Garth Greenwell
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garthgreenwell.bsky.social
Garth Greenwell
@garthgreenwell.bsky.social
What Belongs to You, Cleanness, & Small Rain | 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award | Eeyore at the gay club | https://garthgreenwell.substack.com
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Small Rain has won the PEN/Faulkner Award. I don’t know what to say, except that I’m very grateful to the judges, & very moved to see my book included alongside such excellent writers.
Lots of things came up in my conversation with Brandon Taylor at The Strand, including the importance of face-to-face encounters and the difference, for me, between art and politics. Free post, no paywall. Link in profile. garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/a-conversa...
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Northern lights tonight in Iowa City.
November 12, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
I treated myself to the @garthgreenwell.bsky.social class on Augustine's Confessions and it is a treat indeed.
November 11, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
Incredible passage in Book 6 of Augustine’s “Confessions” where his friend, Alypius, nearly succumbs to sin by considering buying books at the discounted price offered to Imperial Administrators (lol)

Absolutely digging this @garthgreenwell.bsky.social course!
November 11, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
Making my way through this extraordinary interview between @garthgreenwell.bsky.social and Brandon Taylor while I should be working, and this paragraph, about all the things that cut people off from each other, absolutely hit me in the face.
November 10, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
Ohhhhh, this right here is a literary convo I've been waiting for...
I thought Brandon might go easy on me at @strandbookstore.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago, but no luck: he came out swinging. We talk about ambient violence, art as individualizing, why we (sorry!) still need Heidegger, etc. Free post, no paywall. garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/a-conversa...
November 10, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I thought Brandon might go easy on me at @strandbookstore.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago, but no luck: he came out swinging. We talk about ambient violence, art as individualizing, why we (sorry!) still need Heidegger, etc. Free post, no paywall. garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/a-conversa...
November 10, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Last call for Daddy Augustine!
One week until DADDY AUGUSTINE. Join us Nov 1 as we read the first two books of Confessions—the book that inaugurates the tradition that leads to the modern novel. 6 sessions, all recorded. Full info & registration here: www.garthgreenwell.com/classes-ig
October 31, 2025 at 3:43 PM
STARTING SATURDAY!
One week until DADDY AUGUSTINE. Join us Nov 1 as we read the first two books of Confessions—the book that inaugurates the tradition that leads to the modern novel. 6 sessions, all recorded. Full info & registration here: www.garthgreenwell.com/classes-ig
October 29, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I can’t wait for this beautiful book to be in the world. Coming in May 2026: Luis Munoz’s ONE MOMENT, translated by Idra Novey & me. You can preorder it here: www.simonandschuster.com/books/One-Mo....
October 28, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
As someone who survived a major medical trauma, I really cannot recommend Small Rain enough. This book is a philosophical, nuanced, beautifully lyrical meditation on illness and survival and hope for what comes after. Heartfelt congrats @garthgreenwell.bsky.social on this deserved award!
Small Rain has won the PEN/Faulkner Award. I don’t know what to say, except that I’m very grateful to the judges, & very moved to see my book included alongside such excellent writers.
October 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
One week until DADDY AUGUSTINE. Join us Nov 1 as we read the first two books of Confessions—the book that inaugurates the tradition that leads to the modern novel. 6 sessions, all recorded. Full info & registration here: www.garthgreenwell.com/classes-ig
October 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Tonight!
Friends in NYC, there are just a few tickets left for my event with Brandon Taylor. I’d love to see you at the Strand this Friday, 10/24, at 7pm. Chatting with Brandon is one of my favorite things; pretty sure this will be a blast. Get tix here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/garth-gree...
October 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
The next picks for the To a Green Thought Book Club. In Dec, we’ll be reading KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN by Manuel Puig. Then, in Feb, COLD NIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD by Tezer Özlü. Open to all Founding Members. I’d love for you to join us. Full info here: garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/an-ideal-o...
October 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
October 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
“Even the novel’s most rousing assertion of something like dignity presumes transience as a necessary condition of gay love.”

@garthgreenwell.bsky.social on Giovanni’s Room.
Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell
On the place of affirmation in art
buff.ly
October 21, 2025 at 5:04 PM
I went to @icfilmscene.bsky.social's film festival & had some thoughts about Hedda, Romería, Peter Hujar’s Day, & several others. garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/a-film-fes...
October 21, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Friends in NYC, there are just a few tickets left for my event with Brandon Taylor. I’d love to see you at the Strand this Friday, 10/24, at 7pm. Chatting with Brandon is one of my favorite things; pretty sure this will be a blast. Get tix here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/garth-gree...
October 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
I wanted to read @garthgreenwell.bsky.social’s reflections on “Giovanni’s Room,” not have them radiated at me, so I waited for three weeks until my local B&N had copy of @harpers.bsky.social.
October 20, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Daddy Augustine starts in two weeks, on Nov 1. I’d love for you to join us as we read Confessions, with a focus on Augustine as a writer—as the great explorer of interiority. 6 online sessions, all recorded. Full info here:
www.garthgreenwell.com/classes-ig
October 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
A beautiful explication of how St. Augustine’s style is just as formative as his content:
On what makes Augustine so lovable, especially in the Confessions. No paywall. Link to full essay here: garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/marked-by-...
October 16, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
A superb reassessment of Baldwin's GIOVANNI'S ROOM, balancing attention to the novel's "negative" representation of homosexuality with a gorgeous close reading of the author's queer style. Invaluable contribution to debates about identity-based representation.
I first read Giovanni's Room when I was 14. How did a book built (I now think) on a homophobic logic give me access to dignity? For Harper's, I wrote about why we should complicate our sense of what it means for art to be "affirming." harpers.org/archive/2025...
October 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
Terrific essay by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social on Giovanni's Room and why the best art is anything but consoling

share.google/N1ipypQilELA...
Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell
On the place of affirmation in art
share.google
October 14, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Garth Greenwell
‘When I was a 14-year-old gay kid in the American South and pulled Baldwin’s novel off a bookstore shelf, it radically reoriented my relationship to dignity. The more I’ve read and taught the novel, the harder I’ve found this to explain.’

@garthgreenwell.bsky.social

harpers.org/archive/2025...
Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell
On the place of affirmation in art
harpers.org
October 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM