Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rachel Vorona Cote

@rvoronacote.bsky.social

2.8K followers 660 following 1.5K posts

Author of Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today. Freelance book critic all over the place. Get in touch: [email protected]. @RVoronaCote on Instagram. She / Her.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · Apr 10

My latest piece for @washingtonpost.com's Book World is an essay on grief literature, drawing significantly on Lauren Markham's Immemorial (a beautiful book), with some forays into Roland Barthes, and a bit about a tree that I think might remember my late mother.

Here's a gift link: wapo.st/4cqRvrD

Guest column | Words aren’t enough to describe grief, but they can still be a refuge

For all its agonies and loneliness, grief continually asserts itself as a creative force.

wapo.st

3 6 30

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 10h

the apartment keys!!

1 1

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 10h

God bless every single one of my editors. Without their interventions, I would make a damn fool of myself.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 11h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 11h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

1 1 3

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 19h

In truth, I couldn’t be prouder. I am, in fact, very dumb.

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 19h

The almost 4yo has gotten very into “playing pretend,” which rocks. But when he’s in the midst of it, and I ask him about a character or situation, he looks at me like I’m the most pathetic, amoeba-brained dummy alive and says in a gentle, hushed tone, “It’s PRETEND, Mommy. It’s JUST pretend.”

2 11

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 1d

❤️❤️❤️

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 1d

Amber is brilliant, and I cannot wait. 🎉👻

Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · 1d

ONE WEEK! DC! Come to the launch party in Adams Morgan! @rvoronacote.bsky.social and me at Lost City Books and a few fun surprises, and a very spooky party www.eventbrite.com/e/happy-peop...

1 2

Reposted by Rachel Vorona Cote

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

I fear if things don’t change right now, this image is going to come back to haunt us

Laura Rodriguez, on Twitter:

A federal agent points a weapon at a woman who was recording them.

Jess, a U.S. citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across the city, was filming when the incident occurred earlier today in the Berwyn area.

730 4.3K 13K

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 2d

I have no doubt!

1 1

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 2d

By my count this is the second tragic Shakespearean heroine TS has invoked. She checked off Juliet early in her career, and it was a little silly, but fine. (And I love "Love Story.") But a pop queen colossus claiming identification with Ophelia is so funny to me. I hope she does Lady Macbeth next.

2 3

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 2d

I admittedly have not listened to the new TSwift album, and one reason for that is my inability to get past "The Fate of Ophelia" as a song title. Like, we read the play in high school, Taylor! We were not waiting for you to share this plot point!

2 8

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 6d

😘😘

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 6d

The first time I heard "Motion Picture Soundtrack" I felt like I was floating away. It would be hard to put into words what this band has meant to me over the years — really, for the vast majority of my life.

Chris DeVille @chrisdeville.bsky.social · 6d

Kid A came out 25 years ago today. It was one of the most important albums of my life. Five years ago, I wrote this retrospective: www.stereogum.com/2094039/radi...

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 6d

And yeah, the last thing we need is university presidents bending the knee.

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 6d

I'm trying to remember, throughout all of this, that The White House is in many ways playing pretend — dressing up as their favorite fascists and claiming to do things that they (still) cannot actually do. I don't want to abdicate my rights in advance. Still, the ground beneath us feels so unstable.

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 6d

University presidents it’s time for a united front. I mean, it’s past time. What are you going to do.

From the NYT: “The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation's top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump's political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds.”

1 1 13

Reposted by Rachel Vorona Cote

Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 6d

If you want to understand open adoption, it makes sense to start with birth parents—yet studies of them are few. 2+ yrs ago, I began talking w/ birth mothers to try to understand what living in an open adoption is like for them, and what rights or options they might have if challenges were to arise.

When Adoption Promises Are Broken

Many birth mothers hope to maintain contact with their child. But their agreements with adoptive parents can be fragile.

www.theatlantic.com

15 160 510

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 7d

😊🫶

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 8d

This ignorant, blathering fool is dragging us to hell; meanwhile, Mayor Pete is texting me daily requests for five dollars.

1 1

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 8d

I am so angry and disgusted I could chew off my arm. Nearly every elected Democrat has proven him/herself a useless coward.

Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 8d

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

1 4

Reposted by Rachel Vorona Cote

Lucy Fishwife 🥐 @lucyfishwife.bsky.social · 8d

“Will you be getting signed copies of the new Thomas Pynchon in?”

oh buddy

7 5 53

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 9d

It occurred to me that when white millennials reference PTA we’re just as likely to be talking about Paul Thomas Anderson as we are the Parent Teacher Association at our kid’s school.

This is the solid gold premise of a gently funny SNL sketch. I’ll take Venmo or check, Lorne.

Reposted by Rachel Vorona Cote

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9d

yeah they're just murdering random people on these boats

Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · 9d

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

160 4.7K 15K

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 10d

Why IS fiction a thing? Who can say?!?!

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 10d

Hate to say it, but the man has a point. Every time I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the gang is kicking vamp ass and getting down at The Bronze, and there are magic spells and sexy members of the living dead, I’m like, why AM I watching things on tv that are different from what’s happening?!

1 1 1

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 10d

This morning my almost-four-year-old informed me that he's going to "dance on the big screen." Might need to line up a few showbiz folks for a future intervention.

Rachel Vorona Cote @rvoronacote.bsky.social · 11d

I’ve given it serious consideration, and I think I can locate the origins of my anxiety disorder in my childhood overexposure to the Amelia Bedelia book series.

1 7