Sarah Viren
@sarahviren.bsky.social
Contributor @NYTMag. Creative writing prof. Author of MINE and TO NAME THE BIGGER LIE. Queer. Mom. Runner. Weirdo. Views are views.
Pinned
Sarah Viren
@sarahviren.bsky.social
· Nov 25
The Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It? (Gift Article)
When the university told my wife about the sexual-harassment complaints against her, we knew they weren’t true. We had no idea how strange the truth really was.
www.nytimes.com
Gonna introduce myself too…
I teach creative writing and write for the New York Times Magazine. You may have read my 2020 story about being falsely accused (along with my partner) of sexual misconduct by someone trying to steal an academic job I’d been offered.
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/m...
I teach creative writing and write for the New York Times Magazine. You may have read my 2020 story about being falsely accused (along with my partner) of sexual misconduct by someone trying to steal an academic job I’d been offered.
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/m...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
(Non)Fiction Friday: "I tried listening to whale songs and podcasts filled with monotone, meandering stories that would put anyone (except me) to sleep."
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
November 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM
(Non)Fiction Friday: "I tried listening to whale songs and podcasts filled with monotone, meandering stories that would put anyone (except me) to sleep."
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
Reposted by Sarah Viren
This spring I'm working with @offassignment.bsky.social on an online class about writing rage. Dan, Maggie, Ashley, and Carmen are going to help me. Their work has kept me from launching myself into the sun. Come join us.
Hey next Feb/March I'm helping the incredible @meganstielstra.bsky.social with a class she's teaching called "Writing Rage." The amazing @smashfizzle.bsky.social and @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social and Carmen Maria Machado are also helping. Will be wild. www.offassignment.com/writing-rage
Writing Rage — Off Assignment
www.offassignment.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This spring I'm working with @offassignment.bsky.social on an online class about writing rage. Dan, Maggie, Ashley, and Carmen are going to help me. Their work has kept me from launching myself into the sun. Come join us.
Talked to @jenpercy.bsky.social over at @literaryhub.bsky.social about her unforgettable new book, Girls Play Dead, out today.
@sarahviren.bsky.social talks to @jenpercy.bsky.social about playing dead and writing about gendered violence: “Ultimately, I think I came to understand freezing as both a prison and a superpower.”
Jen Percy on Self-Preservation, Playing Dead, and Writing About Gendered Violence
The first time I encountered Jen Percy’s work she was reading it herself, in Iowa City, in a subterranean venue at a graduate students reading series called Anthology. The essay involved a guinea p…
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Talked to @jenpercy.bsky.social over at @literaryhub.bsky.social about her unforgettable new book, Girls Play Dead, out today.
Reposted by Sarah Viren
New York Times gift article - In praise of Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time" podcasts of his radio show, of which there are about 1000. Initially it was the solution to the NY Times journalist, Sarah Viren's, insomnia but eventually she became an avid and constant fan. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
The Soothing British Radio Show That Blew My Mind — and Put Me Right to Sleep
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM
New York Times gift article - In praise of Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time" podcasts of his radio show, of which there are about 1000. Initially it was the solution to the NY Times journalist, Sarah Viren's, insomnia but eventually she became an avid and constant fan. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Lovely ode to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
The Soothing British Radio Show That Blew My Mind — and Put Me Right to Sleep
www.nytimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Lovely ode to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Delighted to see that like me, Sarah Viren is an admirer of Melvyn Bragg and his @BBC radio program In our Time. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
The Soothing British Radio Show That Blew My Mind — and Put Me Right to Sleep
www.nytimes.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Delighted to see that like me, Sarah Viren is an admirer of Melvyn Bragg and his @BBC radio program In our Time. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
Thank you to Vic Flanagan for finding some meaning behind the feeling I also have in airports that every fifth person I see is someone from my past.
Also just a beautiful essay about losing the "drumbeat" of your own thinking.
open.substack.com/pub/vflanaga...
Also just a beautiful essay about losing the "drumbeat" of your own thinking.
open.substack.com/pub/vflanaga...
Heaven and Earth in Terminal 3
Bleary-eyed in the airport—the culmination of six unprecedented, restless weeks.
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Thank you to Vic Flanagan for finding some meaning behind the feeling I also have in airports that every fifth person I see is someone from my past.
