Andrea Avery
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andreaavery.bsky.social
Andrea Avery
@andreaavery.bsky.social
590 followers 1.8K following 520 posts
Author SONATA: A MEMOIR OF PAIN AND THE PIANO (Pegasus Books) and VISITING COMPOSER: A NOVELLA (**OUT NOW** from Miami U Press).
BA (🎹) MFA, Ed.D @ ASU
MD-born desert dweller. Editor. Thrifter. Cat lady.
Rheumatoid arthritis since 1989.
She/her.
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andreaavery.bsky.social
this looks like food! bad food, like if Tillamook cream cheese went to Glamour Shots
A hand with red painted fingernails brandishes a small tub filled with yellow Play-Doh butter, garnished with plastic shreds.
November 11, 2025 at 1:05 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Maybe don’t make an inedible toy (designated as a choking hazard and containing “compounds and polymer sprinkles”) and call it “Play-Doh scented butter” (even “butter-scented Play-Doh” would be marginally better, with a good graphic designer on the case) and put it in food-style packaging?
Play-Doh scented butter comes in a pink and yellow plastic tub. The word butter is larger thanany other text on the label. Quoted directly from the retailer website: The features of the product are that it “smells like breakfast …with a buttery scent that is weirdly amazing”; that is contains “compounds and polymer sprinkles”; and that it is for ages “4+ (choking hazard)”
November 11, 2025 at 12:51 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
She came so close to getting to a lot more complex and enduring insight, though! She just needed one of these to help her
A non-elderly, white, female-presenting wheelchair user employs a reacher stick to get somethinf off a high shelf.
October 30, 2025 at 1:21 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Do you think it’s forever? 🎤
A close-cropped stock photo of a person in jeans handcuffed behind their back. Below it is an entreaty for career-seekers: be a MUNICIPAL JAILER. This six-syllable phrase can, of course, be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.) This is my last joke along these lines. I think.
October 30, 2025 at 12:33 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
A day later and I’m still thinking about it
A gray crewneck sweater is shown against a white background. Handstitched letters in pink spell out GRANDEUR ADEQUATE
October 30, 2025 at 12:25 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
I like this French-speaker’s review of a replacement cushion for a patio basket swing. I am in love with the phrase “grandeur adequate.”
The purchaser has given the cushion a five-star rating and written: Bien. Confortable. Grandeur adequate.
October 28, 2025 at 6:45 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Do you think it’s forever? 🎤
A labeled picture of the Currier painting AMERICAN WHALER, which can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)
October 25, 2025 at 10:09 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Do you think it’s forever? 🎤
A labeled picture of the VLAD THE IMPALER, whose name can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)
October 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Do you think it’s forever? 🎤
A labeled picture of the derailleur part of a bicycle, Shimanp brand (SHIMANO DERAILLEUR), a phrase which can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)
October 25, 2025 at 1:58 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
… Do you think it’s forever 🎤
A bottle of INDUSTRIAL DESCALER, a phrase which can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)
October 24, 2025 at 1:42 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
We have had this cat since Blackout-era Britney. Today we said goodbye to Inga.
A small white and gray cat, 18 years old, is shown in super close-up, her whiskers spreading to the sides of the image, her pencil-eraser nose a perfect pink heart, her eyes as blue as ever. A caption says “Inga (2007-2025).”
October 18, 2025 at 9:28 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Y’all doing the seleect the T-shirt (bonus points if it’s Elvis Costello) that completes two outfits unalike in vibe/occasion but utilizing the same black leather miniskirt (you may accessorize freely) to go with these two pairs of shoes Tik Tok challenge
A vintage black Elvis Costello T-shirt features the artist holding a guitar and looking pensive behind his trademark glasses; The album title (“Brutal Youth”) is splayed across the image in red, as if spraypainted. To one side of the shirt is a pair of patent leather block-heel loafers by Jeffrey Campbell in olive green patent leather with brown and red accents and a horesbit embellishment. To the right is a pair of Adidas superstars in off-white suede with the signature shell toe plated in shiny rose gold metal. If you mentally add a black leather miniskirt, and riff on accessory options you see that these are two excellent and versatile looks.
September 6, 2025 at 2:59 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
That tracks. Born in 1977 here. Made this to welcome my dad home from
a business trip. Granted, he worked for, uh, the Agency. But still. These fears were very close to the surface of my 6yo brain.
