Conyer Clayton
LightNews LightNews
banner
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Conyer Clayton
@conyerclayton.bsky.social
2.6K followers 1.2K following 340 posts
Not here much! -- Writer from KY in Canada | 2025 MacDowell Fellow and @TinHouse.bsky.social Scholar | 3rd book coming 2026 @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social | Senior Editor @augursociety.bsky.social | conyerclayton.com | they/them
Posts Replies Media Videos
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Aurora last night over Ottawa. First time seeing them 🤩 Visible with the naked eye too! Truly incredible.
Green and red streaked auroras in the sky above a red oak tree. Red aurora in the sky above a residential street.
November 12, 2025 at 2:28 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Would you like to read a story about divorce and also a bear?

🐻🎨 ex-puritan.ca/the-painting...

(Thanks @sannawani.bsky.social for including my surrealist flash fiction in the Animalia issue of The Ex-Puritan!)
A promo poster for The Ex-Puritan, with a black and white image of a black bear climbing a tree in the background, and text that reads, "This is where something both begins and ends." Conyer Clayton, "The Painting and the Bear."
October 17, 2025 at 3:21 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
I often avoid nonfiction "grief books" because for me they can be too prescriptive and didactic—attempt to be too broad and sweeping. But this book avoids these things, and it really moved me. Highly recommend.

“‘How will he know you loved him,’ she asks, ‘unless you try to destroy yourself.’”
A hand holding up Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley. The edge of a deck and woods and blue sky are visible in the background.
June 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
My first suit; it is green, and I am obsessed.
Conyer taking a mirror selfie wearing a light green suit and a black t-shirt.
June 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Me doing structural edits on my novel rn.

(The Librarian by Guiseppe Arcimboldo)
The Librarian by Guiseppe Arcimboldo, a painting of a man made of various books and papers.
June 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
ME ❤️/🍪 BOOKS, indeed.
Conyer taking a mirror selfie in a shirt that says "ME HEART BOOKS" with Cookie Monster's face underneath. The heart is made of a cookie.
May 16, 2025 at 1:25 AM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Purple Olga is blooming again after a very long dormancy. This is important!
A purple orchid blooming. There is a blurry open window in the background. There are several other items on the counter, like a bowl, another plant, and a small ceramic frog.
February 6, 2025 at 4:53 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
I love treats. Treats are important. Go now: get one immediately.
A hot chocolate with whipped cream.
January 27, 2025 at 11:24 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
This genderless fishermen's third book of poetry, "the lake-shaped excuse" is coming in fall 2026 with Buckrider Books, @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social 🎣
Conyer Clayton, a white person with blue eyes, is wearing a yellow beanie and green jacket, slightly smiling. Their wardrobe is slightly nautical in style, hence the "fishermen" reference. They are bringing one hand up to their collar.
January 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Feeling smug as fuck about my first challah in a few years 🍞
Conyer holding a giant loaf of challah with a smug look on their face.
January 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Happy new year folks! Looking forward to reading more fantastic books in 2025 💕
Text: Here are the books I read this year that I find myself still thinking about often: -Lublin by Manya Wilkinson -Seven Empty Houses by Samantha Schweblin -The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli -The Emissary by Yoko Tawada -One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun -Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva -They by Kay Dick -Orbital by Samantha Harvey -Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
December 31, 2024 at 10:04 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
A waffles and Pet Sounds Sunday morn.
A homemade waffle on a plate with strawberries and blueberries.
December 15, 2024 at 3:50 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
My carpet grew a shadowplant last night.
The shadow of a houseplant against a blue wall. It looks like the shadowplant is growing up against the carpet.
November 28, 2024 at 11:49 AM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
I feel like sharing a poem today; here’s one people seem to like. “Low Maintenance” was published in a lovely queer mag called Plenitude in 2023.

