Jane Ciabattari
@janeciab.bsky.social
Fiction [Stealing the Fire]. Critic [BBC_Culture LitHub. Community [@bookcritics.bsky.social SFGrotto BayBookFest Litcampwriters .
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“The whole skirmish is obscuring the insides of both collections—which AI covers tend to do. But both authors have been quick to distinguish form from content.”
Two books with AI-generated covers have been disqualified from New Zealand’s top book prize.
Somewhere on the goofy/sad spectrum in AI slop news, today two novels up for the prestigious Ockham New Zealand Book Award were disqualified on the basis of their AI cover art. Obligate Carnivore, …
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November 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
“The whole skirmish is obscuring the insides of both collections—which AI covers tend to do. But both authors have been quick to distinguish form from content.”
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After six rounds of voting, you’ve finally chosen Literary Twitter’s greatest icon! Congratulations to Joyce Carol Oates.
What Was Literary Twitter? *The Champion*
I wish I could say it was close, dear reader, but with 72.6% of the vote, Joyce Carol Oates won our bracket by a wide margin. We sensed that this was coming watching the returns—JCO was putting up …
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November 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
After six rounds of voting, you’ve finally chosen Literary Twitter’s greatest icon! Congratulations to Joyce Carol Oates.
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@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Iida Turpenen, the author Of Beasts Of The Sea, about exploring our relationship with the natural world through fiction.
Iida Turpeinen on Exploring Our Relationship With the Natural World Through Fiction
Iida Turpenen’s Beasts of the Sea, translated from the Finnish by David Hackston, is a rare first novel, drawing readers into intimate connection with a little-known species, the Stellar’s sea cow.…
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November 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Iida Turpenen, the author Of Beasts Of The Sea, about exploring our relationship with the natural world through fiction.
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@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Olivia Laing about fictionalizing cinematic icons Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Olivia Laing on Fictionalizing the Murder of Pier Paulo Pasolini
Olivia Laing’s innovative first novel Crudo (2018), winner of the James Tait Black Memorial prize, is written from the point of view of Kathy Acker, who Laing called “the acme of the self-inv…
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November 11, 2025 at 7:30 PM
@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Olivia Laing about fictionalizing cinematic icons Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
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@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Susan Straight about chronicling COVID in literature: “I stood at the gate and listened to my neighbors and the traveler nurses. Their backpacks were their lives, and their camaraderie.”
Susan Straight on Chronicling the Impact of COVID-19 in Fiction
Sacrament follows in natural progression Susan Straight’s bestselling novel Mecca (2022), which revolves around three characters in that date-growing city in the Coachella Valley, including Johnny …
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October 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Susan Straight about chronicling COVID in literature: “I stood at the gate and listened to my neighbors and the traveler nurses. Their backpacks were their lives, and their camaraderie.”
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The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!
@janeciab.bsky.social interviews Adam Johnson about his novel, The Wayfarer, and writing about ancient Polynesia.
Adam Johnson on Writing a Novel of Ancient Polynesia
Adam Johnson is a rare literary genius. He’s written a Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in a nightmarish Orwellian North Korea (The Orphan Master’s Son), a National Book Award short story collectio…
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October 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!
The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!
@janeciab.bsky.social interviews Adam Johnson about his novel, The Wayfarer, and writing about ancient Polynesia.
Adam Johnson on Writing a Novel of Ancient Polynesia
Adam Johnson is a rare literary genius. He’s written a Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in a nightmarish Orwellian North Korea (The Orphan Master’s Son), a National Book Award short story collectio…
buff.ly
October 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!
Reposted by Jane Ciabattari
Take the guess work out of your submissions. Use our free Small Presses database to find contact information, submission guidelines, representative authors, and more—everything you need to make your submission process simpler. Start exploring: at.pw.org/smallpress
October 21, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Take the guess work out of your submissions. Use our free Small Presses database to find contact information, submission guidelines, representative authors, and more—everything you need to make your submission process simpler. Start exploring: at.pw.org/smallpress
Reposted by Jane Ciabattari
@janeciab.bsky.social talks to award-winning playwright, poet, and novelist Quan Barry about writing a horror story set in Antarctica.
