Deb Werrlein
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debwerrlein.bsky.social
Deb Werrlein
@debwerrlein.bsky.social
160 followers 93 following 230 posts
Writer/editor/cyclist

Biked 4300 miles f/ VA to OR coast in summer 2023🚴‍♂️

Recovered academic. Pushcart Nominee

Words at: cnfonline, lithub, brevitymag, washingtonpost, thesunmagazine, LAReview, etc.

More at www.debwerrlein.com
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debwerrlein.bsky.social
Deb Werrlein @debwerrlein.bsky.social · Jul 11
My latest on writing and technology. Happy to see it in print @electriclit today!

AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand electricliterature.com/ai-cant-gasl...
AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand - Electric Literature
There are all kinds of slow movements, slow food, slow families. Perhaps it’s time for slow writing
electricliterature.com
debwerrlein.bsky.social
Thinking of my writer friends in 5 Story Masons and Novel Talk!

Friendship is My Writing Process electricliterature.com/friendship-i... via @electriclit

@debralattanzi.bsky.social @katebrettlewis.bsky.social @wendybeselhahn.bsky.social
Friendship is My Writing Process - Electric Literature
Swapping laptops at coffee shops, asking for ideas, sending emails and texts and voice notes are essential to my art
electricliterature.com
August 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
So true.
stonecirclereview.bsky.social Stone Circle Review @stonecirclereview.bsky.social · Aug 19
“The feeling that the work is magnificent, and the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged.”

-- Annie Dillard
August 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
wutrain.bsky.social
To my 10th grade English teacher, who said, “Make the conclusion count.”
A screenshot of the last paragraph of the letter to AG Bondi: On behalf of the people of Boston, and in solidarity with the cities and communities targeted by this federal administration for our refusal to bow down to unconstitutional threats and unlawful coercion, we affirm our support for each other and for our democracy. Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom, and a home for everyone. Sincerely, Michelle Wu Mayor of Boston
August 20, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
lisakbuchanan.bsky.social
How did The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm land on a banned book list? Was it machine-screened for the d-word in the jacket copy?

“....Indeed, this is what makes the tales from the 1812 and 1815 editions unique--they reflect diverse voices…”
August 11, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
smokelong.bsky.social
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest opens Aug 1st! www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
July 16, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
cyberb.space
Broke my own rule (a little bit) and wrote about writing.

cyberb.space/notes/2025/p...
Pencil Me In
On first drafts and psychological quirks
cyberb.space
July 15, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
cyberb.space
Something zeitgeist-y going on here. This lovely essay from @debwerrlein.bsky.social just hit my inbox: electricliterature.com/ai-cant-gasl...
AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand - Electric Literature
There are all kinds of slow movements, slow food, slow families. Perhaps it’s time for slow writing
electricliterature.com
July 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
drsepinwall.bsky.social
I don't have time to keep screenshotting all day from @shannonmattern.bsky.social's article (I already did other QTs) - but THIS RIGHT HERE also needs to be amplified. Yes, our elite universities - not least Penn - need to reckon with what they have wrought...
Text: When I look at Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Kevin Hassett, and their ilk, I don’t (entirely?) blame Penn — but I do see in these alums the dangers of an instrumentalist, entrepreneurial education. I see what happens when you build a university around a business school, and then run a nation like a business; when education cultivates cunning that’s deployed for the purposes of deception and extraction. When I watch these men proudly perform their ignorance and egotism and fraudulence on screen, I’m embarrassed, appalled, and furious.
July 15, 2025 at 7:17 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
So good:

My Sister Teaches Me How to Dice an Onion url:https://riverteethjournal.com/beautiful-things/my-sister-teaches-me-how-to-dice-an-onion-2/#comment-7325
July 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
Free to Be You and Me. I remember loving the music so much I didn't want it to end. And the idea girls could grow up to do anything they wanted made a huge impression on me. The messaging would probably be prohibited in schools today.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFzM...
July 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
Loved this "weird little meta flash piece"!
July 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
lindaksienkiewicz.com
Literary collective nouns.

My personal favorite is the proofreaders. So clever.

#literary
Literary collective nouns showing a chapter of novelists, a draft of editors, a recommendation of booksellers, a stanza of poets, a borrowing of librarians, a blurb of publicists, an autopsy of critics, and a gruop [sic] of proofreaders.
July 13, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
bananascallops.bsky.social
Excellent essay in @electricliterature.com by @debwerrlein.bsky.social about the gift of longhand writing:
"...if writing is a process of discovery and learning, then what discoveries did I lose by speeding up the process? What connections haven’t I made?"
electricliterature.com/ai-cant-gasl...
AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand - Electric Literature
There are all kinds of slow movements, slow food, slow families. Perhaps it’s time for slow writing
electricliterature.com
July 12, 2025 at 2:05 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
My latest on writing and technology. Happy to see it in print @electriclit today!

AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand electricliterature.com/ai-cant-gasl...
AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand - Electric Literature
There are all kinds of slow movements, slow food, slow families. Perhaps it’s time for slow writing
electricliterature.com
July 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
kj-mclean.bsky.social
There is a website called “One Typed Page”, to which typewriter enthusiasts submit a daily that is then shared on the website and/or emailed to subscribers.

Here is my inaugural submission. #OneTypedPage
An A5-sized typed page of stream-of-consciousness writing, composed on a circa 1980 Smith-Corona typewriter, by Karen J. McLean.
July 10, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
pitheadchapel.bsky.social
Our July issue is live! Read here: pitheadchapel.com/volume-14-issue-7/

Words
@mczyzniejewski.bsky.social
@kimchinquee.bsky.social
RENESHA DHANRAJ
WYLEY FROHLICH JUNGERMAN
TROY ANDERSON
@danbillyc.bsky.social
@theresegleason
@claudiamonpere.bsky.social
BRITTANY REDD
TARA SHEA BURKE

Art
JACELYN YAP
July 1, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
literaryhub.bsky.social
“They say to write poetry after atrocity is barbaric / but what else remains?” Read a new poem by Fatemeh Shams.
buff.ly/agCUgUi
“The Burden of Words,” a Poem by Fatemeh Shams
“The Burden of Words” I think of the burden of words how they hollow with repetition. “Evacuation orders,” “Nuclear Bombs,” “Final solutions” I think of the burden of memory— how it storms ba…
lithub.com
June 30, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
nytimes.com
From @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“It proved an American misstep, fueled by xenophobia, that would forever alter the global balance of power.”

Kathleen Kingsbury, the editor of Times Opinion, tells the cautionary story of a Chinese scientist who was deported from the U.S. during the Cold War.
Opinion | The U.S. Deported This Chinese Scientist, in a Decision That Changed World History
www.nytimes.com
May 30, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
literarymama.bsky.social
"Mama paused. Her son thought she was frozen inside."

Read @jessicaclairehaney.bsky.social's story, "Breath," in our May/June issue:
Breath
When the large poodle tried to lick her son’s hand, he cried, “It’s warm! Mama! Dog breath is warm! Not cold like yours!” Mama paused. Her son thought she was frozen inside. She smiled awkwardly at...
literarymama.com
May 30, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
cindyhouse.bsky.social
I'm thrilled to have a new piece at Split Lip Magazine.

splitlipthemag.com/memoir/0525/...
Chipmunk — Split Lip Magazine
I remember the house, can see it even now, though it was over a decade ago when I lived there.
splitlipthemag.com
May 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
debwerrlein.bsky.social
Yup. This is me. Especially poignant now, during migration.
May 5, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
anntelnaes.bsky.social
anntelnaes.substack.com/p/trump-medi...
Trump medicine
A spoon full of poison makes America go down
anntelnaes.substack.com
April 7, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
thelincoln.bsky.social
“Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.”―Flannery O'Connor (born March 25th, 1925)
Young Flannery O'Connor standing next to painting of her with peacock
March 26, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
veenadubal.bsky.social
This morning, FACULTY UNIONS led by @aaup.bsky.social sued the Trump administration over the unlawful funding cuts at Columbia. We will not let the federal government use coercion to rob us of academic freedom and critical research!

So proud of my union!

protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...
protectdemocracy.org
March 25, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Deb Werrlein
aubreyhirsch.bsky.social
Since it looks like Trump is actually planning to sign an order to dismantle the Department of Education TODAY, this thread has my full illustrated explainer on what the department does (and doesn't) do. With alt text! 1/4
Let’s talk about the Department of Education! Because I’m going to actually lose my shit if I have to read any more misinformation about it! One of Trump's main campaign promises was to eliminate the Department of Education, and he's already hard at work fulfilling that promise. Trump: “I want the Secretary of Education to put herself out of a job.” He fired 1300 staffers. He is reportedly drafting an executive order to dismantle the DOE. Trump constantly says: “We're trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools!” This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Department of Education’s function. Its mission statement is, admittedly, a bit stilted: “The Department of Education's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” Here’s what it actually does: The Department of Education's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. Gathers information about schools and shares that research widely to help improve the quality of education. Highlights important education issues and suggests ways to improve schools. Makes sure everyone has fair access to education and prevents discrimination.
March 20, 2025 at 12:54 PM