Ellen Wayland-Smith
@ellenws.bsky.social
USC Writing Professor. Los Angeles. I write essays & other things. "The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self" now out from Milkweed Editions.(https://milkweed.org/book/the-science-of-last-things)
Pinned
Ellen Wayland-Smith
@ellenws.bsky.social
· Nov 16
Opinion: In a chaotic world, what can we learn from billion-year-old stones?
As Emily Dickinson knew, unfeeling rocks can remind us of death, but they can also provide perspective on our human troubles in the grand scheme of things.
www.latimes.com
Left the terrible place for good; happy to be here and hoping to build a new writing community! For those who have just added me— thank you! Here is a recent excerpt from my new essay collection on the wisdom of stones, especially appropriate now. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
August 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
This month on our podcast, Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine return to Selected Essays to talk to @ellenws.bsky.social about Siddhartha Mukherjee’s essay “My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion”:
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/epis...
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/epis...
Selected Essays | Ellen Wayland-Smith on Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Point Podcast
On this episode of the podcast, Jess and Zach return to Selected Essays to talk to Ellen Wayland-Smith about Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion,” published in the New...
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com
August 7, 2025 at 3:46 PM
This month on our podcast, Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine return to Selected Essays to talk to @ellenws.bsky.social about Siddhartha Mukherjee’s essay “My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion”:
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/epis...
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/epis...
Honestly one of my favorite Goodreads reviews for The Science of Last Things yet. Highly accurate!
August 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Honestly one of my favorite Goodreads reviews for The Science of Last Things yet. Highly accurate!
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Excited - a few late birthday presents just arrived, selections from @ellenws.bsky.social , @ferrisjabr.bsky.social , and @dghaskell.bsky.social . Only read the prefaces so far. But they all look wonderful! Where to start…?!
July 24, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Excited - a few late birthday presents just arrived, selections from @ellenws.bsky.social , @ferrisjabr.bsky.social , and @dghaskell.bsky.social . Only read the prefaces so far. But they all look wonderful! Where to start…?!
Such a delight to speak with Helen Whybrow about her beautiful new memoir, The Salt Stones, for @orionmagazine.bsky.social. orionmagazine.org/departments/...
Animalia - Orion Magazine
Stories of beasts, creatures, and other peers
orionmagazine.org
June 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Such a delight to speak with Helen Whybrow about her beautiful new memoir, The Salt Stones, for @orionmagazine.bsky.social. orionmagazine.org/departments/...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
From time to time I like to share this starter pack I created. Help get #litmags off Twitter! Share this!
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
May 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
From time to time I like to share this starter pack I created. Help get #litmags off Twitter! Share this!
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.
~Etty Hillesum
~Etty Hillesum
May 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.
~Etty Hillesum
~Etty Hillesum
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
"Macfarlane’s book is a grand gesture toward reimagining our human obligation to the planet—not as anthropomorphic invention but as (re)discovery of an original, and now lost, trust." @ellenws.bsky.social examines Robert Macfarlane’s "Is a River Alive?" lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...
What Would It Take to Re-Sacralize Nature? | Los Angeles Review of Books
Ellen Wayland-Smith admires how Robert Macfarlane’s “Is a River Alive?” places the reader in immersive contact with the nature we regard as mere backdrop to human activity.
lareviewofbooks.org
May 20, 2025 at 9:34 PM
"Macfarlane’s book is a grand gesture toward reimagining our human obligation to the planet—not as anthropomorphic invention but as (re)discovery of an original, and now lost, trust." @ellenws.bsky.social examines Robert Macfarlane’s "Is a River Alive?" lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...
Such a pleasure to review @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social’s stunning new book, “Is a River Alive?” For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...
What Would It Take to Re-Sacralize Nature? | Los Angeles Review of Books
Ellen Wayland-Smith admires how Robert Macfarlane’s “Is a River Alive?” places the reader in immersive contact with the nature we regard as mere backdrop to human activity.
lareviewofbooks.org
May 20, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Such a pleasure to review @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social’s stunning new book, “Is a River Alive?” For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
it feels like a gift when a butterfly appears out of nowhere.
[Butterflies by Odilon Redon]
[Butterflies by Odilon Redon]
February 27, 2025 at 10:51 PM
it feels like a gift when a butterfly appears out of nowhere.
[Butterflies by Odilon Redon]
[Butterflies by Odilon Redon]
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
The first measles death in the US in a decade -- the tragic, preventable death of a child whose parents chose not to protect them with vaccination -- should spark an immediate nation-wide campaign to ensure all children are protected against preventable diseases. Anything less is unconscionable.
February 26, 2025 at 7:36 PM
The first measles death in the US in a decade -- the tragic, preventable death of a child whose parents chose not to protect them with vaccination -- should spark an immediate nation-wide campaign to ensure all children are protected against preventable diseases. Anything less is unconscionable.
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
The attacks on DEI are a pretext for a much more radical agenda of reversing the gains of the civil rights movement, an objective the Trump administration is pursuing with zeal. A Great Resegregation. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
February 22, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The attacks on DEI are a pretext for a much more radical agenda of reversing the gains of the civil rights movement, an objective the Trump administration is pursuing with zeal. A Great Resegregation. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
I've been thinking about this a lot since I read it. www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...
