Mordecai Martin
@mordecaimartin.net
He/him. Writer. איבערטייטשער. Fifth generation New Yorker. Mad man and Psychiatric Survivor. Hairy AND over-share-y. MFA from Randolph College. http://www.MordecaiMartin.net. https://fartaytshtundfarbesert.substack.com/
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Mordecai Martin
@mordecaimartin.net
· Nov 11
Mordecai Martin, Writer
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mordecaimartin.net
Fuck I did my #introduction post and I forgot to put a link to my website that has all my publications and my blog and my contact form. Fuck. Fuck me. Shit. Shit balls. Fuck a duck. Fuck a rama ding dong. Shit and piss. Fuck, shit, and assholes. Assholes and piss. Fuck a dog.
Jesus fucked. Dang.
Jesus fucked. Dang.
Translation is neat, because instead of having an anxiety attack about whether I'll ever get a book published for the collapse of traditional publishing/society, I'm wondering whether I can get a grant to travel to the exact hill Sholem Shvartsbord wrote this poem on.
January 21, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Translation is neat, because instead of having an anxiety attack about whether I'll ever get a book published for the collapse of traditional publishing/society, I'm wondering whether I can get a grant to travel to the exact hill Sholem Shvartsbord wrote this poem on.
About to meet Atenea’s best friend from high school and I’m so nervous! What if she doesn’t like me and blows this whole deal? (For background, Atenea and I have been together for 10 years, 7 years married, and we have a beautiful 2 year old)
January 20, 2026 at 8:48 PM
About to meet Atenea’s best friend from high school and I’m so nervous! What if she doesn’t like me and blows this whole deal? (For background, Atenea and I have been together for 10 years, 7 years married, and we have a beautiful 2 year old)
Good morning. A chilly day here in Mexico City. I’d like to read a poem, I think
January 20, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Good morning. A chilly day here in Mexico City. I’d like to read a poem, I think
6 years ago, I wrote an elegy to the diner of my heart.
January 19, 2026 at 5:10 PM
6 years ago, I wrote an elegy to the diner of my heart.
This is the poster for the fifth salon of the rose and cross group of symbolists. It shows the hero Perseus holding the severed head of the naturalist Emile Zola. Never be afraid to name your aesthetic enemies. Define yourself in opposition! I don’t agree with the symbolists, but I admire the verve!
January 18, 2026 at 5:13 PM
This is the poster for the fifth salon of the rose and cross group of symbolists. It shows the hero Perseus holding the severed head of the naturalist Emile Zola. Never be afraid to name your aesthetic enemies. Define yourself in opposition! I don’t agree with the symbolists, but I admire the verve!
Reposted by Mordecai Martin
you can also find my baby on goodreads and storygraph! consider adding to your tbr :)
www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
app.thestorygraph.com/books/2abe4a...
www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
app.thestorygraph.com/books/2abe4a...
January 17, 2026 at 8:14 PM
you can also find my baby on goodreads and storygraph! consider adding to your tbr :)
www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
app.thestorygraph.com/books/2abe4a...
www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
app.thestorygraph.com/books/2abe4a...
Sprained my damn ankle
January 16, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Sprained my damn ankle
There’s a hummingbird in the tree outside my window. What is this peace I feel watching its frantic movement?
January 15, 2026 at 11:13 PM
There’s a hummingbird in the tree outside my window. What is this peace I feel watching its frantic movement?
Reposted by Mordecai Martin
While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →
January 15, 2026 at 7:57 PM
While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →
All scripted television shows devolve into being about found family/love of community, mirroring the pleasure the team of people cocreating the show have in making it/feeding the audience‘s fondness for the characters. This is A) inherent to the form and B) bad and makes TV not Art #MySpiciestTake
January 15, 2026 at 10:41 PM
All scripted television shows devolve into being about found family/love of community, mirroring the pleasure the team of people cocreating the show have in making it/feeding the audience‘s fondness for the characters. This is A) inherent to the form and B) bad and makes TV not Art #MySpiciestTake
What are some books you like to read in this way, next to and in light of one another?
Last night, around bathtime for my toddler, my wife and I were talking about Don Quixote and Moby Dick. While owning her bias being toward Spanish as her first language, Atenea still maintained that a reasonable argument can be made “the Ingenious Gentleman” is a greater book than “The Whale.”
January 15, 2026 at 7:28 PM
What are some books you like to read in this way, next to and in light of one another?
Last night, around bathtime for my toddler, my wife and I were talking about Don Quixote and Moby Dick. While owning her bias being toward Spanish as her first language, Atenea still maintained that a reasonable argument can be made “the Ingenious Gentleman” is a greater book than “The Whale.”