Quan Barry on Writing a Horror Novel Set in Antarctica
Quan Barry is an award-winning playwright (and poet) as well as a novelist, skills which show in the virtuosity of the ensemble of characters she has created in The Unveiling. Her primary narrator …
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October 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM
@janeciab.bsky.social talks to award-winning playwright, poet, and novelist Quan Barry about writing a horror story set in Antarctica.
Quan Barry, re her new novel @literaryhub.bsky.social: "...I’m really an instinctual writer. I don’t have a scholarly bone in my body, i.e., nothing in me vibes with literary analysis or criticism. At its heart, my book is a novel about memory." @groveatlantic lithub.com/quan-barry-o...
October 14, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Quan Barry, re her new novel @literaryhub.bsky.social: "...I’m really an instinctual writer. I don’t have a scholarly bone in my body, i.e., nothing in me vibes with literary analysis or criticism. At its heart, my book is a novel about memory." @groveatlantic lithub.com/quan-barry-o...
Flashback to 2019, Gregg Barrios and I welcoming #tommyorange to @bookcritics awards ceremony, when he received the NBCC John Leonard award for best first book for #therethere Today he's honored by the @macarthur.foundation with a MacArthur Fellow grant. More books TK! (Link in comments.)
October 8, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Flashback to 2019, Gregg Barrios and I welcoming #tommyorange to @bookcritics awards ceremony, when he received the NBCC John Leonard award for best first book for #therethere Today he's honored by the @macarthur.foundation with a MacArthur Fellow grant. More books TK! (Link in comments.)
And how an AI hallucination inspired the newest story in his collection…the last in the book.
Jonathan Lethem talks to @janeciab.bsky.social about writing, revising, and seeing the world through a Marxist lens.
Jonathan Lethem on Revisiting Old Short Stories While Writing New Ones
Jonathan Lethem appears steadily in the contemporary literary livestream, He’s earned the title “bard of Brooklyn” for fiction about his native borough. He’s invented eccentric narrative voices lik…
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September 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
And how an AI hallucination inspired the newest story in his collection…the last in the book.
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Sasha Bonét, whose new memoir, “The Waterbearers,” traces the lives of her mother and grandmother, discusses four other books that examine complex mothers.
The Mother as Antihero
Sasha Bonét, the author of “The Waterbearers,” shares four books about mothers who are both incredible and imperfect.
www.newyorker.com
September 24, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Sasha Bonét, whose new memoir, “The Waterbearers,” traces the lives of her mother and grandmother, discusses four other books that examine complex mothers.
Happy publication day to @angelaflournoy.bsky.social Her beautifully crafted new novel, The Wilderness, ranges from 2008 to 2027, revealing moments from ecstatic & heart breaking, & the value of friendship.
@janeciab.bsky.social interviews @angelaflournoy.bsky.social about her new novel, The Wilderness: “ I am a proud maximalist when it comes to things that might add depth to a character’s world…”
Angela Flournoy on Writing a Polyphonic Novel of Black Female Friendship
Angela Flournoy follows her highly honored first novel, The Turner House (2016), with an illuminating polyphonic exploration of the glorious heights and darkest lows of friendships among four women…
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September 16, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Happy publication day to @angelaflournoy.bsky.social Her beautifully crafted new novel, The Wilderness, ranges from 2008 to 2027, revealing moments from ecstatic & heart breaking, & the value of friendship.
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“I think precocious children in fiction can be pretentious. But what are you gonna do? Write about a dumb one?” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @shteyngart.bsky.social.
Gary Shteyngart on Channeling a Precocious Child Narrator
Vera, the buzzy, brilliant and preternaturally observant ten-year-old central to Gary Shteyngart’s sardonic and profoundly relevant new novel, brings a fresh, necessary perspective to our evolving …
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July 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
“I think precocious children in fiction can be pretentious. But what are you gonna do? Write about a dumb one?” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @shteyngart.bsky.social.
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“Love and toxicity are hardly unfamiliar bedfellows.” Hal Ebbott tells @janeciab.bsky.social about writing a novel of male friendship.
