Austin Grossman
@grossman.bsky.social
Track 1: Author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, You, Crooked, and Fight Me. Literary world's best-kept secret.
Track 2: Game designer & narrative designer.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/446205/fight-me-by-grossman-aust
Track 2: Game designer & narrative designer.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/446205/fight-me-by-grossman-aust
reported to me
“I’m at the Harvard Yale game and and the Yale fans are interspersing, ‘Harvard sucks’ with ‘Larry Summers!’”
a pretty sick burn, we admit
“I’m at the Harvard Yale game and and the Yale fans are interspersing, ‘Harvard sucks’ with ‘Larry Summers!’”
a pretty sick burn, we admit
November 23, 2025 at 3:42 PM
reported to me
“I’m at the Harvard Yale game and and the Yale fans are interspersing, ‘Harvard sucks’ with ‘Larry Summers!’”
a pretty sick burn, we admit
“I’m at the Harvard Yale game and and the Yale fans are interspersing, ‘Harvard sucks’ with ‘Larry Summers!’”
a pretty sick burn, we admit
The Secret History: MAGA ur-text,
or merely a prescient allegory?
or merely a prescient allegory?
November 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
The Secret History: MAGA ur-text,
or merely a prescient allegory?
or merely a prescient allegory?
Reposted by Austin Grossman
This ad from World Without Exploitation featuring the Epstein Survivors will absolutely stop you in your tracks.
www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/
www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/
November 16, 2025 at 11:55 PM
This ad from World Without Exploitation featuring the Epstein Survivors will absolutely stop you in your tracks.
www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/
www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/
I can't have been more than ten when I opened a book of Sophocles in father's study and read this passage.
"Sir," I thought to myself, "I like the cut of your jib."
"Sir," I thought to myself, "I like the cut of your jib."
November 16, 2025 at 7:56 AM
I can't have been more than ten when I opened a book of Sophocles in father's study and read this passage.
"Sir," I thought to myself, "I like the cut of your jib."
"Sir," I thought to myself, "I like the cut of your jib."
George Elliot’s prose has this bulldozer quality that drives forward slowly but with inexorable force and thoroughness
October 19, 2025 at 6:51 PM
George Elliot’s prose has this bulldozer quality that drives forward slowly but with inexorable force and thoroughness
Reposted by Austin Grossman
In other scientific literature news, a quantitative linguist published a study comparing the literary output of identical twins. My brother Austin and I were part of the dataset www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YFIRR...
Do Identical Twins Write Identically? Evidence from Authorship Attribution
This study investigates the writing styles of identical twins to determine if their shared genetics result in identical writing. We used computational authorship analysis techniques on writing samp...
www.tandfonline.com
October 7, 2025 at 2:38 PM
In other scientific literature news, a quantitative linguist published a study comparing the literary output of identical twins. My brother Austin and I were part of the dataset www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YFIRR...
Reposted by Austin Grossman
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
October 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
Google Books Ngram Viewer
Google Ngrams: spooktacular, 1800-2022
books.google.com
September 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Call it "The Meta." It's...I don't know man just try it.
September 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Call it "The Meta." It's...I don't know man just try it.
leaving this up for a bit
"I never imagined I would see fear spread so far and fast in the US."
This from the writer who gave us definitive accounts of East Germany and other late state socialist societies in the 1980s.
This from the writer who gave us definitive accounts of East Germany and other late state socialist societies in the 1980s.
400 days to save US democracy. My latest, based on a long summer in the US. How Trump is exploiting structural weaknesses of the American system & why all democrats must want Democrats to win November 2026 midterms.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
September 18, 2025 at 12:31 AM
leaving this up for a bit
Reposted by Austin Grossman
“Be careful what you wish for, is the moral of the story, except when the moral is something more like: unless, what if, if only.”
Short fiction by @lytagold.bsky.social, now online from our Summer issue.
Short fiction by @lytagold.bsky.social, now online from our Summer issue.
What You Deserve
Be careful what you wish for , is the moral of the story, except when the moral is something more like: unless, what if, if only .
jewishcurrents.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:42 PM
“Be careful what you wish for, is the moral of the story, except when the moral is something more like: unless, what if, if only.”
Short fiction by @lytagold.bsky.social, now online from our Summer issue.
Short fiction by @lytagold.bsky.social, now online from our Summer issue.
Announcement: my new book is BEAST MODE
September 9, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Announcement: my new book is BEAST MODE
Ironically, dodging the wrath of the richest man in the world is an extremely Deus Ex thing to do.
www.timeextension.com/news/2025/09...
www.timeextension.com/news/2025/09...
"I Hope Elon Musk Never Googles Me, Because I'll Be Murdered", Says Deus Ex Co-Writer
"It's bizarre that Musk would not recognise where he sits in the Deus Ex universe"
www.timeextension.com
September 7, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Ironically, dodging the wrath of the richest man in the world is an extremely Deus Ex thing to do.
www.timeextension.com/news/2025/09...
www.timeextension.com/news/2025/09...
