LJ Pemberton
@ljabouttown.bsky.social
Writer's writer's writer.
📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j
📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j
Pinned
LJ Pemberton
@ljabouttown.bsky.social
· Jul 22
Periodic reminder that if you read my book and messaged me or made a bluesky posting about it, I'm eternally grateful, and would also be really appreciative of a quick review drop on Goodreads, Amazon, or LibraryThing. I wish these things didn't make such a difference, but they do!
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
My Mom used to work for Trust Company Bank in Atlanta— at the HQ— in the 80s and 90s. She said for a long time it was a funeral a week because of AIDS and the young men that worked at the bank. No President can erase that, no matter how hard they try. #WorldAidsDay
December 2, 2025 at 3:52 AM
My Mom used to work for Trust Company Bank in Atlanta— at the HQ— in the 80s and 90s. She said for a long time it was a funeral a week because of AIDS and the young men that worked at the bank. No President can erase that, no matter how hard they try. #WorldAidsDay
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Honored to be reading the work of Kevin Killian 💘 Friday 12/12 at 7pm 💗 PRB Los Angeles
December 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Honored to be reading the work of Kevin Killian 💘 Friday 12/12 at 7pm 💗 PRB Los Angeles
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
me and the homies buying each others art
Another depiction if the circularity of capital flows between OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, CoreWeave, AMD, and Oracle.
October 23, 2025 at 11:49 AM
me and the homies buying each others art
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
We gotta normalize responding to bullshit with "dude who fucking cares"
October 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM
We gotta normalize responding to bullshit with "dude who fucking cares"
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
A machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own.
October 31, 2025 at 8:02 AM
A machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own.
This 🧵 x 1000.
Between you and me, I didn't leave academia just for my mental health.
I left because I didn't see how it could survive defunding, AI, students who dgaf, and colleagues that were willing to accept AI work to perpetuate the theatre of school.
Between you and me, I didn't leave academia just for my mental health.
I left because I didn't see how it could survive defunding, AI, students who dgaf, and colleagues that were willing to accept AI work to perpetuate the theatre of school.
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
December 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
This 🧵 x 1000.
Between you and me, I didn't leave academia just for my mental health.
I left because I didn't see how it could survive defunding, AI, students who dgaf, and colleagues that were willing to accept AI work to perpetuate the theatre of school.
Between you and me, I didn't leave academia just for my mental health.
I left because I didn't see how it could survive defunding, AI, students who dgaf, and colleagues that were willing to accept AI work to perpetuate the theatre of school.
status is a tool
few use it well
few use it well
December 1, 2025 at 6:32 PM
status is a tool
few use it well
few use it well
had an unexpected day off so i watered all my indoor plants, spread wildflower seeds on the snow, made chicken salad, cleaned the kitchen, and did four loads of laundry
now i’m reading the anthroplogists by ayşegül savaş and i think i’ll take a nap later because i really like naps
now i’m reading the anthroplogists by ayşegül savaş and i think i’ll take a nap later because i really like naps
December 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
had an unexpected day off so i watered all my indoor plants, spread wildflower seeds on the snow, made chicken salad, cleaned the kitchen, and did four loads of laundry
now i’m reading the anthroplogists by ayşegül savaş and i think i’ll take a nap later because i really like naps
now i’m reading the anthroplogists by ayşegül savaş and i think i’ll take a nap later because i really like naps
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Get yourself a copy or two of Where the Pavement Turns to Sand for someone on your list this holiday season, bud. You won’t regret it.
DM or ask your local indie bookstore for a copy. bookshop.org/p/books/wher...
DM or ask your local indie bookstore for a copy. bookshop.org/p/books/wher...
December 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Get yourself a copy or two of Where the Pavement Turns to Sand for someone on your list this holiday season, bud. You won’t regret it.
DM or ask your local indie bookstore for a copy. bookshop.org/p/books/wher...
DM or ask your local indie bookstore for a copy. bookshop.org/p/books/wher...
my redwing boots are thissssssss close to being broken in omg
December 1, 2025 at 3:43 PM
my redwing boots are thissssssss close to being broken in omg
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Super interesting to think about perception shifts over time. In early 20c sociology, quantitative research was associated with feminist social reform (Jane Addams) whereas qualitative research was masculine. Today, qual is cast as more feminine/less scientific, and quant cast as "rigorous."
in the 30-40s physics was considered a hotbed of radicalism because many physicists as well as chemists, biologists, and other scientists were in fact card-carrying communists or fellow-travelers
and today neofascist intellectuals pull extensively from postmodernism and continental philosophy
and today neofascist intellectuals pull extensively from postmodernism and continental philosophy
"humanities = socialist and good, STEM = capitalist and bad" is not only dumb as rocks but, quite ironically, completely ignorant of history
like, do you think it was the semiotics majors who came up with every Five-Year Plan?
like, do you think it was the semiotics majors who came up with every Five-Year Plan?
December 1, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Super interesting to think about perception shifts over time. In early 20c sociology, quantitative research was associated with feminist social reform (Jane Addams) whereas qualitative research was masculine. Today, qual is cast as more feminine/less scientific, and quant cast as "rigorous."
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
my people
Books by weird freaks who love books for weird freaks who love books.