Hal Ebbott on Writing a Novel of Male Friendship
Hal Ebbott’s extraordinary first novel, Among Friends, opens with a brief prelude in which the two friends, Amos and Emerson, meet in college. It’s August, only athletes have returned. “In the dist…
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June 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“Love and toxicity are hardly unfamiliar bedfellows.” Hal Ebbott tells @janeciab.bsky.social about writing a novel of male friendship.
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Lovely time at the Bay Area Book Fest. Thanks to @janeciab.bsky.social for hosting and so great to speak with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai-Chu, and @jacqlyy.bsky.social about spec fic! Check out their weird and wonderful books, HOW WE KNOW OUR TIME TRAVELERS and MENDING BODIES
June 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Lovely time at the Bay Area Book Fest. Thanks to @janeciab.bsky.social for hosting and so great to speak with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai-Chu, and @jacqlyy.bsky.social about spec fic! Check out their weird and wonderful books, HOW WE KNOW OUR TIME TRAVELERS and MENDING BODIES
Reposted by Jane Ciabattari
Bay Area! I'm going to be IN you May 30-June 3 for the Bay Area Book Festival
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
May 15, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Bay Area! I'm going to be IN you May 30-June 3 for the Bay Area Book Festival
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
Looking forward to this @baybookfest.bsky.social speculative fiction conversation!
Bay Area! I'm going to be IN you May 30-June 3 for the Bay Area Book Festival
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1
www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...
May 17, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Looking forward to this @baybookfest.bsky.social speculative fiction conversation!
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Dear friends, we've launch a change to the way we offer grants to underrepresented writers at @pageonem.bsky.social. I hope you'll read and share with your colleagues and writers. Thanks!
Page One Media is offering one pro bono publicity campaign for 2026 to an underrepresented writer. For more info, check out the blog - https://page1m.com/blog/
If you want to submit your 2026 title, apply here: https://page1m.co/2026grant
#authorthreads #authortips #bookpublicity
If you want to submit your 2026 title, apply here: https://page1m.co/2026grant
#authorthreads #authortips #bookpublicity
May 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Dear friends, we've launch a change to the way we offer grants to underrepresented writers at @pageonem.bsky.social. I hope you'll read and share with your colleagues and writers. Thanks!
Reposted by Jane Ciabattari
“The most interesting fiction, to me, contains this element of strangeness, whether it’s set in the real world or an alternative one.” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @karenebender.bsky.social.
Karen E. Bender on Channeling Contemporary Anxieties Through Speculative Fiction
My last Lit Hub conversation with Karen E. Bender was in 2018, just before her collection The New Order was published. She mentioned that she read John Cheever’s short stories in graduate school: “…
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May 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
“The most interesting fiction, to me, contains this element of strangeness, whether it’s set in the real world or an alternative one.” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @karenebender.bsky.social.
My @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation with award winning short story author @karenebender.bsky.social re: her new collection, The Words of Dr L and Other Stories, just our from Counterpoint Press.
“The most interesting fiction, to me, contains this element of strangeness, whether it’s set in the real world or an alternative one.” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @karenebender.bsky.social.
Karen E. Bender on Channeling Contemporary Anxieties Through Speculative Fiction
My last Lit Hub conversation with Karen E. Bender was in 2018, just before her collection The New Order was published. She mentioned that she read John Cheever’s short stories in graduate school: “…
buff.ly
May 13, 2025 at 4:09 PM
My @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation with award winning short story author @karenebender.bsky.social re: her new collection, The Words of Dr L and Other Stories, just our from Counterpoint Press.
Congrats @bookcritics.bsky.social poetry finalist @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social !
My essay “After the Rooster Crows” is out today at @literaryhub.bsky.social.
It’s about exile, poetry, and what I’ve brought with me.
Thank you for reading.
lithub.com/after-the-ro...
It’s about exile, poetry, and what I’ve brought with me.
Thank you for reading.
lithub.com/after-the-ro...
After the Rooster Crows: Dispatch from a Poet in Exile
There is no other way to say this: I write you now from exile, having (if you are reading this) fled political persecution in my home country, the United (for now) States of America. I say this pla…
lithub.com
May 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Congrats @bookcritics.bsky.social poetry finalist @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social !
Congratulations to Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists www.pulitzer.org/winners/22691
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www.pulitzer.org
May 5, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Congratulations to Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists www.pulitzer.org/winners/22691