Derek Mong
@derekmong.bsky.social
Poet, essayist, editor, & translator. Latest poetry collection: When the Earth Flies into the Sun. Cont. Ed. at Zocalo Public Square. Prof. of English at Wabash College. Married to the inimitable Anne O. Fisher.
This is happening next week at Wabash College! Hopefully it's the first of many: Hoosier poets reading in triplicate on campus. Free and open to all!
November 13, 2025 at 6:22 PM
This is happening next week at Wabash College! Hopefully it's the first of many: Hoosier poets reading in triplicate on campus. Free and open to all!
Thanks to @ronslate.bsky.social and Jonathan Farmer for this interview about When the Earth Flies into the Sun! The book celebrated its first birthday last month!
"I encounter a lot of overly long and under-edited books, many weighed down by prose poems. Some feel strident. These books sound like they began with a thesis, not a question": @derekmong.bsky.social in convo w/Jonathan Farmer via On The Seawall bit.ly/47vs87k
November 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Thanks to @ronslate.bsky.social and Jonathan Farmer for this interview about When the Earth Flies into the Sun! The book celebrated its first birthday last month!
Tim Hunt recently invited me to chat about three Robinson Jeffers poems alongside my own. Our conversation, which you can read (or listen to) below, was a total delight.
Thanks for this, Tim, and for your Selected Jeffers, which has accompanied for over 20 years.
huntt.substack.com/p/robinson-j...
Thanks for this, Tim, and for your Selected Jeffers, which has accompanied for over 20 years.
huntt.substack.com/p/robinson-j...
Robinson Jeffers Now: A Conversation with Derek Mong
TH: Welcome to the second installment of Robinson Jeffers Now, a series of interviews with contemporary poets exploring their varied engagements with the California poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962), ...
huntt.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Tim Hunt recently invited me to chat about three Robinson Jeffers poems alongside my own. Our conversation, which you can read (or listen to) below, was a total delight.
Thanks for this, Tim, and for your Selected Jeffers, which has accompanied for over 20 years.
huntt.substack.com/p/robinson-j...
Thanks for this, Tim, and for your Selected Jeffers, which has accompanied for over 20 years.
huntt.substack.com/p/robinson-j...
Hoosier writers old and young (including students!): we've got a chapter of Writers for Democratic Action (@indianawda.bsky.social) up and running, and we'd love for you to join! Resist authoritarianism--like Orwell did before you--with your pen. DM me to join.
sites.google.com/view/indiana...
sites.google.com/view/indiana...
Indiana-WDA
Indiana Writers for Democratic Action is a community of writers and readers committed to the core American principle that civil liberties exist for all. Our freedoms include the right to vote and have...
sites.google.com
November 1, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Hoosier writers old and young (including students!): we've got a chapter of Writers for Democratic Action (@indianawda.bsky.social) up and running, and we'd love for you to join! Resist authoritarianism--like Orwell did before you--with your pen. DM me to join.
sites.google.com/view/indiana...
sites.google.com/view/indiana...
I'm so proud of Lafayette and West Lafayette, where the #NoKings crowds were so huge that hundreds were turned back from crossing the Myers Pedestrian Bridge.
And big love to the "Hoosier Hogs Stand with Portland Frogs" guy. Yes to this. All of this. All the goddamn time.
And big love to the "Hoosier Hogs Stand with Portland Frogs" guy. Yes to this. All of this. All the goddamn time.
October 19, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I'm so proud of Lafayette and West Lafayette, where the #NoKings crowds were so huge that hundreds were turned back from crossing the Myers Pedestrian Bridge.
And big love to the "Hoosier Hogs Stand with Portland Frogs" guy. Yes to this. All of this. All the goddamn time.
And big love to the "Hoosier Hogs Stand with Portland Frogs" guy. Yes to this. All of this. All the goddamn time.
This administration is authoritarian--kicking journalists out of the Pentagon, unleashing the Army on our cities, and disappearing people into its ICE-sponsored police state. Join us at the No Kings Rally in Lafayette, IN at 2 PM. Meet at the Margerum Fountain. Stand up for democracy
www.nokings.org
www.nokings.org
No Kings
As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...
www.nokings.org
October 16, 2025 at 1:09 PM
This administration is authoritarian--kicking journalists out of the Pentagon, unleashing the Army on our cities, and disappearing people into its ICE-sponsored police state. Join us at the No Kings Rally in Lafayette, IN at 2 PM. Meet at the Margerum Fountain. Stand up for democracy
www.nokings.org
www.nokings.org
You can add my fury, and my phone calls to my elected representatives, to theirs. Using American cities a military "training grounds"? Including the one where I was born and where my heart remains? This is authoritarianism, pure and simple. History is watching.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
Trump Administration Live Updates: Oregon Officials Vent Fury as California National Guard Head to Portland
www.nytimes.com
October 5, 2025 at 11:43 PM
You can add my fury, and my phone calls to my elected representatives, to theirs. Using American cities a military "training grounds"? Including the one where I was born and where my heart remains? This is authoritarianism, pure and simple. History is watching.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
Our new issue of At Length is available! We're particularly excited to have our first translation piece edited by @affisher.bsky.social out in the world!
