories assesses more than imagines the city. He does this through the city’s landscape, but also its people. Pearce picks up [Daniel] Burnham’s dream mor...
chireviewofbooks.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
Check out a special piece on the site today on the new adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella "Train Dreams" by @ashhatz.bsky.social.
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/11/10/t...
"Train Dreams" Illustrates a Life Made of Moments - Chicago Review of Books
Clint Bentley’s quietly stunning Train Dreams presents a life comprised of moments, centered on forests comprising individual trees. The trees fall, the trees grow back. The world changes, our lives g...
chireviewofbooks.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
storystudiochicago.bsky.social
Applications for FIVE Book In A Year cohorts are due ONE WEEK FROM TODAY. All of these programs are online for 2026 -- so apply (no app fee!) from anywhere. Make next year the year you write your book!

Apply now: buff.ly/xVwR9Zz

#writingcommunity
November 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
julianzabalbeascoa.bsky.social
I wrote this a year ago today, the morning after the election. Too easy to predict where we'd end up. What will spring us from this mess of our own making? No crystal ball is required either. Thank you, @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social, for publishing this last year!
chireviewofbooks.com/2024/11/14/b...
Beyond 2024: On Resistance and Adversarial Hope - Chicago Review of Books
The morning after the 2016 presidential election, I walked my wife to work along the tree-framed median that splits east-west traffic down Commonwealth Avenue, looking with great suspicion upon those ...
chireviewofbooks.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
We are so very thrilled about this and always incredibly proud to be a part of the Stories Matter Foundation!!! 🥳
storystudiochicago.bsky.social StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 21d
HUGE ANNOUCEMENT: We are beside ourselves with excitement to share with you that we've been awarded a $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
November 6, 2025 at 9:38 PM
mbwwelch.bsky.social
📣📣📣
storystudiochicago.bsky.social StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 21d
HUGE ANNOUCEMENT: We are beside ourselves with excitement to share with you that we've been awarded a $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
November 6, 2025 at 9:08 PM
mbwwelch.bsky.social
A particularly special interview on the site with @rachellayown.bsky.social!
November 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
atrubek.bsky.social
What a fantastic interview! If it inspires you to do what Rachel has done for another city, get in touch with us at @beltpublishing.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
dansinker.com
I wrote about ghosts. dansinker.com/posts/202…
I wonder sometimes if what I'm chasing isn't just the masked bastards snatching our neighbors, but the ghosts of the life we lead before all this. Before the agents showed up, before the helicopters, before the tear gas, before the kidnappings. Before this latest Trump election, certainly, but before the first one too. So much has been lost. So many ghosts.
November 5, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
November's must-read list includes, according to our EIC @mbwwelch.bsky.social's a destined-to-be Chicago classic, exciting works in translation, and a number of emotional tour-de-forces.
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/11/03/1...
November 3, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagocta.bsky.social
It's a Chicago holiday
November 1, 2025 at 12:06 PM
mbwwelch.bsky.social
I'm so proud to be a part of the Stories Matter Foundation ❤️
October 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
michaelzapata.bsky.social
Beyond proud to be a part of this amazing team and community! Chicago will never bend to fascists.
storystudiochicago.bsky.social StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 29d
Please read our statement to support immigrants and immigrant communities.

buff.ly/Ej5lgtQ
October 30, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagorevbooks.bsky.social
We are always very proud to be a part of the Stories Matter Foundation, but today especially.
storystudiochicago.bsky.social StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 29d
Please read our statement to support immigrants and immigrant communities.

buff.ly/Ej5lgtQ
October 29, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
storystudiochicago.bsky.social
Please read our statement to support immigrants and immigrant communities.

buff.ly/Ej5lgtQ
October 29, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
chicagomag.com
Poet @joseolivarez.bsky.social reacts to the immigration crackdown in his hometown the way he knows best: through verse.
A Poem for Our Times
A poet reacts to the immigration crackdown in his hometown the way he knows best: through verse.
buff.ly
October 28, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Michael Welch
haymarketbooks.org
“Chicago is the future.“

@joseolivarez.bsky.social for @chicagomag.com
when we win the masked agents raid our neighborhoods. what do they cover up? (yesterday) is their promise & their charge. on 75th and South Shore they ram down our doors using (yesterday). they toss canisters of (yesterday) into our children’s lullabies. why? my people, we carry (today) & (tomorrow) in twin holsters. we plant (today) & (tomorrow) in our gardens. every day there are more sprouts. let it be known: Chicago will never cower. (yesterday) already died. (yesterday) is dying. (yesterday) will die again. there is no future in (yesterday). the agents in our neighborhoods hide their faces because they are losing. because they lost. when we win, there will be whistles from the gulls circling Lake Michigan. let them sing it: Chicago is a city of (today) & (tomorrow). Chicago is the future.
October 28, 2025 at 2:36 PM