X-R-A-Y Literary Press
@xraylitmag.bsky.social
the best writers on earth
www.xraylitmag.com
www.xraylitmag.com
we have a great story by Isabelle Yang !
it's about a woman living with her lazy unemployed boyfriend who watches sports all day.
there are some very wonderful sentences in here !! a great style <3
xraylitmag.com/looking-at-y...
it's about a woman living with her lazy unemployed boyfriend who watches sports all day.
there are some very wonderful sentences in here !! a great style <3
xraylitmag.com/looking-at-y...
LOOKING AT YOU, LUCIEN by Isabelle Yang
It’s not fair that I get to be sick while my boyfriend gets to be healthy. Gets to live life horizontally—flat, always lying, perpetually still—bent in an angle like that of a slant. Like the longest ...
xraylitmag.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
we have a great story by Isabelle Yang !
it's about a woman living with her lazy unemployed boyfriend who watches sports all day.
there are some very wonderful sentences in here !! a great style <3
xraylitmag.com/looking-at-y...
it's about a woman living with her lazy unemployed boyfriend who watches sports all day.
there are some very wonderful sentences in here !! a great style <3
xraylitmag.com/looking-at-y...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
“Then the man said, Someone can love you and still do terrible things. Like nobody taught them how to do it right.”
@mpmcsweeney.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...
@mpmcsweeney.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...
CITY DESK by Michael McSweeney
Last spring the county newspaper paid me $200 to write about local dreams. I interviewed a man whose job it was to cycle out the books from the little lending library in the center of town. We met at...
xraylitmag.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:06 PM
“Then the man said, Someone can love you and still do terrible things. Like nobody taught them how to do it right.”
@mpmcsweeney.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...
@mpmcsweeney.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...
we have a dark & beautifully written 130 word micro by Uma Payne <3
"No one ever found him. Worms turned his whole body into the nutrient shit that plants need to grow. The plastic that had shared space with his flesh stayed."
xraylitmag.com/earthbound-b...
"No one ever found him. Worms turned his whole body into the nutrient shit that plants need to grow. The plastic that had shared space with his flesh stayed."
xraylitmag.com/earthbound-b...
EARTHBOUND by Uma Payne
No one ever found him. Worms turned his whole body into the nutrient shit that plants need to grow. The plastic that had shared space with his flesh stayed. It sat still or traveled elsewhere. Where h...
xraylitmag.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:35 PM
we have a dark & beautifully written 130 word micro by Uma Payne <3
"No one ever found him. Worms turned his whole body into the nutrient shit that plants need to grow. The plastic that had shared space with his flesh stayed."
xraylitmag.com/earthbound-b...
"No one ever found him. Worms turned his whole body into the nutrient shit that plants need to grow. The plastic that had shared space with his flesh stayed."
xraylitmag.com/earthbound-b...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
XRAY one of my fave journals, Absolute Elsewhere one of my fave albums of last few years, Blood Incantation among my fave recent live shows.
"Music is art, and art is inherently transgressive to the concepts you mention (ultranationalism, authoritarianism, populism, and xenophobia)."
"Music is art, and art is inherently transgressive to the concepts you mention (ultranationalism, authoritarianism, populism, and xenophobia)."
this is one of the coolest things to happen here at X-R-A-Y...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR A COGNITIVE EMPATHY BROADCAST: AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL RIEDL FROM BLOOD INCANTATION by Chris Kelso
Music is the shorthand of emotion. There is something intrinsic to the structure of it – with its overtures, rising crescendos, and authentic cadences – which seem to mirror our temporal patterns so e...
xraylitmag.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
XRAY one of my fave journals, Absolute Elsewhere one of my fave albums of last few years, Blood Incantation among my fave recent live shows.
"Music is art, and art is inherently transgressive to the concepts you mention (ultranationalism, authoritarianism, populism, and xenophobia)."
