Aaron Burch
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aaronburch.bsky.social
Aaron Burch
@aaronburch.bsky.social
2.9K followers 720 following 4.2K posts
Author: A KIND OF IN-BETWEEN; YEAR OF THE BUFFALO; STEPHEN KING'S THE BODY; BACKSWING

Editor: HAD; Short Story, Long (on Substack)

https://linktr.ee/aaronburch
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aaronburch.bsky.social
Share a 90s movie you think deserves more love

Maybe this gets a lotta love, I really don't know? I hadn't seen it, and am not sure I'd ever even heard of it, but watched it a couple weeks ago, and it was a blast.
movie poster for Red Rock West, starring Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Tagline: "Where all roads lead to intrigue, and nothing is what it seems."
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
"Get in loser, we're going to the mall" screenshot from Mean Girls, edited to read, "Get in losers, we're going to Tacoma"
November 25, 2025 at 12:17 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
one of the best kinds of responses to editing a lit journal
Something about a Short Story, Long story: I discovered Jennifer Savran Kelly through SSL and am currently reading her novel Endpapers.
November 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Just an absolute emotional knockout of a story. I reread every five years or so and am totally wowed anew every time. Don’t see it mentioned or talked about that often, tho everyone I know who has read it agrees it’s an all-timer.
first page of the story “Train Choir”: TRAIN CHOIR VERNA COULD HEAR Lucy bounding through the long grass in the darkness. The dinging of her tags amid the chafing stalks gave away every burst of speed and change of direction. Briefly she was running toward the train trestle up ahead, a low bridge connecting two squat bluffs outlined against the high-plain night sky, and then she was doubling back toward the outskirts of town, a slope of tidy houses obscured by elm and pine and dogwood trees and hemmed in by the freeway to the east. Then the sounds stopped for a while, only to pick up again, tracing a path back toward the road shoulder, right to the spot where Verna, all alone, was walking. Lucy emerged from the grass and plowed into Verna's legs, carrying in her smiling mouth a squat stick. The moonlight glowed on her small, muscled body, turning her yellow coat the color of pale frost. Verna wrestled with the stick until Lucy relinquished her grip, and after a pat on the head, the dog plunged back into the meadow for another sprint. "We're only out here a little while!" Verna said. "Don't get too far. Are you listening? Stay close to me." Verna continued walking. The wind in the grass mixed with the whisper of traffic on Columbus Boulevard and up ahead the… short story collection: LIVABILITY by Jon Raymond
November 20, 2025 at 1:52 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
could try this?
gif from Office Space of taking a baseball bat to a computer printer and smashing it to pieces
November 19, 2025 at 8:43 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
just a total nightmare of a world
screenshot of bluesky's "trending": Github Issues Saudi Relations Andrew Tate Keith Olbermann Anthropic Investment
November 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 2:10 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
haven't shared one of these for a minute. here's a rave from a submitter for @ambersparks.bsky.social's amazing story on SSL.

haven't read it? you should:
ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/your-life-...
Something about a Short Story, Long story I was positively blown away by the formal experimentation in Amber Sparks' piece last week. She's so excellent at the sentence level that sometimes I forget to pay attention to how well her stories are constructed. Reading it flew by, too--so often the stories you publish don't FEEL like long stories, which is a real testament to their power. I'll be thinking about that imaginary woman's life for a long time.
November 18, 2025 at 11:34 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
first blurb, from big fave, Amelia Gray!
PRAISE FOR TACOMA “A charming story of coupling and nostalgia. This airy romance, much like its summer-home setting, is both beautifully constructed and packed with secret rooms. Tacoma feels like a new Burch era, though it's packed with plenty of what I've always loved. As always, Burch’s self-assured prose shines.” —Amelia Gray, author of Isadora
November 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
an elite, and not-often-enough-raved-about, 3-album stretch
Living Colour: Vivid, 1988 Time's Up, 1990 Stain, 1993
November 18, 2025 at 12:10 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
formatting @jessdawn.bsky.social's SSL interview for tomorrow, and kinda can't believe I've never heard of this phrase, "reflective nostalgia," before!
Q: Do you have a fave phrase or sentence or moment in the story? Why that? I love talking about and getting to highlight and allowing ourselves to take pride in some of these small, favorite things! Answer: Man, tough call because there are a few lines and little moments that make me really happy. I think right now, a favorite is this: "There’s a time she would have done it, would have paddled all the way out, wouldn’t have even known she was supposed to be afraid, no idea that the world could be anything patient with her." I’m real stuck on the idea of reflective nostalgia lately, which is remembering a time without wanting to relive it. Just appreciating that you went through it. I feel that about the impulsive days of my teens and twenties, appreciating that I did a bunch of reckless stuff but not wanting to do those things again. I love the idea that Janna is thinking “man I used to be so wild” while she’s paddling a kayak that she found on the curb, which is not exactly a safe move. I love that one day she could feel that same kind of nostalgia for this moment, be in her sixties thinking about how she learned to kayak almost by accident. Like she can only see her bravery in retrospect.
November 17, 2025 at 2:16 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Short Story, Long gonna be closing out 2025 so strong.
"Home Is a Relative Term" by Christopher Gonzalez "Dipshits" by Kirsti MacKenzie "A Love Story Told in Nine Lives" by Anna Vangala Jones
November 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
“What is sorrow but old, worn-out joy?”

