John James
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ecotopian.bsky.social
John James
@ecotopian.bsky.social
Poet, scholar, environmental humanist • Author of The Milk Hours (Milkweed, 2019), Winter, Glossolalia (Black Spring, 2022), and Extinction Song (Tupelo, 2026) • Following the X-odus.
Pinned
New poem in @hopkinsreview.bsky.social with thanks to @doramalech.bsky.social!! I’ll post it’s brother this afternoon.
I’ve got two new poems out in Image. Here’s a teaser, but you can read both poems in full on the website — or order the print issue!
imagejournal.org/issue-124
April 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Thank god one of these universities has finally grown a backbone.
Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands
Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions and report international students who broke rules, among other steps. Harvard called the demands unlawful.
www.nytimes.com
April 14, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by John James
'Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain': Outrage as the University Yields to Trump's Demands www.commondreams.org/news/trump-c...
'Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain': Outrage as the University Yields to Trump's Demands | Common Dreams
Columbia University faces backlash for caving to Trump admin demands after the school lost $400 million over alleged inaction to curb antisemitism. Critics decry the move. Is this the end of Columbia ...
www.commondreams.org
March 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
This is why they hate us. Because we make things. Because we resist their structures of power, and do so with intelligence. Because they know, as Shelley says, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

This one's mine, from Winter, Glossolalia (BSPG, 2022).
#smallpoemsunday.
March 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
“[W]hat we are witnessing is not just an attack on academia or a set of fiscal reforms or a painful political rebalancing. It is an attack on the conditions that allow free thought to exist. We may not yet know its full cost, but we will feel its consequences for decades.”
@meghanor.bsky.social
Opinion | The View Inside Trump’s Assault on Universities (Gift Article)
The Trump administration’s attacks on universities will lead to the permanent diminishment of vital American institutions.
www.nytimes.com
March 16, 2025 at 2:14 PM
“We must learn from the past. We cannot remain silent in the face of authoritarian attacks on our peers, even if they have not yet come for us.”
Finally. Thank you @thecrimson & Levitsky & Enos for this importantly, urgently sane set of analyses & above all the recommendation that all the Universities speak in one voice. All the reasons given here are powerful. In addition, what is the mission of the University 1/
March 15, 2025 at 10:07 PM
I disagree with parts of this article, but one thing it gets right is the absolute cowardice of university administrators in the midst of an all out onslaught unfolding against higher education. Saying nothing will not save anyone.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
Opinion | The Authoritarian Endgame on Higher Education
This is a moment to trumpet the strengths of higher education and address its weaknesses.
www.nytimes.com
March 15, 2025 at 7:12 PM
“If someone legally in the United States can be grabbed from his home for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity, we are in a drastically different country from the one we inhabited before Trump’s inauguration.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/o...
Opinion | This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare
Mahmoud Khalil’s detention is a frightening sign of an authoritarian slide.
www.nytimes.com
March 12, 2025 at 12:35 AM
The arrest of Mr. Khalil represents a clear instance of retaliation against constitutionally protected free speech. This is an attempt to diminish support for Palestinian people and those suffering in Gaza (not to be confused with support for Hamas).

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/n...
Mahmoud Khalil Is Moved to Immigration Detention in Louisiana
Mahmoud Khalil is a permanent resident of the United States. His arrest sets up a fight over free speech and immigrant rights.
www.nytimes.com
March 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
I hear this is a pretty great contest, with some excellent winners from previous years. Submit!
We are accepting manuscript submissions for The Snowbound Chapbook Prize!

Deadline: February 28th

Prize: $1,000, publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.

tupelopress.submittable.com/submit
February 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM
My poem, “The Field Which Had Been a Meadow Once,” is in THE LAST MILKWEED, out now from @tupelopress.bsky.social. The poem takes its title from a poem in @joriegraham.bsky.social’s book TO 2040 (which I highly recommend) and leans into dialogue with Robert Duncan.
#poem #newpoem #poetry
February 7, 2025 at 8:45 PM
“Algae pushes north and farther north.”
February 1, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by John James
david lynch
DARK DEEP DARKNESS
January 31, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by John James
Deadline TOMORROW!
DORSET PRIZE

Deadline: January 31st, 2025

Prize: $3,000, a 2 week-long residency in Port Angeles, WA, worth $1,500 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

tupelopress.submittable.com/submit/30910...
January 30, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Poets: where are people submitting these days? I've got a few pieces I want to send out next month, including some from my forthcoming chap. Curious if there are any places that might not be on my list.
January 27, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by John James
Perhaps our eyes tire & slow so our other senses finally have a chance to breathe. Yet another poem from Frederick Smock
January 26, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by John James
"When the 'I' appears in Adams' poems, it’s not to offer the stamp of emotional authenticity, but to take advantage of the many masks that a skilled raconteur can adopt": Chris Waddington reviews PAST LIVES, poems by @vjoshuaadams.bsky.social via On The Seawall bit.ly/4anWrMK
January 20, 2025 at 5:51 PM
A poem for #smallpoemsunday. Robert Hass’s “Iowa, January,” one of my favorite small poems in the language.
January 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
You know when you are driving through Massachusetts and then you hit the Vermont border and everything feels calmer and greener? And then you realize it’s because there are no billboards along the road? That’s how it feels going from FB to Bluesky.
January 24, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Finally a bit of warm weather. And by warm, I mean, it’s 34° F.
January 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
There are probably better ways to resist, but right now, I’m just trying to control what I can control. I’m turning to the local rather than the global. I’m tending children, animals, plants, and art. I’m making poems and good food. I’m coaxing good into the world, where I can.
January 23, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by John James
Gah. This is going to be such a gnarly year for book releases.

Will you please shout out your forthcoming books so we can spread some hope/joy/excitement?
January 21, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Happy MLK Day to all. Power to you.
January 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
DC from the air. (Well, really the VA side of the Potomac.)
January 10, 2025 at 7:56 PM