"Music is art, and art is inherently transgressive to the concepts you mention (ultranationalism, authoritarianism, populism, and xenophobia)."
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
art monster lifestyle
this is one of the coolest things to happen here at X-R-A-Y...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR A COGNITIVE EMPATHY BROADCAST: AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL RIEDL FROM BLOOD INCANTATION by Chris Kelso
Music is the shorthand of emotion. There is something intrinsic to the structure of it – with its overtures, rising crescendos, and authentic cadences – which seem to mirror our temporal patterns so e...
xraylitmag.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:08 PM
art monster lifestyle
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
The last year’s worth of published work. Short stories courtesy of @stingingfly.bsky.social @bansheepress.bsky.social and @xraylitmag.bsky.social and my essay on the cinema of Marguerite Duras in @fallowmedia.bsky.social.
December 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM
The last year’s worth of published work. Short stories courtesy of @stingingfly.bsky.social @bansheepress.bsky.social and @xraylitmag.bsky.social and my essay on the cinema of Marguerite Duras in @fallowmedia.bsky.social.
this is one of the coolest things to happen here at X-R-A-Y...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR A COGNITIVE EMPATHY BROADCAST: AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL RIEDL FROM BLOOD INCANTATION by Chris Kelso
Music is the shorthand of emotion. There is something intrinsic to the structure of it – with its overtures, rising crescendos, and authentic cadences – which seem to mirror our temporal patterns so e...
xraylitmag.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:45 AM
this is one of the coolest things to happen here at X-R-A-Y...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
Chris Kelso interviews Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation !!
they discuss Blood Incantation’s latest album, art’s threat to authoritarianism & much more
xraylitmag.com/and-now-its-...
we have a story by Dana Jean Rider !
it's about a woman who starts watching a woman doing yoga through her window.
"My problem is that I’ve only ever known for certain what I don’t want. ... But I do want."
read 'Let's Talk About Desire' !!
xraylitmag.com/lets-talk-ab...
it's about a woman who starts watching a woman doing yoga through her window.
"My problem is that I’ve only ever known for certain what I don’t want. ... But I do want."
read 'Let's Talk About Desire' !!
xraylitmag.com/lets-talk-ab...
LET'S TALK ABOUT DESIRE by Dana Jean Rider
The woman in the window doesn’t know I’m watching her. Or, if she does, she’s fine with it, having assessed me as nonthreatening. I’m just the skinny white girl raking leaves outside her first-floor a...
xraylitmag.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:55 AM
we have a story by Dana Jean Rider !
it's about a woman who starts watching a woman doing yoga through her window.
"My problem is that I’ve only ever known for certain what I don’t want. ... But I do want."
read 'Let's Talk About Desire' !!
xraylitmag.com/lets-talk-ab...
it's about a woman who starts watching a woman doing yoga through her window.
"My problem is that I’ve only ever known for certain what I don’t want. ... But I do want."
read 'Let's Talk About Desire' !!
xraylitmag.com/lets-talk-ab...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
subs opening! 🩻
tomorrow is the 1st -- all subs will be open tomorrow at 5am arizona time
December 1, 2025 at 9:35 AM
subs opening! 🩻
tomorrow is the 1st -- all subs will be open tomorrow at 5am arizona time
December 1, 2025 at 2:22 AM
tomorrow is the 1st -- all subs will be open tomorrow at 5am arizona time
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
latest story from me today. go on and give it a lil looky dirt.fyi/article/2025...
