Alexander Pyles
@pylesofbooks.bsky.social
Incredibly back breaking to see the interest added DAILY is roughly HALF of your MONTHLY payment on your student loans.
Like what's the plan there?
Like what's the plan there?
February 5, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Incredibly back breaking to see the interest added DAILY is roughly HALF of your MONTHLY payment on your student loans.
Like what's the plan there?
Like what's the plan there?
Love when my friends know exactly how to motivate me. CC: @jakeall.bsky.social
January 29, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Love when my friends know exactly how to motivate me. CC: @jakeall.bsky.social
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Trump has cancelled all public appearances tomorrow while he goes to get the Princess Mononoke demon curse on his hands looked at again
January 27, 2026 at 4:58 AM
Trump has cancelled all public appearances tomorrow while he goes to get the Princess Mononoke demon curse on his hands looked at again
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Attention @indivisible.org @ezralevin.bsky.social @leahgreenberg.bsky.social You are the only people positioned to turn out the kind of mass protest, resistance, general strike etc that we need now with the speed we need it. You all need to act.
January 24, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Attention @indivisible.org @ezralevin.bsky.social @leahgreenberg.bsky.social You are the only people positioned to turn out the kind of mass protest, resistance, general strike etc that we need now with the speed we need it. You all need to act.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Reading Awards Longlists to Gratifyingly Find 'Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism' in an Age of Fascism
(Heartfelt thanks to anyone nominating and/or voting and/or just reading the essay. The fascists will lose.)
(Heartfelt thanks to anyone nominating and/or voting and/or just reading the essay. The fascists will lose.)
Vote for the BSFA Awards
www.bsfa.co.uk
January 22, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reading Awards Longlists to Gratifyingly Find 'Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism' in an Age of Fascism
(Heartfelt thanks to anyone nominating and/or voting and/or just reading the essay. The fascists will lose.)
(Heartfelt thanks to anyone nominating and/or voting and/or just reading the essay. The fascists will lose.)
Is this what breaks the camel back?
Wondering how Robber Baron feels about this.
Wondering how Robber Baron feels about this.
Minnesota: "School officials say the [5-year-old] child was used as bait. They say [ICE] agents made little Liam knock on the door to ask to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home."
January 22, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Is this what breaks the camel back?
Wondering how Robber Baron feels about this.
Wondering how Robber Baron feels about this.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,
The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance
Iconic imo
The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance
Iconic imo
January 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM
This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,
The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance
Iconic imo
The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance
Iconic imo
Just now finding out that Karl Ove Knausgaard is stateside and doing a book tour blitz that does NOT include Chicago and I'm.....bereft.
January 15, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Just now finding out that Karl Ove Knausgaard is stateside and doing a book tour blitz that does NOT include Chicago and I'm.....bereft.
Wrote for the first time in months and it felt so good!
All thanks to my writers chat and their bullying ways
(Specifically @jakeall.bsky.social )
All thanks to my writers chat and their bullying ways
(Specifically @jakeall.bsky.social )
January 14, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Wrote for the first time in months and it felt so good!
All thanks to my writers chat and their bullying ways
(Specifically @jakeall.bsky.social )
All thanks to my writers chat and their bullying ways
(Specifically @jakeall.bsky.social )
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
The Four Heavens by @davidsstuart.bsky.social paints an unforgettable portrait of the #Maya & the richly complex social, political, & cosmological worlds in which they lived.
Arrives March 3 (28 April UK pub).
Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Anthropology #History #ReadUP
Arrives March 3 (28 April UK pub).
Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Anthropology #History #ReadUP
January 12, 2026 at 7:04 PM
The Four Heavens by @davidsstuart.bsky.social paints an unforgettable portrait of the #Maya & the richly complex social, political, & cosmological worlds in which they lived.
Arrives March 3 (28 April UK pub).
Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Anthropology #History #ReadUP
Arrives March 3 (28 April UK pub).
Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Anthropology #History #ReadUP
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Opinion | As a moralizing Christian conservative, I believe the ICE agents were right to kill Renee Good for protesting. But I condemn their use of the F-word and the B-word in the aftermath.
January 11, 2026 at 3:07 AM
Opinion | As a moralizing Christian conservative, I believe the ICE agents were right to kill Renee Good for protesting. But I condemn their use of the F-word and the B-word in the aftermath.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Now that we’re all on the same page with the extemporalized New Weird as a style or method rather than a period, what New Weird books are we looking forward to this year? Weird cities are the style of the time, right
Synesthetic, Uncapturable, Uninterpretable, Irreproducible: Review of Hiron Ennes’s The Works of Vermin
Zachary Gillan Under Review:The Works of Vermin. Hiron Ennes. Tor Books, October 2025. “In the true work of art”, Walter Benjamin once wrote, “pleasure can be fleeting, it can live in the moment, i…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 8, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Now that we’re all on the same page with the extemporalized New Weird as a style or method rather than a period, what New Weird books are we looking forward to this year? Weird cities are the style of the time, right
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Good literary criticism is just as valuable in every respect as a good novel; it's incredibly sad to see it cut out by digital performance metrics and private equity companies.
Makes me grateful for places like Ancillary Review of Books & Typebar doing the good work in a hostile media environment.
Makes me grateful for places like Ancillary Review of Books & Typebar doing the good work in a hostile media environment.
Criticism Is Literature. Why Is It Vanishing?, by Adam Morgan
What do the best book reviews do? What is the current state of the critical ecosystem? Chicago Review of Books founder Adam Morgan takes stock of book reviewing in the US.
worldliteraturetoday.org
January 6, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Good literary criticism is just as valuable in every respect as a good novel; it's incredibly sad to see it cut out by digital performance metrics and private equity companies.
