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Matt Bell

@mdbell79.bsky.social

10K followers 1.2K following 5.2K posts

Writer, teacher. Out now: APPLESEED, a novel (2021, @marinerbooks). REFUSE TO BE DONE, a guide to novel revision (2022, @soho_press). He/him.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 29d

I just found out that REFUSE TO BE DONE is going into its 8th printing! I've heard so many stories from writers whose projects have been helped along by this little yellow book over the past three years. Nothing makes me happier!

The cover of my book REFUSE TO BE DONE

Reposted by Matt Bell

Erika Swyler @erikaswyler.bsky.social · 25m

Why, hello. @bookshop.org has free shipping at the moment because whatever about that one site.
Wanna read what I'll be talking about at ASU on 10/22?
Wanna support my adventures while I research the next project?
👇
bookshop.org/p/books/we-l...

We Lived on the Horizon: A Novel

Reposted by Matt Bell

Aubrey Hirsch @aubreyhirsch.bsky.social · 15h

🚨IT’S MY BOOK’S BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!🚨 You can join me on zoom for a virtual launch event tonight at 8pm ET!

us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1LXOngHxQIuz7ryxFNJGHA%23/registration

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

“How much are we willing to delegate? How much of our autonomy are we prepared to renounce? My questions come down to this: Are we really willing to give up thinking, give up dreaming? How will we defend ourselves? Are we even capable of doing so anymore?” —Werner Herzog, THE FUTURE OF TRUTH

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Beautiful!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

That’s great to hear! Thank you!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t like it either!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

I wouldn’t believe I have to mute the word Bluesky on Bluesky, if I hadn’t already had the experience of muting Twitter on Twitter. Some fish love to talk about the water!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

We're so lucky to be reading you!

Reposted by Matt Bell

Erika Swyler @erikaswyler.bsky.social · 1d

If you'd like to listen to me talk about "writing against" and planning societies, you can!

This program is one of the most hopeful things I've seen come out of the last few years.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Erika Swyler is this semester's ASU Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecturer, visiting on 10/22 as part of our Humanities Week celebrations. (Over three consecutive days, I'm speaking with her, Jesmyn Ward, and Nnedi Okorafor. What luck!) Her talk is free online and in-person. Register below!

Fall 2025 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecture with Erika Swyler | ASU Events

Arizona State University welcomes the nationally bestselling author of The Book of Speculation Erika Swyler as a guest in its Fall 2025 Distinguished Worldbuilding Initiative Lecture series. Swyler wi...

asuevents.asu.edu

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Ha! I love it!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

This morning I had a dream where I clearly saw the cover of the hardcover of my novel-in-progress, while holding the book in my hand. Obviously the real cover won't be my dream one—although the dream one was cool!—but it's the first time I've imagined the manuscript as a finished book. A good sign!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Erika Swyler is this semester's ASU Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecturer, visiting on 10/22 as part of our Humanities Week celebrations. (Over three consecutive days, I'm speaking with her, Jesmyn Ward, and Nnedi Okorafor. What luck!) Her talk is free online and in-person. Register below!

Fall 2025 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecture with Erika Swyler | ASU Events

Arizona State University welcomes the nationally bestselling author of The Book of Speculation Erika Swyler as a guest in its Fall 2025 Distinguished Worldbuilding Initiative Lecture series. Swyler wi...

asuevents.asu.edu

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

I had the good fortune of reading @erikaswyler.bsky.social's WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON before it came out, but rereading it this week to prep it for class made me love it even more. It's so smart, so well-written, so well-built. First class discussion today!

My hand holding the hardcover of WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks for this, @caitluce.bsky.social! Nice to see this one again. (This story was written in 2010 in Gordon Lish's workshop, where I'm 90% sure he let me read a whole paragraph aloud before yelling at me. Might be the thing of mine he liked best! 😂)

Cait_onthe_luce @caitluce.bsky.social · 3d

Saturday October 4: "For You We Are Holding" by Matt Bell.
"We are waiting on the streets in front of and beside the office. The number of us can be many but rarely is. The number of us can be none, but it is never that."

A copy of A Tree or a Person or a Wall posed in front of a duck shaped dish. There's an overstaffed bookcase behind the book. The book's cover is black with white lettering and orange and red tree branches.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

“To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It’s the drowning out of false voices.” —Don DeLillo, THE NAMES

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

Spending as much of today as I can listening to records and reading novels. Time to refill the tank.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

Me too! So good. I’m teaching it in my worldbuilding class!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

"Any number of programs could make perfection, but only life made art from flaws." —Erika Swyler, WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

Wow!

Reposted by Matt Bell

Mitchell Nobis @mitchnobis.bsky.social · 2d

Hey @tomsnarsky.bsky.social's #smallpoemsunday, there's a real nice one in this @russellbrakefield.bsky.social book.

Morning Song

Today I am a bee
burrowing into a glass
jar of honey

recognizing finally
a sweet, still pool
of my own making.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 3d

Yesterday morning on the Lost Goldmine trail.

A saguaro in the foreground, mountains in the back.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 3d

I've got my own set of quasi-grudges about cancelled shows! A specific genre of "anger," for sure.

Reposted by Matt Bell

Austin Kleon @austinkleon.bsky.social · 3d

Fun living in a world where every new email — hell, every interaction online — is a Voight-Kampff test

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 3d

I think I’m going to read a scene from the novel in progress, unless I lose my nerve…