Susan Stinson
@susanstinson.bsky.social
Novelist. Author of Martha Moody, Spider in a Tree, and Venus of Chalk from Small Beer Press. Essays in The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies and The Portable Feminist Reader. Triker. she/her.
Pinned
[Spelled coupon wrong 4 times writing this (How?!?)]
25% off a bunch of our books from now until year end using code
SBP25
smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journa...
indiepubs.com/collections/...
25% off a bunch of our books from now until year end using code
SBP25
smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journa...
indiepubs.com/collections/...
Hey! 25% my Martha Moody! And so very many other excellent books from Small Beer Press. Until the end of the year.
Today, when the current US government is suppressing World Aids Day, I point you again to new and brilliant When We All Get to Heaven podcast. It's about a gay church in San Fransisco in the 1990s grappling with AIDS. My friend @thislynne.bsky.social narrates (and much more.)
www.heavenpodcast.org
www.heavenpodcast.org
Eureka Street Productions
www.heavenpodcast.org
December 2, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Today, when the current US government is suppressing World Aids Day, I point you again to new and brilliant When We All Get to Heaven podcast. It's about a gay church in San Fransisco in the 1990s grappling with AIDS. My friend @thislynne.bsky.social narrates (and much more.)
www.heavenpodcast.org
www.heavenpodcast.org
This is a great essay.
An essay for World AIDS Day and the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks's valiant act of resistance, an essay on quilts and solidarity, on stitching the fragments together.
Solidarity Stitches Us Together: Today, World AIDS Day, Is Also the 70th Anniversary of Rosa Park's Historic Protest
I saw two radically different versions of what a quilt could be yesterday and yet they spoke to the same issues. I caught the show Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California ...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:16 AM
This is a great essay.
I learned this weekend that the first concert that my parents ever saw together was Ernest Tubb in Lubbock, Texas.
December 1, 2025 at 8:38 PM
I learned this weekend that the first concert that my parents ever saw together was Ernest Tubb in Lubbock, Texas.
Reposted by Susan Stinson
A wonderful, resonant essay from @thesicktimes.org about how we can better listen to anyone going through something catastrophic. "Avoiding the topic feels absurd — like I’m standing in quicksand, and we’re chitchatting over glasses of lemonade as I slowly sink." thesicktimes.org/2025/11/28/y...
You know someone with Long COVID. They need you to ask about it genuinely. - The Sick Times
If community-building is a bulwark against autocracy, then asking after one another might be a good place to start.
thesicktimes.org
November 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
A wonderful, resonant essay from @thesicktimes.org about how we can better listen to anyone going through something catastrophic. "Avoiding the topic feels absurd — like I’m standing in quicksand, and we’re chitchatting over glasses of lemonade as I slowly sink." thesicktimes.org/2025/11/28/y...
Reposted by Susan Stinson
The Mass Senate passed "An Act Regarding Free Expression," which protects the right to access books in MA and safeguards creators, librarians, educators, and book professionals. The bill is now moving to the House!
Visit www.massfreedomtoread.org/act and follow the steps there to show your support!
Visit www.massfreedomtoread.org/act and follow the steps there to show your support!
November 30, 2025 at 11:55 PM
The Mass Senate passed "An Act Regarding Free Expression," which protects the right to access books in MA and safeguards creators, librarians, educators, and book professionals. The bill is now moving to the House!
Visit www.massfreedomtoread.org/act and follow the steps there to show your support!
Visit www.massfreedomtoread.org/act and follow the steps there to show your support!
Reposted by Susan Stinson
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
November 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
Love and solidarity always to people with a suspicion of or distaste for Christianity, especially the many who have been harmed by its practices and people. I've gone back and am finding communities committed to resistance and (imperfectly, messily) loving strangers. Including queers. Good article.
Rightwing MAGA Christianity has about as much relation to the gospels as MAGA politics does to the Constitution.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity | Bill McKibben
Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression
www.theguardian.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Love and solidarity always to people with a suspicion of or distaste for Christianity, especially the many who have been harmed by its practices and people. I've gone back and am finding communities committed to resistance and (imperfectly, messily) loving strangers. Including queers. Good article.
Reposted by Susan Stinson
Nice to see a Democratic Senator speak directly about Trump administration criminality without couching it in careful consultant-speak or trying to force it into an economic frame.
But Hegseth won’t be fired for war crimes. He was appointed *because* he advocates war crimes.
It’s up to Congress.
But Hegseth won’t be fired for war crimes. He was appointed *because* he advocates war crimes.
It’s up to Congress.
Pete Hegseth is a war criminal and should be fired immediately.
November 30, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Nice to see a Democratic Senator speak directly about Trump administration criminality without couching it in careful consultant-speak or trying to force it into an economic frame.
But Hegseth won’t be fired for war crimes. He was appointed *because* he advocates war crimes.
It’s up to Congress.
But Hegseth won’t be fired for war crimes. He was appointed *because* he advocates war crimes.
