Gavin, Small Beer, long covid, &c.
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gavingrant.bsky.social
Gavin, Small Beer, long covid, &c.
@gavingrant.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.4K following 2.3K posts
Gavin J. Grant. He/him. Born: 323ppm. Peely-wally vegan Scottish immigrant. Equality? I like it. BLM. Antifascist. Trans rights=human rights. Long covid 12/21, meh. Tired. Wears masks, asks you to, too. smallbeerpress.com (closed) & LCRW. bookmoonbooks.com
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gavingrant.bsky.social
The 1% for the Planet auction ends today: I skipped all the travel, the books weren't for me, but the many snacky goods, wellllllll

event.auctria.com/8fe5c5cc-6dd...
Screenshot of a few of the food items from the auction: 3 coffee bundles, chocolate gift set, food box, tea coins (UK only).
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Roads of the Roman Empire: so many; also: so few.
The itiner-e.org map of the world showing the relatively small extent of the Roman roads. Screenshot of itiner-e.org site only including the empire roads from Britain down to Morocco and across North Africa and Europe to Egypt, Syria, and Türkiye.
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
[Spelled coupon wrong 4 times writing this (How?!?)]

25% off a bunch of our books from now until year end using code

SBP25

smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journa...

indiepubs.com/collections/...
Screenshot of covers: Taboo, Telling the Map, Tender, & Terra Nullius Screenshot of covers: The Silverberg Business, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, Spirits Abroad, A Stranger in Olondria, & Stranger Things Happen Screenshot of covers: Never Have I Ever, OKPsyche, Privilege of the Happy Ending, Prophecies, Libels, & Dreams, & Reconstruction Screenshot of covers: Never Have I Ever, OKPsyche, Privilege of the Happy Ending, Prophecies, Libels, & Dreams, & Reconstruction
November 6, 2025 at 6:58 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
This quote from Pamela Schwartz — director of regional coordination at Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness — has been playing over and over in my head since I read this Gazette story by Alexander MacDougall:
gazettenet.com/2025/10/24/h...
screenshot: “The idea that somebody becomes a criminal because they have no place to live is really beyond a sense of common decency,” Schwartz said. “It does not solve homelessness. It’s ludicrous to think of that as a solution.”
November 2, 2025 at 8:33 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Any excuse to post one of my favorite screenshots
Screenshot of two tweets: carl marks @whoreby_parker little treat culture is getting out of hand. you don't need an $8 coffee because you did laundry Heben Nigatu @hebennigatu Sounds like someone could use a little treat
October 31, 2025 at 6:54 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
LCRW #51 still in the making. So far: Nicole Kimberling's column on hot water pastry; also: Claire Hanlon, Andrei Molotiu, Neile Graham, J. F. Gleeson, Abby Roberts, Felix Kent, & more. I've never been super fast at the zine & now, phew, slow down there snails.
smallbeerpress.com/lcrw/2025/10...
LCRW 51 cover illustration by Christa Donner — a young white woman with brown hair sits naked in 3/4 view. Her insides are showing where there are 4 levels mostly with silhouetted people: swimming in a pool, sitting under a honeycomb sky, some rocks and trees, and then a person sitting.
October 29, 2025 at 1:56 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Good news for @jamescrossley.bsky.social & readers of the leviathanbookstore.com/newsletter-archive: Greer Gilman's agent is going out with a new novel right now. Ok, I weep a bit we're not going to publish it but getting more publishers for her work is fabulous. Who's Greer? Read this:
Screenshot of a recommendation by James Crossley's Letter from Leviathan #70: Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman When the days get shorter, I always start thinking about the mysterious, enveloping fantasies of Greer Gilman, who's published too little and whose published writings are too little known. The most recognized among them is Cloud & Ashes, winner of the Tiptree Award and a Mythopoeic Award finalist. It has been described as “a slow whirlwind of language, a button box of words, a mythic fable that invites revisitation.” The Washington Times accurately called it “a rich poetic prose laden with fetching archaisms that's unlike anything else being written today.” The most convincing quotes of all, though, come from Gilman herself. Look at the first line of the book: “He is met at a crossroads on a windy night, the moon in tatters and the mist unclothing stars, the way from Ask to Owlerdale: a man in black, white-headed, with a three-string fiddle in his pack.” It doesn’t matter who the man is or where on earth Owlerdale might be if you’re the sort of reader who perks up her ears at the sound of that language.
October 24, 2025 at 7:23 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
If you see this, share a leaf
a diagonal streak of red maple leaves, some in the sunlight, some in shadow
October 20, 2025 at 7:36 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Northampton, MA #nokings
October 18, 2025 at 5:02 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Kiva is an easy way to make a real difference in someone's life. Will you join me in helping Kasih Kartika Sari in Tangerang, Indonesia, to pursue their dream?
www.kiva.org/invitedby/ga...
Kasih Kartika Sari stands in a white and gold dress in her store. Kasih Kartika Sari is a 46-year-old wife and a loving mother of a son and a daughter. She runs a small grocery shop from her home, selling a variety of food items and vegetables to help support her family. For more than a year, her business has been a vital source of income, meeting her family’s daily needs and supporting her children’s education.
October 18, 2025 at 4:18 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Lovely picture in the Massachusetts Center for the Book celebration email:
