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Reposted by Matt Bell

Erika Swyler @erikaswyler.bsky.social · 50m

It's true! I'm going to Tempe to talk about the novel, utopia-dystopias, and Asimov's mutton chops (more gazing at them, really). Can't be there in person? Attending online should still let you cackle at the slide on "homogeneity."

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1h

One week from today, @erikaswyler.bsky.social will visit ASU as our Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecturer, speaking about her excellent novel WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON. Please join us for this free event either in-person in Tempe or online wherever you are!

Fall 2025 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecture with Erika Swyler | ASU Events

Arizona State University welcomes the nationally bestselling author of The Book of Speculation Erika Swyler as a guest in its Fall 2025 Distinguished Worldbuilding Initiative Lecture series. Swyler wi...

asuevents.asu.edu

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1h

Definitely a pattern we need to break!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1h

Happy birthday, Lawrence!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1h

One week from today, @erikaswyler.bsky.social will visit ASU as our Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecturer, speaking about her excellent novel WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON. Please join us for this free event either in-person in Tempe or online wherever you are!

Fall 2025 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecture with Erika Swyler | ASU Events

Arizona State University welcomes the nationally bestselling author of The Book of Speculation Erika Swyler as a guest in its Fall 2025 Distinguished Worldbuilding Initiative Lecture series. Swyler wi...

asuevents.asu.edu

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 7h

They’re so much more water resistant than they used to be!

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Department of English at Arizona State University @asuenglish.bsky.social · 7h

Oct. 23: We're hosting award-winning Africanfuturist @nnedi.bsky.social in convo with fiction writer @mdbell79.bsky.social on the craft of writing, metafiction & the power of story. Part of our quasquicentennial celebration + #ASUHumanities week. Reception to follow.

Join us! ow.ly/ip9g50Xbq2C

Flyer advertising "The Future Is Now" event featuring Nnedi Okorafor and Matt Bell, with pictures of the authors and event details: Oct. 23 at 3 p.m., University Club, ASU Tempe campus. RSVP at english.asu.edu/english-125

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 8h

That’s awesome! We’re all a bit older this go around, but nothing wrong with that!

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 9h

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 9h

So good to finally get to see Minus the Bear live last night! A show I’ve wanted to go to for 20 years.

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 9h

It's not just books, too; it's music, it's stage. It just can't sustain like this and I'm absolutely dreading the bottoming-out because it will very likely destroy tons of people's lives, quite probably mine included, even if on the other side there will be (hopefully??) relief and a rebalancing.

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 9h

Are you happy paying $18 for a paperback that was poorly printed by Ingram's POD printers? Or the $37 hardcover with fripperies you won't even see once the book is on your shelf? Then you're going to love the $25 shit-quality paperback and the $45 hardcover, coming sooner than you think!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 10h

This is great, Bess!

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Bess Winter @bess-winter.bsky.social · 10h

My little essay on my dad’s song hopped over to The Toronto Star today just in time for game 3. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

My dad wrote the song that defined Canadian baseball. Now, more than ever, it’s the anthem we all need

My dad Tony Kosinec was a folk musician and jingle writer in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. I loved listening to his catchy jingles on the radio — especially one

www.thestar.com

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Ashley Strosnider @ashleystro.bsky.social · 1d

I loved this! Matt's newsletter is my favorite, I love Amber's work, and as a kitchen-sink writer myself who thinks all novels should be as big + weird as we can make them, I super loved this very tactical take on how, exactly, one might wrangle all the tidbits into something legible and lovely

Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you to Matt for letting me answer my most-asked craft question in his craft newsletter! (If you don’t subscribe to No Failure, Only Practice, you should probably remedy that btw.)

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Happy pub day to @ambersparks.bsky.social and her excellent novel HAPPY PEOPLE DON'T LIVE HERE! Thanks to Amber for guest-posting at No Failure, Only Practice with a craft essay on "How to Write a Novel with the Kitchen Sink Thrown In," a fun look at what to do with your many/too-many obsessions.

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you to Matt for letting me answer my most-asked craft question in his craft newsletter! (If you don’t subscribe to No Failure, Only Practice, you should probably remedy that btw.)

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Happy pub day to @ambersparks.bsky.social and her excellent novel HAPPY PEOPLE DON'T LIVE HERE! Thanks to Amber for guest-posting at No Failure, Only Practice with a craft essay on "How to Write a Novel with the Kitchen Sink Thrown In," a fun look at what to do with your many/too-many obsessions.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Happy birthday!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Happy pub day to @ambersparks.bsky.social and her excellent novel HAPPY PEOPLE DON'T LIVE HERE! Thanks to Amber for guest-posting at No Failure, Only Practice with a craft essay on "How to Write a Novel with the Kitchen Sink Thrown In," a fun look at what to do with your many/too-many obsessions.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to @asuenglish.bsky.social MFA alum @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social, whose debut novel A HARVEST OF FURIES is out today! (True story: in his last MFA semester, Hayden told me he was going to draft this novel in three chunks, delivering me 22,000 words per thesis meeting... and then did!)

hayden casey @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social · 1d

MY FIRST NOVEL IS OUT TODAY!!!!! & they have it at barnes & noble?!? (& lots of lovely independent bookshops as well!!)

I have been trying to do this for 10 years & dreaming about it for 10 more—surreal moment!

me holding my book in front of the “fiction” section sign at Barnes & Noble

me holding my book up in front of the shelf at Barnes & Noble

my book for sale on a table in an independent bookstore

me holding a copy of my book at a table during a signing, with a stack of books in front of me & a box of signed copies to the left

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

"Everyone knows what’s true: you make the world a better place than you found it or you make it worse. Anyone who tells you that isn’t so is just making an excuse for his own inaction. At twelve she vowed to herself never to feel comfortable in the face of things obviously unfair and not right."

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

"The world offered horrendous terms, a terrible, huge price was paid in actual suffering, and if you didn’t try to change that or mitigate that, your life was indefensible, wasn’t it?" —Dana Spiotta, EAT THE DOCUMENT

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 1d

Loved this, Rob!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

These are fantastic, Ander!

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Ander Monson @angermonsoon.bsky.social · 2d

So @eldiagram.bsky.social made broadsides for @richard-siken.bsky.social, @mathiassvalina.bsky.social, @joshriedel.bsky.social, and Thomas Dai for their recent @uapoetrycenter.bsky.social readings. We have some left; if you want to buy em here you go: thediagram.com/merch/produc...

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

"Can we step out of ourselves as the mystics did in the late Middle Ages, to experience truth in a kind of ecstasy? Ekstasis, in Greek, is a stepping out of yourselves, a leaving the bounds of the individual, your place in existence. Is there ecstatic truth in art?" —Werner Herzog

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Reposted by Matt Bell

Aaron Gwyn @americangwyn.bsky.social · 2d

Whenever I ponder the question of what comes after postmodernism, I always think about this passage from David Foster Wallace’s “E Unibus Pluram: Television & U.S. Fiction” (1990). It’s a spectacular essay, very prescient, and a clarion call to novelists, poets, and critics.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2d

As close to exactly on time as possible, every time. Although I'm also usually there early, setting up and chatting with students, so there's a little settle-in time beforehand too.

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