It’s up to Congress.
Book Moon is a wonderful, beloved local bookstore. Now they are working to buy their building. We can help them by buying books there!
November 28, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Book Moon is a wonderful, beloved local bookstore. Now they are working to buy their building. We can help them by buying books there!
Reposted by Susan Stinson
Local small independent bookstore in Milwaukee said exactly this in a recent social post, circling back on the point they might not make it to 2026 if they don't have a big holiday weekend, and it got shared by basically every record store and small business concern over the last week.
Remember - if you're financially in a position to do so, skip the #BlackFriday deals online from big companies and shop instead from small and local businesses.
The big guns don't need your money, but for small traders it can be what keeps them going into 2026, so support your community instead.
The big guns don't need your money, but for small traders it can be what keeps them going into 2026, so support your community instead.
November 28, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Local small independent bookstore in Milwaukee said exactly this in a recent social post, circling back on the point they might not make it to 2026 if they don't have a big holiday weekend, and it got shared by basically every record store and small business concern over the last week.
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Oh, the many bears. The many, many bears
yellow bellied marmot
mountain goat
efts
lampreys
Oh, the many bears. The many, many bears
yellow bellied marmot
mountain goat
efts
lampreys
introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
bears (so many bears)
wild turkeys
iguanas (so many)
coral snake
moose
4 baby fisher cats
bears (so many bears)
wild turkeys
iguanas (so many)
coral snake
moose
4 baby fisher cats
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Fox
Wolf
Otter
Bison
Cougar
Fox
Wolf
Otter
Bison
Cougar
November 28, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Oh, the many bears. The many, many bears
yellow bellied marmot
mountain goat
efts
lampreys
Oh, the many bears. The many, many bears
yellow bellied marmot
mountain goat
efts
lampreys
I am on a layover on a Peter Pan bus in Springfield, coming home from Boston. I used to ride this bus every other weekend to see my beloved forty years ago. Today was sweet, but, oh, my body is different. My head is different. But we're heading out now.
November 28, 2025 at 2:29 AM
I am on a layover on a Peter Pan bus in Springfield, coming home from Boston. I used to ride this bus every other weekend to see my beloved forty years ago. Today was sweet, but, oh, my body is different. My head is different. But we're heading out now.
Live in Massachusetts? Send a letter to your state senator and legislator in support of this bill Prohibiting Body Size Discrimination! Show up in writing, on video or in person at the State House hearing at 10 am on THIS Tuesday 11/25! Do something good for fat people! Please share.
Short version: TELL EVERYBODY YOU KNOW WHO CARES ABOUT SIZE DISCRIMINATION TO SUPPORT S.1249/H.1919 IN MASSACHUSETTS! naafa.org/sizefreedom for info.
Long version: Bill S.1249/H.1919 is heading to the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on Tuesday 11/25 at 10am ET. Join us!
Long version: Bill S.1249/H.1919 is heading to the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on Tuesday 11/25 at 10am ET. Join us!
November 20, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Live in Massachusetts? Send a letter to your state senator and legislator in support of this bill Prohibiting Body Size Discrimination! Show up in writing, on video or in person at the State House hearing at 10 am on THIS Tuesday 11/25! Do something good for fat people! Please share.
Reposted by Susan Stinson
@biggerbodiesboston and @naafaofficial will cohost a virtual testimony prep session THIS SUNDAY 11/23 at 11am EST for those who want help getting ready. Visit naafa.org/sizefreedom for details, sign-up links, and more!
November 20, 2025 at 3:41 AM
@biggerbodiesboston and @naafaofficial will cohost a virtual testimony prep session THIS SUNDAY 11/23 at 11am EST for those who want help getting ready. Visit naafa.org/sizefreedom for details, sign-up links, and more!
Reposted by Susan Stinson
I just listened to a Radiolab episode from Sept 26, 2025 ("Voice") in which Alice was featured and spoke so powerfully about what it means to lose your voice and yet retain a clear grasp on your own and everyone else's humanity
rest in power and strength of being heard
radiolab.org/podcast/voice
rest in power and strength of being heard
radiolab.org/podcast/voice
Voice
How we got our voices and the power they hold over us.
radiolab.org
November 15, 2025 at 6:36 AM
I just listened to a Radiolab episode from Sept 26, 2025 ("Voice") in which Alice was featured and spoke so powerfully about what it means to lose your voice and yet retain a clear grasp on your own and everyone else's humanity
rest in power and strength of being heard
radiolab.org/podcast/voice
rest in power and strength of being heard
radiolab.org/podcast/voice
Reposted by Susan Stinson
One way I have found to mourn someone is to set up a monthly sustaining donation to a mutual aid effort they cared about. If you can join me in honoring Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social with a sustaining donation today, please do. Thank you Alice, and I will not let the bastards grind me down.
