Matthew Isaac Sobin
@matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
140 followers 220 following 32 posts
Author of the science fiction novella The Last Machine in the Solar System. Poems in various places. Sometimes teaching, sometimes selling books at Books on B in Hayward, CA. https://linktr.ee/matthewisaacsobin
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matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
June 28 was three years since my dad passed from ALS. Blue Bodies is available as a free PDF from @ghostcitypress.bsky.social. If you’re able, there's a donate button. Funds go to ALS United Greater NY—an org that supports families (they were a life raft for us) and also contributes to med research.
ghostcitypress.bsky.social
BLUE BODIES by Matthew Isaac Sobin (@matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social‬) is out today as part of the 2025 Summer Series! Download your free copy here: ghostcitypress.com/2025-summer-...
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
A little late posting... Very happy to have a new poem in ONE ART. This poem took a while to write, and it took longer to be in a place where I was able to write it. Big thanks to Mark Danowsky for publishing.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
New poem about some recent experiences at school, at the bookstore, at a protest, out today in cataloguing poetry magazine by editor john compton. Head over to the journal’s Substack to catch up on all the great work recently published.

cataloguingpoetrymagazine.substack.com
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
New poem about some recent experiences at school, at the bookstore, at a protest, out today in cataloguing poetry magazine by editor john compton. Head over to the journal’s Substack to catch up on all the great work recently published.

cataloguingpoetrymagazine.substack.com
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
stanchion.bsky.social
This is going to be one hell of a reading, book launch & zoom party on Tuesday night.

Have you registered yet to celebrate @writesloud.bsky.social ?

Tinyurl.com/FirstKickingThenNot
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
stanchion.bsky.social
Here's one final sneak peek inside Issue 19's 92 pages. I could use a few more orders of it, in case you've got cash to burn on something real, reliable, resplendent. Here's the opening 12 lines of @glowyaquarius.bsky.social's ANTI-ODE TO GIRLHOOD. What a brilliant, blistering poem this is.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
flightlit.bsky.social
Welcome to Flight: a Literary Sampler!

We’re a literary journal, publishing four interconnected pieces in each edition.

You can learn more about us at our website: flight-literary.ghost.io
Flight: A Literary Sampler
flight-literary.ghost.io
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
So stoked to receive a nomination for Best of the Net ! a poem about my eighth grade students, a tsunami warning, and an endangered fish... Thanks to Jeff at @stanchion.bsky.social for the deep care shown to this poem, and all the writing they receive!
stanchion.bsky.social
For the 1st time ever, I've been able to nominate for Best of the Net. And so I have.

Congratulations to @crankypacifist.bsky.social @matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social @bringonthelucie.bsky.social & @mdaltoneloy.bsky.social.

Please give these beauties a read.

www.stanchionzine.com/post/stanchi...
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
June 28 was three years since my dad passed from ALS. Blue Bodies is available as a free PDF from @ghostcitypress.bsky.social. If you’re able, there's a donate button. Funds go to ALS United Greater NY—an org that supports families (they were a life raft for us) and also contributes to med research.
ghostcitypress.bsky.social
BLUE BODIES by Matthew Isaac Sobin (@matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social‬) is out today as part of the 2025 Summer Series! Download your free copy here: ghostcitypress.com/2025-summer-...
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Always exciting to see The Last Machine in the Solar System being read in the world more than eight years since publication. Even more thrilling, and an honor, when those people are teachers overseas sharing the story with their students.
jillun.com
Target: Two more paperbacks of The Last Machine in the Solar System by Matthew Isaac Sobin! Complications: I live in Japan and am not U.S. Military adjacent. Not available as an ebook on Am. Jpn. (Physical is better for my purposes, anyway.) I can get two copies from a reseller, but--
snip of Amazon Japan's page for paperback copy of The Last Machine in The Solar System by Matthew Isaac Sobin. 1,775 yen per copy, 340 yen delivery, July 5 - 16. There are other sellers for higher prices, but they all have iffy ratings.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
ghostcitypress.bsky.social
THIGMONASTY by Elizabeth Joy Levinson is out today as part of the 2025 Summer Series! Download your free copy here: ghostcitypress.com/2025-summer-...
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
stanchion.bsky.social
Stanchion opens in 4 hours. Closes in 28. Let's make Issue 19.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
I am not a soldier
but I put my fatigues on

in blue-milk light
under pine shadow

I am tired of carrying
what a soldier left behind

//

a father poem from Larks (@ohiounivpress.bsky.social)
There Is a Garment Called a Fatigue

you put it on to hide 
and go to war

to leave your wife 
and children

some match the desert 
and some the forest

my father put his on 
and laced his boots

morning after 
morning

I can hear his laces 
whipping

through the metal 
eyelets

I am not a soldier 
but I put my fatigues on


From Larks (Ohio University Press, 2025)

by Han VanderHart in blue-milk light 
under pine shadow

I am tired of carrying
what a soldier left behind

when he entered 
other people's countries

the house of trembling
the mother of anxiety

the tornado moods
heavy on child shoulders

breakable
as the wings

of the atlas moth 
in its glass case

39 that my father lifted 
from an Iraqi

bunker
flew back to us

in America
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
“You use your mind
like a millstone […!]”

Marianne Moore’s “TO MILITARY PROGRESS,” for today’s military march #poetry
TO MILITARY PROGRESS

You use your mind 
like a millstone to grind 
chaff.

You polish it
and with your warped wit 
laugh

at your torso, 
prostrate where the crow
falls
on such faint hearts 
as its god imparts, calls

and claps its wings till the tumult brings
more
black minute-men 
to revive again,
war

at little cost.
They cry for the lost
head
and seek their prize 
till the evening sky's
red.
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Awesome! Excited to read and share this space!
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Stoked to be part of this lineup! Microchap incoming this summer!
ghostcitypress.bsky.social
It’s that time, once again. Here’s the lineup for our 10th annual Summer Series!
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
toddedillard.bsky.social
“we sat on the curb at the cathedral’s foot
and spoke softly about disasters…”

Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanaugh

from his book “Eternal Enemies”
At the Cathedral’s Foot

In June once, in the evening,
returning from a long trip,
with memories of France’s blooming trees
still fresh in our minds,
its yellow fields, green plane trees
sprinting before the car,

we sat on the curb at the cathedral’s foot
and spoke softly about disasters,
about what lay ahead, the coming fear,
and someone said this was the best
we could do now—
to talk of darkness in that bright shadow.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
jillun.com
#booksky @matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social can’t wait to read it! I think it got here very quickly!
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
In the spirit of Jack, he would have said it was an “is meant to be.” Jack loved synchronicity but didn’t really believe in luck. But yes, I was absolutely lucky to know him. His mentorship completely changed my creative life. No doubt about it.
Reposted by Matthew Isaac Sobin
jhwilliams3.bsky.social
Just heard about the passing of Jack Katz. Not many know his work, but they should. His graphic novel series The First Kingdom is the epitome of what would be defined as epic. An inspirational epic in highly ambitious terms of scope and illustrative power.
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Will miss you, my friend.

Jack Katz was an absolute one of one. A Golden Age of comics legend -- If you've ever enjoyed a graphic novel, he's the most important person you've never heard of, innovating a new genre in the 70s with his groundbreaking The First Kingdom.

May your art live on and on.
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Fixed! How about on Saturday when I’m at the bookstore I see what it will cost to ship and we go from there? DM me a shipping address. Thanks so much for your interest in the book!
matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social
Of course! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.