👀
"I Hope Elon Musk Never Googles Me, Because I'll Be Murdered", Says Deus Ex Co-Writer.
"I Hope Elon Musk Never Googles Me, Because I'll Be Murdered", Says Deus Ex Co-Writer
"It's bizarre that Musk would not recognise where he sits in the Deus Ex universe"
www.timeextension.com
September 6, 2025 at 7:08 PM
👀
Capsule review: Stephen Schottenfeld's Bluff City Pawn.
Like Balzac, tells us exactly how every one of his characters makes money, how they navigate a world of petty slights and inequities, and how those things are inseparable from character and fate.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/bluff-cit...
Like Balzac, tells us exactly how every one of his characters makes money, how they navigate a world of petty slights and inequities, and how those things are inseparable from character and fate.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/bluff-cit...
Bluff City Pawn
Huddy Marr, the proprietor of Bluff City Pawn shop in Memphis, is good at what he does: he knows jewelry, he knows guns and guitars. But the neighborhood is cha…
www.bloomsbury.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Capsule review: Stephen Schottenfeld's Bluff City Pawn.
Like Balzac, tells us exactly how every one of his characters makes money, how they navigate a world of petty slights and inequities, and how those things are inseparable from character and fate.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/bluff-cit...
Like Balzac, tells us exactly how every one of his characters makes money, how they navigate a world of petty slights and inequities, and how those things are inseparable from character and fate.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/bluff-cit...
Please send this person to a small-venue staging of a Harold Pinter play ASAP it is clearly an emergency.
www.rollingstone.com/culture-coun...
www.rollingstone.com/culture-coun...
The Walls Are Watching, the Floor Is Singing: Welcome to the Neon Mirage Where You Are the Show
Still think live entertainment is confined to Broadway marquees and stadium tour buses? You’re living in the past. The revolution has a name: placemaking.
www.rollingstone.com
August 18, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Please send this person to a small-venue staging of a Harold Pinter play ASAP it is clearly an emergency.
www.rollingstone.com/culture-coun...
www.rollingstone.com/culture-coun...
bravo
just tried out the "introduction to the longlist" VR experience that the booker prize sent out to indies this morning and I have some thoughts
July 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
bravo
The Broken Road, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s memoir of tramping across Bulgaria and Greece in 1933.
July 29, 2025 at 4:36 AM
The Broken Road, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s memoir of tramping across Bulgaria and Greece in 1933.
It's iconic, but is it good?
And picking 40th, @grossman.bsky.social selects Lisa Loeb's Lisa Loeb, Stay (I Missed You) 1994
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9HG...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9HG...
Lisa Loeb "Stay (I Missed You)" Music Video
YouTube video by Lisa Loeb Official
www.youtube.com
July 24, 2025 at 3:58 PM
It's iconic, but is it good?
I stand corrected: someone actually did have fun playing Monopoly. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
Review | How a Monopoly board helped World War II prisoners get out of jail free
In the book “Monopoly X,” Philip E. Orbanes tells the true story of how a doctored version of the classic board game was used to aid Allied prisoners.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I stand corrected: someone actually did have fun playing Monopoly. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
Reposted by Austin Grossman
i signed this! thank you to the organizers 🫧
writers with published books & people who work in publishing, including agents, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, & more, y’all can also sign the letter here:
lithub.com/against-ai-a...
writers with published books & people who work in publishing, including agents, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, & more, y’all can also sign the letter here:
lithub.com/against-ai-a...
June 29, 2025 at 12:39 PM
i signed this! thank you to the organizers 🫧
writers with published books & people who work in publishing, including agents, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, & more, y’all can also sign the letter here:
lithub.com/against-ai-a...
writers with published books & people who work in publishing, including agents, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, & more, y’all can also sign the letter here:
lithub.com/against-ai-a...
The NPC barks in Deathloop are a masterclass youtu.be/216Qzkw_5Og?...
Deathloop Battery Song (Satisfying Ending)
YouTube video by Dotterian
youtu.be
June 13, 2025 at 3:48 AM
The NPC barks in Deathloop are a masterclass youtu.be/216Qzkw_5Og?...
We shipped a Mixed Reality game on Thursday, where a magical animal shows up at your house and needs a place to stay.
It doesn't have any guns, or even any murders, except about a thousand years ago in the backstory that hasn't been revealed.
www.meta.com/en-gb/experi...
It doesn't have any guns, or even any murders, except about a thousand years ago in the backstory that hasn't been revealed.
www.meta.com/en-gb/experi...
Stay: Forever Home on Meta Quest
Ember is a quirky magical creature who brings a world of warmth, comfort and magic into your home. When you give Ember a home, you’ll gain a friend to explore a magical realm with, win items to collec...
www.meta.com
April 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
We shipped a Mixed Reality game on Thursday, where a magical animal shows up at your house and needs a place to stay.
It doesn't have any guns, or even any murders, except about a thousand years ago in the backstory that hasn't been revealed.
www.meta.com/en-gb/experi...
It doesn't have any guns, or even any murders, except about a thousand years ago in the backstory that hasn't been revealed.
www.meta.com/en-gb/experi...