Dear Readers: At Length's September issue is ready! We're got a story, “Nosegay on a Marble Plinth,” from Elizabeth Bull; an excerpt from Sophia Andrukhovych’s Ukrainian novel, Hart, translated by Ali Kinsella; and “The Must Be the Place,” Eli Karren’s comic long poem.
Read 'em all: atlengthmag.com
Read 'em all: atlengthmag.com
literature that looks good on a laptop
atlengthmag.com
September 25, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Our new issue of At Length is available! We're particularly excited to have our first translation piece edited by @affisher.bsky.social out in the world!
Reposted by Derek Mong
The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama.
His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.
Now he is tweeting in support of me.
This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.
Or used to work.
His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.
Now he is tweeting in support of me.
This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.
Or used to work.
September 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama.
His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.
Now he is tweeting in support of me.
This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.
Or used to work.
His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.
Now he is tweeting in support of me.
This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.
Or used to work.
"Shut the fuck up, Donny." -Walter Sobchak & Everyone in the United States Still Interested in Preserving Democracy
September 4, 2025 at 1:41 PM
"Shut the fuck up, Donny." -Walter Sobchak & Everyone in the United States Still Interested in Preserving Democracy
D.C. dude hits a guy in battle gear with a sandwich, gets charged with a felony, and will likely go to prison, but 1,000+ folks, some in actual battle gear, break into the Capitol, and try to overturn an election--they get pardoned?
I cannot be any clearer about this: fuck this administration.
I cannot be any clearer about this: fuck this administration.
August 15, 2025 at 9:54 PM
D.C. dude hits a guy in battle gear with a sandwich, gets charged with a felony, and will likely go to prison, but 1,000+ folks, some in actual battle gear, break into the Capitol, and try to overturn an election--they get pardoned?
I cannot be any clearer about this: fuck this administration.
I cannot be any clearer about this: fuck this administration.
Fellow Hoosier Writers! @shana-r.bsky.social is forming an Indiana Chapter of Writers for Democratic Action. If you'd like to attend our call out meeting on Thursday, September 4th (6 PM), please contact her or me. The meeting with be over Zoom. Thank you!
www.writersfordemocraticaction.org
www.writersfordemocraticaction.org
Writers for Democratic Action
www.writersfordemocraticaction.org
August 12, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Fellow Hoosier Writers! @shana-r.bsky.social is forming an Indiana Chapter of Writers for Democratic Action. If you'd like to attend our call out meeting on Thursday, September 4th (6 PM), please contact her or me. The meeting with be over Zoom. Thank you!
www.writersfordemocraticaction.org
www.writersfordemocraticaction.org
As someone developing a similarly placed streak of gray hair, I'd like to remind us all that it was Susan Sontag's first, and that Tulsi Gabbard can fuck right off back to the Kremlin she shills for.
slate.com/life/2025/08...
slate.com/life/2025/08...
It’s the Hair Color of Feminist Icons, Titans of Culture, and Me. One MAGA Figure Has Ruined It.
I hate her politics. I love her hair.
slate.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:53 PM
As someone developing a similarly placed streak of gray hair, I'd like to remind us all that it was Susan Sontag's first, and that Tulsi Gabbard can fuck right off back to the Kremlin she shills for.
slate.com/life/2025/08...
slate.com/life/2025/08...
"Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order rather than resisting it."
@timothysnyder.bsky.social, from ON TYRANNY - a book I read and taught in 2017, hoping it would lose relevance by 2025. Sigh.
@timothysnyder.bsky.social, from ON TYRANNY - a book I read and taught in 2017, hoping it would lose relevance by 2025. Sigh.
August 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
"Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order rather than resisting it."
@timothysnyder.bsky.social, from ON TYRANNY - a book I read and taught in 2017, hoping it would lose relevance by 2025. Sigh.
@timothysnyder.bsky.social, from ON TYRANNY - a book I read and taught in 2017, hoping it would lose relevance by 2025. Sigh.
Democracy Update in America: this President is a firing non-partisan labor statistician for telling the truth, has eliminated the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and continues his attacks on scientific research and higher education.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
August 3, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Democracy Update in America: this President is a firing non-partisan labor statistician for telling the truth, has eliminated the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and continues his attacks on scientific research and higher education.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
It's me and Norman Rockwell, ya'll: my @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social essay on the American Road Trip was just re-published in the @satevepost.bsky.social.
Thanks @erynbrown.bsky.social!
www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/savi...
Thanks @erynbrown.bsky.social!
www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/savi...
Saving the Great American Road Trip | The Saturday Evening Post
It took Fourth of July fireworks and a stop on Route 66 to remind me of the promise of this place and its people.
www.saturdayeveningpost.com
August 2, 2025 at 3:04 PM
It's me and Norman Rockwell, ya'll: my @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social essay on the American Road Trip was just re-published in the @satevepost.bsky.social.
