Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 1d

Incredible (via www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...)

A group of apparent armed agents assemble at the end of a street, as seen from the perspective of a person in inflatable frog costume, their frog’s eyes dominating the foreground. The Ice facility in downtown Portland on Monday. Photograph: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/AFP/Getty Images

60 980 4.9K

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 1d

High fives issue-mate!

1

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Does It Have Pockets @doesithavepockets.bsky.social · 2d

"... for a moment we all just stood there for a bit, under the bright heat of the sun, a steady stream of traffic buzzing by us."

Sweeping, unnerving, abyssal, a brand new #longread from @iamchrisscott.bsky.social | www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/chri... #fiction

Art @anchalastudio.bsky.social

1 2 8

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote this!

Does It Have Pockets @doesithavepockets.bsky.social · 1d

"Janice has come to understand what all the groaning is about. She does talk about the fucking mammoth a lot."

This roundhouse kick of a story by @jessdawn.bsky.social *is* about a mammoth, but so much more: www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/jess... #fiction

Art @anchalastudio.bsky.social

2 3

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Does It Have Pockets @doesithavepockets.bsky.social · 1d

"Janice has come to understand what all the groaning is about. She does talk about the fucking mammoth a lot."

This roundhouse kick of a story by @jessdawn.bsky.social *is* about a mammoth, but so much more: www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/jess... #fiction

Art @anchalastudio.bsky.social

2 5

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway that’s the story of how I got three pairs of glasses at the optometrist today.

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 1d

My superpower is looking good in all glasses. My kryptonite is having to actually pick a pair.

1 1

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Daniel Miller @danielmiller.bsky.social · 1d

"I was once on a plane that suffered a monumental loss."

It is such a thrill that we get to feature stories like "Truth of Consequences" in @hexliterary.bsky.social. This new @whitneycollins.bsky.social is so exciting and strange and perfect. Don't miss this incredible story.

Truth or Consequences by Whitney Collins

I was once on a plane that suffered a monumental loss. High above a green and turgid swath of Florida, one of the aircraft’s giant white engines began smoldering like a marshmallow. This mechanical de...

hexliterary.com

5 15

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

HAD @havehashad.com · 3d

Upcoming submission call!

Theme "LUCK"

In honor of the lucky number SEVEN, the call opens at 7pm EDT on October 7th.

Submissions capped at 154 total works: 77 works of "prose" and 77 works of "poetry"

guest eds: @tanyazilinskas.com will curate "prose" & @jlyocum.com willcurate the "poetry"

The theme is "LUCK".

In honor of the lucky number SEVEN, the call opens at 7pm EDT on October 7th.

Submissions capped at 154 total works: 77 works of "prose" and 77 works of "poetry".

POETRY GUIDELINES: Up to 500 words in 77 lines total (titles not included); submit any number of poems as long as totals don't go over this cap.
PROSE GUIDELINES: No more than 500 words per piece.
Form is an illusion, so if the form is strange or some hybrid of prose and poetry, we especially want to see it! We encourage writers with such work to flip a coin to decide which category to submit under.
Tanya Žilinskas will curate the "prose" submissions, J. L. Yocum will curate the "poetry".
All submissions will receive a response within 24 hours

1 18 48

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 2d

I always forget how much I hate Ed and Lorraine Warren until I put on the Conjuring.

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

X-R-A-Y Literary Press @xraylitmag.bsky.social · 2d

“Love stories are a drug I can’t quit; just one more fix...”

we have a story by Kirsti Mackenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social !!

it's about a woman who keeps seeing psychics to learn about the man of her future, while being reminded of her past. read it !

xraylitmag.com/portrait-of-...

PORTRAIT OF YOU IN FIVE PSYCHICS by Kirsti MacKenzie

First guy says: you’re gonna see a UFO. Like, BOOM. He lays this on me. Right now you’re probably thinking well, if that doesn’t torpedo the whole thing for you. But it didn’t. Okay? It didn’t. I sat ...

xraylitmag.com

1 7 19

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 2d

it’s been a minute since i’ve published anything, so i’m especially grateful that @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social gave this little musing on love + leavings a home.

you can read the full piece here: matchbooklitmag.com/mb/relles/departures

Departures
by Dina L. Relles
handed you the promised coffee with an apology: no sugar, no milk, I’m sorry.

I don’t need those things, you said, and I fell in impossible love with you all over again.

I’d come from my room carrying everything I wanted to happen that didn’t. Now the lobby was too bright and smelled like grapefruits and your face was weary in a way that felt intimate.