Makes me grateful for places like Ancillary Review of Books & Typebar doing the good work in a hostile media environment.
Makes me grateful for places like Ancillary Review of Books & Typebar doing the good work in a hostile media environment.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
January 1, 2026 at 12:30 AM
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
this is such an important thing to recognize and call out
the fascism is mostly done being nice at this point, but it got here through well dressed men politely asking questions while the rest of us were scolded for pointing out where those questions led
the fascism is mostly done being nice at this point, but it got here through well dressed men politely asking questions while the rest of us were scolded for pointing out where those questions led
Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty
January 1, 2026 at 8:35 PM
this is such an important thing to recognize and call out
the fascism is mostly done being nice at this point, but it got here through well dressed men politely asking questions while the rest of us were scolded for pointing out where those questions led
the fascism is mostly done being nice at this point, but it got here through well dressed men politely asking questions while the rest of us were scolded for pointing out where those questions led
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
You ever rewrite and tinker with an essay so long that you end up hating it and the books it’s about and the very concept of books and essays and writing in general
December 1, 2025 at 5:42 PM
You ever rewrite and tinker with an essay so long that you end up hating it and the books it’s about and the very concept of books and essays and writing in general
All of this to say - I'm going to be going back to reviewing books and hopefully pitching essays/articles again.
Editors get at me or make an introduction!
Editors get at me or make an introduction!
I don't have any end of year lists of my own work bc I honestly didn't write this year.
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
December 21, 2025 at 3:50 PM
All of this to say - I'm going to be going back to reviewing books and hopefully pitching essays/articles again.
Editors get at me or make an introduction!
Editors get at me or make an introduction!
I don't have any end of year lists of my own work bc I honestly didn't write this year.
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
December 21, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I don't have any end of year lists of my own work bc I honestly didn't write this year.
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
Between the job search crush, having a new baby, starting a new career, while battling grief/depression - it was a tall order so I had to set writing aside a lot this year.
'26 tho 👀
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
“In this futuristic dystopia, love spans centuries, exceeds limits, and defies programming.”
-Katherine Westwood
Katherine Westwood is our Reviewer-in-Residence and her newest review is of Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Wolsak & Wynn).
nortendbookster.com/the-years-sh...
-Katherine Westwood
Katherine Westwood is our Reviewer-in-Residence and her newest review is of Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Wolsak & Wynn).
nortendbookster.com/the-years-sh...
December 18, 2025 at 8:50 PM
“In this futuristic dystopia, love spans centuries, exceeds limits, and defies programming.”
-Katherine Westwood
Katherine Westwood is our Reviewer-in-Residence and her newest review is of Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Wolsak & Wynn).
nortendbookster.com/the-years-sh...
-Katherine Westwood
Katherine Westwood is our Reviewer-in-Residence and her newest review is of Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Wolsak & Wynn).
nortendbookster.com/the-years-sh...
Maybe 2026 is when I start DNFing books.
I'm typically very principled about this but I'm stuck on Jackson's Hill House and it's like I could always pick it up again at some point. It's just not hitting like it should.
I'm typically very principled about this but I'm stuck on Jackson's Hill House and it's like I could always pick it up again at some point. It's just not hitting like it should.
December 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Maybe 2026 is when I start DNFing books.
I'm typically very principled about this but I'm stuck on Jackson's Hill House and it's like I could always pick it up again at some point. It's just not hitting like it should.
I'm typically very principled about this but I'm stuck on Jackson's Hill House and it's like I could always pick it up again at some point. It's just not hitting like it should.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
I did the @apexmag.bsky.social flash fiction contest for a year and it ended up jump-starting my writing career (even though I didn't win it)
Rebecca and the read team does a great job. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking to write flash fiction
📚🪐 #writingcommunity #fiction #shortfiction
Rebecca and the read team does a great job. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking to write flash fiction
📚🪐 #writingcommunity #fiction #shortfiction
2025 Retrospective: What I Learned Writing Short Fiction for a Year
A look into the Cathedral of Lernin' and also Sadness
thearchetypist.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I did the @apexmag.bsky.social flash fiction contest for a year and it ended up jump-starting my writing career (even though I didn't win it)
Rebecca and the read team does a great job. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking to write flash fiction
📚🪐 #writingcommunity #fiction #shortfiction
Rebecca and the read team does a great job. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking to write flash fiction
📚🪐 #writingcommunity #fiction #shortfiction
Small life update: Kate got a new job and started this week. She gets to WFH, which I can say as an extreme wife guy - it's amazing.
December 11, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Small life update: Kate got a new job and started this week. She gets to WFH, which I can say as an extreme wife guy - it's amazing.
Reposted by Alexander Pyles
Short Story, Long updates:
• gonna open submissions in January
• for 2026, going to increase payment to $150 (for story publication, and also for artists)
ashortstorylong.substack.com
• gonna open submissions in January
• for 2026, going to increase payment to $150 (for story publication, and also for artists)
ashortstorylong.substack.com
Short Story, Long | Aaron Burch | Substack
Longer short stories, published biweekly. Click to read Short Story, Long, by Aaron Burch, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
ashortstorylong.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Short Story, Long updates:
• gonna open submissions in January
• for 2026, going to increase payment to $150 (for story publication, and also for artists)
ashortstorylong.substack.com
• gonna open submissions in January
• for 2026, going to increase payment to $150 (for story publication, and also for artists)
ashortstorylong.substack.com