Thanks @erynbrown.bsky.social!
www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/savi...
Thanks @erynbrown.bsky.social!
www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/savi...
We're back from Portland, but here are some behind-the-scenes pics from @affisher.bsky.social's interview with Emmy-winning TV host, Helen Raptis of AM NW fame!
July 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We're back from Portland, but here are some behind-the-scenes pics from @affisher.bsky.social's interview with Emmy-winning TV host, Helen Raptis of AM NW fame!
Farewell, Thomas Sayers Ellis, whose The Maverick Room is one of the best poetry books from the 2000s. My copy, which Ellis signed in various colors of marker--on the cover no less--is well-loved and oft-taught and all the more cherished now that he's gone.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...
Thomas Sayers Ellis, Poet of ‘Percussive Prosody,’ Dies at 61
www.nytimes.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Farewell, Thomas Sayers Ellis, whose The Maverick Room is one of the best poetry books from the 2000s. My copy, which Ellis signed in various colors of marker--on the cover no less--is well-loved and oft-taught and all the more cherished now that he's gone.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...
@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut, which I got to watch from within the studio. She made the camera guy chuckle! See the full segment below from KATU in Portland.
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
"Pioneer Summer" Translator Anne O. Fisher Shares Story Behind Gay Romance Novel
Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova’s star-crossed gay romance is a #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that took readers by storm, made international news, and c
katu.com
July 24, 2025 at 10:32 PM
@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut, which I got to watch from within the studio. She made the camera guy chuckle! See the full segment below from KATU in Portland.
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
Reposted by Derek Mong
If you missed our interview with Derek Mong in our Spring Issue, be sure to check it out! Here he discusses the long poem...read the interview in full theindianapolisreview.com/featured-poe... @derekmong.bsky.social
July 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
If you missed our interview with Derek Mong in our Spring Issue, be sure to check it out! Here he discusses the long poem...read the interview in full theindianapolisreview.com/featured-poe... @derekmong.bsky.social
@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut talking about Pioneer Summer. And she bloody killed it! Watch below.
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
"Pioneer Summer" Translator Anne O. Fisher Shares Story Behind Gay Romance Novel
Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova’s star-crossed gay romance is a #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that took readers by storm, made international news, and c
katu.com
July 22, 2025 at 7:13 PM
@affisher.bsky.social makes her television debut talking about Pioneer Summer. And she bloody killed it! Watch below.
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
katu.com/amnw/am-nort...
Portlanders! Annie reads from Pioneer Summer & chats with @lizzyacker.bsky.social tomorrow night at 7 PM. @powells.bsky.social on Hawthorne. Pack the house!
Or watch "AM Northwest" tomorrow at 9 AM when she'll also be on live TV. Because, you know, she's famous now.
www.powells.com/events/anne-...
Or watch "AM Northwest" tomorrow at 9 AM when she'll also be on live TV. Because, you know, she's famous now.
www.powells.com/events/anne-...
Anne O. Fisher in Conversation With Lizzy Acker Event
The Legendary Independent Bookstore
www.powells.com
July 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Portlanders! Annie reads from Pioneer Summer & chats with @lizzyacker.bsky.social tomorrow night at 7 PM. @powells.bsky.social on Hawthorne. Pack the house!
Or watch "AM Northwest" tomorrow at 9 AM when she'll also be on live TV. Because, you know, she's famous now.
www.powells.com/events/anne-...
Or watch "AM Northwest" tomorrow at 9 AM when she'll also be on live TV. Because, you know, she's famous now.
www.powells.com/events/anne-...
Friends! Here's the longer (by about 100 words), slightly better, and paywall-free version of my essay on the American road trip. With thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
I love that you can see the motel in question right here.
I love that you can see the motel in question right here.
Poet @derekmong.bsky.social had lost his faith in the American road trip. He found it anew in a small town in Texas, on the Fourth of July. zps.la/45NaF9V
Saving the Great American Road Trip | Essay
It Took Fourth of July Fireworks and a Stop on Route 66 to Remind Me of the Promise of This Place and Its People
zps.la
July 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Friends! Here's the longer (by about 100 words), slightly better, and paywall-free version of my essay on the American road trip. With thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
I love that you can see the motel in question right here.
I love that you can see the motel in question right here.
If you're reflecting on this beautiful & flawed & enormous nation right now--and the road trips that hope to capture it all--check out my latest essay in today's @latimes.com.
Thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: The road trip — sublime, profane and (almost) reclaimed
Driving the country's highways is one way to define the American psyche and a big, beautiful, flawed nation.
www.latimes.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
If you're reflecting on this beautiful & flawed & enormous nation right now--and the road trips that hope to capture it all--check out my latest essay in today's @latimes.com.
Thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Thanks to @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social, @erynbrown.bsky.social, & Sarah Rothbard!
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...