November 30, 2025 at 2:01 AM
my people
the billionaires are inventing new cancers with their greed
It’s so wild how the wealthy are destroying the Amazon that potentially has the cure for all the cancers in favor of an Amazon that’s creating new types of cancers
December 1, 2025 at 2:42 AM
the billionaires are inventing new cancers with their greed
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
November 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
one day you wake up and understand liza minnelli
November 30, 2025 at 11:23 PM
one day you wake up and understand liza minnelli
The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World’s Fair) was attended by 19.7 million (!) people.
That’s more than twice the current population of New York City.
Mind boggling.
That’s more than twice the current population of New York City.
Mind boggling.
November 30, 2025 at 9:19 PM
The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World’s Fair) was attended by 19.7 million (!) people.
That’s more than twice the current population of New York City.
Mind boggling.
That’s more than twice the current population of New York City.
Mind boggling.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
“Resisting the lure of the bubbling tubs was hopeless. An act of purest vanity. I had to get wet and I had to stay warm and I encountered many old friends along the way.”
Thanks to Steve & Scaffold Lit for publishing this little number.
www.scaffoldlit.com/microwriting...
Thanks to Steve & Scaffold Lit for publishing this little number.
www.scaffoldlit.com/microwriting...
the hot tub swimmer by sheldon birnie — scaffold literary magazine
micro fiction
www.scaffoldlit.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:45 PM
“Resisting the lure of the bubbling tubs was hopeless. An act of purest vanity. I had to get wet and I had to stay warm and I encountered many old friends along the way.”
Thanks to Steve & Scaffold Lit for publishing this little number.
www.scaffoldlit.com/microwriting...
Thanks to Steve & Scaffold Lit for publishing this little number.
www.scaffoldlit.com/microwriting...
If you’re going to buy a fruitcake this holiday season, may I suggest buying one from Claxton Fruit Cake, located in Claxton, Georgia, with the welcome sign “Fruitcake Capital of the World.”
They’re delicious. They shouldn’t be, because it’s fruitcake, but they are.
www.claxtonfruitcake.com
They’re delicious. They shouldn’t be, because it’s fruitcake, but they are.
www.claxtonfruitcake.com
Claxton Fruit Cake – Old-Fashioned Holiday Fruitcake Since 1910
Claxton Fruit Cake is the world’s most famous old-fashioned holiday fruitcake. Traditional Claxton fruit cakes, loved since 1910, make the perfect Christmas cake gift.
www.claxtonfruitcake.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
If you’re going to buy a fruitcake this holiday season, may I suggest buying one from Claxton Fruit Cake, located in Claxton, Georgia, with the welcome sign “Fruitcake Capital of the World.”
They’re delicious. They shouldn’t be, because it’s fruitcake, but they are.
www.claxtonfruitcake.com
They’re delicious. They shouldn’t be, because it’s fruitcake, but they are.
www.claxtonfruitcake.com
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Edvard Munch’s The Sun, 1909
November 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Edvard Munch’s The Sun, 1909
every once in a while, i’ll check the thread on blsky and be like — really? i follow these people? and then realize i’m on the discover tab
November 30, 2025 at 1:52 PM
every once in a while, i’ll check the thread on blsky and be like — really? i follow these people? and then realize i’m on the discover tab
lmao the good authors list has me cackling—these people really are media illiterate
But TradMommy, you read us the Expialidocious stories *every* night! Can't we have a Vomitrocious novel just tonight we promise pleeeeeease?
November 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
lmao the good authors list has me cackling—these people really are media illiterate
two things i learned about the mail today
1) our little white trucks do not handle well in the snow
2) we have to attempt the route (we took an oath!) but if conditions are bad, we scan everything no access and head back
public: this means you’ll get your mail when your route becomes accessible
1) our little white trucks do not handle well in the snow
2) we have to attempt the route (we took an oath!) but if conditions are bad, we scan everything no access and head back
public: this means you’ll get your mail when your route becomes accessible
November 30, 2025 at 3:08 AM
two things i learned about the mail today
1) our little white trucks do not handle well in the snow
2) we have to attempt the route (we took an oath!) but if conditions are bad, we scan everything no access and head back
public: this means you’ll get your mail when your route becomes accessible
1) our little white trucks do not handle well in the snow
2) we have to attempt the route (we took an oath!) but if conditions are bad, we scan everything no access and head back
public: this means you’ll get your mail when your route becomes accessible
i love how 98% of chinese kung fu movies are like here’s our hero who can fight good plus a cutie for him to love — oh and japan sucks
November 30, 2025 at 2:43 AM
i love how 98% of chinese kung fu movies are like here’s our hero who can fight good plus a cutie for him to love — oh and japan sucks
my people
Books by weird freaks who love books for weird freaks who love books.
November 30, 2025 at 2:01 AM
my people
based on how contemporary pop stars write music, if ‘night moves’ by bob seger was written now, the lyrics would be
i tried to have sex with a black haired woman
she had really nice breasts
it was night time when we kissed
we were practicing sex in the backseat of my car
we tried together
🙄
i tried to have sex with a black haired woman
she had really nice breasts
it was night time when we kissed
we were practicing sex in the backseat of my car
we tried together
🙄
November 30, 2025 at 1:57 AM
based on how contemporary pop stars write music, if ‘night moves’ by bob seger was written now, the lyrics would be
i tried to have sex with a black haired woman
she had really nice breasts
it was night time when we kissed
we were practicing sex in the backseat of my car
we tried together
🙄
i tried to have sex with a black haired woman
she had really nice breasts
it was night time when we kissed
we were practicing sex in the backseat of my car
we tried together
🙄