Ben Purkert
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benpurkert.bsky.social
Ben Purkert
@benpurkert.bsky.social
1.5K followers 180 following 100 posts
debut novel, THE MEN CAN'T BE SAVED, Top 20 Book of 2023 Vanity Fair. words / poems in The New Yorker, The Nation, Slate. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-men-can-t-be-saved-ben-purkert/19736868?ean=9781419767135
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benpurkert.bsky.social
It’s my 40th bday today and so I ate this WHOLE DAMN CAKE except the me part, boooom
March 2, 2025 at 5:56 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
YEAH WE ARE, see u there 😵🙃🥂💫 @ruthmadievsky.bsky.social @sallywenmao.bsky.social @mobrowne.bsky.social
AWP panel: the poets are writing novels
February 13, 2025 at 8:38 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
i am the cranky old luddite writer i've always aspired to be 😍
January 30, 2025 at 7:56 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
“I only eat leaves” is gonna be my new artist statement
A man chased leaves down an urban street. The leaves moved fast. He ran and ran. A young boy stopped him. "Sir, why are you chasing leaves?" "I'm a starving artist, I haven't eaten in days!" the man said. "Have some oatmeal cookies," the boy said. "I only eat leaves!" the man said, running down the street. "I only eat leaves!" (Jose Hernandez Diaz)
January 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
actual photo of me staring at this book cover and feeling my soul scurry off into the dark recesses of some other plane of existence
December 14, 2024 at 6:23 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
why does NYRB insist on absolutely fucking up my peace
December 14, 2024 at 6:22 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
say what you want, Kafka was a mensch
December 14, 2024 at 3:25 AM
benpurkert.bsky.social
some strong NYC vibes in these lines from Margaret Draft
I stayed in the city where no one can afford a house. I made a vow. I spoke of the person I wanted to become. Then I became someone else.
December 7, 2024 at 8:42 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
I was extremely (embarrassingly??) honest in this interview and here it is, if you'd like to give it a read! 🎳

@southeastreview.bsky.social

www.southeastreview.org/single-post/...
I’ll be honest. I don’t think about plot at all, and I know nothing about it. What I do believe in, however, is giving a reader something to read toward. I’m very attentive to that, because I believe in honoring a reader’s time and attention. And so, if I’m going to earn their time and attention, I need to ensure that there’s always something compelling them to turn from one page to the next. It could be a big secret, or a small one, but it should sustain them and reward their interest. Otherwise, I mean, there’s a whole fucking world out there. Why stay indoors with a book? Why not just go skydiving or swimming with bottle-nosed dolphins or something? The analogy George Saunders uses is bowling pins, and I’ve always liked that. As a novelist, your job is to pick out a bunch of bowling pins and throw them up in the air. Then, as the book goes on, you catch them. And the suspense for the reader is seeing all these things thrown up high into the sky, wondering how they’ll find their way back down.
November 30, 2024 at 7:07 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
me tweeting this
November 25, 2024 at 8:37 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
Czesław Miłosz on the essence of poetry 🐅
In the very essence of poetry there is something indecent: / a thing is brought forth which we didn’t know we had in us / so we blink our eyes, as if a tiger had sprung out / and stood in the light, lashing his tail.
November 21, 2024 at 11:35 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
really cannot stress enough the extent to which Real World Seattle 1998 permanently, and possibly tragically, informed my sense of style
November 21, 2024 at 5:42 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
Jon Woodward 🍓
And so the strawberry sitting Alone on a small table As its seeds arranged in A Fibonacci spiral network behind To split and unload themselves Eyes each sinking open brings A world into focus funnels It in through each tiny Opening keeping it trapped there Listen to you hear the Eyes crying out no they can’t Cry out of course Not the silence is pure Now pick up the strawberry Put it in your mouth
November 21, 2024 at 3:28 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
immortal lines from the one and only Etel Adnan
Dear soul, we Will part, Me becoming thinner Than dust, You, vanishing into a strange Openness Tonight, I Have invited My shadow
November 21, 2024 at 12:22 AM
benpurkert.bsky.social
whose feet do I need to massage around here to successfully acquire this Paris Review poster that's been sold out for literal months, WHOSE
November 20, 2024 at 5:30 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
good morning, here’s my favorite Ben Lerner prose poem
November 20, 2024 at 2:06 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
a lovely and quiet and holy (?) poem by J Estanislao Lopez
Meditation on the last Prayer When the hands fold, Darkness forms Like a conversation Between them
November 19, 2024 at 2:36 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
In case you’re curious what I crossed out lol
November 19, 2024 at 3:55 AM
benpurkert.bsky.social
this M.A. Vizsolyi poem has haunted me for years, never more than now
I don’t believe the old when they walk By me holding hands how can they love Each other’s bodies when the young Girl with breasts as soft & bouncy as The breasts of stars walks past them in a tank Top they smile at her this happened Today I was upset I asked them about her They didn’t notice the girl I was Upset I asked if they had any Identification they looked down & shook Their heads I arrested them both they Were sent to separate prisons my name Is radko yakovich Soviet guard Budapest October 15 1968
November 19, 2024 at 2:39 AM
benpurkert.bsky.social
If you haven’t read “Concerning the Book…” trust me when I say it’s a spectacular walk thru a singular mind
November 18, 2024 at 12:51 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
Gregory Orr on having faith 🎈
Today only a single poem. This one. So small. In the Middle Ages Angels frolicked On the head of a pin— Spacious as a ballroom. Have faith. The beloved approaches, Robed in radiance, Dressed in language, Eager to dance.
November 18, 2024 at 12:50 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
the brilliant Carl Phillips being brilliant ☠️✨
November 17, 2024 at 2:07 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
let me introduce myself... this is literally the title of the novel I published last year and sadly it feels truer than ever lol

www.esquire.com/entertainmen...
November 16, 2024 at 10:45 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
total stunner from Malachi Black 🎣✨
November 16, 2024 at 2:14 PM
benpurkert.bsky.social
I'm not big on happy / motivational poems, but I do love poems that point toward unseen sources of light. I need that right now, more light.

Anyway, I'll be sharing some over the next few days/weeks, if that's appealing.

To start, here's "Everything Lies in All Directions" by @huaxi.bsky.social 🌿
November 15, 2024 at 6:38 PM