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Garth Greenwell

@garthgreenwell.bsky.social

9.1K followers 46 following 350 posts

What Belongs to You, Cleanness, & Small Rain | 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award | Eeyore at the gay club | https://garthgreenwell.substack.com

garthgreenwell.substack.com

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · Apr 7

Small Rain has won the PEN/Faulkner Award. I don’t know what to say, except that I’m very grateful to the judges, & very moved to see my book included alongside such excellent writers.

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 1d

Amazing.

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 3d

Beauford Delaney’s final self-portrait is a moving testament to his lifelong quest to accept his sexuality, especially when seen alongside his first portrait of James Baldwin. Free post; no paywall. Full essay here: garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/on-beaufor...

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 6d

I really enjoyed talking shop about opera and writing with @kevinng.bsky.social for @parterrebox.bsky.social.

Kevin Ng @kevinng.bsky.social · 6d

I had the immense privilege to interview @garthgreenwell.bsky.social for @parterrebox.bsky.social about literature, opera, and queer aesthetics

parterre.com/2025/10/02/w...

What belongs to us - Parterre Box

Kevin Ng sits down with PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist and critic Garth Greenwell to talk about sex, queerness, and the "promise of opera."

parterre.com

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 7d

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 7d

On Beauford Delaney’s “Dark Rapture”—his first, great portrait of James Baldwin. Link to full essay (free post, no paywall) garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/on-beaufor...

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 8d

This fills me with such joy.

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 8d

Truly excellent choices.

R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 8d

this one means the world to me 😭 I’m a recipient of the @lambdaliterary.org Duggins Prize, an award that “honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come”

R. O. Kwon and Carter Sickels Win the 2025 Jim Duggins Prize for PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize

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Reposted by Garth Greenwell

Clay Harris 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 💉💉💉💉💉💉💉 😷 @mudlarklives.bsky.social · 8d

Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social On Beauford Delaney. Courage & Desire in Baldwin's "Principal Witness". garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/on-beaufor...

On Beauford Delaney

Courage & Desire in Baldwin's "Principal Witness"

garthgreenwell.substack.com

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks so much for reading this.

Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 8d

I wrote about the great painter Beauford Delaney, his friendship with James Baldwin, & the tremendous courage of his wrestling with desire & selfhood. Free post, no paywall. garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/on-beaufor...

Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 9d

Just over a month until the start of this online course on Augustine's Confessions. Our focus will be on Augustine as a writer—as the inventor of much of what is "modern" in the modern novel. 6 sessions, all recorded. I'd love for you to join us. www.garthgreenwell.com/classes-ig

Reposted by Garth Greenwell

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 13d

“The fact is that we live in the irreparable; we need art to help us ‘say Yes to life’ (a phrase Baldwin uses in Giovanni’s Room and elsewhere) from within the irreparable.”

Garth Greenwell (@garthgreenwell.bsky.social) on Giovanni’s Room and literary “affirmation.”

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Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

buff.ly

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Reposted by Garth Greenwell

Jimin Kang @jiminkanggg.bsky.social · 14d

“What the sentence says is that David and Giovanni’s romance will not last; but that meaning is scored to a music of rapture.” Amazed by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social's take on affirming literature: that affirmation comes as much from style—an author's care—as the subject harpers.org/archive/2025...

Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

harpers.org

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 13d

Thanks so much for reading this!

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 16d

It’s extremely moving to read James Baldwin’s novels, one after the other, & watch him slowly escape the homophobic logic that structures Giovanni’s Room—even if traces of that logic always remain. These & more thoughts on Giovanni’s Room here: garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/more-thoug...

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 17d

Scholarship applications for my upcoming class, Daddy Augustine: Reading Confessions, close tomorrow at noon ET. I’d love for you to join us. Full info here: www.garthgreenwell.com/classes

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Reposted by Garth Greenwell

🕯️ Crowley Rae Jepsen 🕯️ @mags.colvett.online · 21d

Can’t pick a sentence or two to pull, so let me just say, tremendous stuff here and a rare piece of criticism that speaks convincingly to why the art matters to me

Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

harpers.org

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 17d

Thank you so much—I’m so glad you found something useful in this.

Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 17d

Thank you so much for reading this.

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Reposted by Garth Greenwell

Deborah @deborahzafer.bsky.social · 17d

This essay about Giovanni's Room by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social is beautiful and moving (as I would expect it to be)

harpers.org/archive/2025...

Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

harpers.org

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 18d

Harper’s gave 6k words to my essay on Giovanni’s Room—very generous for lit crit in a glossy magazine. But the essay is a good bit longer. On the stack this week I shared some of what was cut. Also: why everyone should have a cat nearby when writing a difficult essay. tinyurl.com/4fj97d37

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Reposted by Garth Greenwell

John Paul Stadler @johnpaulstadler.bsky.social · 19d

In other news, this critical essay on "Zone of Interest" by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social is both beautiful and provocative. Doing some lesson prep for my screening of ZoI next week and happened upon it. thepointmag.com/criticism/th...

The Zone of Interest | The Point Magazine

If somehow you were to wander into a screening of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2023) without knowing what you were getting into, it might take about ten minutes to figure things out.

thepointmag.com

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 19d

Thank you so much for reading this.

Reposted by Garth Greenwell

Adrian Dallas Frandle @adrianf.bsky.social · 19d

"Any art that excludes the irreparable excludes the possibility of genuine affirmation, as I’m trying to articulate it here; such art can only ever be propaganda for life, which can’t offer us any help at all."

Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · 21d

I first read Giovanni's Room when I was 14. How did a book built (I now think) on a homophobic logic give me access to dignity? For Harper's, I wrote about why we should complicate our sense of what it means for art to be "affirming." harpers.org/archive/2025...

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