McKenzie Watson-Fore
@mwatsonfore.bsky.social
(She/her) I write, dance, and watercolor my feelings. Find it all at MWatsonFore.com
Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet!
#thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell
mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
#thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell
mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
What up, skidmarks? It's Bad Janet.
My annual Halloween costume essay? Featuring hell
mwatsonfore.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet!
#thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell
mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
#thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell
mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...
Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.
October 3, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.
Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk.
cjr.org/analysis/the...
cjr.org/analysis/the...
There's a bigger threat to books than bans.
Access to e-books relies entirely on private distributors that have the power to shut them off at any moment.
cjr.org
September 17, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk.
cjr.org/analysis/the...
cjr.org/analysis/the...
Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette
Maisonette, a French bakery from Michelin-trained chef Florian Tétart, has opened in downtown #Boulder. Serving handmade pastries, artisan breads & French-inspired lunches, the café is already selling out daily and drawing crowds to Walnut Street. boulderreportinglab.org/2025/09/04/m...
Boulder’s Maisonette bakery, led by Michelin-trained chef, finds its place downtown
Serving handmade pastries, artisan breads and French-inspired lunches, Maisonette brings new life to a renovated space on Walnut Street.
boulderreportinglab.org
September 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette
My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation
mastersreview.com/a-conversati...
mastersreview.com/a-conversati...
A Conversation with Natasha Lehrer, Translator of Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno - The Masters Review
McKenzie Watson-Fore first came across Natasha Lehrer’s work when she was reviewing her translation of Cécile Desprairies’s autofictional novel, The Propagandist (released by New Vessel Press in Octob...
mastersreview.com
September 2, 2025 at 3:33 PM
My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation
mastersreview.com/a-conversati...
mastersreview.com/a-conversati...
“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...
Reporter Tells of Michael Tait/Newsboys Scandal: Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll
YouTube video by Julie Roys
www.youtube.com
August 23, 2025 at 10:49 PM
“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...
So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse
We love hearing from our readers. Here’s the Letters & Comments section from our Sept. issue, with thoughtful responses to @jasongedwards.bsky.social, @texasbishop9.bsky.social, @mwatsonfore.bsky.social, Stanley Hauerwas, Valerie Weaver-Zercher, and more:
www.christiancentury.org/letters-comm...
www.christiancentury.org/letters-comm...
August 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse
Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags
lithub.com/on-the-futur...
lithub.com/on-the-futur...
On the Future of Small Presses in the Aftermath of the NEA Grant Chaos
On Friday, May 2nd, 2025, DOGE and the National Endowment for the Arts terminated $300,000 worth of grants for 51 publishers. The email, a copy and paste job, trickled into inboxes at odd hours. 5:…
lithub.com
August 11, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags
lithub.com/on-the-futur...
lithub.com/on-the-futur...
Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!
www.sneakerwavemag.org/p/jealous-of... This week in sneaker wave magazine, a startlingly beautiful piece about loss and grief by Jennifer Phillips.
jealous of my friend's dad's funeral
by Jennifer Phillips
www.sneakerwavemag.org
August 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!
Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!
www.sneakerwavemag.org/p/conrad-and...
In this week's issue of sneaker wave magazine, William Bartlett tells his true story of selling Amway while trying to break into the professional ballet scene in New York City. This story gives us plenty of hope to make art and to believe in our dreams!
In this week's issue of sneaker wave magazine, William Bartlett tells his true story of selling Amway while trying to break into the professional ballet scene in New York City. This story gives us plenty of hope to make art and to believe in our dreams!
conrad and the circles
by William Bartlett
www.sneakerwavemag.org
August 11, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!
Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech
www.vulture.com/article/post...
www.vulture.com/article/post...
Zero Tolerance
Five years after the George Floyd protests, many liberals blame “wokeness” for stifling open debate. So why can’t they handle being disagreed with?
www.vulture.com
August 6, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech
www.vulture.com/article/post...
www.vulture.com/article/post...
Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET
#churchcamp
#churchcamp
July 23, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET
#churchcamp
#churchcamp
Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!
We're back after a couple weeks of vacation! This NEW issue of sneaker wave magazine features a horrifying and amazingly beautiful true story by Allison C. Macy-Steines. We guarantee that you won't forget this one. www.sneakerwavemag.org/p/all-that-g...
all that grows, grows back
by Allison C. Macy-Steines
www.sneakerwavemag.org
July 20, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!
I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary
July 19, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary
I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!!
#church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup
#church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup
“Life became a sin scavenger hunt. At the end of every day, I curled up with my journal in my blue-and-green loft bed for a moral inventory. ‘How have I been disappointing you lately, God?’ I wrote.”
– @mwatsonfore.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...
– @mwatsonfore.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...
Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet?
At youth group and church camp, I learned to perform my own unworthiness. It took years to recognize the spiritual harm this...
www.christiancentury.org
July 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!!
#church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup
#church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup
This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂
July 7, 2025 at 9:04 PM
This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂
What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.
I'm endlessly surprised by how many graduates with "social science" degrees, even from graduate and professional programs, don't have any technical abilities whatsoever. They can't do statistics, they can't use GIS, they can't program, etc. These programs should be shut down.
June 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.
Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!
