Sharang Biswas
LightNews LightNews
banner
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
Sharang Biswas
@sharangbiswas.bsky.social
3.5K followers 1.7K following 1.7K posts
Games, interactive theatre, writing, art. ENnies, IndieCade, IGDN winner. Teaching at NYU & Fordham

Words: Eurogamer, Lightspeed, Augur, Strange Horizons, Baffling. SFWA member

My book THE IRON BELOW REMEMBERS is now out (from Neon Hemlock Press)!
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
Sharang Biswas @sharangbiswas.bsky.social · Mar 25
My first book is officially out!

If you like gay archeologists, horny superheroes, giant, ancient, Indian robots, or tonnes of footnotes, check it out!

Get it from @neonhemlock.bsky.social!
www.neonhemlock.com/books/iron-b...
The cover of THE IRON BELOW REMEMBERS, featuring a superhero and a man on the balcony of a South Asian-style palace, beneath a floating garden of purple-green vegetation.
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
On my way to Olive Garden for a field trip.

I love being an art school professor.
November 16, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
zachweinersmith.bsky.social
Full comic here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/conspi...
#smbc
November 14, 2025 at 10:22 PM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
If you’re looking into novellas during awards season, I humbly put forth my own, from @neonhemlock.bsky.social?

Gay archeologists, academic footnotes, alt history shenanigans, giant robots, hot superheroes, and hard-to-cook samosas are all plot points!

www.neonhemlock.com/books/iron-b...
The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas — neon hemlock
Publication date: March 25, 2025. An 8” x 5” novella. Set in an alternate version of the British Isles where South Asian imperial interest colonized much of the globe thanks to their advanced techno...
www.neonhemlock.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
guyintheblackhat.bsky.social
A whole generation of language learners has been convinced that "apps" (Memrise, Duolingo, etc.) are the key to language acquisition, when the gruel they offer is so thin. I am on a 1762-day streak in DL (so I KNOW) and it takes me 6 months to cover what our courses cover in less than 1 month.
November 14, 2025 at 7:51 AM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
We really should be using the latest in pedagogy research in public school teaching!

www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...
www.apmreports.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:

- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
As a Black Hawk helicopter roared overhead, the slender, 28-year-old immigrant from Venezuela answered softly, his eyes darting to a television crew invited to film the raid. Next to Caicedo, masked Border Patrol agents inspected another man’s tattoos and asked him if he belonged to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration has designated a terrorist group. Until that moment, Caicedo’s only interaction with law enforcement in his two-and-a-half years in the United States had been a traffic stop two weeks earlier for driving without a license or insurance, according to the records we reviewed. Chicago police had run a background check on him and found no prior arrests, no warrants and no evidence that he was in a gang. Caicedo said he had a pending asylum application, a steady job at a taco joint and a girlfriend whose daughter attended elementary school across the street. None of that mattered. The U.S. government paraded him and his neighbors in front of the cameras and called their arrests a spectacular victory against terrorism. But later, after the cameras had gone, prosecutors didn’t charge Caicedo with a crime. They didn’t accuse him of being a terrorist. And after a brief hearing in immigration court, the government sent him back to the country he had fled nine years earlier. “I lost everything,” he said in a phone interview from his mother’s home in the Venezuelan city of Valencia. “For those fools, everyone from Venezuela is a criminal.”
November 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
friede.bsky.social
TYPEWRITTEN.
TYPEWRITTEN PAINTING.
whitneytrettien.bsky.social Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 4d
Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
Full-color image of the Cathedral of Barcelona, composed on a typewriter by Montserrat Alberich Escardívol. Image from WikiMedia.
November 13, 2025 at 3:46 AM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
In their playtest feedback form, replying to “How much TTRPG experience do you have?”, one of our playtesters wrote “I took 2 RPG focussed classes in grad school.”

Gentle reader, I taught both those classes 🤣
November 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
unburntwitch.com
low polyamory
weeg.bsky.social weego @weeg.bsky.social · Sep 29
hardcore bondage people are so fucking funny look at this shit bro
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
drkarenlcox.bsky.social
This is a terrific piece of writing and insight about where we are with the Times, and where the Times is with us.
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
Woo it was a joy to judge for the Golden Cobra Challenge this year!

(Also this might be the first time I’ve live presented a game award? I want to do this more often…)
goldencobra.bsky.social The Golden Cobra Challenge @goldencobra.bsky.social · 9d
Ssssssss -- The 2025 Golden Cobra Challenge winners announced at Metatopia:
(Thread)
November 8, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
katmabu.bsky.social
This is the facility that I and many others have been protesting. We’ve been hit, thrown, gassed, and shot with pepper bullets but none of that holds a candle to what is being done to people *in* the actual facility.

