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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6h

Since I can’t give that two-hour answer again and again, I want to invite you to my two-hour class for writers (and other artists), Five Things I’ve Learned about Writing While Parenting on December 7 at 8pm EST. Sign up below!
myfivethings.com/class/rebecc...

Writing While Parenting - Five Things I've Learned

Join me in this live two-hour class and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned about how to navigate the joys and demands that come with creating art while at the same time keeping the people you love ...

myfivethings.com

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6h

The first (especially if it’s asked by a condescending stranger) is “What a weird question — would you ask a man how he juggles being both a banker and a father??” and the second (especially if it’s asked by a fellow writer, one whose eyes are full of despair) is… well, it’s a two-hour long answer.

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6h

I’m doing another online seminar for 5 Things I Learned… Specifically: When people ask how I balance parenting with a writing career, two answers come to mind. 🧵

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 1d

She was also hilarious. I wrote about her, and I promise it will make your day better if you take a minute to learn how driving a bus led to decades of activism and charity.
rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/we-needed-...

"We needed to do SOMETHING"

in memoriam, Lori Cannon

rebeccamakkai.substack.com

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 1d

In early August, the indomitable Chicago AIDS activist Lori Cannon passed away. She was an irreplaceable resource while I was writing The Great Believers, and inspiration, angel, and friend to thousands. 🧵

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 1d

This sounds so fun: Create an oracle to get creatively “unstuck” and build more meaningful patterns in @sarahkokernot.bsky.social's @storystudiochicago.bsky.social class… One class, in person, starts October 29!
www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/clas...

Genre Series: The Answer Is Already Here: Make Your Own Writing Oracle with Sarah Kokernot - StoryStudio Chicago

In this class, we'll explore the oracles of inquiry, collage, and bibliomancy to gather inspiration for new ideas, get "unstuck” on creative projects, build more meaningful patterns in your work, and ...

www.storystudiochicago.org

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 3d

It's essential to record ICE violence when we see it. It's often useful to post it.
We do NOT want to stoke these guys' egos by making them look tough.
So couldn't we, like, give them dumb bunny ears in the videos? Or put words over their photos like "Daddy issues" and "teenie peenie"?
Both?

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 5d

Haunt your readers in time for Halloween in @ruthjoffre.bsky.social's @storystudiochicago.bsky.social class… One class, Zoom, starts October 16!
www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/clas...

Genre Series: How to Build a Haunted House with Ruth Joffre - StoryStudio Chicago

Welcome, architects of the weird! Are you ready to haunt your readers? This class will give you all the tools you need to build a haunted house from the ground up.

www.storystudiochicago.org

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 5d

If your book’s almost done, learn how to revise and where to submit in @bess-winter.bsky.social's @storystudiochicago.bsky.social class… Four classes, Zoom, starts October 30!
www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/clas...

The Last Ten Percent: Revision and Submission Intensive with Bess Winter - StoryStudio Chicago

This four-week online course, intended for intermediate to advanced fiction writers who are seeking their first publications, focuses on that last ten percent of short story writing: revision and subm...

www.storystudiochicago.org

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

You know your story, but how do you tell it? Take Lane Regan’s @storystudiochicago.bsky.social class and learn to write your memoir… Five classes, Zoom, starts October 30!
www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/clas...

Memoir Foundations with Lane Regan (Fall 2025) - StoryStudio Chicago

You know your story, so how do you tell it? How do you even begin to write it? Where does it start and how does it end? What is the story and who are you and why do you want to tell it? In this course...

www.storystudiochicago.org

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

I like this one!

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

I can't do that! Because there are devices in my house that take one random type of plug and if I throw away the one I have, there's no way to identify and get the charger I need!

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

Like I keep hoping someone out there makes a cube with every different kind of outlet where you can plug your plugs in and it'll tell you what kind they are. Like a charger identifier.

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

A tedious but serious question: How do you organize/sort/identify all your various cords and chargers? I have a huge heap sitting here and I have no idea what's completely outdated, what goes with what, etc. Please tell me someone out there has a hack.

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 6d

A friend got a divorce in her mid-20s and the guy's mother said to her, "Honestly, he was always a hard child to love." I think about that all the time. And Miller... yeah, 100%

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 7d

Yeah I guess if it were coming from the right person, it wouldn't sound so ridiculous. But it's hard to see PH as anything other than a sad little boy.

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 7d

How on earth is "warfighting" being used as a word by someone who is NOT a six-year-old boy trying to get you to play GI Joe with him?

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 8d

Chicago! I'm in conversation tonight w/ Peter Mountford at 7 pm and you will enjoy the hell out of it. One of the highest compliments I can give a writer is that they aren't boring. He is never boring. He's pictured below. I'd like to convince you he's the bear, but he's really the one on the left.

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 8d

(I wish SNL were as important as Trump thinks it is. But you know he cares sooo much.)

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 8d

The Hegseth conference was like just one big gift for the SNL cold open. Developing my conspiracy theory that Miller stuck him out there to distract the SNL writers from opening the season with even more insidious shit…

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 8d

The fuck…????

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Trump to generals: "We can't let people throw around that word. I call it the N word. There are two N words and you can't use either of them."

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Reposted by Rebecca Makkai

StoryStudio Chicago @storystudiochicago.bsky.social · 8d

Plans tonight? Check out this awesome book event -- writer Peter Mountford, author of the new short story collection DETONATOR, will be in conversation with our Artistic Director @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social at Book Cellar at 7pm.

More info and RSVP here: www.bookcellarinc.com/peter-mountf...

Peter Mountford, "Detonator" in conversation with Rebecca Makkai | The Book Cellar

www.bookcellarinc.com

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Reposted by Rebecca Makkai

Dan Mihalopoulos @dmihalopoulos.bsky.social · 9d

In which a top US Border Patrol official, incredibly, tells my tall and Anglo colleague @chipmitchell1.bsky.social that he's not the type they're looking for as they go about downtown Chicago arresting people based on "how they look"

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Feds in military gear flood downtown Chicago; top border official says arrests based on 'how they look'

The immigration agents were spotted making arrests in downtown Chicago and River North neighborhood early Sunday.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reposted by Rebecca Makkai

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10d

I can only hear the line "Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?" in the confused quiet voice my mom had went her dementia got really bad.

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 10d

not like i'm some important predictor of the future, i'm a shitposter, but i sort of thought there might be a climbdown here when i read that neither the pentagon nor the national guard had any fucking idea what he was talking about

Trump seems to back off Portland military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'

President Trump had said he will send troops to Portland to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he said were "under attack."

www.kgw.com

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Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · 10d

Kind of wild, given all the things it does, that we call the thing we’re holding right now a phone. Could call it a flashlight or a newspaper an encyclopedia or a porn machine, but no: a phone. Also if you call me I will hurl this thing across the room before I pick up. But: phone.

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