The Trees of Ketron Island
New short fiction by Kyle Seibel.
dirt.fyi
November 24, 2025 at 4:36 PM
latest story from me today. go on and give it a lil looky dirt.fyi/article/2025...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
What a thrill to be interviewed by @keersteemack.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social and nerd out about structure, humor, flawed male role models, and Elvis Grbac (1998’s Sexiest Athlete Alive) xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
FAULKNER DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT TEMPORAL INCONSISTENCIES, SO WHY SHOULD I?: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WADDY BULLION by Kirsti MacKenzie
John Waddy Bullion is as versatile a writer as they come. His loosely-linked collection This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers follows coming-of-age tales of Midwestern sons and the fraught relati...
xraylitmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:11 PM
What a thrill to be interviewed by @keersteemack.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social and nerd out about structure, humor, flawed male role models, and Elvis Grbac (1998’s Sexiest Athlete Alive) xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
v v excited to return the favor and interview one of my favs @johnwaddy.bsky.social! thanks @xraylitmag.bsky.social for letting me nerd out
now we're gonna put it in reverse - Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social eeMack interviews John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social about his book 'This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers'
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
FAULKNER DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT TEMPORAL INCONSISTENCIES, SO WHY SHOULD I?: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WADDY BULLION by Kirsti MacKenzie
John Waddy Bullion is as versatile a writer as they come. His loosely-linked collection This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers follows coming-of-age tales of Midwestern sons and the fraught relati...
xraylitmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
v v excited to return the favor and interview one of my favs @johnwaddy.bsky.social! thanks @xraylitmag.bsky.social for letting me nerd out
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
my thanks to X-R-A-Y and @keersteemack.bsky.social for allowing me to turn this interview into a game of “let’s remember some guys”
now we're gonna put it in reverse - Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social eeMack interviews John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social about his book 'This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers'
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
FAULKNER DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT TEMPORAL INCONSISTENCIES, SO WHY SHOULD I?: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WADDY BULLION by Kirsti MacKenzie
John Waddy Bullion is as versatile a writer as they come. His loosely-linked collection This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers follows coming-of-age tales of Midwestern sons and the fraught relati...
xraylitmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:03 PM
my thanks to X-R-A-Y and @keersteemack.bsky.social for allowing me to turn this interview into a game of “let’s remember some guys”
now we're gonna put it in reverse - Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social eeMack interviews John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social about his book 'This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers'
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
FAULKNER DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT TEMPORAL INCONSISTENCIES, SO WHY SHOULD I?: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WADDY BULLION by Kirsti MacKenzie
John Waddy Bullion is as versatile a writer as they come. His loosely-linked collection This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers follows coming-of-age tales of Midwestern sons and the fraught relati...
xraylitmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
now we're gonna put it in reverse - Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social eeMack interviews John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social about his book 'This World Will Never Run Out of Strangers'
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
they discuss narrative form, setting, humor, baseball & a lot else !
xraylitmag.com/faulkner-did...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
“[Y]ou have to get up, every day, and engage in creating for its own sake. You can’t control anything about the outcome . . . If nobody else gives a fuck about this but me, is it still worth doing? The answer has to be yes.”
Amen and amen.
Amen and amen.
John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social interviews Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social about her book 'Better To Beg'
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
THE ANSWER HAS TO BE YES: AN INTERVIEW WITH KIRSTI MACKENZIE by John Waddy Bullion
Kirsti MacKenzie’s debut Better to Beg (Sweet Trash Press, 2025) is a rock ’n’ roll novel set against the backdrop (and at the tail end) of the Meet Me in the Bathroom-era New York indie boomlet, told...
xraylitmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
“[Y]ou have to get up, every day, and engage in creating for its own sake. You can’t control anything about the outcome . . . If nobody else gives a fuck about this but me, is it still worth doing? The answer has to be yes.”
Amen and amen.
Amen and amen.