Many gender and disability feels 👻
Conyer Clayton - Literature- Poetry- “Low Maintenance” - November 2, 2023: I don’t really have a preference. Which name you use. The coffee beans. Fonts or flowers or flavors. Except when it comes to bubbles. Keep my water flat, I don’t need it to be interesting. I’d prefer not to say—that’s a preference. I’d prefer to stay—that’s a preference. I’d prefer if you didn’t ring your bell in tunnels or greet me at the door or kiss me when I’m writing—that’s a preference to let my head stay within my head—that’s a preference to not be brought outside myself. If it’s pillows, I prefer firm and thick. If it’s partners, I prefer you. You leave me alone in the morning like I prefer to be. You let me come to you once I’ve absorbed enough sun from my preferred corner of the porch. I guess I have some preferences. I tried to be low maintenance all my life because I thought it made me likable. But, I’d prefer not to explain myself, just be, just low, otherwise I’ll explain myself until I question if I like anything at all, or if I’ll just say anything to please anyone; that I’ll sleep on thin pillows on a double bed with the TV on for years, and never say I prefer space, prefer darkness, prefer quiet, thick support, never say my arms go numb and my head goes numb and my whole life numb from my silence, which he preferred.
November 24, 2024 at 3:35 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
We're calling that 30k babyyyy. I may be the slowest fiction writer in the universe, but I am having a damn good time doing it. 😇
A word count screenshot that reads "29,789 words"
November 15, 2024 at 2:35 AM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Though this happened a while ago, it feels important for me to let you all know that one risk of contactless delivery is that a squirrel might break into your box and take exactly 2 slices of your pizza.
A pizza box with a hole in it and 2 missing slices of pizza.
November 13, 2024 at 3:53 AM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
I am still quite early in this book but I am really loving its darkness, style, and plainspoken gesturing to the seen unreal.

That fly tho 🪰
Claudia Pineiro’s Time of the Flies, translated by Frances Riddle
November 12, 2024 at 3:26 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
💜
Image Description: Text: “One day, I woke up with a hot air balloon certainty.   I had been in one; I felt the rope in my hand. My mom’s arms holding me as I reached for it.   It is November 7th, and the air is warm instead of cold. I have a habit of writing lies to tell truth,   but this is true: I am sad and scared and angry and my face has not stopped hurting.   I have been free to step outside but I haven’t. What is there to say. Everyone is saying it.   That morning, I felt the fire on my face. I trusted it.   Flying over Louisville; the city, the forests, the fields. Casting a long and silent shadow. One among many.   Trusting. We are not coming down. Fire in the face.”
November 9, 2024 at 4:49 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Fire in the face. What the fuck else is there to do right now but keep making art. A snippet of the new poem just sent out in my newsletter. Read the rest on the web if you’d like by subscribing.

conyers-newsletter.beehiiv.com
Text reads: “One day, I woke up with a hot air balloon certainty.   I had been in one; I felt the rope in my hand. My mom’s arms holding me as I reached for it.   It is November 7th, and the air is warm instead of cold. I have a habit of writing lies to tell truth,”
November 9, 2024 at 12:01 AM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
FYI
A super beautiful tree turning bright red at the top, fading into green at the bottom.
October 12, 2024 at 10:30 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Excited to chat with and learn from these great folks next Thursday!

Register here: www.writersunion.ca/webinars/int...
Text: “Intersectionality Now, Conyer Clayton, Brandon Wint, Christine McNair, with Carla Harris. 26 September.” There are headshots of all authors and The Writers Union of Canada logo.
September 19, 2024 at 10:48 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Wow. One of my favorite reads of 2024 so far. Damn.
One hundred shadows by Hwang Jungeun, translated by Jung Yewon.
September 19, 2024 at 2:35 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Thanks League of Canadian Poets for giving “Low Maintenance” originally published in Plenitude Magazine, a second life in Poetry Pause today 💚
September 4, 2024 at 3:36 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
I found this tiny book, these dystopic fragments, really interesting and beautifully written. So much between the lines, unsaid. Lots to chew on about the nature of creating art, communication, destruction, surveillance.
They by Kay Dick held up in front of trees and a nice sky.
June 14, 2024 at 12:56 PM
conyerclayton.bsky.social
Hello bluesky it has been a while, here is a baby bunny that I have been watching eat my garden every morning. I should protect it but also I love him.
A baby bunny sitting in a garden plot, as seen between the black bars of a porch.
June 3, 2024 at 8:43 PM