Asya Partan
@apartan.bsky.social
Writing about identity, multiculturalism and other sources of joy and confusion for The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Pangyrus, and you.
I'm thrilled to be working as Editorial Assistant for a collection I have loved for years, and hope you'll follow our countdown to the 40th issue of The Best American Essays! Day 0: From the Front Matter open.substack.com/pub/bestamer...
Day 0: From the Front Matter
COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION begins tomorrow!
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I'm thrilled to be working as Editorial Assistant for a collection I have loved for years, and hope you'll follow our countdown to the 40th issue of The Best American Essays! Day 0: From the Front Matter open.substack.com/pub/bestamer...
For @globeopinion.bsky.social, I wrote a piece about gym class names that I hope might add a bit of levity to your day. Massive thanks to the phenomenal Ideas editors for letting me foray into a new space.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/27/o...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/27/o...
At my gym, I can vibe, ignite, achieve, bodypump, bodyjam, and more. If only I knew what that meant. - The Boston Globe
Maybe the real workout begins with the mental gymnastics of trying to decode my gym's class names.
www.bostonglobe.com
May 27, 2025 at 2:50 PM
For @globeopinion.bsky.social, I wrote a piece about gym class names that I hope might add a bit of levity to your day. Massive thanks to the phenomenal Ideas editors for letting me foray into a new space.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/27/o...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/27/o...
Absolute joy to speak with @nglipson.bsky.social about how her brilliant essays come to life. I wanted our conversation to go on forever. Thank you @dintywmoore.bsky.social and @andreafirth.bsky.social for giving us the space to explore!
"I wanted to write a book that spoke to the many coexisting versions of ourselves, using my life as a case study to illustrate that women are complex, multidimensional, full human beings." ~ @nglipson.bsky.social talks with @apartan.bsky.social
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/04/21/n...
brevity.wordpress.com/2025/04/21/n...
No silos, no hidden truths, and no shitty first drafts: A Q&A with Nicole Graev Lipson
By Asya Partan Nicole Graev Lipson’s memoir in essays, Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, examines myriad female archetypes and the ways in which women perform, internalize, and defy cultural …
brevity.wordpress.com
April 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Absolute joy to speak with @nglipson.bsky.social about how her brilliant essays come to life. I wanted our conversation to go on forever. Thank you @dintywmoore.bsky.social and @andreafirth.bsky.social for giving us the space to explore!
@shubhasunder.bsky.social just won a @whitingfoundation.bsky.social award for "Optional Practical Training," and you can read my review of this exceptional novel here: therumpus.net/2025/04/01/s...
The Relentless Impressionism of Immigration: Shubha Sunder’s Optional Practical Training - The Rumpus
Sunder’s impressionistic lens also reveals that, perhaps, only in stepping back from intense initiations into new spaces can we see them clearly.
therumpus.net
April 21, 2025 at 2:21 PM
@shubhasunder.bsky.social just won a @whitingfoundation.bsky.social award for "Optional Practical Training," and you can read my review of this exceptional novel here: therumpus.net/2025/04/01/s...
Reposted by Asya Partan
A posthumous memoir by the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, which detailed his fight against autocracy and corruption in Russia and was published eight months after he died in prison, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
Aleksei Navalny Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
www.nytimes.com
March 21, 2025 at 4:00 AM
A posthumous memoir by the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, which detailed his fight against autocracy and corruption in Russia and was published eight months after he died in prison, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
@shubhasunder.bsky.social's new novel on immigration transformed my understanding of a lifelong journey - and I'm so grateful to @jbrookewrites.bsky.social and @acreegrahammacam.bsky.social for sharing my thoughts and being the 5-star editing team they are. Review out soon!