You spoke quietly to me in the taxi, then held me twice at the terminal, which I took to mean you loved me too, despite.

14 23 81

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 2d

You should definitely read this, it’s goddamn good

Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social · 2d

got a new story in @xraylitmag.bsky.social about grifters and faith

you can read it here if you want to xo xraylitmag.com/portrait-of-...

PORTRAIT OF YOU IN FIVE PSYCHICS by Kirsti MacKenzie

First guy says: you’re gonna see a UFO. Like, BOOM. He lays this on me. Right now you’re probably thinking well, if that doesn’t torpedo the whole thing for you. But it didn’t. Okay? It didn’t. I sat ...

xraylitmag.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · Sep 1

I saw a comment on .. somewhere where a person referred to people who love AI as “botlickers” and I haven’t stopped laughing about it

4 180 760

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Makkon @makkon.bsky.social · 6d

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

8 5.2K 14K

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 6d

Can’t wait to publish a series of books that smell like wet dog, low tide, and cigarettes

Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 6d

no no the publishing industry is doing fine, why do you ask

A screenshot from Publisher's Lunch:
Jennifer L. Armentrout and Hellmann's
In a promotion designed for BookTok enjoyment, Jennifer L. Armentrout’s just-published THE PRIMAL OF BLOOD AND BONE is available in a special, limited-edition "garlic-scented copy, infused with Hellmann’s Garlic Aioli to create a one-of-a-kind, Craven-proof book." They explain: "This exclusive edition is printed with garlic-infused ink, designed to ward off Armentrout’s bloodthirsty monsters, the Craven. While humans may dread garlic breath, Hellmann’s has cleverly transformed this social faux pas into an unexpected – and delicious – form of supernatural protection."

2

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 7d

I wrote the first draft of this story standing at the side of a trail during a hike while Brody whined at me, and here she is now all grown up and published: www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/jess...

Jessica Dawn — Does It Have Pockets

The Mammoth

www.doesithavepockets.com

4

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 8d

Got a new story from @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social on Short Story, Long today!

"The People Who Live Inside" by Sarp Sozdinler

"My mother called me on a Tuesday afternoon to say that my Uncle Frank had been seen climbing into the old grain silo at the edge of town again."

ashortstorylong.substack.com

1 12

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 9d

"AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations" is such a good sentence.

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 10d

This whole section really.

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

1 22 59

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 10d

This week I’m working on reading for Tin House and reading for lit journal and fuck it, let’s start The Quick and the Dead while I’m at it

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

HAD @havehashad.com · 11d

always excited for new Kate McIntyre! a real fun triptych.

The Five Cows
They buck invisible riders. They attend law school to properly sue their stink. They kill the townsfolk one night, very late, with andirons...

https://www.havehashad.com/lx2yn

Kansas by Kate McIntyre

The Five Cows They buck invisible riders. They attend law school to properly sue their stink. They kill the townsfolk one night, very late, with andirons, and they cry when there’s no one to scratch…

www.havehashad.com

6 21

Jessica Dawn @jessdawn.bsky.social · 11d

He is obsessed with this tiny tennis ball

Brody the blue heeler lies on a furry blanket and gazes at a small yellow, green, and purple tennis ball that is right next to his big head. He looks wildly focused and determined. The tennis ball is already going fuzzy, has resigned itself to its new life of being smushed between heeler teeth.

Brody the blue heeler has a paw over the tennis ball now, his expression still focused but a little more intense, deranged, like he’s going to fight that tennis ball

Brody the blue heeler has the tennis ball in his mouth. It fits neatly behind his canines, which must be really satisfying. His eyes are mostly closed. He looks deeply content.

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

mr potato @tweetpotato314.bsky.social · 12d

[at my second rodeo] listen up you ignorant sack of shit

26 1.8K 8K

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 13d

My way of coping with all of the madness is focusing on what I can do to make my community a little bit stronger. So excuse me for all of the earnestness, but I wrote about ways we can all pitch in to support a thriving literary culture. lithub.com/how-to-be-a-...

How to Be a Good Literary Citizen (in Seven Easy Steps)

Last Sunday I spent hours at the Brooklyn Book Festival, a too rare occasion for me to pull myself away from the internet for an entire afternoon. As I looked around at the crowd on their way to pa…

lithub.com

14 120 380

Reposted by Jessica Dawn

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 14d

So many women have been talking, writing and warning people of the dangerous ideologies and biases of tech in Silicon Valley, for decades, and it’s so infuriating that so many men (not OP here) just flat out ignore it and act surprised at the technofascists infecting it now

Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 14d

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it).

But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

8 300 960