Sejal Shah
@sejalshah.bsky.social
Award-winning author of This Is One Way to Dance: Essays, an NPR best book of the year & How to Make Your Mother Cry, longlisted for the Story Prize. Conjunctions, the Guardian, Kenyon Review, Lit Hub, Poets & Writers, the Rumpus. www.sejal-shah.com.
Pinned
Sejal Shah
@sejalshah.bsky.social
· Nov 11
I'm a fan of @sejalshahwrites.bsky.social. She has a beautiful new essay in Massachusetts Review that explores her friendship with journalist Jim Foley, who was held hostage & murdered by ISIS 10 years ago. I was honored to read this while it was a draft. Give it a read.
https://buff.ly/3Xio4SE
https://buff.ly/3Xio4SE
It took me ten years to write this essay about my friend, the journalist Jim Foley. The Massachusetts Review published it and I hope you might take some time to read it.
I was wondering why my friend Kyle (@kesemmel.bsky.social) named his Substack "Bright Boy." He wrote a wonderful essay in response and I learned more about him, which is maybe what we want in any writing. So many Substacks, some of them not very interestingly named. But "Bright Boy"? I love it.
My friend @sejalshah.bsky.social asked me why I named my Substack "Bright Boy." Here's why. open.substack.com/pub/kesemmel...
Mønsterbryder: Why did you name your Substack Bright Boy?
I’ve been noticeably absent from this Substack the past few weeks.
open.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:43 AM
I was wondering why my friend Kyle (@kesemmel.bsky.social) named his Substack "Bright Boy." He wrote a wonderful essay in response and I learned more about him, which is maybe what we want in any writing. So many Substacks, some of them not very interestingly named. But "Bright Boy"? I love it.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
a wonderful evening of poetry at the Highland Bowl with readings by @kathryncowles.bsky.social @cathylinhche.bsky.social and @geoffreybabbitt.bsky.social -a huge thanks to Writers & Books for hosting and @robinweeg.bsky.social for hanging
June 13, 2025 at 7:38 PM
a wonderful evening of poetry at the Highland Bowl with readings by @kathryncowles.bsky.social @cathylinhche.bsky.social and @geoffreybabbitt.bsky.social -a huge thanks to Writers & Books for hosting and @robinweeg.bsky.social for hanging
Reposted by Sejal Shah
“I wanted people to know something about him other than his death—to know something more of Jim’s life—and to memorialize the kind of friend he was to me and to so many.”
@sejalshah.bsky.social writes for our #10Questions, available on our Substack: open.substack.com/pub/themassa...
@sejalshah.bsky.social writes for our #10Questions, available on our Substack: open.substack.com/pub/themassa...
10 Questions for Sejal Shah
BY FRANCHESCA VIAUD
open.substack.com
May 22, 2025 at 1:33 PM
“I wanted people to know something about him other than his death—to know something more of Jim’s life—and to memorialize the kind of friend he was to me and to so many.”
@sejalshah.bsky.social writes for our #10Questions, available on our Substack: open.substack.com/pub/themassa...
@sejalshah.bsky.social writes for our #10Questions, available on our Substack: open.substack.com/pub/themassa...
I forgot I had written this piece about the wonderful journalist James Foley. Thank you, Andrew, for finding it and resurrecting it here. Thanks to @kenyonreview for publishing this on their blog.
This came across my Internet transom today: @sejalshah.bsky.social writing about our late grade school colleague, Jim Foley. kenyonreview.org/2016/03/ghaz...
Ghazals for James Foley « Kenyon Review Blog
Last week, I received my copy of Ghazals for Foley in the mail. James Foley was an American journalist and my classmate in the MFA program in fiction at UMass Amherst. Jim’s […]
kenyonreview.org
April 28, 2025 at 11:16 PM
I forgot I had written this piece about the wonderful journalist James Foley. Thank you, Andrew, for finding it and resurrecting it here. Thanks to @kenyonreview for publishing this on their blog.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
If the IRS deprives Harvard of its tax-exempt status, that's very bad for Harvard but it's also a catastrophe for the IRS. Instead of a neutral agency that enforces tax law, it will become a tool of partisan warfare. It may never recover.
April 17, 2025 at 10:32 AM
If the IRS deprives Harvard of its tax-exempt status, that's very bad for Harvard but it's also a catastrophe for the IRS. Instead of a neutral agency that enforces tax law, it will become a tool of partisan warfare. It may never recover.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
1. This is a legitimately courageous stance in a moment when many elites are choosing the path of appeasement
2. Strategic alumni organizing will be crucial to make it stick. What I'm saying is: if you went to Harvard and you want everyone to know but in a humble way, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
2. Strategic alumni organizing will be crucial to make it stick. What I'm saying is: if you went to Harvard and you want everyone to know but in a humble way, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
Honestly I'm glad they picked Harvard to try out this novel "we're mad" legal theory of revoking tax-exempt status, given its infinite resources, deep network of powerful alumni, and law school attended by 142 sitting federal judges.
Good luck! 🫡
Good luck! 🫡
🚨🚨
The IRS is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, according to two sources familiar with the matter
A final decision on rescinding the university’s tax exemption is expected soon, the sources said
www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/p...
The IRS is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, according to two sources familiar with the matter
A final decision on rescinding the university’s tax exemption is expected soon, the sources said
www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/p...
April 16, 2025 at 11:19 PM
1. This is a legitimately courageous stance in a moment when many elites are choosing the path of appeasement
2. Strategic alumni organizing will be crucial to make it stick. What I'm saying is: if you went to Harvard and you want everyone to know but in a humble way, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
2. Strategic alumni organizing will be crucial to make it stick. What I'm saying is: if you went to Harvard and you want everyone to know but in a humble way, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
Reposted by Sejal Shah
“We need essays and stories and poems. We need these things that don’t make sense in capitalism—especially because they take time and reflect on the human condition.”
Wonderful words from @sejalshah.bsky.social
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
Wonderful words from @sejalshah.bsky.social
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
Sejal Shah on Dancing Against Despair
mailchi.mp
March 30, 2025 at 9:45 PM
“We need essays and stories and poems. We need these things that don’t make sense in capitalism—especially because they take time and reflect on the human condition.”
Wonderful words from @sejalshah.bsky.social
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
Wonderful words from @sejalshah.bsky.social
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
I loved this chance to write about my favorite Margaret Atwood essay, dance, meditation, and words from @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Terry Tempest Williams, Richard Hugo & more…thanks @briangresko.bsky.social & @writingco-lab.bsky.social
Day 70 of 100 Days of Creative Resistance: @sejalshah.bsky.social on Dancing Against Despair
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
@writingco-lab.bsky.social
mailchi.mp/078f81271e52...
@writingco-lab.bsky.social
March 30, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I loved this chance to write about my favorite Margaret Atwood essay, dance, meditation, and words from @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Terry Tempest Williams, Richard Hugo & more…thanks @briangresko.bsky.social & @writingco-lab.bsky.social
Reposted by Sejal Shah
Better a pig than a gen A.I. user!
March 27, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Better a pig than a gen A.I. user!
Reposted by Sejal Shah
"But of course it is nonsensical to feel contempt for systems. Systems don’t disappear and murder people; people do. Such malice is corporeal—it requires individual actors with actual bodies, with hearts that could fit in my chest." --@kavehakbar.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
What Will You Do?
What’s your “I am Spartacus” move to protect the more vulnerable, the targeted, the invisibled, the next-on-the-list?
www.thenation.com
March 28, 2025 at 11:28 PM
"But of course it is nonsensical to feel contempt for systems. Systems don’t disappear and murder people; people do. Such malice is corporeal—it requires individual actors with actual bodies, with hearts that could fit in my chest." --@kavehakbar.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Reposted by Sejal Shah
Hi, I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.
Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex
Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the White House Counsel’s Office.
www.nytimes.com
March 18, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Hi, I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
White people are crazy, man.
Breaking News: The EPA plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists.
Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm
More than 1,000 chemists, biologists and other scientists could be laid off under a plan to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.
www.nytimes.com
March 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM
White people are crazy, man.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
Omar al Akkad on the language we use in armed conflict, and how it dispossesses people of their humanity. thewalrus.ca/what-happens...
What Happens When a Drone Strike Has No Killer and a War Has No Dead? | The Walrus
Language gives us the privilege to look away
thewalrus.ca
March 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Omar al Akkad on the language we use in armed conflict, and how it dispossesses people of their humanity. thewalrus.ca/what-happens...
Reposted by Sejal Shah
NEW EPISODE: Bestselling fiction writer @csittenfeld.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell.
@literaryhub.bsky.social
lithub.com/curtis-sitte...
@literaryhub.bsky.social
lithub.com/curtis-sitte...
Curtis Sittenfeld on Show Don’t Tell
Bestselling fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell. Sittenfeld discusses the title stor…
lithub.com
March 13, 2025 at 4:43 PM
NEW EPISODE: Bestselling fiction writer @csittenfeld.bsky.social joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell.
@literaryhub.bsky.social
lithub.com/curtis-sitte...
