Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 12h

Today was cold, with a little snow. On this Thanksgiving weekend I am grateful for the seasonal burst of colour—it will be gone too soon.

Trail leading down amid fir trees and aspen trees turning yellow.

Aspen with leaves turning yellow and light orange with red foliage in the foreground, green in the background. Late afternoon light.

Red foliage backlit with blurred background of gold and green.

1 11

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 3d

got beef?

oleada.io/publication/...

Oleada - A Submission Platform

A submission platform for small presses and magazines.

oleada.io

2 4 7

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI I wrote about this unconventional, absurd family saga set in communist Czechoslovakia. @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

1 5

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

Alex Zucker @alexzucker.bsky.social · 2d

“Love Letter in Cuneiform is a novel that challenges and exceeds the norms of a multigenerational family saga at every opportunity. […] its unique energy is sustained in translation with Zucker’s careful, and at times creative, attention to the subtleties and playfulness of Zmeškal’s language.”

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 3d

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal, translated by Alex Zucker @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social
roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

2 5

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 3d

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal, translated by Alex Zucker @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social
roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

1 2 7

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 3d

Today's new arrivals—a cool quartet of book from experimental Canadian publisher 1366 Books, an imprint of @guernicaeditions.bsky.social !

Four books, clockwise from upper left: Strange Water by Sarah Moses, The Apple in the Orchard by Brian Dedora, A Mouth Full of Vowels by Sophie Anne Edwards, Furthermore, the Lake by Michael e. Casteels.

8

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 3d

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal, translated by Alex Zucker @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social
roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

1 2 7

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 3d

"To be beautiful is to become a satellite."

Beyond Grandeur — Matthew Kinlin minorliteratures.com/2025/10/09/b...

Beyond Grandeur — Matthew Kinlin

Rhinoplasty. Cheek implants. Ultra-sonic assisted liposuction. A purple exoskeleton was admitted to the clinic last week. His name is Robert and he’s the oldest twink in Cheshire. They washed his s…

minorliteratures.com

1 5

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 5d

Without postal service I know I have books currently suspended in transit somewhere, but I did welcome a new review copy this weekend—a hefty tome due next June, on Bloomsday even. @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social

Book: The Coast of Everything by Guillermo Stitch

1 3 11

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

monalisa vitti @monalisavitti.bsky.social · 6d

really great conversation between @noonanerik.bsky.social and al-essa, a kuwaiti bookseller and novelist

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 6d

“[Literature is] a dance around silence, an attempt to get closer to what we are not saying”: A Conversation with Bothayna Al-Essa — @noonanerik.bsky.social

minorliteratures.com/2025/10/07/l...

“[Literature is] a dance around silence, an attempt to get closer to what we are not saying”: A Conversation with Bothayna Al-Essa—Erik Noonan

Anglophone audiences first encountered the Kuwaiti novelist, publisher, and bookseller Bothanya Al-Essa through excerpts of her 2004 novel A Soundless Collision (trans. Chris Bredin), published in …

minorliteratures.com

5 5

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 5d

"we’re divided when it comes to being powerful in a good way, or powerful in a bad way. In the end, whoever has the power, whoever has the authority, gets to decide, gets to dictate the ideology of others."
—@noonanerik.bsky.social speaks to Bothayna Al-Essa, author of The Book Censor's Library

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 6d

“[Literature is] a dance around silence, an attempt to get closer to what we are not saying”: A Conversation with Bothayna Al-Essa — @noonanerik.bsky.social

minorliteratures.com/2025/10/07/l...

“[Literature is] a dance around silence, an attempt to get closer to what we are not saying”: A Conversation with Bothayna Al-Essa—Erik Noonan

Anglophone audiences first encountered the Kuwaiti novelist, publisher, and bookseller Bothanya Al-Essa through excerpts of her 2004 novel A Soundless Collision (trans. Chris Bredin), published in …

minorliteratures.com

1 2 2

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

Eoghan Carrick @eoghancarrick.bsky.social · 14d

Really excited to have another piece coming out in @minorliteratures.bsky.social this week. It is a multi-form exploration Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1524 Alphabet with Dance of Death. I started to develop it on the @panpantheatre.bsky.social mentorship with @forcedents.bsky.social Terry O’Connor.

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 15d

and coming up this week ...

— new fiction from @robrubsam.bsky.social

— an essay from @eoghancarrick.bsky.social

1 4 6

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks!

1

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 10d

Some thoughts about getting older.

Passing another milestone
roughghosts.com/2025/10/03/p...

Passing another milestone

So, I turned sixty-five the other day. I am now one of those characters that the blurb on the back of a novel sometimes refer to as “elderly.” In fact, over sixty is usually enough to warrant that …

roughghosts.com

1 1 9

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 10d

Some thoughts about getting older.

Passing another milestone
roughghosts.com/2025/10/03/p...

Passing another milestone

So, I turned sixty-five the other day. I am now one of those characters that the blurb on the back of a novel sometimes refer to as “elderly.” In fact, over sixty is usually enough to warrant that …

roughghosts.com

1 1 9

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 10d

A complete alphabet in satellite images along with poetry and prose. Be sure to open the PDF!

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 11d

[un]inhabited initials [after Holbein] — a cross genre essay in images and words by Eoghan Carrick @eoghancarrick.bsky.social

7 13

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 10d

Isn't it wonderful? The kind of piece an essays editor lives for.

1 2

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 11d

[un]inhabited initials [after Holbein] — a cross genre essay in images and words by Eoghan Carrick @eoghancarrick.bsky.social

7 13

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 11d

[un]inhabited initials [after Holbein] — Eoghan Carrick
@eoghancarrick.bsky.social
minorliteratures.com/2025/10/02/u...

[un]inhabited initials [after Holbein] — Eoghan Carrick

from Alphabet with Dance of Death, Hans Holbein the Younger Chronically cash-strapped, the Emperor [Maximilian I] stimulated contemporary local artists […] to try out new techniques and form…

minorliteratures.com

1 7

Reposted by Joseph Schreiber

Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 12d

Registration is open. Register for in-person and online.

www.yorku.ca/laps/the-alc...

1 34 55

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 12d

"Never in my life have I felt so wild, so free, so completely without a goal. Somehow I saw the Limestone Alps, the Sierra Nevada. Twice I leapt naked into the Mediterranean."

The Searchers — Robert Rubsam
minorliteratures.com/2025/09/30/t...

The Searchers — Robert Rubsam

(He began, more or less:) I don’t know why I climbed into the night. Yes, I was young and drunk and hopelessly lost. Yet fool that I was I should still have stumbled back to my room, climbed into m…

minorliteratures.com

7

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 14d

If you all get together and eat Big Macs I am definitely concerned...

1

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 14d

ICYMI I wrote about this collection of unsettling short stories from an Argentinian master of "bizarro" fiction.
Slipping into the twilight zone: Diving Board by Tomás Downey, translated by Sarah Moses @invisibooks.bsky.social
roughghosts.com/2025/09/26/s...