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Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

@mattjakubowski.bsky.social

1.2K followers 850 following 220 posts

Multi-genre writer. Forthcoming: Gone Lawn, elsewhere magazine, scaffold lit. Flash fiction: Your Impossible Voice, Variant Lit, JAKE, Best Microfiction 2024, Milk Candy Review. www.mattjakubowski.com/fiction/

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Reposted by Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 12h

Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem, and DHS need to answer for their unchecked attacks on Chicago residents.

ICE is an out-of-control danger to our peaceful communities.

The images from the Sun-Times today speak for themselves.

An ICE agent throws a tear gas canister at protesters at East 105th Street and South Avenue N in East Side.

Photo Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Federal immigration enforcement agents detain a protester during a skirmish at East 105th Street and South Avenue N in East Side.

Photo Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent points a crowd control weapon at a protester Tuesday at East 105th Street and South Avenue N in the East Side neighborhood.

Photo Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A Chicago Police Department officer washes his face after being exposed to tear gas during a protest at East 105th Street and South Avenue N in East Side.

Photo Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 15h

99% sure my Mom took it. She took so many incredible family photos over time.

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 18h

I’m sorry for your loss as well. Sending love your way. It is hard, so many things happen in the family and in the world that make me wonder what my Dad would say or how he’d feel. All we can do is imagine, I guess.

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 19h

Missing my Dad on his birthday. Lost him 13 years ago. He would’ve been 76 today.

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 21h

Some ghost stories can freak us out. Some make us wish we were being cuddled by Patrick Swayze. This one does something else! 👻 My “Ghost Story,” first published by Milk Candy Review
milkcandyreview.home.blog/2023/10/19/g...

Ghost Story ~ by Matthew Jakubowski

Ghost with a gun. Ghost in the desert. Ghost wearing a cool hat. Ghost who can phase through the earth but prefers to walk. Ghost who wears a white sheet sometimes, and sometimes has shadowy feet, …

milkcandyreview.home.blog

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 1d

One of those houses in Philly that make you feel like you’re somewhere else entirely

Reposted by Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

sarah clark (they) @sarahclark.bsky.social · 1d

if you want to support a nanticoke who makes little magazines this indigenous peoples day, here are the little magazines i make

www.ANMLY.org — intl art & lit that's never boring
www.beestungmag.com — non-binary, two-spirit, & genderqueer writing
www.ALOCASIA.org — a journal of queer planty writing

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 2d

New issue of elsewhere magazine is live and full of wonders elsewheremag.org/issue-26/

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 2d

It’s beautiful!

Reposted by Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social · 2d

Closing soon...

New Flash Fiction Review (subs open) @nffr.bsky.social · 27d

Writers - enter the 2025 New Flash Fiction Prize!

Max 500 words
Fee $10
Closes 15 Oct
Judge: @gfaulknerwriter.bsky.social

"The ability to evoke. The ability to use the shadings of words, the nuances of language. The mot juste... You have to stick the landing.”
newflashfiction.com/get-ready-fo...

Get Ready for the 2025 New Flash Fiction Prize | New Flash Fiction Review

Our annual flash contest will be open for submissions September 15 to October 15. Grant Faulkner will judge this year's entries.

newflashfiction.com

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 2d

during confession, not shot in the head with pepperballs or speedballs or spitballs or any kind of ball or bullet or spite. And aren't we all illegal immigrants, given we can't actually prove where life, or language, or square dancing, or our boundless desire to know where we came from, came from?
So if you set me free, I'll set you free, and if you hold on to me, I'll hold on to you, and if you step into the mystery and sing,
I'll ask what you're singing and try to sing along.

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 2d

that it wasn't too late to save his soul, a very shootable offense if there ever was none.
The man, the building, the gun, the pepperball, are all part of the process of "mass deportation", the effort to rid America of those who don't blend in very well
with snow, or paper, or snow. "Mass deportation" sounds as if you're deporting mass, including the communion wafers, or the snack bearing the body of Christ into the world, and the only thing I liked about church.
Jesus said two things I often quote verbatim: love thy neighbor, and ouch. When I try to imagine nailing someone to a cross, I get as far as holding a spike against his palm but can't strike the spike with a hammer, even in my head, where nothing is real, it's just pictures and words, like a bald TV.
And maybe Jesus actually said, Deport thy neighbor, or,
Arrest thy neighbor without a warrant, or, Wear as much military gear as possible to make it seem we're at war with ourselves, I don't know, I wasn't there, but I am here and think we can all agree that priests are meant to be lied to

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 2d

Wow this Bob Hicok poem, “All Together Now” (courtesy of All Poems Daily)

Wasn't Jesus an illegal immigrant?
He just arrived in Israel without papers or history or sex, so wouldn't He be deported today if He were mowing lawns in America? I bet Jesus would mow a mean lawn, and be really good at edging,
and pet your dog if it got loose in the yard and wondered who this stranger was.
And isn't shooting a priest in the head with a pepperball during a peaceful protest the equivalent, by proxy, of shooting Jesus in the head with a pepperball, which, by extension, is the same as shooting God in the head with a pepperball, which, for those of us who don't believe in God, is like shooting the sun, or the moon, or the air in the head with a pepperball, which is easy to do, including for me, even though I only fired a gun
once,
at a steel chicken, who was at a disadvantage and should have been given a head start.
The priest was telling the man who shot him, a federal agent on top of a building wearing a mask, the man, not the building,

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Reposted by Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

Anne Milano Appel @annemilanoappel.bsky.social · 3d

Congratulations to @wwborders.bsky.social for having now published ten Nobel laureates in their 22-year history as the home for international literature, the latest being László Krasznahorkai. And congratulations to all the translators who translated them.

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 4d

Ugh, sorry to hear that. Hope it cools off soon

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 4d

Wow, enjoy that, Dan!

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 5d

We were working on a screenplay and it was going well, we even had backers & a director lined up. But it fell apart when we realized he thought the film was called “The Bläh” but I was working on a dark musical called “The Blob.” Which is all to say having good translators is crucial.

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 5d

Krasznahorkai owes me money so this is welcome news

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 6d

Congratulations!

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Reposted by Matt Jakubowski (he/him)

The Berlin Literary Review @theberlinreview.bsky.social · 8d

The submission window will close on October 27th!

😱

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 10d

Long live Gone Lawn! ✨

Gone Lawn Journal @gonelawn.bsky.social · 10d

We've been at this for a little more than 15 years, now, as a niche within a niche, and slow going. Perseverence is the key, but we're still a niche within a niche. Please visit us! And we love every submission.

gonelawn.net/journal/issu...

Gone Lawn 61 : corn moon

gonelawn.net

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 13d

I’ve heard about this essay, “Who Goes Nazi?”, many times, never read it until today, and it’s not what I expected.
harpers.org/archive/1941...

And this article about Dorothy Thompson is also worth reading.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/america...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 13d

Congratulations, Tom!

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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 13d

Thanks! It’s been a while since I had one published so I am as well 🙂

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 13d

That’s awesome—have fun working on it! Can’t wait to read the essay.

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