Photo inside the MA state house as award-winning authors hold or point to a poster: Author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Director of Beacon Press Gayatri Patnaik, author and scholar Kellie Carter Jackson, poet Heather Treseler, novelist Jedediah Berry, and children’s book author Linda Booth Sweeney hold up a “Let Freedom Read” poster in recognition of Banned Books Week.
October 15, 2025 at 2:25 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Carol Emshwiller's great, weird, gentle novel Carmen Dog is always worth re-upping. Consortium are celebrating their 40th anniversary with mini interviews and Lise Solomon's & Bob Harrison's (new to me!) recs are doggone amazing.
Now I get to close 3 tabs, phew.
smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journa...
Screenshot from Lise's interview with 5 books and covers (titles and authors below): What are 5 Consortium titles you love and why? Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli (Coffee House Press) This short book about Valeria Luiselli’s work translating for immigrant children will make you sob on the BART train. Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller (Small Beer Press) After learning that former rep Bob Harrison named his dog Carmen for this book, I knew it would be a great read. So true! I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita (Coffee House Press) Epic, brilliant blend of real and imagined history of SF Chinatown. Blue Marlin by Lee Smith (Blair) I’m not from the South but the family dynamics and life seen through a young teen’s eyes is so perceptive and universal. Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passarello (Sarabande Books) Learned a lot and laughed a ton, damn she is funny. Kevin Huizenga pencil sketch for the cover — a stage with many people, a dog-headed woman, some more animals, all signing, with some trees and buildings behind and the silhouettes of an audience in front.
October 7, 2025 at 4:04 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Got my covid shot plus . . . bonuses?! I’m into it.
Shuffled music on my phone and it played “I want it now”
Everyone’s a comedian!
Popcorn and a $10 coupon?!
October 2, 2025 at 6:41 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Would like to be the laughing guy but this guy’s a mirror
General (no beard, salt’n’pepper hair, looking through his clenched (ahem) brow) trying his best to hold in the rage
October 1, 2025 at 12:27 AM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Hmm. Any of our books can come with sprayed edges and illustrated endpapers as long as you're willing to wait til I find my felt-tip pens smallbeerpress.com/books/2023/0...
cover of OKPsyche: huge title over slightly displaced art: “Psyche Asleep in a Landscape,” Karl Joseph Aloys Agricola, 1837, metmuseum.org.
September 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Found this on doorstep the other day. Gave it a wide berth. Looked back & it was gone. Now I keep seeing it at the edge of vision. Every day a little more terrified.
Schrodinger's book box for Dan Chaon's new novel One of Us
September 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
bzz
bee on an aster
September 22, 2025 at 3:16 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Dammit, should have cancelled Hulu on the 24th. But I wanted to cancel before the rapture, so—
Screenshot from Hulu: Ok, your subscription has been cancelled We’ve sent a confirmation to your email on file. You may continue to watch Hulu until September 23, 2025.
September 21, 2025 at 7:06 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Every leaf a dream
A multicolored leaf mottled orange brown yellow a tint tip of green on a great stone
September 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
The knee bone’s connected to the mailing ballots
3 mail ballots (& two knobbly knees) for tomorrow’s Northampton preliminary election which we’re dropping off today as I wasn’t organized enough to get them in time to mail.
September 15, 2025 at 3:32 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
24 hours later still struggling with this one
Elevator gate that someone has written this on: Do not write on gate
September 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
Butterfly stonecrop v. popular
September 11, 2025 at 8:41 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
How about that jobs report. Adding 142,000? Not bad. That was 2024?
The August 2025 number is Bad.
2024 jobs report for August per the Wall Street Journal Last Updated: September 6, 2024, 5:16 pm EDT An ugly week for stocks worsened Friday after the latest jobs report left investors with more questions than answers and concerns over AI demand hit the tech sector. The U.S. added 142,000 jobs in August, which was a pickup from July but not as many jobs as economists expected. The unemployment rate edged lower. The mixed labor data did little to lift stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 410 points, or 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%.
September 5, 2025 at 2:23 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
The Valley Bookstore Crawl ends in 3 days. Pick up a passport at one of these 7 bookstores (or download at link), get it stamped at each store, have a ton of fun, and one lucky reader wins $350 in gift cards — $50 at each store!

highfivebooks.org/pages/pvbc25

Next year: even more bookstores.
Valley Bookstore Crawl July 1-August 30th and a list of the 7 Valley bookshops taking part this year: Amherst Books, Book Moon, Booklink, Broadside, Carle Museum Bookshop, High Five, & Odyssey  
August 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
gavingrant.bsky.social
I too zoomed in on the photo trying to see what this was — expecting to see Putin holding a tiny remote control for Tr*mp, instead it's just his — yep, will get nightmares — regular old . . . "hand"
I was trying to work out what in heck was happening to V. Putin's right hand — which is fine in other photos today but here is smudged into a weird thumb-ish shape
August 15, 2025 at 9:55 PM