Aaron Gwyn
@americangwyn.bsky.social
Novelist & Professor. Author of ALL GOD’S CHILDREN, WYNNE’S WAR, DOG ON THE CROSS, THE CANNIBAL OWL
Pinned
Aaron Gwyn
@americangwyn.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Last of the Cowboys
A short story written by Aaron Gwyn exclusively for Panoptica and our upcoming Stories of America series.
www.panoptica.ai
My new short story, “Last of the Cowboys,” just went live at Panoptica. Very proud of this one. If you’re interested, you can read it for free by clicking below:
www.panoptica.ai/a/last-of-th...
www.panoptica.ai/a/last-of-th...
Hell is empty and all the devils are here (Martha's Vineyard).
November 22, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Hell is empty and all the devils are here (Martha's Vineyard).
You either die an English professor or you live long enough to see yourself teaching in the Human Narratives department.
November 19, 2025 at 11:19 PM
You either die an English professor or you live long enough to see yourself teaching in the Human Narratives department.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
I wrote about the indignity of being ruled over by these people. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 18, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I wrote about the indignity of being ruled over by these people. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Just found my retirement home.
November 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Just found my retirement home.
László Nemes’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Southern Gothic fairytale, OUTER DARK, is set to start filming early next year.
November 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
László Nemes’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Southern Gothic fairytale, OUTER DARK, is set to start filming early next year.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
Whipping Post
open.spotify.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:08 AM
We are poorer as a society for allowing politics to saturate every aspect of our lives: our relationships, our Literature, our idle entertainments. I suppose it might be less regrettable if we’d gotten something in exchanging our souls for the pursuit of power, but we haven’t.
November 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
We are poorer as a society for allowing politics to saturate every aspect of our lives: our relationships, our Literature, our idle entertainments. I suppose it might be less regrettable if we’d gotten something in exchanging our souls for the pursuit of power, but we haven’t.
The conditions fiction writers face today are far less grim than the ones James Joyce faced in 1914 when he began writing ULYSSES. While Europe became a slaughterhouse, Joyce wrote on. Artists are called to create works of lasting beauty, no matter the conditions. NOT doing so is grim.
November 14, 2025 at 12:18 AM
The conditions fiction writers face today are far less grim than the ones James Joyce faced in 1914 when he began writing ULYSSES. While Europe became a slaughterhouse, Joyce wrote on. Artists are called to create works of lasting beauty, no matter the conditions. NOT doing so is grim.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
I'm hearing that The End Times (a short novel told in the form of a newspaper delivered over the course of a year) is printing its first edition today. You've still got a chance to sign yourself or a friend up with @badhandbooks.bsky.social right here : badhandbooks.com/preorders/th...
The End Times by Benjamin Percy with Stephen King (Physical Subscription) — Bad Hand Books
FEATURED IN FANGORIA and FORBES : A YEAR OF EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING FOR ONE LOW PRICE. WE’VE EXPANDED OUR ORIGINAL PRINT RUN, BUT DO NOT WAIT TO BUY. Get ready for an immersive, seria...
badhandbooks.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I'm hearing that The End Times (a short novel told in the form of a newspaper delivered over the course of a year) is printing its first edition today. You've still got a chance to sign yourself or a friend up with @badhandbooks.bsky.social right here : badhandbooks.com/preorders/th...
This week reminded me of Will Rogers’s famous quote: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
November 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM
This week reminded me of Will Rogers’s famous quote: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
Louis C.K. was on Maher a few weeks back, talking about his novel. He bragged about not doing any research for it (“I just made it up”), which struck me as a bizarre thing for a writer to admit. I’ve read a few paragraphs floating around SM and research ain’t all he didn’t do. This is AWFUL prose.
November 11, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Louis C.K. was on Maher a few weeks back, talking about his novel. He bragged about not doing any research for it (“I just made it up”), which struck me as a bizarre thing for a writer to admit. I’ve read a few paragraphs floating around SM and research ain’t all he didn’t do. This is AWFUL prose.
Reposted by Aaron Gwyn
My tale of gunplay and regret in a convenience store has been published by Pistol Jim Press.
pistoljimpress.substack.com/p/filthy-hab...
pistoljimpress.substack.com/p/filthy-hab...
Filthy Habit by Keith Roysdon
from Nails in the Coffin: a Pistol Jim Press series
pistoljimpress.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
My tale of gunplay and regret in a convenience store has been published by Pistol Jim Press.
pistoljimpress.substack.com/p/filthy-hab...
pistoljimpress.substack.com/p/filthy-hab...