A child’s crayon drawing shows a large fiery explosion and a person saying “Help.” In the sky, a plane labeled “Rushians” drops bombs. The child has written to her father, who worked for the CIA and was returning from a business trip, “To Daddy. Welcome back. I missed you. Even for the shortest time.”
August 27, 2025 at 9:03 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Wait wait in the last several years I have published an essay called Father/Figure and another one about Ophelia. Am I … is my whole life a #LifeOfAShowgirl Easter Egg and I didn’t even know it? Way to play the long game, Tay.
Art from Taylor Swift’s upcoming Life Of A Showgirl, showing tracks named The Fate of Ophelia (1) and Father Figure (4).
August 20, 2025 at 5:16 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Phoenix friends! If you are free this Thursday night, I hope you will join me at Changing Hands on Camelback for a good old-fashioned book launch for my novella, Visiting Composer!
Andrea Avery will be reading, discussing, and signing her new novella, Visiting Composer, on August 21 at Changing Hands Bookstore, 300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix. The event begins at 6:30 pm and is free.
August 17, 2025 at 10:55 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
I get that the national news is universally awful but is everybody’s local news also the horrifying shitshow we have over here in Arizona?
A collage of local Arizona headlines from the last week: Tarantula mating season has begun! Women shouldn’t hold office, says GOP woman now running for office! Fire destroys Oxbow Bridge! Bat flies into woman’s mouth!
August 9, 2025 at 1:56 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Out: good cop/bad cop
In: belt with tucked shirt cop/no belt with tucked shirt cop
A still from the 1985 movie Terror at London Bridge. Two plainclothes detectives are shown: Joe Nez (played by Randolph Mantooth” wears a nice leather belt with his dark-wash jeans, while Don Gregory (David Hasselhoff) is out here wearing no belt on his snug-fitting light-wash denim and his shirt tucked in.
August 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Was anyone ever so 48
A screenshot shows the poster’s Google calendar, where she is creating an all-day Event for August 8, the theatre release date for the new Jeff Buckley documentary. A memo on the calendar item says “Wait for streaming.”
July 19, 2025 at 2:08 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Are the croissants in the room with us right now?
A piece of home decor says “Croissants.” Below the word is an image of …. baguettes.
July 18, 2025 at 12:40 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Nominating for best Superman this
little hero I saw at a market in Paris
A little boy, about 5 or 6, stands nonchalantly next to a produce cart. He is wearing a full Superman outfit and light blue Adidas. His hair is mussed and he looks dreamy or pensive, like he just had a nap.
July 15, 2025 at 4:48 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
I will be at the National Women’s Music Festival this week leading a session on writing about music. Prep has been wonderful, as I spend time with some of my favorite writers and their beautiful and powerful music writing @johncotter.bsky.social @marthaannetoll.bsky.social
A stack of books: The Beginning of Everything, by Andrea J. Buchanan; The Skin Above My Knee, by Marcia Butler; Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, by Dave Maass and Patrick Lay; Duet for One, by Martha Anne Toll; Losing Music, by John Cotter; Fiddler’s Dream, by Gregory Spatz; I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men and What I Had On, by Khadijah Queen; Why Mariah Carey Matters, by Andrew Chan; The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers; What Could Be Saved: Bookmatched Novellas and Stories, by Gregory Spatz; and Swing Time, by Zadie Smith.
July 2, 2025 at 3:20 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Hey, Arizona friends… you’re invited… Save the date!
A flyer invites viewers to a Book Launch for Visiting Composer: A Novella. It will be held August 21, 2025, at 6:30 pm at Changing Hands Phoenix. The address is 300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix AZ 85013. The flyer is a cream-colored square with text in blue and orange. There is a line drawing of a stack of books in the center.
June 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Best thing I found today
An antique Staffordshire poodle figurine sits atop a stack of books, the top one of which is Middlemarch. The dog is made of smooth and textured ceramic, with orange eyes and a dark snout. He wears a collar with a gold tag.
June 20, 2025 at 3:52 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
Just how “limited” are we talking here
An open bag of the “limited edition” Old Bay Goldfish Crackers.
June 15, 2025 at 1:49 AM
andreaavery.bsky.social
i wanna know how the mandatory training module I had to take ended up discussing “prenatal, intraNASAL, and postnatal care.” Sike: I know how it happened (AI).
June 10, 2025 at 1:28 AM