January 15, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Last night, around bathtime for my toddler, my wife and I were talking about Don Quixote and Moby Dick. While owning her bias being toward Spanish as her first language, Atenea still maintained that a reasonable argument can be made “the Ingenious Gentleman” is a greater book than “The Whale.”
It is the moral responsibility of every Man With A Gun to become A Man Without A Gun. We must all see the heinous and obvious moral flaws of the argument "I must have a gun." Including arguments like "I am a responsible and well trained user of a gun."
January 15, 2026 at 5:01 PM
It is the moral responsibility of every Man With A Gun to become A Man Without A Gun. We must all see the heinous and obvious moral flaws of the argument "I must have a gun." Including arguments like "I am a responsible and well trained user of a gun."
pep talk to self about being a writer: At the end of the day, either the living is the writing is the living is the writing or it isn’t, y’know? We either have grace for ourselves, or we surrender to the bullshit notion that there is some vast gulf between being human and being a writer
January 15, 2026 at 4:56 PM
pep talk to self about being a writer: At the end of the day, either the living is the writing is the living is the writing or it isn’t, y’know? We either have grace for ourselves, or we surrender to the bullshit notion that there is some vast gulf between being human and being a writer
I don’t love that I’m sick, that I’m losing days I would have spent writing, that it hurts to swallow and I’m scared my kid will get it. What do I love? The oulipo school of writing, the Situationist International, a nice oolong, New York in the fog, Paris graveyard culture, oh, all sorts of things
January 14, 2026 at 11:09 PM
I don’t love that I’m sick, that I’m losing days I would have spent writing, that it hurts to swallow and I’m scared my kid will get it. What do I love? The oulipo school of writing, the Situationist International, a nice oolong, New York in the fog, Paris graveyard culture, oh, all sorts of things
I’m in the middle of George Perec’s LIFE: A USER MANUAL translated by David Bellos, and oddly, it’s easier to see what the mundane elements are doing versus the extraordinary ones.
January 11, 2026 at 11:20 PM
I’m in the middle of George Perec’s LIFE: A USER MANUAL translated by David Bellos, and oddly, it’s easier to see what the mundane elements are doing versus the extraordinary ones.
And yet, they are killing poets
I need to find a way to make sense of myself, in this moment, where the US government, of which I am a subject, is credibly threatening to attack Mexico, of which I am a resident, while the state of Israel, which claims to represent me as a Jew, commits a genocide. I need a poem. I must write a poem
January 9, 2026 at 7:53 PM
And yet, they are killing poets
Reposted by Mordecai Martin
I need to find a way to make sense of myself, in this moment, where the US government, of which I am a subject, is credibly threatening to attack Mexico, of which I am a resident, while the state of Israel, which claims to represent me as a Jew, commits a genocide. I need a poem. I must write a poem
January 9, 2026 at 7:52 PM
I need to find a way to make sense of myself, in this moment, where the US government, of which I am a subject, is credibly threatening to attack Mexico, of which I am a resident, while the state of Israel, which claims to represent me as a Jew, commits a genocide. I need a poem. I must write a poem
I need to find a way to make sense of myself, in this moment, where the US government, of which I am a subject, is credibly threatening to attack Mexico, of which I am a resident, while the state of Israel, which claims to represent me as a Jew, commits a genocide. I need a poem. I must write a poem
January 9, 2026 at 7:52 PM
I need to find a way to make sense of myself, in this moment, where the US government, of which I am a subject, is credibly threatening to attack Mexico, of which I am a resident, while the state of Israel, which claims to represent me as a Jew, commits a genocide. I need a poem. I must write a poem
I can’t find my book. How irritating
January 8, 2026 at 5:46 PM
I can’t find my book. How irritating
Through cruelty, through death and misery, through ignorance and apathy, we try to show up for literature, for the voice of the human. That is what a translator is. It is what a reader is.
this is the most moving thing I have ever read about translation and being a translator - by Amir Mehdi Haghighat
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated
The sight of my work, torn and singed but still legible, made me realise the importance of translating and protecting stories – so they remain when everything else falls away
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Through cruelty, through death and misery, through ignorance and apathy, we try to show up for literature, for the voice of the human. That is what a translator is. It is what a reader is.
We need to bring back Russian Formalism, no I will not apologize or elaborate
u heard sharon, everyone post about their esoteric interests right fucking now. for the good of the community, we need to be hyperfixationmaxxing.
i think this site really needs to figure out how to grow the non-politics verticals (the baseball moment was a good thing!) because i suspect a lot of the bad clusters come out of the political clusters driving 95% of ENG-lang posts
January 5, 2026 at 11:10 PM
We need to bring back Russian Formalism, no I will not apologize or elaborate