Geetha Iyer
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geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Geetha Iyer
@geetha-iyer.bsky.social
180 followers 350 following 80 posts
Writes about people/nature in flux. Teaches fiction, nonfiction, graphic narratives. Spider enthusiast. Animal cognition nerd. Cross-disciplinary everything. https://geetha-iyer.com/
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geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Geetha Iyer @geetha-iyer.bsky.social · Aug 4
🧵Open submissions call! I recently took on a new position as Associate Editor of Creative Nonfiction at ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. If you have work that intersects people+nature in some significant way, I want to see it! Read on for submissions criteria...
Logo for the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, featuring a black line drawing of a wizened cypress-like tree against a neutral background.
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Who knew I needed to see Paleolithic rock art. Thread below, come for the shade, stay for the delicately carved sculptures >>
tangledwilderness.bsky.social Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness @tangledwilderness.bsky.social · 18d
Musk wants to be a Renaissance man, but he's not even a paleolithic man.

Paleolithic people made art, cared for the sick, & got together to share resources & ideas.

Musk would have died alone, crying that no one saw the genius of his plan to monetize hitting yourself in the head with a big rock.
An Elon musk tweet reading "grok imagine prompt: she smiles and says 'i will always love you '" over an ai slop image of a grimacing woman with weird lighting Cave paintings of horses and a rhinoceros from Chauvet cave, dating back tens of thousands of years
November 11, 2025 at 4:11 AM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Every time I find an interview with Trudy Cooper in the wild I rejoice. Platinum Grit and Oglaf are way more niche than they deserve to be. Also, how is this thing that I love that someone created 16+ years old?
November 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
nikwalk.bsky.social
What a gift it is to have this essay published on this hopeful day! Thank you so much, @jacqdoyle.bsky.social , for helping to bring this piece into the world.
November 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
larisa-a-white.bsky.social
Love this infographic. Spot on!
aubreyhirsch.bsky.social Aubrey Hirsch @aubreyhirsch.bsky.social · Oct 14
Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math
November 4, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
entsocamerica.bsky.social
Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 22, 2025
Jagged ambush bug
Phymata sp.
Hemiptera: Reduviidae
By Tom Astle (@tjalamont.bsky.social), Montana, USA
#arthropodPOTW
A close-up image of a yellow insect with textured, bumpy skin perched on a bright yellow flower. The background is blurred, highlighting the details of the insect and petals.
October 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
theoffingmag.bsky.social
Best of the Net 2025 Nonfiction and Poetry nominations (@geetha-iyer.bsky.social, @rogerthatmack.bsky.social)
White text in a blue background that reads: NONFICTION Geetha Iyer (@geetha-iyer.bsky.social), "Exquisite Corpus" Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin, "Ngoại and the Coral Reef" White text on a blue background that reads: POETRY Kristin Gustafson, "Horse Poetica" Lauren Saxon, "if I could give you the moon" Mack Rogers (@rogerthatmack.bsky.social), "My mother's scrapbook found while I was looking for inspiration" Maya Salameh, "EXCERPTS FROM SEPTEMBER'S PSYCHOSOMATIC EFFECTS ON ARAB AM. GIRLS" Tim Seibles, "So, After A While," Shasparay, "Judgment Day"
October 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
🧵Open submissions call! I recently took on a new position as Associate Editor of Creative Nonfiction at ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. If you have work that intersects people+nature in some significant way, I want to see it! Read on for submissions criteria...
Logo for the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, featuring a black line drawing of a wizened cypress-like tree against a neutral background.
August 4, 2025 at 7:49 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Me to 5yo: Please walk faster, I want to get home. Also me: 5yo, hold my bag, and the umbrella, and the raincoat, I have to chase down this insect and confirm it is not a bee. 15 minutes later... Look at this beauty. Bumblebee robberfly, not currently assassinating anything smaller than a raisin.
Much like a bumblebee, this insect is covered in yellow hairs. Furry yellow legs, yellow face with black eyes, domed yellow thorax, abdomen banded in yellow and unfurry black. How to tell it is a fly and not a bee? One large set of brown wings, one set of halteres (little yellow nubs under the main wings, used for steering), antennae are short and more like horns than the rounded tipped antennae of bees, and the mouthparts come to a point, meant to pierce their prey to suck out their blood. The eyes are rounder and more beady looking than bee eyes. Robberflies hunt by sight. They are also called assassin flies, because they are spectacular predators. This one is giving me intense side eye from the tarmac after evading my camera for so long.
July 3, 2025 at 11:50 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
My new mode of interacting with Bsky--if it's not a poem or a picture of an invertebrate within three newsfeed posts, I'm outta here. Lucky me:
onlypoemsmag.bsky.social ONLY POEMS @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social · Jul 1
Keith Leonard
July 1, 2025 at 6:47 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
In a confluence of interests--this paper looked at classical Chinese poetry to infer range contraction of the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise. Poetry as natural history notes, love this.
currentbiology.bsky.social Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · May 5
Dive into our latest issue!🌊
www.cell.com/issue/S0960-...