It's this week's "Memoir Monday" link/workshop/submissions roundup!
memoirland.substack.com/p/essays-and...
memoirland.substack.com/p/essays-and...
Essays and Workshops and Submissions, Oh, My...
Including: Workshops from Alexander Chee, Lilly Dancyger, Narratively Academy, Blaise Allysen Kearsley, and Melissa Petro; and calls for submissions from Kearsley and Literary Liberation.
memoirland.substack.com
June 2, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!
A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory
sneaker wave magazine kicks off Pride Month with an absolutely cracking story by Robin Pickering. Her writing is inventive and surprising at every turn, with a true story that is heartfelt from beginning to end. What a voice! www.sneakerwavemag.org/p/the-fuckit...
the fuckitall
by Robin Pickering
www.sneakerwavemag.org
June 1, 2025 at 3:57 PM
A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory
@therumpus.net your newsletter says you’re taking subs for #collaborativecritism (a column I’m so excited for!), but I can find the submission info. Inquiring minds (and collaborators) would like to know 🤓
#submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp
#submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp
June 1, 2025 at 3:47 AM
@therumpus.net your newsletter says you’re taking subs for #collaborativecritism (a column I’m so excited for!), but I can find the submission info. Inquiring minds (and collaborators) would like to know 🤓
#submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp
#submissions #literarycriticism #writingincollaboration #sendhelp
May 31, 2025 at 5:36 PM
I’ve got a new piece up at #maydaymagazine and it’s the first of four essays as part of a critical residency! I’ll be writing about the frictions between the literary world and writing about/wrestling with faith. Thinking about #genesis and #evangelicalism
maydaymagazine.com/the-gravel-p...
maydaymagazine.com/the-gravel-p...
The Gravel Path of Belief, Non-Belief, and the Ambiguous In-Between by McKenzie Watson-Fore : MAYDAY
This essay is written by MAYDAY magazine’s Critic in Residence for Spring 2025. Sharp bits of gravel poke through my leggings into my thighs. Chilly autumn air wafts from the moonlit surface of the Bi...
maydaymagazine.com
May 30, 2025 at 10:30 PM
I’ve got a new piece up at #maydaymagazine and it’s the first of four essays as part of a critical residency! I’ll be writing about the frictions between the literary world and writing about/wrestling with faith. Thinking about #genesis and #evangelicalism
maydaymagazine.com/the-gravel-p...
maydaymagazine.com/the-gravel-p...
I wrote this article about how #thecrowdcollective, a #northboulder artists group, is working to activate #vacantspace on east pearl. Read the article, and check out their awesome new gallery!
#goseesomeart #boulderartists #boulderdowntown
#goseesomeart #boulderartists #boulderdowntown
A new arts space on East Pearl is reimagining one of downtown #Boulder’s vacant storefronts. The Crowd Collective’s pop-up gallery and workshops are part of a creative fix for the city’s commercial vacancy problem. boulderreportinglab.org/2025/05/27/n...
A new experiment on Pearl Street: Can artists revive Boulder’s empty storefronts?
The Crowd Collective is reimagining vacant retail on East Pearl — launching a pop-up gallery, classes and more with the help of a local commercial broker.
boulderreportinglab.org
May 28, 2025 at 10:39 PM
I wrote this article about how #thecrowdcollective, a #northboulder artists group, is working to activate #vacantspace on east pearl. Read the article, and check out their awesome new gallery!
#goseesomeart #boulderartists #boulderdowntown
#goseesomeart #boulderartists #boulderdowntown
As a book reviewer of great passion and strong opinions, I absolutely loved this deep dive on criticism! I particularly appreciate Cassie’s point about specificity in book reviews or blurbs. What is a great line or detail you’ve read in a piece of criticism lately?
open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...
open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...
BRING BACK STEWING
on the idea that book reviews are boring & repetitive
open.substack.com
May 23, 2025 at 10:05 PM
As a book reviewer of great passion and strong opinions, I absolutely loved this deep dive on criticism! I particularly appreciate Cassie’s point about specificity in book reviews or blurbs. What is a great line or detail you’ve read in a piece of criticism lately?
open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...
open.substack.com/pub/pinestat...
“When your partner gives you a ride to the airport, that’s access intimacy. That’s love.” I love the framing of care (expressed in craft) from #robmacaisacolgate’s recent interview at #therumpus
#writerinterviews #writingcommunity #AuthorInterviews
therumpus.net/2025/05/19/r...
#writerinterviews #writingcommunity #AuthorInterviews
therumpus.net/2025/05/19/r...
I Needed Love Poems For Myself: A Conversation with Rob Macaisa Colgate - The Rumpus
I’m curious about a world in which people are less bothered by the physical confrontation of mental disability, and that felt important when I was writing this book to have mental disability take up p...
therumpus.net
May 23, 2025 at 1:00 AM
“When your partner gives you a ride to the airport, that’s access intimacy. That’s love.” I love the framing of care (expressed in craft) from #robmacaisacolgate’s recent interview at #therumpus
#writerinterviews #writingcommunity #AuthorInterviews
therumpus.net/2025/05/19/r...
#writerinterviews #writingcommunity #AuthorInterviews
therumpus.net/2025/05/19/r...