Raskin: "It's not lost on anyone that shutting the government down allows them not swear in our new colleague, Ms Grijalva from Arizona, who would be the 218th signature to discharge the Epstein files and to put a vote on that on the House floor."

Come freewrite from prompts and read nature writing with me!
We had an amazing time last spring with this class and I'm excited to be teaching it again. This time it's virtual so you can join from anywhere 🌻🦎🦅
literary-arts.org/event/nature...

Excited about this new weekly installment on substack! Check it out and feel free to leave a comment if you like.

open.substack.com/pub/emilystr...

New substack up! I appreciate all engagement. But I’m especially looking to connect with other writing instructors.

open.substack.com/pub/emilystr...

Well if everyone in government just quits, who will be left to skin it from the inside?

It’s a tree falls in the forest conundrum.

Our congratulations to mother & daughter Janet Webster Jones and Alyson Jones Turner, owners of SOURCE BOOKSELLERS in Detroit, MI, for being voted BOOKSELLER of the YEAR by @publisherswkly.bsky.social

Portland shows up!!!

#handsoff PORTLAND, OR

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

*Strom Thurmond but does he really deserve the spelling correction?

Sen. Booker’s speech was a substantive and moral account of this moment. He did not read the phone book. He did not babble.
For 24 hours @booker.senate.gov laid out a detailed, damning, and critical narrative of truth, history, politics, morality, humanity.

What will you do?

Just watched with my 12yo and he says #CoryBooker is the GOAT. I say replacing a filibuster record of racist Strom Thurman with political facts and a coherent and imperative call to action is speaking truth to power, straight up.

Also I just want to add to my own reading list ☀️

So I'm teaching a nature writing class right now and we have read Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mary Oliver, Robert Macfarlane, Katherine Rundell, and Barry Lopez. I want to end with something by an author not on that list that really rends the soul for our last reading and am looking for suggestions.

But of course you know of the rare phenomenon where some people are still born with vestigial tails? While they mostly snip them at birth perhaps this guy is a percentage of the percentage?

If you need something to pull your heart out of the tar, for the love of Barney go watch The Studio on Apple TV. Seth Rogen is great, sure, but Sarah Polley is my kryptonite.
#TheStudio

Maybe someone needs this video today as the clowns dance on their thrones? I know I did.

Thank you to everyone who has joined the resistance! Our ranks grow stronger every day.

@smathewss.bsky.social writes this as a novelist, an organizer and an immigrant who grew up under authoritarianism. I found it a centering and even calming experience to read it, arriving at a place to act from, variously.

Make sure your lawyer has had a good breakfast, comfortable socks, and a change of clothes in their work bag. It’s going to be a busy, busy year for lawyers.

👀👀 Eyes wide open!

Anyone else super exhausted