On the cover:Yangtze porpoises in troubled waters🐬 by Yaoyao Zhang and colleagues www.cell.com/current-biol...
May 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
I knew this folio on queer epistolaries was going to knock me out and I was right and I have grading to do but all I want to do is keep reading >>
anmlymag.bsky.social ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · May 12
ANMLY #40 is here! We’re thrilled to share new translations, fiction, poetry, CNF, with a folio on queer epistolaries!

>>> anmly.org/ap40

And we're open for new work until August 1 & a call for Autistic Protest Poetry running till July 1

>>> anmly.submittable.com
A pastel drawing of a crow in front of a sun with a narration bubble that reads "Crow who brought light to the world." By Jesse Lee Kercheval.
May 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Ok, bear with the shaky-cam (it is my signature special effect as an overenthusiast), but would you take a look at this blessed date palm? Rosy-faced lovebirds, common pigeons, and gila woodpeckers (I think?) all nesting in the same date palm tree crown. Phoenix, AZ.
May 12, 2025 at 8:16 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
🧵"It is characteristic of the scribble to resist being anything and to be part of the move; on the move, just as the scribbler is [...] The line takes time and is time as a temporal trace, thus the scribbler [...] and the scribble [...] are forms of growth and return [remaining] unfinished, always."
A toddler (my kid four years ago) photographed from above sitting on a tile floor with red and yellow paint in a tray and a sketchbook with red, yellow, and murky orange dashes of paint running across the pages. The sole of the toddler's left foot is painted red. There's a line of red paint on the toddler's right knee. The toddler's right hand is holding a brush and motion-blurred. More body painting will ensue.
May 8, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
bradymicheller.bsky.social
List of NEA grant recipients no longer receiving funding. You don't have to care. You just have to know. @electricliterature.com @onestorymag.bsky.social @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social @redhenpress.bsky.social @mcsweeneys.net etc
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#writingcommunity
NEA GRANT TERMINATION TRACKER
docs.google.com
May 5, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
tomgauld.bsky.social
Or, if you prefer a smaller bookshop:
Title: The exceedingly tiny bookshop It is no wider than its own narrow door but is easy to find as there is always a queue of eager customers outside. One at a time, they enter to find themselves uncomfortably close to the proprietor. His impeccable suggestions are mote than worth the indignity. In the miniature stockroom a professional contortionist is employed to unpack deliveries and replenish the display. The shelves can accommodate only eleven volumes, but each is chosen with such care that nobody leaves empty handed. On Saturday mornings, a local author reads stories to as many small children as can be wedged into the shop.
May 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
chayab77.bsky.social
Excited to come across this paragraph by @alexanderchee.bsky.social in the newsletter I just read by dear friend and luminescent @jiminhanwriter.bsky.social. I needed this.
April 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Raging? Me. Too. Even (and especially) so, here is a baby sloth eating a melon.
dinalab.bsky.social Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · Apr 25
Baby sloth feeding time!
April 25, 2025 at 4:32 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
Literally nothing I read about LLMs reduces my rage. So happy (?) to see the carbon expenditure of using ChatGPT as a calculator laid bare like this >>
ketanjoshi.co Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Apr 23
Used @hf.co's new tool to multiply 2 five digit numbers