Also just a beautiful essay about losing the "drumbeat" of your own thinking.
open.substack.com/pub/vflanaga...
Also just a beautiful essay about losing the "drumbeat" of your own thinking.
open.substack.com/pub/vflanaga...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
What a gift it is to have this essay published on this hopeful day! Thank you so much, @jacqdoyle.bsky.social , for helping to bring this piece into the world.
Celebrate the election today, and this great braided flash by @nikwalk.bsky.social in CRAFT.
www.craftliterary.com/2025/11/05/s...
www.craftliterary.com/2025/11/05/s...
Still. Life. by Nicole Walker - CRAFT
Max was two. Zoe, seven. I was forty, when the nurse called and told me I needed to come in for a follow-up mammogram and ultrasound. My manners couldn’t catch up with my physical reaction. I started ...
www.craftliterary.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
What a gift it is to have this essay published on this hopeful day! Thank you so much, @jacqdoyle.bsky.social , for helping to bring this piece into the world.
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Two weeks from today, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative will host "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond," our final workshop of 2025, with speakers @jennahanchey.bsky.social and Tanvir Akhtar Ahmed! Free and open to the public. Join us in-person in Tempe or on ASU Live!
Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond | ASU Events
In this workshop, our speakers will use speculative thinking, literary criticism, and fiction writing to explore what resistance looks like in both our real world and in the imagined worlds that refle...
asuevents.asu.edu
November 5, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Two weeks from today, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative will host "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond," our final workshop of 2025, with speakers @jennahanchey.bsky.social and Tanvir Akhtar Ahmed! Free and open to the public. Join us in-person in Tempe or on ASU Live!
My little brother has been complaining that I never mention him in my writing, so I wrote an essay about the British podcast that puts me to sleep just so I could prove him wrong.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
The Soothing British Radio Show That Blew My Mind — and Put Me Right to Sleep
www.nytimes.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
My little brother has been complaining that I never mention him in my writing, so I wrote an essay about the British podcast that puts me to sleep just so I could prove him wrong.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/m...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
New on CALLING ALL SYLLABLES, a series of reported stories by @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social writers on how the Trumpocene trickles down into the everyday of our small towns: "What Time Is It?" by Claire Kovac, in which she asks the trees. callingallsyllables.substack.com/p/what-time-...
What Time Is It?
A dendrochronology of the Trumpocene; or, the roots are longer than the tree itself.
callingallsyllables.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 10:49 AM
New on CALLING ALL SYLLABLES, a series of reported stories by @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social writers on how the Trumpocene trickles down into the everyday of our small towns: "What Time Is It?" by Claire Kovac, in which she asks the trees. callingallsyllables.substack.com/p/what-time-...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Ho ho ho it's book prize time send me your badass work
✨ 🗣️ Introducing River Teeth's 2025 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize Judge, Ander Monson! We are ecstatic to have Monson working with us as the final judge. His interview with our Assistant Managing Editor, Natasia Verdel, is live on our website, which you access through the link in our bio.
October 24, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Ho ho ho it's book prize time send me your badass work
Reposted by Sarah Viren
It’s time, beyond time, really, I’m leaving Substack. I didn’t do it before because I had no other income to rely on. I don’t think abandoning spaces is always the right answer but sometimes it’s necessary www.patreon.com/posts/why-i-...
Why I am leaving Substack | Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz
Get more from Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz on Patreon
www.patreon.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
It’s time, beyond time, really, I’m leaving Substack. I didn’t do it before because I had no other income to rely on. I don’t think abandoning spaces is always the right answer but sometimes it’s necessary www.patreon.com/posts/why-i-...
Such a fun and fascinating interview with Alex Niemi about her translation of a totally bonkers (and great!) new novel.
“I found it hard to articulate the way a word could take up space in a body.” @sarahviren.bsky.social talks to Alex Niemi, translator of Laura Vazquez‘s The Endless Week.
Alex Niemi on the Process of Translation and the Rhythm of Language
I’ve known Alex Niemi since 2012, when we both started a graduate program in literary translation at the University of Iowa. We co-edited our program’s literary translation journal, Exchanges, and …
buff.ly
October 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Such a fun and fascinating interview with Alex Niemi about her translation of a totally bonkers (and great!) new novel.