February 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I've been thinking about this a lot since I read it. www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...
calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-... I’ll be in conversation with Eula Biss, Lochlann Jain, and Maggie Nelson next week, Friday January 31 at noon PST. All welcome to register— would love to see you there!
Levan Book Chat—Ellen Wayland-Smith, The Science of Last Things
A discussion of Ellen Wayland-Smith’s new book, The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self (Milkweed Press, October 2024). The author will be joined in conversation...
calendar.usc.edu
January 25, 2025 at 7:34 PM
calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-... I’ll be in conversation with Eula Biss, Lochlann Jain, and Maggie Nelson next week, Friday January 31 at noon PST. All welcome to register— would love to see you there!
Interesting discussion of the fiction/nonfiction distinction— a question my creative writing students are always fascinated by.
The truth about fiction
What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself
by Hannah H Kim
aeon.co/essays/befor...
#books #literature #metaphysics
What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself
by Hannah H Kim
aeon.co/essays/befor...
#books #literature #metaphysics
Before you define fiction, check your metaphysical assumptions | Aeon Essays
What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself
aeon.co
January 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Interesting discussion of the fiction/nonfiction distinction— a question my creative writing students are always fascinated by.
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
The media has focused on wealthy, White neighborhoods. But the fire in Altadena--a racially and economically diverse suburb--deserves more attention, because insurance may not cover their rebuilding costs, forcing families out and leading the neighborhood to gentrify.
www.reuters.com/world/us/far...
www.reuters.com/world/us/far...
Far from Hollywood's wealth, Los Angeles fire survivors feel forgotten
Residents say that insurance companies might shortchange less affluent households.
www.reuters.com
January 11, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The media has focused on wealthy, White neighborhoods. But the fire in Altadena--a racially and economically diverse suburb--deserves more attention, because insurance may not cover their rebuilding costs, forcing families out and leading the neighborhood to gentrify.
www.reuters.com/world/us/far...
www.reuters.com/world/us/far...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Bluesky writer friends! Have you written something that you think would make a great movie? And would you want to hear pitches from a class of talented, motivated film students in lower Manhattan, in person or on Zoom?
Yeah, you would. (1/2)
Yeah, you would. (1/2)
January 10, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Bluesky writer friends! Have you written something that you think would make a great movie? And would you want to hear pitches from a class of talented, motivated film students in lower Manhattan, in person or on Zoom?
Yeah, you would. (1/2)
Yeah, you would. (1/2)
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Congratulations to Julie Park on her book My Dark Room receiving an honorable mention from the James Russell Lowell Prize at #MLA2025! Learn more about the book here: https://buff.ly/3VNPwXo.
January 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Congratulations to Julie Park on her book My Dark Room receiving an honorable mention from the James Russell Lowell Prize at #MLA2025! Learn more about the book here: https://buff.ly/3VNPwXo.
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Thank you @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social!
"We deserve more competent literary thrillers, and The Set Up more than delivers with a undeniable plot and sharp writing."
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
@jonwynn.bsky.social
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/01/06/o...
"We deserve more competent literary thrillers, and The Set Up more than delivers with a undeniable plot and sharp writing."
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
@jonwynn.bsky.social
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/01/06/o...
Our Most Anticipated 2025 Books - Chicago Review of Books
15 books you need to add to your 2025 reading list.
chireviewofbooks.com
January 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Thank you @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social!
"We deserve more competent literary thrillers, and The Set Up more than delivers with a undeniable plot and sharp writing."
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
@jonwynn.bsky.social
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/01/06/o...
"We deserve more competent literary thrillers, and The Set Up more than delivers with a undeniable plot and sharp writing."
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
@jonwynn.bsky.social
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/01/06/o...
Thank you, @milkweed.bsky.social for hosting a reading of The Science of Last Things last night. And thank you to all the Minneapolis natives who braved 12 degree temperatures to be there. It was truly special.
January 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Thank you, @milkweed.bsky.social for hosting a reading of The Science of Last Things last night. And thank you to all the Minneapolis natives who braved 12 degree temperatures to be there. It was truly special.
I thought I'd do my yearly what-I-wrote-in-2024 post as I wait for Christmas cookies to bake, and to remind myself to keep writing. I started the year off with a review of Margo Steines' memoir Brutalities: A Love Story for The Millions: themillions.com/2024/02/the-...
The Violent Truths of 'Brutalities'
"When I was twenty I got my entire back tattooed, the first pain I paid cash for,” writes Margo Steines in Brutalities: A Love Story...
themillions.com
December 25, 2024 at 12:31 AM
I thought I'd do my yearly what-I-wrote-in-2024 post as I wait for Christmas cookies to bake, and to remind myself to keep writing. I started the year off with a review of Margo Steines' memoir Brutalities: A Love Story for The Millions: themillions.com/2024/02/the-...
Reposted by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Thanks to The Threepenny Review for including my essay about deafness in the new Winter issue Table Talk! Buy the issue! Subscribe! Support the magazines that make our lives as writers possible! www.threepennyreview.com/issue-180-wi...
Issue 180, Winter 2025 – The Threepenny Review
www.threepennyreview.com
December 4, 2024 at 10:51 PM
Thanks to The Threepenny Review for including my essay about deafness in the new Winter issue Table Talk! Buy the issue! Subscribe! Support the magazines that make our lives as writers possible! www.threepennyreview.com/issue-180-wi...