Chatbot: wrong answer, 0.3 watthours

Calc: right answer, 0.00000011 watthours (2.5 million times less energy)

New post - on how big tech is trying to recreate the plastics crisis in the world of software

www.linkedin.com/pulse/chatbo...
I think we have barely begun to experience the consequences of company-induced overconsumption of chatbot text generation systems. I think the magic trick pulled here - where outputs are aesthetically convincing and sometimes right enough to discourage doubt or skepticism - is shockingly effective. It reminds me of how car companies have successfully marketed wildly oversized cars, because it helps their profit margins. I am also very much reminded of how oil companies very aggressively pushed for the spread of single-use plastics across society, despite no one actually asking for it. Both of these examples have caused harm to living things, and have also served as an endless demand sink for fossil fuel products. I think it is clear that generative tools fit both of those criteria really perfectly. There is a great piece out in DeSmog today about how the rising power demand for these systems is directly incentivising fossil fuel production and consumption, and that none of this is a secret: both AI advocates and fossil fuel companies / states are openly bragging about the co-benefits of this symbiosis.
April 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
soozuk.bsky.social
🧵NOT BY ME, this is a post from someone who wants to remain anonymous but works extensively with trans people pre-transition. They were asked by someone “why do you think that’s so much [coverage of trans people] in the news at the moment?”

This was their response:
April 20, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
emilycurates.bsky.social
Kenyan #journalist Alvin Kaunda was reporting live from Nairobi when a curious baby #elephant, Kindani, decided to join the broadcast. The playful elephant stuck her trunk in Alvin's mouth, making for a hilarious moment! A joyful reminder of wildlife's charm and the work of the Sheldrick Trust!
April 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
There are many horrors, but today my kid asked me what was the best poem I ever wrote, and I read it to her, and then she said she would write a poem, which turned into a story, which turned into a comic, and isn't it a gift to watch a child develop narrative and visual literacy in the 2020s.
A notebook with a child's stick figure drawing of a mother and child by a tall shelf, with a jar on every shelf. The almost-top jar contains a fruit. The topmost jar, which the child is pointing at, contains cookies. Text in the child's hand on the top of the page reads, "Nila Nila what | do you want | Mama I want | a cookie | dut cookies | aren't healthy Nila | ok fine then" Let it be known that this is a work of fiction. The child has access to plenty of cookies. And fruit not in jars.
April 19, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
shing.bsky.social
More info about our tea pet fundraiser for the Trans Youth Emergency Project! The store launches April 29th, 12 PST. Tea pets are mailed randomly, requests possible at a higher tier! We'll probably sell out! tea4t.bigcartel.com/about
April 17, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Geetha Iyer
katherineschof8.bsky.social
My husband has taught human reproduction and development to the Cambridge medics for over three decades. When people start banging on about "only two biological sexes" he starts with "which sex: genetic, hormonal, or gonadal"?

Biological sex is not binary. www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-...
Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic
Biologists now think there is a larger spectrum than just binary female and male
www.scientificamerican.com
April 16, 2025 at 12:03 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
So excited for this 🌈🌍, everyone look, register, listen in!
orionmagazine.bsky.social Orion Magazine @orionmagazine.bsky.social · Apr 9
An event featuring Lulu Miller, Sabrina Imbler, AND Amy Ray? It's about to be the coolest Spring Issue Launch ever.

Join Orion, @radiolab.bsky.social, and @lambdaliterary.org for a joyous event celebrating our amazing queer planet on April 16 by registering right here.

shorturl.at/Ppors
April 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM
geetha-iyer.bsky.social
I've been waiting for this book to come out for so long. @vauhinivara.bsky.social is one of the writers I teach when I teach my students about LLMs and storytelling. Can't wait to finally buy this 💜
April 8, 2025 at 3:28 PM