Deep dive #review of @shubhasunder.bsky.social ‘s new book coming soon in our pub @therumpus.net thanks to @apartan.bsky.social @acreegrahammacam.bsky.social
Find the striking first lines from two recent novels in our latest installment of Page One: Casualties of Truth (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025) by @laurenfsharma.bsky.social and Optional Practical Training (Graywolf Press, 2025) by @shubhasunder.bsky.social. at.pw.org/PageOne2025xMarchApril
March 20, 2025 at 3:20 PM
@shubhasunder.bsky.social's new novel on immigration transformed my understanding of a lifelong journey - and I'm so grateful to @jbrookewrites.bsky.social and @acreegrahammacam.bsky.social for sharing my thoughts and being the 5-star editing team they are. Review out soon!
Thank you @cogwbur.bsky.social and @cloeax.bsky.social
for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
For Ukrainians, it's been 1,000-plus days of life underground
Americans are grappling with the kind of humiliation-by-association that Putin has inspired in countless Russians -- including me -- and it’s heartbreaking to see, writes Asya Partan.
www.wbur.org
March 20, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Thank you @cogwbur.bsky.social and @cloeax.bsky.social
for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
My fabulously talented professor Megan Marshall (a Pulitzer winner for her biography work) is coming out with a new book of essays. You can read about them here...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
Book Review: ‘After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart,’ by Megan Marshall
The standout essays in Megan Marshall’s “After Lives” recall her troubled father and the fate of a high school classmate.
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My fabulously talented professor Megan Marshall (a Pulitzer winner for her biography work) is coming out with a new book of essays. You can read about them here...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
Last year, I wrote for @bostonglobe.com about the curse of Lenin's embalmed body. In this week's breaking mausoleum news, Lenin has been advised "to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from a mausoleum in Moscow in order to seal his legacy as Moscow's leader." Ha. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/27/o...
100 years after Lenin’s death, his curse still grips Russia - The Boston Globe
The founder of the Soviet Union died in 1924, but his embalmed body remains on display in a country that doesn’t know how to let go of its past.
www.bostonglobe.com
January 29, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Last year, I wrote for @bostonglobe.com about the curse of Lenin's embalmed body. In this week's breaking mausoleum news, Lenin has been advised "to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from a mausoleum in Moscow in order to seal his legacy as Moscow's leader." Ha. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/27/o...
An important piece by @mashagessen.bsky.social as we enter Trump's second term and approach the 3rd warversary in Ukraine. "I Spent Trump’s Inauguration in Ukraine. This Is What I Saw." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/o...
Opinion | I Spent Trump’s Inauguration in Ukraine. This Is What I Saw.
“And Panama!” a Ukrainian military analyst said. “What did calm, peaceful Panama do?”
www.nytimes.com
January 21, 2025 at 6:58 PM
An important piece by @mashagessen.bsky.social as we enter Trump's second term and approach the 3rd warversary in Ukraine. "I Spent Trump’s Inauguration in Ukraine. This Is What I Saw." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/o...
Deeply grateful to @therumpus.net for publishing my review. I hope everyone has a chance to read this extraordinary, laugh-out-loud funny, and devastating memoir. Part Navalny’s life story, part Russia’s, it is also a playbook on resistance that we very much need today.
“...reads at turns like a detective thriller, a horror tale, a love poem, and a bellyache-producing comedy set.”
Getting the Last Laugh: Asya Partan reviews Alexei Navalny’s Patriot (Alfred A. Knopf).
Read the full review at https://buff.ly/49xALxf
Getting the Last Laugh: Asya Partan reviews Alexei Navalny’s Patriot (Alfred A. Knopf).
Read the full review at https://buff.ly/49xALxf
![[Image Description: The above quote and information written in red against a white background. the quote is within a red- and black-lined bubble. To the left of the quote is the cover for Patriot above a full red Rumpus logo.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hoxmkixociklk3pen7zxi2lu/bafkreidwbbcupd57tg2izwqckphvuzy3w7xetcsbtgct2mkznjy7vcee2m@jpeg)
December 10, 2024 at 7:58 PM
Deeply grateful to @therumpus.net for publishing my review. I hope everyone has a chance to read this extraordinary, laugh-out-loud funny, and devastating memoir. Part Navalny’s life story, part Russia’s, it is also a playbook on resistance that we very much need today.