Read this thread. Don’t look away. Keep your eyes and the pressure on Broadview.
lyndab08.bsky.social Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 10d
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
“Biswas does an admirable job mixing dirty implied jokes, the weight of erasure amid intolerance, & the joy and discovery waiting to be seen by those willing & able to piece together the whole and vibrant picture...”
-The @locusmag.bsky.social review of THIRTEEN SWORDS

locusmag.com/review/cast-...
Cast of Wonders, Escape Pod and Strange Horizons Special Fund Drive Issue 2025: Review by Charles Payseur
Cast of Wonders 6/28/25 Escape Pod 5/22/25, 7/10/25 Strange Horizons Special Fund Drive Issue 2025, 7/14/25 I last checked in with Cast of Wonders for their April originals, and since then they’ve …
locusmag.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
megueyb.bsky.social
Here We GO! Come along, my dearies!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...
Apocalypse World: Burned Over
The 3rd edition of the groundbreaking original.
www.kickstarter.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
cleefouti.bsky.social
Captain Torture
A four frame comic about Captain Torture. The first frame shows the sign "BREAKING NEWS" and the drawing of a man, with the words "CAPTAIN TORTURES PASSES AWAY" near him. The second frame shows a journalist holding a mic, as she says "A controversial and divisive figure, Captain torture will be remembered for his key role in history." The News title is "Mourning day for Captain-". The third frame shows three posts on social media. The first one is by a man called Paul James @Paulitician. He writes: "I didn't always agree with Captain Torture but he sure was a man who believed in something." The second post by James Paul @Avegetable reads: "I pay my respects to Captain Torture and his family. His heart was in the right place- with our country." The third post is by SonicVomit @SonicBleh , and reads "HE TORTURED PEOPLE". The fourth frame shows an interview on TV. An angry man on the right is saying: "Let me tell you something, Jen. I think it's SICK to celebrate Captain Torture's death. These people should be LOCKED UP, and also tortured-". The news below says: "Every president on earth pays homage-".
November 4, 2025 at 3:01 PM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
Vacant, jaded, 500-year-old vampire and unsuspecting, washed-out rockstar for the MONSTROSITY larp in Atlantic City!
Sharang in black fetish leathers posing with his game partner in a pink suit
November 4, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
neonhemlock.bsky.social
Check out the latest issue of @bafflingmag.bsky.social!

Stories from Claire Jia-Wen, Michael M. Jones, Raja’a Khalid, Madi Haab, Gina Thayer, Rose Maxwell and Bastian Hart.

And thank you to @anoteinpink.bsky.social for illustrating the cover!

www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty...
A teaser image for Issue 21 of Baffling, October 2025. A feathery background. Names: Claire Jia-Wen, Michael M. Jones, Raja’a Khalid, Madi Haab, Gina Thayer, Rose Maxwell and Bastian Hart.
November 3, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
alexanderchee.bsky.social
Has anyone worked up the net worth of Cuomo’s parents vs Mamdani’s? Why does this weird narrative of a professor and a filmmaker as wealthy elites continue? Do they think Mira Nair made Marvel films or something?
msignorile.bsky.social Michelangelo Signorile @msignorile.bsky.social · 13d
Another abominable editorial from the Wash Post
Wash post on Mamdani: The young politician wa born into a life of wealth and privilege, and from tht perch he adopted a worldview centered around destroying the economic system that made his adopted country thrive.
November 3, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
lswisnom.bsky.social
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
acvalens.net
If you’re upset about this (as you should be), pick up the phone and call

stop-paypros.neocities.org
November 3, 2025 at 5:51 AM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
I’m lucky not only to teach at a games department, but at one that treats larp and TTRPG as worthy of academic attention.
guyintheblackhat.bsky.social Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 14d
Most of us TTRPG academics found ourselves in our positions by trying to explain stuff we deeply care about---including TTRPG theories and texts by designers and players---to people in power with resources as well as our students.

Our position is much more "defense" than "offense," in other words.
November 3, 2025 at 12:03 AM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
Had an excellent time running FALL OF MAGIC by @rosscowman.bsky.social in my @nyugamecenter.bsky.social class!
Whiteboard with character details from FALL OF MAGIC, with some cute illustrations
November 2, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
kierongillen.bsky.social
Chatting to a friend about this yesterday, and realised I should re-plug it. Probably the most wholesome thing I've ever created, despite (er) everything.
kierongillen.bsky.social Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · Feb 25
My new game zine! HOW DO ALIENS DO "IT"? is a game about confused teenage aliens trying to work out what their information-scarce society isn't telling them. It's playful, but approaches big themes lightly. It's pay what you like, but do pay nowt. #ttrpg

kierongillen.itch.io/how-do-alien...
How Do Aliens Do
The game of underinformed alien teenagers trying To work out what the hell is going on.
kierongillen.itch.io
November 2, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by Sharang Biswas
guyintheblackhat.bsky.social
Autocracies devalue education, immiserating their populations while also reducing their opportunities and access to the outside world.

Saying this LOUDLY rn.
November 1, 2025 at 10:02 AM
sharangbiswas.bsky.social
It’s my semesterly game of @johnharper.bsky.social’s LASERS AND FEELINGS today!

Made the choice to assign GM roles to players who’ve never played TTRPGs before! Let’s see how this turns out!

johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feeli...
Lasers & Feelings by John Harper
One page, one-shot, easily hackable rpg
johnharper.itch.io
October 30, 2025 at 8:37 PM