@literaryhub.bsky.social
lithub.com/curtis-sitte...
Reposted by Sejal Shah
We have each other. We are the Resistance now. All of us.
March 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
We have each other. We are the Resistance now. All of us.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
These FREE trainings are super helpful and give you concrete steps on what to do in situations needing intervention.
I'm gonna keep reminding folks that I'm offering a FREE 1-hour webinar on the 5Ds of effective bystander intervention.
The powers that be WANT us to feel afraid, distrusting of each other & isolated.
Don't let them win.
Come learn community care with me!
Register:
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
The powers that be WANT us to feel afraid, distrusting of each other & isolated.
Don't let them win.
Come learn community care with me!
Register:
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
March 12, 2025 at 4:31 PM
These FREE trainings are super helpful and give you concrete steps on what to do in situations needing intervention.
Reposted by Sejal Shah
Pretty darn thrilled to have my (tournament-winning! I couldn't believe it!) March Danceness essay from last year about Amerie's "1 Thing" in this forthcoming @marchxness.bsky.social edited @splitlippress.com anthology!
This is the longest we've kept a secret project secret: SLP is proud to be the home for HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY, collated by the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee (@angermonsoon.bsky.social + @meganc.bsky.social) and forthcoming on 3/31/26!
March 7, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Pretty darn thrilled to have my (tournament-winning! I couldn't believe it!) March Danceness essay from last year about Amerie's "1 Thing" in this forthcoming @marchxness.bsky.social edited @splitlippress.com anthology!
Reposted by Sejal Shah
So incredibly stoked that this is happening, and that the very first @marchxness.bsky.social essay I wrote (about the Creatures & Virginia Woolf & menstrual blood & nu-metal, among other things) will be in it alongside so many faves! Coming March 2026!
This is the longest we've kept a secret project secret: SLP is proud to be the home for HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY, collated by the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee (@angermonsoon.bsky.social + @meganc.bsky.social) and forthcoming on 3/31/26!
February 28, 2025 at 11:17 PM
So incredibly stoked that this is happening, and that the very first @marchxness.bsky.social essay I wrote (about the Creatures & Virginia Woolf & menstrual blood & nu-metal, among other things) will be in it alongside so many faves! Coming March 2026!
Reposted by Sejal Shah
These ten Democrats should just quit. To censure Green when there have never been consequences for MTG for egregious behavior whereas Green was protesting fascism. We are drowning in shit.
US House voted 224-198 to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas)
Republicans 214-0
Democrats 10-198 (with 2 Ds voting "present")
Republicans 214-0
Democrats 10-198 (with 2 Ds voting "present")
March 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
These ten Democrats should just quit. To censure Green when there have never been consequences for MTG for egregious behavior whereas Green was protesting fascism. We are drowning in shit.
Some happy news at a grim time. #bookstagram #fiction #shortstories #storycollections #forewordreviews #multiculturallit
Congratulations to @sejalshah.bsky.social, whose book How to Make Your Mother Cry is a finalist in the Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year Awards - Multicultural Fiction category!
March 6, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Some happy news at a grim time. #bookstagram #fiction #shortstories #storycollections #forewordreviews #multiculturallit
We cannot allow the indefensible actions of our government to eclipse our overwhelming solidarity with the Ukrainian people. sign.moveon.org/petitions/to...
To President Zelenskyy, From Embarrassed Americans
Over the past two years, everyday people have been showing up in support of Ukraine in both big demonstrations and small acts—including displaying the Ukrainian flag, publicly advocating for peace and...
sign.moveon.org
March 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
We cannot allow the indefensible actions of our government to eclipse our overwhelming solidarity with the Ukrainian people. sign.moveon.org/petitions/to...
"Did my brother get stuck in red tape because my parents did not know whom or how to ask or push? What are the consequences of...not understanding bureaucracy is meant to tire you out?"
Here's an essay I wrote about my family's immigration history: magazine.wellesley.edu/issues/winte...
Here's an essay I wrote about my family's immigration history: magazine.wellesley.edu/issues/winte...
A Rogue and Necessary Kindness
For a while, I knew where they were. The flags, three of them, that were received when my parents and my older brother became naturalized citizens. I…
magazine.wellesley.edu
March 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
"Did my brother get stuck in red tape because my parents did not know whom or how to ask or push? What are the consequences of...not understanding bureaucracy is meant to tire you out?"
Here's an essay I wrote about my family's immigration history: magazine.wellesley.edu/issues/winte...
Here's an essay I wrote about my family's immigration history: magazine.wellesley.edu/issues/winte...