Johan Smits
@johansmits.bsky.social
Reposted by Johan Smits
The latest issue of Tint Journal, the magazine for English as a Second Language (ESL) writers, just launched today! Find all 24 texts online and for free at tintjournal.com. We hope you enjoy reading this new issue and find something that resonates with you!
Artwork: Vanesa Erjavec
Artwork: Vanesa Erjavec
September 10, 2025 at 8:33 AM
The latest issue of Tint Journal, the magazine for English as a Second Language (ESL) writers, just launched today! Find all 24 texts online and for free at tintjournal.com. We hope you enjoy reading this new issue and find something that resonates with you!
Artwork: Vanesa Erjavec
Artwork: Vanesa Erjavec
"It’s said half of healing happens in your head — placebo effects and all that — but in my case there’s little room for doubt; facts are facts and linoleum is linoleum."
tintjournal.com/short-story/...
tintjournal.com/short-story/...
Practical
tintjournal.com
September 19, 2025 at 10:33 PM
"It’s said half of healing happens in your head — placebo effects and all that — but in my case there’s little room for doubt; facts are facts and linoleum is linoleum."
tintjournal.com/short-story/...
tintjournal.com/short-story/...
My favourite line in The Coen Brothers' "Hail, Caesar!" by Josh Brolin's character - movie production executive Eddie Mannix - in the confession box to a priest: "I struck a movie star in anger."
He gets away with five Hail Marys.
He gets away with five Hail Marys.
July 7, 2025 at 4:54 PM
My favourite line in The Coen Brothers' "Hail, Caesar!" by Josh Brolin's character - movie production executive Eddie Mannix - in the confession box to a priest: "I struck a movie star in anger."
He gets away with five Hail Marys.
He gets away with five Hail Marys.
Thank you @bloodhoneylit.bsky.social for giving this the perfect home!
Short story "Human Interests" by Johan Smits @johansmits.bsky.social. So good.
www.bloodhoneylit.com/fiction/huma...
www.bloodhoneylit.com/fiction/huma...
human interests — Blood+Honey
by Johan Smits “From within your dark enclosure, you had heard him counting the banknotes…the magic glue that keeps the world together…An ideal god.”
www.bloodhoneylit.com
June 30, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Thank you @bloodhoneylit.bsky.social for giving this the perfect home!
Reposted by Johan Smits
TINT NONFICTION // Bianca-Olivia Nita is a Romanian-born nonfiction writer and documentary critic based in The Netherlands. She is currently working on an essay collection. Read her essay "Fish, Water, Lemons, Sea" at tintjournal.com/essay/fish-w...
Art: "Before the Deep Sleep" by Mirja Paljakka
Art: "Before the Deep Sleep" by Mirja Paljakka
June 11, 2025 at 12:50 PM
TINT NONFICTION // Bianca-Olivia Nita is a Romanian-born nonfiction writer and documentary critic based in The Netherlands. She is currently working on an essay collection. Read her essay "Fish, Water, Lemons, Sea" at tintjournal.com/essay/fish-w...
Art: "Before the Deep Sleep" by Mirja Paljakka
Art: "Before the Deep Sleep" by Mirja Paljakka
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere." Carl Sagan
June 3, 2025 at 7:23 AM
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere." Carl Sagan
"Being able to play Frère Jacques on the recorder might earn you some popularity as your family’s circus monkey at weddings and christenings, but not help you get into a good university later on."
tintjournal.com/essay/silence
tintjournal.com/essay/silence
Silence
tintjournal.com
June 1, 2025 at 6:11 AM
"Being able to play Frère Jacques on the recorder might earn you some popularity as your family’s circus monkey at weddings and christenings, but not help you get into a good university later on."
tintjournal.com/essay/silence
tintjournal.com/essay/silence
"...an artist doesn't really need a great deal of experience. One heartbreak can produce many novels. But you have to have a heart that can break."
Brian Morton, 'Starting Out in the Evening', upon which the 2007 film with the same name is based, starring Frank Langella.
Brian Morton, 'Starting Out in the Evening', upon which the 2007 film with the same name is based, starring Frank Langella.
May 28, 2025 at 12:51 PM
"...an artist doesn't really need a great deal of experience. One heartbreak can produce many novels. But you have to have a heart that can break."
Brian Morton, 'Starting Out in the Evening', upon which the 2007 film with the same name is based, starring Frank Langella.
Brian Morton, 'Starting Out in the Evening', upon which the 2007 film with the same name is based, starring Frank Langella.
Reposted by Johan Smits
"Something wraps your ankle in a tight grip. A sharp end presses into your lower back and threatens to pierce your skin. A claw? A sting? A beak?"