Was looking for context on a remembered Benjamin quote and found this deliciously detailed substack about structure and inspiration instead. Kinda like finding your keys while looking for your misplaced socks.
Deep Dive: On (novel) problems & finding solutions
open.substack.com/pub/katemild...
Deep Dive: On (novel) problems & finding solutions
open.substack.com/pub/katemild...
Deep Dive: On (novel) problems & finding solutions
I’m deep in the problems and working-out phase of a new novel.
open.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Was looking for context on a remembered Benjamin quote and found this deliciously detailed substack about structure and inspiration instead. Kinda like finding your keys while looking for your misplaced socks.
Deep Dive: On (novel) problems & finding solutions
open.substack.com/pub/katemild...
Deep Dive: On (novel) problems & finding solutions
open.substack.com/pub/katemild...
Good in-flight choice before a writing residency….
September 25, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Good in-flight choice before a writing residency….
At least Slow Horses is back.
September 24, 2025 at 6:05 PM
At least Slow Horses is back.
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Nerds of Los Angeles: This weekend, I'm headed your way -- along with a killer lineup of artists and writers -- for LA Comic Con. Come hang out. www.comicconla.com/artists-and-...
#lacomiccon2025 #lacomiccon
#lacomiccon2025 #lacomiccon
Benjamin Percy — L.A. Comic Con
FRI • SAT • SUN
www.comicconla.com
September 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Nerds of Los Angeles: This weekend, I'm headed your way -- along with a killer lineup of artists and writers -- for LA Comic Con. Come hang out. www.comicconla.com/artists-and-...
#lacomiccon2025 #lacomiccon
#lacomiccon2025 #lacomiccon
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Three more months until People without History are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust comes out @uoftpress.bsky.social and translated @williamrossjones.bsky.social
you can preorder below.
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
you can preorder below.
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
July 25, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Three more months until People without History are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust comes out @uoftpress.bsky.social and translated @williamrossjones.bsky.social
you can preorder below.
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
you can preorder below.
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
TO NAME THE BIGGER LIE is the Common Read at Stockton University! Looking forward to giving the convocation lecture later this month.
stockton.edu/general-stud...
stockton.edu/general-stud...
First-Year Seminar - William T. Daly School of General Studies | Stockton University
stockton.edu
September 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM
TO NAME THE BIGGER LIE is the Common Read at Stockton University! Looking forward to giving the convocation lecture later this month.
stockton.edu/general-stud...
stockton.edu/general-stud...
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Well, at least they are redirecting literary grant money to "foster AI competency" (clearly lacking in this AI generated 2nd paragraph), support for the military (as all true literature should do), and disaster recovery (books as sandbags?)
August 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Well, at least they are redirecting literary grant money to "foster AI competency" (clearly lacking in this AI generated 2nd paragraph), support for the military (as all true literature should do), and disaster recovery (books as sandbags?)
Reposted by Sarah Viren
Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local flood warning systems this year www.texastribune.org/2025/07/06/t... via @texastribune.org
Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local flood warning systems this year
A GOP state lawmaker who represents Kerr County says he likely would vote differently now on House Bill 13, which would have established a grant program for counties to build new emergency communicati...
www.texastribune.org
July 7, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local flood warning systems this year www.texastribune.org/2025/07/06/t... via @texastribune.org
And essay by my 83 year old uncle in which he writes about driving a car into Arthur Miller’ house, among other feats.
olliconnects.org/dear-nabokov/
olliconnects.org/dear-nabokov/
Dear Mr. Nabokov | OLLI Connects
olliconnects.org
July 3, 2025 at 9:17 PM
And essay by my 83 year old uncle in which he writes about driving a car into Arthur Miller’ house, among other feats.
olliconnects.org/dear-nabokov/
olliconnects.org/dear-nabokov/
The most chilling part of T.S. Eliot's rejection of Orwell's Animal Farm come near the end, after he's said the allegory "is not the right point of view from which to criticize the political situation," but that if some other publisher "believes in what it stands for," good for them...
July 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The most chilling part of T.S. Eliot's rejection of Orwell's Animal Farm come near the end, after he's said the allegory "is not the right point of view from which to criticize the political situation," but that if some other publisher "believes in what it stands for," good for them...