Sean Bates
banner
seanjbates.bsky.social
Sean Bates
@seanjbates.bsky.social
writer/poet/educator

https://substack.com/@seanjbates

https://linktr.ee/seanbateswrites

poems in:
Emerge Literary Journal
Stone Canoe
Rising Phoenix Review
"What Saves Us"anthology ed. Martín Espada https://tinyurl.com/44yksnmp
Pinned
NEW REVIEW......"We’re Out Here: The Poet and How to Survive"
----a Review and Love Letter about (@chenchenwrites.bsky.social) Chen Chen's 2022 "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency"

tinyurl.com/yaf2v7kk

.
.
.
#poetry #booksky #substack #writingcommunity #poemsky #writing #reviews
We’re Out Here: The Poet and How to Survive
a review of Chen Chen's 2022 "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency" for BOA Editions.
tinyurl.com
Reposted by Sean Bates
The Ethos of Eephus

Eephus sees sport not as a cultural commodity, but a community engagement, and the simplicity of its framing [...] finds the beauty in the relationship baseball has not just to its participants and onlookers, but the landscape of the country.

open.substack.com/pub/mikespry...
The Ethos of Eephus
The Meaning of Games That End
open.substack.com
February 18, 2026 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
Regular guy takes advice and tries to read more...inspiration ensues.
February 13, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
Winter is textures and shapes…I love the black silhouette down the bottom..as if it’s in a movie theatre and trees are in the audience..
February 13, 2026 at 12:45 PM
My Friday the 13th is when I wonder if my threenager or my teenage students got me sick
February 13, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
oh look they made a toy about writers’ social media versus writers’ work
January 19, 2026 at 2:51 AM
Ever read a poem and it's soul shaking because it's so so good and also somehow exactly what you've been trying to say...so much so that it's a little disheartening...
February 12, 2026 at 5:01 PM
It's all "I don't think this class should be required for engineers" until we break out the cover letters.

#writersteachingwriting
February 11, 2026 at 6:29 PM
NEW REVIEW......"We’re Out Here: The Poet and How to Survive"
----a Review and Love Letter about (@chenchenwrites.bsky.social) Chen Chen's 2022 "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency"

tinyurl.com/yaf2v7kk

.
.
.
#poetry #booksky #substack #writingcommunity #poemsky #writing #reviews
We’re Out Here: The Poet and How to Survive
a review of Chen Chen's 2022 "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency" for BOA Editions.
tinyurl.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
February 10, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Posting my Chen Chen review/love letter tomorrow. So I want to specifically wish @chenchenwrites.bsky.social a beautiful start to the semester as we settle into Feb and ...the dreaded March.
February 9, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
Super Bowl Sunday Feeld Notes 8.2.26

I’m going to make chili and cheer for a tie. Wouldn’t we all just rather watch Kid Rock and Bad Bunny in a celebrity boxing match?

My Super Bowl column/self-indictment: open.substack.com/pub/mikespry...
Super Bowl Sunday Feeld Notes 8.2.26
Things I’m feeling on a Sunday of jingoism and Ozempic ads
open.substack.com
February 8, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
February 6, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
Sunday Feeld Notes 01.02.2026

So many feelings this week: Loving @thedollop.bsky.social, Sophie Turner and Steal, not SNL, not the weather, and not the Super Bowl. Plus, last week's and this week's essays.

open.substack.com/pub/mikespry...
Sunday Feeld Notes 01.01.2026
Things I’m feeling on a Sunday morning in the time of feelings
open.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
f e e l i n g s
Sunday Feeld Notes 01.02.2026

So many feelings this week: Loving @thedollop.bsky.social, Sophie Turner and Steal, not SNL, not the weather, and not the Super Bowl. Plus, last week's and this week's essays.

open.substack.com/pub/mikespry...
Sunday Feeld Notes 01.01.2026
Things I’m feeling on a Sunday morning in the time of feelings
open.substack.com
February 2, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Nothing gets my engineering students focused like the cover letter & resume unit.
Game on.

#writersteachingwriting #teachers #writinghelp
February 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
January 30, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
"Haunted by Futures Promised: Stranger Things, PLUR1BUS, and the ghost of expectation"

New essay on #StrangerThings, hauntology, and the quiet disappearance of expectation.

mikespry.substack.com/p/haunted-by...

#GenX #Hauntology #PLUR1BUS
Haunted by Futures Promised:
Stranger Things, PLUR1BUS, and the ghost of expectation
open.substack.com
January 21, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
Reposted by Sean Bates
Shoutout my friend the Poet Emily Siegenthaler for helping keep twenty twenty-somethings alive for a month in Tokyo.

#mamiya #film #photography #mediumformat #mediumformatfilm #mediumformatfilmphotography #colorphoto #tokyo #japan
January 23, 2026 at 2:08 PM
#writingthoughts I tell my students that it's not just them... writing is hard
January 23, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Small group ice breakers with students today because I am evillllllllll
January 22, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Sean Bates
NEW AUDIO --- My review of 'Designated Stranger' a poetry collection by Gion Davis @gion.bsky.social published by @thirdhandbooks.bsky.social now has an audio version narrated by yours truly.

Give it a listen---> tinyurl.com/2v43jd3d

#poemsky #writingcommunity #audiobooks #poetry #booksky
A New Hero: A Review of 'Designated Stranger' by Gion Davis
Distance, Strangeness, and Intimacy in Gion Davis’ debut collection “Designated Stranger” for Third Hand Books
tinyurl.com
January 21, 2026 at 6:37 PM
NEW AUDIO --- My review of 'Designated Stranger' a poetry collection by Gion Davis @gion.bsky.social published by @thirdhandbooks.bsky.social now has an audio version narrated by yours truly.

Give it a listen---> tinyurl.com/2v43jd3d

#poemsky #writingcommunity #audiobooks #poetry #booksky
A New Hero: A Review of 'Designated Stranger' by Gion Davis
Distance, Strangeness, and Intimacy in Gion Davis’ debut collection “Designated Stranger” for Third Hand Books
tinyurl.com
January 21, 2026 at 6:37 PM