LJ Pemberton
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ljabouttown.bsky.social
LJ Pemberton
@ljabouttown.bsky.social
1.7K followers 490 following 3.4K posts
Writer's writer's writer.

📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j
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ljabouttown.bsky.social
If your favorite book is one you were assigned in high school, you have the potential to live a more fulfilling life by reading more, currently. Satisfaction is waiting is for you.
Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech painting.
November 15, 2025 at 7:13 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
a friend heard that ross douthat had paul kingsnorth on his podcast and reminded me of what i had to say about alexandria, his wretched novel
White text on a black background presents LJ Pemberton's opinion of Alexandria by Paul Kingsnorth: "This book is an ecofascist manifesto presented as story and its scifi dystopian elements are derivative from other genre books, while reinforcing the existing prejudices of the back-to-nature rightwing—something that I suspect the American publisher either overlooked or is not aware of, as ecological issues are so associated with the left in America. I think this book is dangerous and racist and biologically determinist. Uncautious minds will read it and be swept up in its grandscope—one which ultimately ends with and celebrates total annihilation (of humans and the earth) as the only worthwhile transcendence. The whole thing smacks of an inverted Gnosticism—here the bodied are the purest people—and tedious self-importance. After reading it, I looked up the actual manifesto that this guy wrote (“The Dark Mountain Manifesto”) and yeah, I’m not surprised. Very culty. Very hippie woman have babies and be sexy and me important man think of important things and technology and machines are just so bad for the earth, man."
November 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
i’m not ready
Close-up of the corner of the November 2025 issue of Harper’s. It says: Joy Williams on the Last Days of Gene Hackman.
November 14, 2025 at 2:23 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
say what you will about jimmy mcmillan but npr just said “the rent is too damn high” in nyc as a matter of course

(same delivery and everything)
Former NYC mayoral candidate Jimmy Mcmillan sits in a chair with the text of his catchphrase over the image: “The Rent is Too Damn High!”
November 4, 2025 at 1:18 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
shania twain was always hotter than she was talented
Norman Rockwell’s painting of a man standing up and giving his opinion (defense of the first amendment).
October 30, 2025 at 2:57 AM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
today did not go as expected but it was still quite fine

and the weather was beautiful
Grass in the foreground with a plowed field behind. Blue sky, with wisps of white clouds.
October 29, 2025 at 10:36 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
Not many folks these days know, but I used to co-host and produce a hit podcast in the ancient, early-ish days of podcasting ten years ago.

www.villagevoice.com/these-femini...
Screenshot from Village Voice story: “These ‘feminist shock-jocks’ don’t care if you’re offended by their podcast.”
October 28, 2025 at 3:38 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
They’re all live! Listen to the last ten episodes of Malarkey Public Radio in any order. There’s something good for writers in every single episode.

It’s been fun to dip my toe back into podcasting for @malarkeybooks.bsky.social after a long hiatus.
Image for Malarkey Public Radio, a production of Malarkey Books. Cream background, with a bird that has black, white, green, and blue plumage. Text says Malarkey Public Radio.
October 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
thinking of @badguybirnie.bsky.social as i watch the classic unsolved mysteries episode featuring the ogopogo of lake okanagan
An older white man standing in front of Lake Okanagan. Text says Horace B. Simpson, Eyewitness. Closed captions say “And there’s this head of something or other swimming.”
October 27, 2025 at 1:04 AM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
y’all this title 😂💦
Cover of Christian book entitled “The Well-Watered Woman.”
October 24, 2025 at 3:55 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
@lmbayley.bsky.social left this wonderful review of Still Alive on GoodReads and it's straight 🔥

P.S. you can get my book direct from @malarkeybooks.bsky.social for a song right now!

malarkeybooks.com/store/stilla...
Review by Linda Bayley of Still Alive by LJ Pemberton: "LJ Pemberton gives us a decapitated head in the third paragraph of Still Alive, and never lets up from there. We follow V as she tries to make her way through the world, always coming back to that first scene: "We were all inside the house," she says, so many times, still trying to understand her childhood, her parents, and her brother as she tries to find the meaning of her own life. I loved this book for so many reasons, but mainly because of the propulsive writing itself. Pemberton writes with urgency, as if she were writing flash fiction rather than a novel, needing to make the best possible use of the available space, so that every single sentence is intense. I kept stopping to highlight passages, like these: "the darkness and the velvet paintings and the smoke made it feel like rules were for other people" "I hope for disaster as we leave, something bigger than us that could dwarf what drama we have created for ourselves in the heartache. I want to focus on a different pain." But I also loved the character of V, finding that I could identify with her struggles even though my life is nothing like hers. I wanted her to succeed. I wanted her to be happy. Outstanding novel. Highly recommended."
October 23, 2025 at 4:08 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
The latter part of my novel, Still Alive, is set during the first Trump Administration, and something I keep thinking about, is what V is up to now, “post-pandemic” in Chicago.

