Lev Mirov
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thelionmachine.bsky.social
Lev Mirov
@thelionmachine.bsky.social
poet, novelist, graduate student, time traveler. in my sock knitting era. Jewish genderfluid bone wizard writing queer trans speclit in hell. Medievalist inexplicably writing a dissertation about Anna Akhmatova's queerness. no English pronouns, thanks.
Got my grocery bag searched by the national guard trying to walk home 🙃 I'm trying not to be salty about it but also: I cannot go anywhere without dealing with police, the guard, armored vehicles, street closures and barriers, and it's very very stressful to my brain
February 12, 2026 at 12:37 AM
It's amazing how *I* feel like a huge bully for asking aomeone to remake my coffee they got wrong the first time. Brain. Why. I literally paid for this drink and was told I had choices.
February 11, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
Here to advocate for the #PoetryHugo

It takes not a long time to read a new speculative poem.

Please consider nominating poems this year! It means a lot to us poets that we get a permanent poetry Hugo.

Keep changing minds and hearts, poets!
Nominations are now open for the 2026 Hugo Awards!

Emails are going out to eligible nominators (those who became a member of LAcon V by January 31, 2026, or were a member of the Seattle Worldcon 2025) about how to set up their LAcon V virtual convention account.
February 11, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Writing a grant application is WAY harder than reading 500 of them and deciding who gets the money, and that was not easy either!!!
February 11, 2026 at 10:23 PM
"AI" has very limited utility to aid humans in doing their jobs when trained correctly. It's a dead end for emergent consciousness. There is almost nothing that can stop the AI bubble is about to explode and ravage industries that were counting on it to develop utility it doesn't and cannot have.
I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.
February 11, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
If you are an American beader who is running your own small business and could use a bead stash, please email me team @ peculiarityshop dot com with your address.

Marginalized creatives highly encouraged to reach out. I will do five boxes to start. Mixed media, random grabs.

Make art.
February 11, 2026 at 5:39 PM
My parents literally screamed at me that if I couldn't teach myself pre-Algebra that I'd never get into college and should maybe learn to cook better 🙃

I passed the GRE with slightly better than average math, it's like I needed a teacher, and I'm not actually too stupid to live
Those who weren’t resigned to the Math Idiot Garbage Bin as kids may not grasp how much “if you’re bad at math, you’ll die in a ditch and all will be better off for it” sentiment was floating around in the 90s and 2000s, but it sure felt real to me.

(my parents are great! It didn’t come from them!)
February 11, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Aleksei scanned and I am digitizing an out of print book for personal use and it is SO fucking hard. It is INCREDIBLY physically and mentally demanding. I have crazy respect for people who do this all the time. My forearms are already pissed off by the "delete extra page breaks" keyboard posture.
February 11, 2026 at 5:08 AM
I just got a tourism ad for Egypt that closed on the tagline "unmatched diversity"

I... okay. There's a lot of choices happening there.
February 11, 2026 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
I did a partial payment today but I still need to take care of the rest of my back rent to keep my housing. It needs to be taken care of ASAP. You can also buy books in my digital shop to help!
January rent is past due and I also need some help to keep the lights on and pay me health insurance. Any amount helps and so do shares 💖

ko-fi.com/A356F63/goal...
Buy Chelsea M. Cameron a Coffee
Become a supporter of Chelsea M. Cameron today!
ko-fi.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:03 AM
I was having usual pain emotions and suddenly realized I will never hear Alice Wong's opinion on New Star Trek or really anything ever again and I'm gutted. This sucks. I miss her.
February 11, 2026 at 1:08 AM
Nothing like watching a knitting YouTube video where the host apologizes because she's in Kiev and the power keeps cutting out in sub-zero temperatures and then goes "ANYWAY this is what I've been knitting"

If you're wondering how other countries take it day by day.
February 11, 2026 at 12:54 AM
White people stop defending dead racist writers to IBPOC challenge difficulty: fucking impossible apparently according to my mentions
February 10, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
something you can do is make your little rushlight in the long cold dark
idk i think in a time when it feels like nothing matters & all is futile it might actually be time to double down and write your stories & make your paintings & sing your songs & do your art. create the things that make us human and share them.
February 10, 2026 at 6:39 AM
I just heard a white guy in this taqueria call queso and chips "cheeses and crackers" with 0 irony or self awareness.
February 10, 2026 at 3:19 AM
I dreamed that I survived an explosion, if you're wondering how much pain I'm in today
February 9, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
finally, if this strikes you as performative: correct!! this is a high-visibility public performance of politics designed to make some little PR number-cruncher in some fetid corporate basement go running to their supervisor like "sir! it seems the peasants do NOT like the nazi collaboration!"
February 9, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
I mean, we have done a really good job of reminding people to keep their actual volunteer resistance OFF of social media because that's basic operational security, and nobody needs to suddenly acquire an ICE minder because they were talking about grocery runs on the open internet.
And they aren't all crowing about it on social media, so let's not assume that all the people in hats and buttons passing out whistles are doing nothing else. People - "wine moms," "knitters," who else do you think has ready access to breast milk? - are working behind the scenes for good.
A detail I don't want to get lost in this: So far, Bri and her network have helped more than 500 families with grocery deliveries and more than 300 with diapers and wipes. In just two months.
February 9, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
Call me Cato the Elder because I’m salting it like Carthage.
February 8, 2026 at 9:01 PM
In case anyone was wondering, the bread subscription service for bread shipped to you and finished in your oven does NOT have a gluten-free bread box that HAS NO WHEAT INGREDIENTS. All the breads contain de-glutened wheat flour, which many people still react to. Particularly me.
February 8, 2026 at 6:50 AM
Migraines should be orohvhghdf

This is a typo but I'm keeping it
February 8, 2026 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
CFP IR UK: The call for papers for the 48th Implicit Religion Conference, "Knowingness, Agency and Authority" is live. #IR48

DEADLINE: 27th March 2026

www.implicitreligion.co.uk/ir-uk/implic...

CFP PDF: cdn.prod.website-files.com/616453adbf9f...
February 6, 2026 at 4:32 PM
My brain just summoned up how incredibly deeply and powerfully I was influenced as a child by the description of Luke having a spiritual connection to the living Force as energy that ties all life together for the first time in The Courtship Of Princess Leia for no particular reason.
February 6, 2026 at 8:24 PM
It is really something that every book in Russian I crack open about Akhmatova and the women she knew contains a huge gap in the sections where they lived together. Not because nothing has been said about it by their peers!! Because it's literally considered foreign propaganda to discuss it.
February 6, 2026 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Lev Mirov
The public made noise for Liam Ramos and it got him released from Dilley.

Now we must make noise for 7 year old Diana Crespo.

Her parents were taking her for emergency medical care when ICE grabbed them, and she’s rotting in the camp sick and exposed to measles.

Get them out!
February 6, 2026 at 12:08 AM