November 15, 2025 at 12:34 PM
One way I have found to mourn someone is to set up a monthly sustaining donation to a mutual aid effort they cared about. If you can join me in honoring Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social with a sustaining donation today, please do. Thank you Alice, and I will not let the bastards grind me down.
Reposted by Susan Stinson
Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.
November 16, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.
Reposted by Susan Stinson
Alice in her own words: bsky.app/profile/thra...
“With so many marginalized communities, we’re basically the oracles…we’re the ones who see shit before it happens.” In June 2020, I interviewed Alice Wong for TVU before she lost her ability to speak. I asked her how she’d first learned of SARS-CoV-2. She began with the 2016 election of Trump:
November 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Alice in her own words: bsky.app/profile/thra...
Reposted by Susan Stinson
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
November 15, 2025 at 6:15 AM
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
Reposted by Susan Stinson
"You know us...So please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong."
Powerful letter from retired Chicago broadcast journalists about what ICE/CBP is doing to our city: "it is terror"
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/13/l...
Powerful letter from retired Chicago broadcast journalists about what ICE/CBP is doing to our city: "it is terror"
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/13/l...
November 13, 2025 at 8:20 PM
"You know us...So please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong."
Powerful letter from retired Chicago broadcast journalists about what ICE/CBP is doing to our city: "it is terror"
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/13/l...
Powerful letter from retired Chicago broadcast journalists about what ICE/CBP is doing to our city: "it is terror"
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/13/l...
Reposted by Susan Stinson
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
The podcast "When We All Get to Heaven "is narrated by my friend Lynne Gerber, who spent more than a decade researching, writing, and producing it in an intense collaboration with others. I want to talk about it with somebody. It's so intense. Start at the beginning or with the making of interview!
We are so thrilled to see When We All Get to Heaven featured on Apple Podcasts this week.
Follow the story of a queer church as it faces AIDS in 1980s and ’90s San Francisco.
Listen now: apple.co/WhenWeAllGet...
Follow the story of a queer church as it faces AIDS in 1980s and ’90s San Francisco.
Listen now: apple.co/WhenWeAllGet...
November 14, 2025 at 10:26 PM
The podcast "When We All Get to Heaven "is narrated by my friend Lynne Gerber, who spent more than a decade researching, writing, and producing it in an intense collaboration with others. I want to talk about it with somebody. It's so intense. Start at the beginning or with the making of interview!
Reposted by Susan Stinson
obviously this is bad, but it’s long been true of other countries we praise to the skies for their healthcare and a lot of progressive Americans don’t want to acknowledge that as a huge vector of oppression. there are a lot of places I couldn’t emigrate to even if I wanted bc they have BMI limits
Obesity's now on the list of considerations, as well as cancer, & mental health, that may result in denial of an immigrant visa.
"Those who suffer from these medical conditions could become a “public charge,” & drain the nation of its resources, the directive argued."
🧾 nypost.com/2025/11/10/u...
"Those who suffer from these medical conditions could become a “public charge,” & drain the nation of its resources, the directive argued."
🧾 nypost.com/2025/11/10/u...
State Department to allow denial of immigrant visas to those with health issues, including obesity
US State Department guidance could deny immigrant visas for health conditions like obesity.
nypost.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:01 AM
obviously this is bad, but it’s long been true of other countries we praise to the skies for their healthcare and a lot of progressive Americans don’t want to acknowledge that as a huge vector of oppression. there are a lot of places I couldn’t emigrate to even if I wanted bc they have BMI limits
Reposted by Susan Stinson
More on this—quite a lot more on this—soon, but in the meantime:
If you're a writer of fiction (and/or maybe simply a writer or a person), you really need to preorder @elizmccrack.bsky.social's A Long Game, which is both enthralling and inspiring. (And sharp as a stiletto.)
If you're a writer of fiction (and/or maybe simply a writer or a person), you really need to preorder @elizmccrack.bsky.social's A Long Game, which is both enthralling and inspiring. (And sharp as a stiletto.)
A Long Game
From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing.
Writing can feel like an endle...
www.harpercollins.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:15 PM
More on this—quite a lot more on this—soon, but in the meantime:
If you're a writer of fiction (and/or maybe simply a writer or a person), you really need to preorder @elizmccrack.bsky.social's A Long Game, which is both enthralling and inspiring. (And sharp as a stiletto.)
If you're a writer of fiction (and/or maybe simply a writer or a person), you really need to preorder @elizmccrack.bsky.social's A Long Game, which is both enthralling and inspiring. (And sharp as a stiletto.)
I just made my calls to Sen. Warren and Sen. Markey to tell them to call for Schumer to step down. I have their numbers in both my phones and I usually just call them, but this time I did it through the Indivisible form (previous post for link) because I want to be sure that these calls are counted.
November 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I just made my calls to Sen. Warren and Sen. Markey to tell them to call for Schumer to step down. I have their numbers in both my phones and I usually just call them, but this time I did it through the Indivisible form (previous post for link) because I want to be sure that these calls are counted.