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Ben Purkert

@benpurkert.bsky.social

1.5K followers 180 following 100 posts

debut novel, THE MEN CAN'T BE SAVED, Top 20 Book of 2023 Vanity Fair. words / poems in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-men-can-t-be-saved-ben-purkert/19736868?ean=9781419767135

bookshop.org

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Ben Purkert @benpurkert.bsky.social · Mar 11

Donated! Appreciated this post, Garth

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Garth Greenwell @garthgreenwell.bsky.social · Mar 11

Last week, the State Department cut funding for the International Writing Program, which brings writers from around the world to Iowa City. I wrote about why the IWP is precious, & how crucial it was for my education as a writer. Free post; no paywall.

garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/a-city-of-...

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Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · Mar 8

Ms. Sharon lives near here. I met her last year. She’s been fighting this for a long time. She can’t sit on her porch midday and read her bible because of the stench from the plants. She can’t have a garden because the soil is poison. Her grandchildren can’t play in the grass. She’s exhausted.

Lizzie O'Leary @lizzieohreally.bsky.social · Mar 8

Hmmm who lives near this plant? www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Biden said this plant was a health threat. Trump dropped a lawsuit against it

The Justice Department dropped a landmark lawsuit alleging that emissions from a Louisiana petrochemical plant pose a danger to nearby communities.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Alex Shephard @alexshephard.bsky.social · Mar 3

I wrote about the Democrats, who are bad at this newrepublic.com/article/1921...

Why the Second Trump Presidency Is So Much Worse for Democrats

The first time around, the party had a plausible endgame for Trump’s reign. Today, that’s entirely absent.

newrepublic.com

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Maureen Langloss @maureenlangloss.bsky.social · Mar 3

OMG the new poem by Diane Seuss crushed me. Now maybe let it crush you? poets.org/poem/life-im...

In life I’m no longer capable of love,

of that old feeling of being / in love, such a rusty / feeling, rusty,

poets.org

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Ben Purkert @benpurkert.bsky.social · Mar 2

It’s my 40th bday today and so I ate this WHOLE DAMN CAKE except the me part, boooom

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Jorie Graham @joriegraham.bsky.social · Feb 26

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Jeff Bezos is muzzling the Washington Post’s opinion section. That’s a death knell | Margaret Sullivan

‘I couldn’t be more sad and disgusted,’ says former top editor Martin Baron

www.theguardian.com

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · Feb 26

Freedom is when the boss tells you what to write and think. bsky.app/profile/maxt...

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · Feb 26

New: Jeff Bezos emailed staff at the Washington Post this morning announcing that the Post opinion pages going forward were largely going to focus on defending personal liberties and free markets. Current opinion section editor David Shipley is out.

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Ben Purkert @benpurkert.bsky.social · Feb 26

currently reading an MFA student’s writing that is so staple-in-my-brain fucking brilliant I am wholly radioactive with delight, that is all, just needed you 2 know bye

Reposted by Ben Purkert

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · Feb 15

“He said, you Americans are so naive. He said, you think that evil is going to come into your houses wearing big black boots and climb up the stairs—it begins in the language. Look to the language.”

-Joseph Brodsky, as recounted by Marie Howe themillions.com/2018/01/tk-t...

I studied with Joseph Brodsky the great Russian poet and how do I say this, he thought we were lazy American students. We had to memorize 500 lines a week and come in and write them out for him. He
said, you Americans are so naive. He said, you think that evil is going to come into your houses wearing
big black boots and climb up the stairs-it begins in the language. Look to the language. He said, in the Soviet Union, nothing is permitted and everything is important. In the United States, everything is permitted and nothing is important.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · Feb 13

One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.