Don’t know how many times I read “Sailing to Byzantium” before I realized it rhymed. Chalk that up to Yeats’s craftsmanship or me being an idgit (or a combination of both).
November 11, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Don’t know how many times I read “Sailing to Byzantium” before I realized it rhymed. Chalk that up to Yeats’s craftsmanship or me being an idgit (or a combination of both).
Senate Democrats voted to end the shutdown right when their upper middle class donors started missing their flights.
November 10, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Senate Democrats voted to end the shutdown right when their upper middle class donors started missing their flights.
I don’t care how good A.I. gets, it’ll never approach Yeats. In a million years, ChatGPT couldn’t produce “disheveled wandering stars.” It couldn’t even produce “deep wood’s woven shade.”
November 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I don’t care how good A.I. gets, it’ll never approach Yeats. In a million years, ChatGPT couldn’t produce “disheveled wandering stars.” It couldn’t even produce “deep wood’s woven shade.”
Watching this 1998 production of KING LEAR with Ian Holm (best Lear I’ve ever seen). Lear truly wants to be just dead enough to enjoy it (“while we unburdened crawl toward death”), and it occurs to me that this particular desire destroys an awful lot of people.
November 9, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Watching this 1998 production of KING LEAR with Ian Holm (best Lear I’ve ever seen). Lear truly wants to be just dead enough to enjoy it (“while we unburdened crawl toward death”), and it occurs to me that this particular desire destroys an awful lot of people.
This morning I was thinking about something Brian Evenson told me, that Michael Ondaatje’s THE ENGLISH PATIENT contained some of the finest prose in the history of the language. Sounded a bit hyperbolic to me then, but I think Brian was onto something…
November 5, 2025 at 5:31 PM
This morning I was thinking about something Brian Evenson told me, that Michael Ondaatje’s THE ENGLISH PATIENT contained some of the finest prose in the history of the language. Sounded a bit hyperbolic to me then, but I think Brian was onto something…
“Not trying to be a jerk here” is a great way to start a post where you’ll excel at being a jerk.
November 4, 2025 at 9:48 PM
“Not trying to be a jerk here” is a great way to start a post where you’ll excel at being a jerk.
William Faulkner on writing SANCTUARY: “I began to think of myself again as a printed object. I began to think of books in terms of possible money. I decided I might just as well make some of it myself."
November 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
William Faulkner on writing SANCTUARY: “I began to think of myself again as a printed object. I began to think of books in terms of possible money. I decided I might just as well make some of it myself."
No reputable literary agent will ever ask you for money. No reputable agent will charge a prospective client a “reading fee.”
A legitimate literary agent takes a 15-20% commission from your book advance. If the agent doesn’t sell the book, s/he takes nothing.
A legitimate literary agent takes a 15-20% commission from your book advance. If the agent doesn’t sell the book, s/he takes nothing.
November 3, 2025 at 3:33 PM
No reputable literary agent will ever ask you for money. No reputable agent will charge a prospective client a “reading fee.”
A legitimate literary agent takes a 15-20% commission from your book advance. If the agent doesn’t sell the book, s/he takes nothing.
A legitimate literary agent takes a 15-20% commission from your book advance. If the agent doesn’t sell the book, s/he takes nothing.
EXCLUSIVE:
I sat down with Curtis Sliwa’s campaign manager (pictured below) to discuss their strategy for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
I sat down with Curtis Sliwa’s campaign manager (pictured below) to discuss their strategy for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
November 2, 2025 at 9:22 PM
EXCLUSIVE:
I sat down with Curtis Sliwa’s campaign manager (pictured below) to discuss their strategy for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
I sat down with Curtis Sliwa’s campaign manager (pictured below) to discuss their strategy for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
To take my mind off my aching back, I built another Stevie Ray Vaughan “First Wife” Stratocaster: 22 Jumbo frets, rosewood fretboard, maple neck, alder body, Fender locking tuners and Texas Special pickups, Greer Amps neck-plate.
November 1, 2025 at 11:15 PM
To take my mind off my aching back, I built another Stevie Ray Vaughan “First Wife” Stratocaster: 22 Jumbo frets, rosewood fretboard, maple neck, alder body, Fender locking tuners and Texas Special pickups, Greer Amps neck-plate.
This morning, I ranked Cormac McCarthy’s best novels (my ranking changes from year to year).
November 1, 2025 at 2:59 PM
This morning, I ranked Cormac McCarthy’s best novels (my ranking changes from year to year).
A map of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha.
November 1, 2025 at 1:27 PM
A map of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha.