Steph Auteri
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stephauteri.bsky.social
Steph Auteri
@stephauteri.bsky.social
author of A DIRTY WORD | founder of Guerrilla Sex Ed | Essays Editor at Hippocampus Magazine | Editor in Chief of Feminist Book Club | book nerd | horror lover | singer | needlework nut | yogi | kitchen witch | cat lady

linktr.ee/stephauteri
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#Intro! Hi! Giving this another go. I'm a CNF writer/editor who dabbles in short horror. I'm also a:
*sex ed advocate
*contributor to Book Riot + Feminist Book Club
*author of A Dirty Word
*essays editor for Hippocampus
*cat lady, embroidery obsessive, kitchen witch, yogi, singer, mom, etc.
I (somehow) made it to the second round of NYC Midnight's #ShortStoryChallenge2025 and have been tasked with writing a thriller, which is SO far outside my comfort zone. lololololsob. I am already bored by my own story, which does not bode well for the genre. 🫠
April 5, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Does anyone else here file a story and, in the ensuing silence that occurs whilst you're waiting on feedback, assume the assigning editor just hates everything you've written and and feels deep regret over the fact that they gave you the assignment in the first place? No? Just me? 🫠
March 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I feel perpetually lucky to be a freelancer, despite the ups and downs. One day, I'm editing another writer's post on the oligarchy. The next, a copywriting client is telling me to make an email "hornier." Always an adventure.
February 26, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Well hell, February really snuck up on me. Next week, I'm leading a session on how to find writing inspiration when you're all tapped out, for @hippocampusmag.bsky.social. The aim is to help you generate a buttload of story ideas in 1 sitting. Register here: hippocampusmagazine.com/event/how-to...
Finding Inspiration When You're All Tapped Out | Hippocampus Magazine
Learn how to generate a buttload of story ideas in one sitting with Hippocampus essays editor Steph Auteri at our February 2025 How-To Tuesday.
hippocampusmagazine.com
February 10, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I just successfuly hemmed a single leg on a pair of jeans with my sewing machine could someone please give me a medal and also send hopes and prayers that I don't screw up the second leg.
February 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Steph Auteri
PLEASE read this piece by @freeblackgirl.bsky.social for @theflytrapmedia.bsky.social about the immense challenges of running indie publications. Also consider investing in indie and nonprofit media WHILE IT EXISTS, instead of lamenting when publications shutter due to lack of support/resources.
I was the EIC of Bitch Media for nearly five years. Few things bother me more than people saying “I wish Bitch still existed” because keeping it alive was so damn hard.

I wrote about that conundrum for @theflytrapmedia.bsky.social. If you want an indie pub to survive, then please pay for it.
Pay Me What You Owe Me
Independent media always gets homages on social media after it shutters – what if that support amounted to monetary donations that helped keep it alive and thriving?
theflytrap.beehiiv.com
January 22, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Finished my egalley for Lucy Rose's The Lamb the other night and now I desperately need someone else to read it so we can discuss all of my feelings.
January 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
As someone who's been writing about sex on the regular for 25 years, I'm surprised by how anxious and exposed I feel about this hermit crab essay of mine, which is intimate in a very different way. Thank you to Cutleaf Journal for giving this piece a home:

cutleafjournal.com/content/unbu...
Unburden Yourself - Cutleaf Journal
June 16, 2023
cutleafjournal.com
January 9, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Abigail McGrath, founder of Renaissance House, passed away over the holidays. I don't know how many others here were blessed enough to spend time with her there, but my own time there was such a gift, and I am bereft. My deepest condolences to her family. www.mvtimes.com/2024/12/26/a...
Abigail McGrath, founder of the Renaissance House, dies at 84 - The Martha's Vineyard Times
Abigail Hubbell Rosen McGrath, the founder of the Renaissance House in Oak Bluffs, died on Dec. 20 after a battle with liver cancer. She was 84. Friends and family say that McGrath was a colorful woma...
www.mvtimes.com
January 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
What are the bestest things to do in Salem when it's *not* October? I'm planning a mother/daughter trip for Spring Break. My kiddo is 10.
January 3, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I spent 2024 engaged in a lot of play. I got my first pieces of fiction published. I experimented with hermit crab essays and have one pubbing later this month. I started writing an essay collection. I worked my way through an ice cream cookbook. I got deep into embroidery and visible mending.
January 3, 2025 at 4:21 PM
My favorite thing to do on New Year's Day is to wear slipper socks and wrap myself in blankets and maybe noodle over a puzzle or do some writing but most of all READ. To kick off your new year of reading, here are my favorite reads from 2024: www.stephauteri.com/2025/01/01/m...
My 29 Favorite Reads of 2024
For much of the past two decades, both my writing and my reading have been tied to my advocacy work. This past year, however, marked a huge shift for me. Aside from a piece I wrote for Poets & …
www.stephauteri.com
January 1, 2025 at 2:23 PM
A bit of flash I wrote went up on @litmoralitmag.bsky.social. Sci-fi horror. Hoping to get more of my fiction out there in 2025. :) www.litmoralitmag.com/auteri-night...
Auteri - Night Sounds — Litmora Literary Magazine
www.litmoralitmag.com
December 28, 2024 at 5:10 PM
Someone tell me how the heck I'm supposed to eat a Ferrero Rocher that's as big as my fist.
December 27, 2024 at 6:35 PM
Made the dubious choice of going to the supermarket the day before Christmas Eve Day. Tips for survival: Have zero investment in how long it takes. Focus on your breath. Be jolly AF. Buy doughnuts for after.
December 23, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Loooove that @hippocampusmag.bsky.social made it on this list! 😍
🏆 From 1093 nominations for 324 magazines, the results are in!

Here is who Chill Sub’s Community has named the BEST NONFICTION LIT MAGS OF 2024

⬇️ Their details & how to send your work

www.chillsubs.com/lists/commun...
December 19, 2024 at 4:12 PM
I'm supposed to be writing about sex toys right now, but all I want to do is *make things*! I recently made a kitchen witch that is the stuff of nightmares, and I also have all the materials necessary to make my very first (non-holiday) wreath. What projects are calling to you? Pics if you got 'em!
December 19, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Love seeing older women coming into their power all over the dang place. Check my latest post for @feministbookclub.bsky.social, on older woman who insist on being visible: www.feministbookclub.com/older-women-...
Older Women Who Insist on Being Visible
In recent books, TV series, and films, older women are taking center stage. We must demand more narratives like these.
www.feministbookclub.com
December 12, 2024 at 6:21 PM
Our heat has stopped working.

::Gathers up my Oodie, my three sherpa blankets, my weighted blanket, my HugSleep, my shawl, and various other wearable blankets.::

I have been preparing for this moment my entire life.
December 9, 2024 at 6:23 PM
I just barfed all my feelings out into a flash nonfiction piece that I then polished and submitted. Huzzah to writing things / poking the bruise!
December 6, 2024 at 7:20 PM
Just spotted a call for pitches about "travel, outdoors, and nightlife," all of which are antithetical to my existence so I think I need to start a magazine called Indoorsy that's about emotional eating and needlework and the pros and cons of various types of wearable blankets.
November 27, 2024 at 4:43 PM
Today, I hopped into @feministbookclub.bsky.social's FBC Weekly segment and talked about ordering heads off Etsy, making strawberry + brie empanadas, and of course bookish things, too. I love how chaotic these weekly chats are.
November 22, 2024 at 10:23 PM
Is it weird to join a church just so I can sing with their choir? Seriously considering it. www.instagram.com/p/DCndvpUOC7...
November 21, 2024 at 5:12 PM
I was about to re-read Braiding Sweetgrass, but then I learned Robin Wall Kimmerer was coming out with The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World and I immediately pre-ordered it and it just arrived at my local indie and obviously I'm going there now instead of working.
November 19, 2024 at 4:22 PM