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
Lucky enough to be interviewed by (and to interview, stay tuned! @johnwaddy.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
You can read it here if you want to 😊💕
You can read it here if you want to 😊💕
John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social interviews Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social about her book 'Better To Beg'
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
THE ANSWER HAS TO BE YES: AN INTERVIEW WITH KIRSTI MACKENZIE by John Waddy Bullion
Kirsti MacKenzie’s debut Better to Beg (Sweet Trash Press, 2025) is a rock ’n’ roll novel set against the backdrop (and at the tail end) of the Meet Me in the Bathroom-era New York indie boomlet, told...
xraylitmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Lucky enough to be interviewed by (and to interview, stay tuned! @johnwaddy.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social
You can read it here if you want to 😊💕
You can read it here if you want to 😊💕
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
I had the honor of talking with @keersteemack.bsky.social about her marvelous new novel BETTER TO BEG (Sweet Trash Press) in @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
THE ANSWER HAS TO BE YES: AN INTERVIEW WITH KIRSTI MACKENZIE by John Waddy Bullion
Kirsti MacKenzie’s debut Better to Beg (Sweet Trash Press, 2025) is a rock ’n’ roll novel set against the backdrop (and at the tail end) of the Meet Me in the Bathroom-era New York indie boomlet, told...
xraylitmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:53 PM
I had the honor of talking with @keersteemack.bsky.social about her marvelous new novel BETTER TO BEG (Sweet Trash Press) in @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
The real tragedy here is when the alternate family roots for the Habs
@ericsubpar.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-last-gre...
@ericsubpar.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-last-gre...
THE LAST GREAT NORTH AMERICAN HOCKEY TEAM by Eric Subpar
I awake on a Saturday. It is my birthday. All my friends are here. My wife is telling me about the preseason. Kevin is still coming. Don’t blow out the candles until Kevin arrives. I won’t, dear. Her ...
xraylitmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
The real tragedy here is when the alternate family roots for the Habs
@ericsubpar.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-last-gre...
@ericsubpar.bsky.social for @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/the-last-gre...
John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social interviews Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social about her book 'Better To Beg'
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
THE ANSWER HAS TO BE YES: AN INTERVIEW WITH KIRSTI MACKENZIE by John Waddy Bullion
Kirsti MacKenzie’s debut Better to Beg (Sweet Trash Press, 2025) is a rock ’n’ roll novel set against the backdrop (and at the tail end) of the Meet Me in the Bathroom-era New York indie boomlet, told...
xraylitmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:56 PM
John Waddy Bullion @johnwaddy.bsky.social interviews Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social about her book 'Better To Beg'
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
they talk about the challenge of writing about music, messy characters, & creating for its own sake. read it !
xraylitmag.com/the-answer-h...
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
I thought it was high time, now or never, before the light was put out, to break the spell in which I had so long been bound.
November 19, 2025 at 11:47 AM
I thought it was high time, now or never, before the light was put out, to break the spell in which I had so long been bound.
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
Is it ‘My wife and I’ or ‘Me and my wife’? Anyway, we just robbed a liquor store
November 15, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Is it ‘My wife and I’ or ‘Me and my wife’? Anyway, we just robbed a liquor store
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
cover! synopsis! preorder! out in feb!!
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
November 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
cover! synopsis! preorder! out in feb!!
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
Reposted by X-R-A-Y Literary Press
‘Thirteen was the year I discovered spite.’
Such incredible characterisation in just 73 words - wow! Sarah Chin in @xraylitmag.bsky.social 🎂
xraylitmag.com/ages-by-sara...
Such incredible characterisation in just 73 words - wow! Sarah Chin in @xraylitmag.bsky.social 🎂
xraylitmag.com/ages-by-sara...
AGES by Sarah Chin
Thirteen was the year I discovered spite. Fourteen, eyeliner. Fifteen, seduction in a slow blink. At sixteen, I mailed seventeen birthday cards to myself, all unsigned. My mother asked who loved me th...
xraylitmag.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
‘Thirteen was the year I discovered spite.’
Such incredible characterisation in just 73 words - wow! Sarah Chin in @xraylitmag.bsky.social 🎂
xraylitmag.com/ages-by-sara...
Such incredible characterisation in just 73 words - wow! Sarah Chin in @xraylitmag.bsky.social 🎂
xraylitmag.com/ages-by-sara...