Our Spring 2025 issue recently launched with a short story by @johansmits.bsky.social.
Our Spring 2025 issue recently launched with a short story by @johansmits.bsky.social.
The Fearsucker | Johan Smits
"Something wraps your ankle in a tight grip. A sharp end presses into your lower back and threatens to pierce your skin. A claw? A sting? A beak?"
thegravityofthething.com
May 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
"Something wraps your ankle in a tight grip. A sharp end presses into your lower back and threatens to pierce your skin. A claw? A sting? A beak?"
Our Spring 2025 issue recently launched with a short story by @johansmits.bsky.social.
Our Spring 2025 issue recently launched with a short story by @johansmits.bsky.social.
"Defamiliarization: an artistic or literary technique that presents the common in unfamiliar ways; that which has been taken for granted is reenvisioned, made strange, to heighten a reader’s perception of the familiar." From The Gravity of the Thing.
thegravityofthething.com/the-fearsuck...
thegravityofthething.com/the-fearsuck...
The Fearsucker | Johan Smits
"Something wraps your ankle in a tight grip. A sharp end presses into your lower back and threatens to pierce your skin. A claw? A sting? A beak?"
thegravityofthething.com
May 15, 2025 at 6:42 AM
"Defamiliarization: an artistic or literary technique that presents the common in unfamiliar ways; that which has been taken for granted is reenvisioned, made strange, to heighten a reader’s perception of the familiar." From The Gravity of the Thing.
thegravityofthething.com/the-fearsuck...
thegravityofthething.com/the-fearsuck...
The woodcuts illustrating Alex Garland's The Coma, perfectly capture the novella's unsettling, dreamlike mood. Rereading this little pearl of a book, it strikes me as the perfect complement to Ishiguro's 500+ pages novel The Unconsoled. Two masters at work...
May 2, 2025 at 4:26 AM
The woodcuts illustrating Alex Garland's The Coma, perfectly capture the novella's unsettling, dreamlike mood. Rereading this little pearl of a book, it strikes me as the perfect complement to Ishiguro's 500+ pages novel The Unconsoled. Two masters at work...
Who needs hallucinogenics when you have Ishiguro's The Unconsoled? Still my all-time favourite...
www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237
www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237
237. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro — Backlisted
“A masterpiece I don’t fully understand—and don’t need to.” This week’s book is The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, a bold, baffling, and darkly funny novel that has confounded and enchan...
www.backlisted.fm
April 12, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Who needs hallucinogenics when you have Ishiguro's The Unconsoled? Still my all-time favourite...
www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237
www.backlisted.fm/episodes/237
Because these are hard times...
bebarbar.com/2024/02/27/h...
bebarbar.com/2024/02/27/h...
Hard Times Call for Hard Measures
Mrs. Leonova, who serves as a dehumanized bathroom implement for the wealthy, observes the impact on herself and the world around her when she begins to feel valued.
bebarbar.com
April 11, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Because these are hard times...
bebarbar.com/2024/02/27/h...
bebarbar.com/2024/02/27/h...
I particularly enjoyed this one: freeflashfiction.com/fiction/regi... #FlashFiction
Regime Change – Free Flash Fiction
****The first mayor of the village had no head, limbs, or body. It was just a pile of hair. The village was peaceful and prosperous during the pile of hair’s reign, so the mayor was considered judicio...
freeflashfiction.com
February 24, 2025 at 3:17 AM
I particularly enjoyed this one: freeflashfiction.com/fiction/regi... #FlashFiction
Warning - shameless self promotion! My latest flash fiction, "The Question": freeflashfiction.com/fiction/the-...
#FlashFiction
#FlashFiction
The Question – Free Flash Fiction
“Like stained glass,” she answered, “born out of sand – or in other words: potentially unstable but refined. Possesses a nature that’s both translucent and ambiguous. Likes to flirt with light, with s...
freeflashfiction.com
February 11, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Warning - shameless self promotion! My latest flash fiction, "The Question": freeflashfiction.com/fiction/the-...
#FlashFiction
#FlashFiction
A Butterfly in a Jam Jar open.substack.com/pub/prattlef...
Excellent piece on what is(n't) flash fiction! #FlashFiction
Excellent piece on what is(n't) flash fiction! #FlashFiction
A Butterfly in a Jam Jar
It occurs to me that even though I’m a writing fish who (a) swims in the goldfish bowl of the shortest forms of fiction and (b) likes to waffle on about the ins and outs of writing craft, I’ve never a...
open.substack.com
February 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
A Butterfly in a Jam Jar open.substack.com/pub/prattlef...
Excellent piece on what is(n't) flash fiction! #FlashFiction
Excellent piece on what is(n't) flash fiction! #FlashFiction