—Jon Raymond, “Old Joy”
November 16, 2025 at 2:44 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
perfect lazy sunday morning
photo of paperback (LIVABILITY, stories by Jon Raymond) on counter with Botch coffee mug and a bottle of bourbon cream
November 16, 2025 at 2:26 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
gotta make a po run this week...
want a signed copy of my novel or my essay collection? $15, or whatever you can afford.
there's also this handful of books I have doubles of and/or read recently but don't really need to hold onto. pay whatever you want for one, or i'll throw in w/ one of my books.
Year of the Buffalo, a novel by Aaron Burch A Kind of In-Between, short personal essay by Aaron Burch On the Calculation of Volume I, Solvej Balle Fresh, Green Life, Sebastian Castillo Crapalachia, Scott McClanahan Unfit, Ariana Harwicz Scorch Atlas, Blake Butler Gloria Patri, Austin Ross
November 15, 2025 at 8:12 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
shoutout to feeling 27 again (/forever /always)
November 15, 2025 at 12:54 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
incredibly relating to michael shannon here
series of three screenshot of an Esquire interview between Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen, first shot is Shannon, second two are Macfadyen smiling at Shannon, all three are Shannon speaking, saying, "but I'm a whore... and I'll do anything... for a laugh"
November 14, 2025 at 2:17 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
here's the first chapter/two pages. those last two lines are a big part of what helped me figure out and unlock the book and what it was and what it could be.

"That isn’t this story though.
This is a story about magic and beauty and wonder."
THE HOUSE The house was hard to believe. Bigger, nicer, everythinger than anywhere either of us had lived. Anywhere either of us had imagined we’d be able to live. Probably anywhere you’ve imagined yourself able to live. Beautiful mid-century modern, recently remodeled, state-of-the-art everything. A Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous episode devoted to a Frank Lloyd Wright house built in a waking life dream set in 21st century Pacific Northwest. But the real showstopper was the view. The view! A wall of windows looked out at a fantasy novel’s description of Tacoma—watercolor washes of blues accented with sparkling white caps of choppy water of the Puget Sound; a landscape of evergreen trees on the islands and land on the other side; above it all, the shaky seismograph readout of the Olympic Mountains capped with snow. I was reminded how much bigger and warmer and healthier and my heart felt being near water, trees, mountains. How much more alive and open to the world. It looked like a postcard. Like a single perfect shot from a movie. Like my nostalgic heart spilled out on canvas and come alive. I guess I’ll tell you now too, because I’m afraid starting with these too-good-to-be-true descriptions is setting up an expectation that it all went to shit. That the house was haunted or cursed. That we somehow ruined it, or over the course of the summer, it ruined us. That any story that starts with a feeling like living inside a dream has to turn into a nightmare. That isn’t this story though. This is a story about magic and beauty and wonder.
November 13, 2025 at 6:35 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
"Get in Loser, We're Going Shopping" meme from Mean Girls edited to read "Get in Losers, We're Going To Tacoma"
November 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
February 2026 Dream Team
(feat @laurenlavin.bsky.social, @suburbanprairie.bsky.social, & me)

autofocusbooks.com/store/p/wint...
THE WINTER 2026 BOX $44.00 In September 2025, Autofocus Books is releasing three titles: The Third Beat // Lavin Lavin [essays] Tacoma // Aaron Burch [novella] Teen Queen Training // Kristine Langley Mahler [erasure essays] You can order them all here at $6 off the total list prices + also receive a free fourth Autofocus title of your choice (and pay a little less for shipping on the order). Choose your extra book from the dropdown before checking out.
November 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
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
ABOUT THE BOOK Inspired to “take a break from life” by the idyllic housesitting situation they were offered for the summer, Aaron and Amber find themselves in Aaron’s hometown of Tacoma, Washington. Amber works her remote job, Aaron tries to write and goes for runs along the waterfront, and they explore their temporary summer city on daily walks and regular excursions. Soon, noticing that the landscape seems to keep shifting around them, Aaron starts drawing a map of it all, attempting to document and make sense of the changes. When Tacoma starts to open up bigger and bigger with possibility and wonder, Tacoma starts to fold in on itself, becoming both more self-referential and more like the spontaneous, fantastical stories Aaron has been writing. A friend rides an orca to come visit. Pirates guard a wormhole in the forest. A secret doorway in the Tacoma Mall tunnels back to Aaron’s childhood bedroom. 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? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aaron Burch grew up in Tacoma, Washington.
November 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
here's the first few lines of my novel, THE LAST LOCK-IN, which is just sitting on my hard drive, because I don't have the energy to send it out anymore
5 p.m.: Early Arrival You don’t yet know this will be your last lock-in. Your last night of youth group. Sitting in your stepdad Ed’s car, staring at the church outside your passenger side window, your heart feels like it is beating faster than normal, or harder, or it is bigger than ever, like swollen full with literal manifestation of all the anticipation you’re holding inside of you.
November 12, 2025 at 3:26 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
seen a buncha people posting @dieddisappointed.bsky.social's book and wanted to join. only a few stories in, but it is (expectedly) great.

here's probably my fave paragraph so far:
"Samuel, as a baby, seems, for now, happy. He doesn't worry much about anything, least of all concepts like the future. Which makes him somehow less human to me. He is full of uncanny absences like that. He knows no poverty or regret yet. He doesn't cycle endlessly through an embarrassing moment from earlier in the day, or from years earlier for that matter. To him, there is barely any concept of "day." He sits and poses in almost all the pictures with the same content feebleness that borders on regal." small paperback on hardwood floor: Are People Out There by Shane Kowalski
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
the other side of excitedly sending out blurb asks...
screenshot of ends of two gmail prompts, both asking "Sent 5 days ago. Follow up?"
November 11, 2025 at 2:50 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
that's my other one!
(well, actually, a little more this one)
Ken Griffey Jr. being dogpiled by fellow Seattle Mariners teammates
November 11, 2025 at 12:27 PM