My hope is that she’s protesting. That she fell so in love with her life that she decided it was worth fighting for.
Excerpt from Still Alive, a novel by LJ Pemberton: “Every conversation circles back to Trump; we are in shock, trying to analyze the car accident in motion. I scrub the dishes and it feels silly to care, but I am glad I have something to do. The constant political incredulity wears on me, and the platitudes of supporters even more so. We are free, still—sort of—I have been told—but what of those who are not already? Won’t be?”
October 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
if Honda dropped this banger again, I'd go into such debt
1990 four-door Honda Accord, black, parked on a road in front of some mountains, probably in Southern California near Ojai. Pretty sure I recognize that ridge.
October 16, 2025 at 6:32 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
Devon Palmer is truly a genius of comedy.
October 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
discovering new ways to injure myself daily
October 14, 2025 at 6:25 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
The cover of Still Alive, by LJ Pemberton.
October 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
you guys we got an ORGAN for FREE on craigslist so now we can play the ORGAN in our basement
A working Wurlitzer organ in the finished half of LJ’s basement. A small lamp sits on the right side. Vintage high heels (from an old Salvation Army uniform) hang on the white wood panel wall. Also a portrait of LJ’s spouse’s grandparents. And a painting of a windmill painted by her great grandmother. And a picture of her grandmother’s graduating class, slightly too far from the middle painting but it somehow works, visually.
October 8, 2025 at 4:28 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
Still from Gray’s Anatomy, starring Spalding Gray.
October 5, 2025 at 3:07 AM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
Other Voices, Other Rooms was Truman Capote’s first novel. It’s wonderful and flawed and transcendent and I return to it over and over and over again.

(His author picture on the back is hilarious btw.)
Back covernof Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote. A young Capote lounges on a chaise, staring directly at the camera. He is wearing a plaid vest.
October 2, 2025 at 2:51 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
This book is as close to a sacred object as I have.

My mom didn’t know what kind of books to buy me as a kid, so she used to just pick up anything that looked like a classic. This one originally came from the university bookstore in Clarkston, GA but she probably got it at a garage sale.
LJ holds a copy of “Other Voices, Other Rooms” in her little claw hand. Behind the books is her desk, a bulletin board—hints of her office.
October 2, 2025 at 2:47 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
welcome to the boneyard
A fake headstone that says “Ashes to Ashes” and a fake human skull nestled into dead leaves and grass. Fake headstones and scattered fake bones sit in front of a waning autumn garden. The cemetery / boneyard in a residential yard. Fake headstones and bones scattered around. Dying flowers can be seen in the background.
October 1, 2025 at 2:41 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
westworld and chill
A gray tuxedo cat sits on a striped blanket, his arms crossed. In the background, a black tuxedo cat sits, looking to the side, under a coffee table.
October 1, 2025 at 2:05 AM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
the novel i am currently working on, i have dubbed internally as my “southern novel” but who knows if it will be a one off or part of many, really

it feels impossible to convey how i grew up to people i have met as an adult

but it is time to open the door and reckon with all that
A family picture. My grandmother (far left), sits next to my father (left). I (LJ, middle) sit next to my sister (far right). We are at a table on the large porch of my grandparents “second” home, a single wide trailer at a religious campground. The tablecloth is red and white checked. Rocking chairs can be seen in the background. I think I was in my early 20s when this was taken, but I had spent a week every summer at that campground since I was born.
September 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
i am a sky whore
A picture of the sky—the firmament—with clouds, above a small house on the plains, surrounded by trees.
September 30, 2025 at 2:36 AM
ljabouttown.bsky.social
spouse got a new action figure
My hand holds a “Gargantos” from Marvel Legends action figures, a character based on the H.P. Lovecraft “Shumagorath.” It is similar to but legally distinct from the Shumagorath. Each of its six green arms, around an articulated, ball swivel center eyeball, can be articulated to make it stand or appear to be reaching for something. I am holding it starfish-style in front of the doorway to our foyer.
September 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM