Tristan Beiter
tristanbeiter.bsky.social
Tristan Beiter
@tristanbeiter.bsky.social
Poet and critic; speculative fiction nerd; he/him; PhD student at the University at Buffalo; Website: https://tristanbeiter.com/
Oh no. Does this mean that their in-restaurant bread will be the same as the stuff sold at grocery stores under their name? Which are, to be clear, not par-baked, they would be better if they were par-baked heat-and-eat frozen bread. They are simply the worst "baguettes" I have ever had.
Panera Bread moves to ‘shitty bread model’. “This sucks ass, we’re really excited”, say executives who will parachute out of the failing company with $377 million dollars each
November 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
There are a couple things around, but I think I have to give it to PA-Dutch-style chicken and waffles. Pulled chicken and chicken gravy on a waffle, mashed potatoes and corn optional.
I want everyone to post their hometown slop (if you don't have a cuisine that qualifies then your town has zero culture).

Skyline is fine and hits at 3 am just like taco bell lol
November 19, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
One thing that strikes me about the so called ‘trans panic’ is how much it tells us about egalitarianism. It doesn’t matter what’s inside your head, but what it looks like from the outside. It doesn’t matter what sort of person you are it’s just your physical body that counts. This after…
November 16, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
It's the same with crafts. I crochet, I get pleasure out of the act of creating, then I give it away. Buying a stuffie would be faster, but far less gratifying and far less personal. I like to bake cookies. Again, buying them would be faster, but they wouldn't be MY cookies. I like to create!
November 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
I wouldn't have spent a zillion hours doing this if I did not enjoy the act of writing. Even when it's hard (especially when it's hard), it's so rewarding. It's so clarifying. When I finish something, sure I'm proud of it, but I'm already itching to shove it out of my way and start the next thing.
November 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
November 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
exactly
"the US is uniquely bad" and/or "the US is uniquely/inevitably doomed" are also American exceptionalism
November 13, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
On August 12, 1971, 16-year-old me mailed the first story I ever wrote off on its first submission to my dream market, F&SF. My tale was quickly rejected. On July 17th, 2025, I finally sold a story to that magazine. Here's why I felt I had to withdraw that story. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
November 12, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Oh boy this is hard. Embarassingly I might have to go with *Collected Poems 1909- 1935* by T.S. Eliot? Even though Eliot was a horrible person and the 1960s collected poems (with all of Four Quartets) is better? It was this one that really made me believe that beatiful words could be worth it all
performative reading, lack of reading skills, nobody's reading anymore -- NO!

tell me about a book that changed you

for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
November 12, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
New Book Review: Psychopomp & Circumstance Review: Eden Royce’s Haunting Novel

"a beautiful exploration of grief, not as something to be feared, but as a process that connects us to the past "

gnofhorror.com/psychopomp-c...

@edenroyce.bsky.social
Psychopomp & Circumstance Review: Eden Royce's Haunting Novel - The Ginger Nuts Of Horror Review Website
Our review of Eden Royce's Psychopomp & Circumstance. We explore the Gullah Geechee-inspired magic, the eerie Southern Gothic setting, and the powerful coming-of-age story at its heart.
gnofhorror.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.

lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
Notice how people are using this about Elon's trillion dollar deal, which happens in 10 years IFF:

- The ai bubble doesn't pop
- He makes an army of 1 million robots
- He octuples Tesla's value
- He doesn't die
Etc

It's very much subjunctive, very much future tense. And yet.
There's an interesting grammatical tense used only to talk about powerful, wealthy people, where they have simultaneously done the thing, are doing the thing, and will do the thing.

Totally divorced from the concept of linear time, the only important element is: important person and thing.
November 8, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
There's an interesting grammatical tense used only to talk about powerful, wealthy people, where they have simultaneously done the thing, are doing the thing, and will do the thing.

Totally divorced from the concept of linear time, the only important element is: important person and thing.
April 22, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
These are terrible people who enjoy suffering they believe to be justified. I think it’s important to add that this is caused by the Conservative Protestant Work Ethic, just world illusion, and deservingness judgments, not just pure sadism. Dismantling those permission structures is essential.
November 4, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
I love trash, so much of what I deeply love is not good, yum yum garbage
October 29, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
More people on here would be more able to parse this distinction if more of us were more comfortable with admitting that we are at times total raccoons who enjoy without regard for quality
regular reminder that when i say something is my *favorite* that is distinct from saying it is *the best*.
October 29, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
It is actually okay to love stuff that is not Great Art, get the fuck over yourself
October 29, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
"Women are not usually into science fiction"is legitimately one of the stupidest, most divorced from reality sentences I have ever read in my life
okay grandpa, let's get you to bed
October 25, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
Last review of the week is the always thoughtful @tristanbeiter.bsky.social on Eden Royce’s Psychopomp & Circumstance (@tordotcom.bsky.social): “one of the core questions of the novel is choice […] what it is even to have choices—and all the many ways that choices are constrained.”
Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce
One of the core questions of this novel is choice.
strangehorizons.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
I can't articulate it well but I don't care what punctuation/ set of words is the current tell for Chatgpt. I'm not changing my voice or the way I write for this program, my writing will evolve the way it evolves. I am not panicking that it uses em dashes. They should panic and pay me.
October 23, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
That line of reasoning sounds very very dangerous to me. Allowing the machine to use certain tools and stepping away from them. Giving them up. It sounds exactly like what they want us to do...IMO at least.
October 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Does someone who suggests that not know any children? Children think about death *constantly.* It's out there! It's scary! *Bridge to Terabithia* keeps coming back even though its real dated at this point because kids *need* to have a chance to process death and it's an opportunity to do so.
I saw somebody the other day suggesting that "main character death is too dark for YA" and I can't stop thinking about it. both because I have YA stories where protagonists die and also because when I was a teenager I had to attend the funerals of several friends, including my first boyfriend
October 23, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Tristan Beiter
this is something that was discussed at large when i wastaking classes for teaching children’s lit. adultery, death, poverty, illness etc. are all part of many children’s lives, and it’s extra important for them to have stories that help them process and understand it
October 23, 2025 at 11:04 PM