Aaron Burch
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aaronburch.bsky.social
Aaron Burch
@aaronburch.bsky.social
3.1K followers 760 following 4.9K 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
Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · Nov 13
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.
aaronburch.bsky.social
Just turned in my teaching statement, CV, and materials for my continuing review yesterday, else I woulda added this non-teaching related accomplishments!
embfitz.bsky.social Erin Fitzgerald @embfitz.bsky.social · 16h
@aaronburch.bsky.social, reading the upcoming HAD sub call made me realize what's wrong w/ a piece I've been messing with for so long, I was going to put in my last will & testament for some unfortunate soul to try fixing. As always, don't know how/why these things happen, but thanks all the same 🍺
February 10, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
ktonbsky.bsky.social
Maaaaan “A Scene Recalling Stand By Me” 🔥
aaronburch.bsky.social Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 22h
Dropped a couple excerpts of 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 on HAD today to celebrate myself and my book release.

(Also use it to announce an accompanying HAD call coming on Thursday...)
TACOMA by Aaron Burch
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...
www.havehashad.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
ivygrimes.bsky.social
Happy pub day!

This book is a delight!

ivygrimes.substack.com/p/interview-...
Interview with Aaron Burch
fun, earnest, Tacoma!
ivygrimes.substack.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
adamg.bsky.social
Love these! Happy pub day @aaronburch.bsky.social!
havehashad.com HAD @havehashad.com · 20h
commandeered the site today to celebrate myself and my book publication day! 🧨 🎆

there's a couple excerpts from TACOMA & also an announcement for an accompanying submission call, coming on Thursday

"This is a story about magic and beauty and wonder."

https://www.havehashad.com/52kvm
TACOMA by Aaron Burch
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…
www.havehashad.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:44 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Had a really fun chat with Art and Timothy a week or two ago! Maybe you'll have some fun giving it a listen? Thanks!
February 10, 2026 at 5:35 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
2026 daily story cont'd...

2/6: "Take Me to Kirkland" by Sarah Anderson (from BASS)
2/7: "Gray, Cotton, White Lace Edges" from Isabelle Fang (from BASS)
2/8: "The Lottery in Almeria" by Camille Bordas
2/9: "Leaves" by John Updike
2/10: "The Boy Who Dreamed Too Much" by Curtis Dawkins
The Best American Short Stories 2025, edited by Celeste Ng One Sun Only, stories by Camille Bordas The Music School, short stories by John Updike The Graybar Hotel, stories by Curtis Dawkins
February 10, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
ljabouttown.bsky.social
preparing myself
Book stack (bottom to top): Culdesac by Mike Nagel, Teen Queen Training by Kristine Langley Mahler, Tacoma by Aaron Burch, The Third Beat by Lauren Lavin. All from Autofocus Books.
February 10, 2026 at 2:57 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I heard we're all Maxxing? About time!!
cover for first issue of The Maxx, from Image Comics
February 10, 2026 at 2:05 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Dropped a couple excerpts of 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 on HAD today to celebrate myself and my book release.

(Also use it to announce an accompanying HAD call coming on Thursday...)
TACOMA by Aaron Burch
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...
www.havehashad.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:15 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
StationWagonCore
February 10, 2026 at 2:30 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
“…it comes upon me as strange, after the long darkness of self-absorption and fear and shame in which I have been living, that things are beautiful…”

Didn’t love this short, 5-page Updike story… but love this opening graph!
photo of first page of John Updike’s short story “Leaves”: LEAVES The grape leaves outside my window are curiously beautiful. "Curiously" because it comes upon me as strange, after the long darkness of self-absorption and fear and shame in which I have been living, that things are beautiful, that independent of our catastrophes they continue to maintain the casual precision, the effortless abundance of inventive "effect," which is the hallmark and specialty of Nature. Nature: this morning it seems to me very clear that Nature may be defined as that which exists without guilt. Our bodies are in Nature; our shoes, their laces, the little plastic tips of the laces-everything around us and about us is in Nature, and yet something holds us away from it, like the upward push of water which keeps us from touching the sandy bottom, ribbed and glimmering with crescental fragments of oyster shell, so clear to our eyes. A blue jay lights on a twig outside my window. Momentarily sturdy, he stands astraddle, his dingy rump…
February 10, 2026 at 1:40 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
have started asking people here and there if they're going to AWP, and am already exhausted by it all
February 9, 2026 at 10:07 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
alternative: drink absolutely as much caffeine as possible

burialmagazine.neocities.org/nolongerther...
February 9, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
aaronburch.bsky.social
Seahawks championship and my new book officially out on Tuesday. Just a giant day for SeaTac. MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING!

autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
TACOMA by Aaron Burch
February 9, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
femmeintheory.bsky.social
@aaronburch.bsky.social hitting that @therumpus.net marketing email preview text! 🔥 great piece by @barrettbowlin.bsky.social
February 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Everyone gotta watch Parallax View tomorrow to celebrate.
February 9, 2026 at 3:39 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
Seahawks championship and my new book officially out on Tuesday. Just a giant day for SeaTac. MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING!

autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
TACOMA by Aaron Burch
February 9, 2026 at 3:22 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I want very few things in life less than an ai dot com username.
February 9, 2026 at 2:56 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I wish I was principled enough to boycott any actor who appeared in AI commercials.
February 9, 2026 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by Aaron Burch
missriss.bsky.social
ACAB includes Ring cameras, ppl.
February 9, 2026 at 2:12 AM
aaronburch.bsky.social
When you know exactly what kind of compliment will work on me…
screenshot of text messages: Just finished. Man… I loved it so much. Instant classic Up there with Duplex for me
February 8, 2026 at 9:38 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
New fave story in Camille Bordas’ collection.

And it’s a small part of the story, not really what it’s *about*, but man I love this move, where a story folds back in on itself like this.
hardcover books: ONE SUN ONLY, stories by Camille Bordas photo of first page of story, “The Lottery in Almeria,” with first few sentences highlighted: “ELENA, HIS SISTER, WAS GOING TO STAY WITH HIM ALL AUGUST. Maybe it would bleed into September a little, she warned, and Andrés said that was fine. What else could he say?” photo of page 15 of story “The Lottery of Almeria,” by Camille Bordas, with same sentences from opening of story (“Elena, his sister, was going to stay with him all August. Maybe it would bleed into September a little, she warned, and Andrés said that was fine. What else could he say?”) highlighted. Full text photographed: “He typed more, and more furiously, when Elena was around, to give the impression that he was working hard, in case she walked into his office. He had no idea what to type, however, so he imagined a conversation between two boring people about the lottery. Faced with the dullness of the resulting dialogue, Andrés typed, "I can't believe I'm writing such shit. I can't believe what happened to me," then jumped to third person, to escape the house of mirrors of the first, the jump happening without him thinking about it, in an instant—he was still giving the impression, if anyone had been watching, that he was writing in great inspiration. He typed the first few lines of this story. Elena, his sister, was going to stay with him all August. Maybe it would bleed into September a little, she warned, and Andrés said that was fine. What else could he say? But then quickly, what he wrote started diverging from what we've seen, and Andrés went into a different story, exactly as true as this one, but from longer ago.”
February 8, 2026 at 6:37 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
👎: updating your CV for the first time in years (holy hell it sucks trying to remember and track down and reverse engineer all of this!)

👍: updating your CV for the first time in years (oh, wow, I've actually been kinda way more productive and successful than it has seemed!)
February 8, 2026 at 4:03 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
I heard from 4 people yesterday who bought the book, one of whom bought two copies, so I'm counting it, and I am indeed fixed, thank you, and now the Seahawks are going to win today, too.
aaronburch.bsky.social Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 3d
not to be dramatic, but if 5 of you bought TACOMA today, pretty sure it would fix me. just sayin.
aaronburch.bsky.social Aaron Burch @aaronburch.bsky.social · 3d
got a new fave TACOMA "blurb"/"review" by way of response from a friend

"Finished the book in a day - such a fun read and you totally stuck the landing in the way it ended... Like if Ross Gay wrote a novel, if you know what I mean by that."
February 8, 2026 at 3:09 PM
aaronburch.bsky.social
nice, quiet, lazy morning reading with my coffee and the sun coming through the window, and was thinking about some of my fave small press novels that have stuck with me...

Howling Women by Shelby Hinte
Freelance by Kevin M. Kearney
Gloria Patri by Austin Ross
Bad Foundations by Brian Allen Carr
February 8, 2026 at 2:46 PM