Mark Abdon
@markabdonwrites.bsky.social
Hoosier, Writer, Professor, Foster Fam.
Words: Pinch, X-R-A-Y, Chautauqua, Catamaran, Gone Lawn, JMWW, Bull etc.
➤ Writing Prof at IWU
➤ Reader for Harvard Review
Read more here ➡️ markabdonwrites.com ⬅️
Words: Pinch, X-R-A-Y, Chautauqua, Catamaran, Gone Lawn, JMWW, Bull etc.
➤ Writing Prof at IWU
➤ Reader for Harvard Review
Read more here ➡️ markabdonwrites.com ⬅️
Pinned
Mark Abdon
@markabdonwrites.bsky.social
· Mar 28
Mark Abdon Writes | Stories
Discover Mark Abdon's captivating fiction, insightful non-fiction, and expert editing services. Connect with an acclaimed writer and enhance your literary journey.
markabdonwrites.com
Well it only took me several years... but finally got around to making a writerly website.
markabdonwrites.com
markabdonwrites.com
Grade 37 more essays?
Or I could alphabetize that bag of limes over there...
Thanks, brain.
Or I could alphabetize that bag of limes over there...
Thanks, brain.
a cartoon of homer simpson with a monkey in his mind
ALT: a cartoon of homer simpson with a monkey in his mind
media.tenor.com
March 31, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Grade 37 more essays?
Or I could alphabetize that bag of limes over there...
Thanks, brain.
Or I could alphabetize that bag of limes over there...
Thanks, brain.
Heartened to find this thoughtful piece by the editor of Christianity Today on the danger of deportation without due process.
March 31, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Heartened to find this thoughtful piece by the editor of Christianity Today on the danger of deportation without due process.
"In the bathroom you blushed at the backsides of bawdy dames. Who were those people, black-and-white and glamorous?
Maybe they’re bent on revenge, like ghosts (all that remains of young lives, now parody, glued to the stalls)."
RIP, Buca.
Maybe they’re bent on revenge, like ghosts (all that remains of young lives, now parody, glued to the stalls)."
RIP, Buca.
My poem "Ghazal for a Bankrupt Restaurant Chain" is live at the UC Press website. It appears in the print issue of Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. It has been a goal to have a poem published in a non-poetry market. online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica...
March 29, 2025 at 12:40 PM
"In the bathroom you blushed at the backsides of bawdy dames. Who were those people, black-and-white and glamorous?
Maybe they’re bent on revenge, like ghosts (all that remains of young lives, now parody, glued to the stalls)."
RIP, Buca.
Maybe they’re bent on revenge, like ghosts (all that remains of young lives, now parody, glued to the stalls)."
RIP, Buca.
"There was the unpredictable ember of anger he set alight in me that heated everything I did in the weeks and months and, yes, even the years after I had to learn to be without him."
Whew! This one takes quite a turn before the end! New @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social.
Whew! This one takes quite a turn before the end! New @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social.
"There was all the research he had the patience to do on which refrigerator model or which brand of woolen socks that would actually keep my feet warm. Every goddamn thing but what that shortness of breath could mean" @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...
March 29, 2025 at 12:16 AM
"There was the unpredictable ember of anger he set alight in me that heated everything I did in the weeks and months and, yes, even the years after I had to learn to be without him."
Whew! This one takes quite a turn before the end! New @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social.
Whew! This one takes quite a turn before the end! New @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social.
Well it only took me several years... but finally got around to making a writerly website.
markabdonwrites.com
markabdonwrites.com
Mark Abdon Writes | Stories
Discover Mark Abdon's captivating fiction, insightful non-fiction, and expert editing services. Connect with an acclaimed writer and enhance your literary journey.
markabdonwrites.com
March 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Well it only took me several years... but finally got around to making a writerly website.
markabdonwrites.com
markabdonwrites.com
"But she’s the one who doesn’t understand. Lila smells like vanilla and limes. She has one blue eye and one brown eye... She sings when it’s raining out and makes me want to sing too."
Great prose moment from "Stupid Girl", @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. Read the rest!
Great prose moment from "Stupid Girl", @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. Read the rest!
March 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"But she’s the one who doesn’t understand. Lila smells like vanilla and limes. She has one blue eye and one brown eye... She sings when it’s raining out and makes me want to sing too."
Great prose moment from "Stupid Girl", @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. Read the rest!
Great prose moment from "Stupid Girl", @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. Read the rest!
"When we tore the strawberry pink ribbons off our white teddy bears’ necks, it was not about the ribbons. It was our response to the terror of gentleness and elegance..."
Clever new @noraraywrites.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
(Side note - glad you're a writer, not an icthyologist)
Clever new @noraraywrites.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
(Side note - glad you're a writer, not an icthyologist)
March 23, 2025 at 10:18 PM
"When we tore the strawberry pink ribbons off our white teddy bears’ necks, it was not about the ribbons. It was our response to the terror of gentleness and elegance..."
Clever new @noraraywrites.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
(Side note - glad you're a writer, not an icthyologist)
Clever new @noraraywrites.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
(Side note - glad you're a writer, not an icthyologist)
I hear you're supposed to pay taxes in March. But this month, I'm already indebted to @catamaranlit.bsky.social, @moonparkreview.bsky.social, and now Fourth River:
www.thefourthriver.com/tributaries-...
www.thefourthriver.com/tributaries-...
I Was Asleep When the Golden Opportunity Arose — The Fourth River
By Mark Abdon
www.thefourthriver.com
March 23, 2025 at 1:28 PM
I hear you're supposed to pay taxes in March. But this month, I'm already indebted to @catamaranlit.bsky.social, @moonparkreview.bsky.social, and now Fourth River:
www.thefourthriver.com/tributaries-...
www.thefourthriver.com/tributaries-...
"The garden seemed a lovely little oasis, a calm and quiet respite from the hubbub, from the onslaught of human activity that is the city."
New @k-a-polzin.bsky.social in the stunning Garden Issue of @catamaranlit.bsky.social.
Fun to overlap here AND in @moonparkreview.bsky.social this month 🤷♂️
New @k-a-polzin.bsky.social in the stunning Garden Issue of @catamaranlit.bsky.social.
Fun to overlap here AND in @moonparkreview.bsky.social this month 🤷♂️
In our Special Garden Issue, explore lush literary works with settings that span public gardens, imaginary gardens, themes of flowers, plants, and the organic world, alongside visual artwork from landscape & still life paintings to abstraction and realism.
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
March 21, 2025 at 12:46 PM
"The garden seemed a lovely little oasis, a calm and quiet respite from the hubbub, from the onslaught of human activity that is the city."
New @k-a-polzin.bsky.social in the stunning Garden Issue of @catamaranlit.bsky.social.
Fun to overlap here AND in @moonparkreview.bsky.social this month 🤷♂️
New @k-a-polzin.bsky.social in the stunning Garden Issue of @catamaranlit.bsky.social.
Fun to overlap here AND in @moonparkreview.bsky.social this month 🤷♂️
Reposted by Mark Abdon
In our Special Garden Issue, explore lush literary works with settings that span public gardens, imaginary gardens, themes of flowers, plants, and the organic world, alongside visual artwork from landscape & still life paintings to abstraction and realism.
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
February 23, 2025 at 11:17 PM
In our Special Garden Issue, explore lush literary works with settings that span public gardens, imaginary gardens, themes of flowers, plants, and the organic world, alongside visual artwork from landscape & still life paintings to abstraction and realism.
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...
"Until I slip, and they scowl, and my tongue stumbles, and my brain struggles to recalibrate, and my heart sighs. I give them space."
Wonderfully tender piece by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in the new @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
Wonderfully tender piece by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in the new @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
Issue 31 of MoonPark Review is here. Celebrate the Spring Equinox by reading the 13 fantastic new prose gems in Issue 31! moonparkreview.com/issue-31-spr...
Issue 31, Spring 2025
Editors’ Note It Was Never About Pink by Nora Ray What They Don’t Understand Is, Getting Used to the Pronouns is the Hardest Part by Dawn Tasaka Steffler How to Be a Better Sisyphus by …
moonparkreview.com
March 21, 2025 at 12:36 PM
"Until I slip, and they scowl, and my tongue stumbles, and my brain struggles to recalibrate, and my heart sighs. I give them space."
Wonderfully tender piece by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in the new @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
Wonderfully tender piece by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in the new @moonparkreview.bsky.social.
"I quote her to whoever is with me. I plant myself more deeply when others slip away. I keep hoping it’s still possible to win."
Love this piece ("My Grandma Taught Me Never To Leave Until It’s Over") by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social in this new @moonparkreview.bsky.social issue!
Love this piece ("My Grandma Taught Me Never To Leave Until It’s Over") by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social in this new @moonparkreview.bsky.social issue!
Issue 31 of MoonPark Review is here. Celebrate the Spring Equinox by reading the 13 fantastic new prose gems in Issue 31! moonparkreview.com/issue-31-spr...
Issue 31, Spring 2025
Editors’ Note It Was Never About Pink by Nora Ray What They Don’t Understand Is, Getting Used to the Pronouns is the Hardest Part by Dawn Tasaka Steffler How to Be a Better Sisyphus by …
moonparkreview.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:13 PM
"I quote her to whoever is with me. I plant myself more deeply when others slip away. I keep hoping it’s still possible to win."
Love this piece ("My Grandma Taught Me Never To Leave Until It’s Over") by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social in this new @moonparkreview.bsky.social issue!
Love this piece ("My Grandma Taught Me Never To Leave Until It’s Over") by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social in this new @moonparkreview.bsky.social issue!
Reposted by Mark Abdon
Missing out on AWP? Want to meet some new writer friends? Join me (and other awesome writers & poets) for some chill hangouts! Register (for free) for one or both:
March 26th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/UISIF
March 28th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/zXRBP
March 26th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/UISIF
March 28th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/zXRBP
March 19, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Missing out on AWP? Want to meet some new writer friends? Join me (and other awesome writers & poets) for some chill hangouts! Register (for free) for one or both:
March 26th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/UISIF
March 28th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/zXRBP
March 26th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/UISIF
March 28th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/zXRBP
Reposted by Mark Abdon
“Tomorrow will bring a different mess,” writes Maria Koors in “The Optimist’s Almanac.” As I’ve prepared this Spring 2025 issue, I’ve been thinking about the messes that continue to pile up, both personal and shared.
www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-38-spr...
www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-38-spr...
March 17, 2025 at 7:36 PM
“Tomorrow will bring a different mess,” writes Maria Koors in “The Optimist’s Almanac.” As I’ve prepared this Spring 2025 issue, I’ve been thinking about the messes that continue to pile up, both personal and shared.
www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-38-spr...
www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-38-spr...
Reposted by Mark Abdon
"Thy will be done on this earth where we've exploded the mountain tops..."
After much debate, I've landed on my favorite from @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social's elj-editions.com/lighting-is-... from @emergejournal.bsky.social.
Your bookshelf is begging for these snapshots of Appalachia and motherhood.
After much debate, I've landed on my favorite from @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social's elj-editions.com/lighting-is-... from @emergejournal.bsky.social.
Your bookshelf is begging for these snapshots of Appalachia and motherhood.
February 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
"Thy will be done on this earth where we've exploded the mountain tops..."
After much debate, I've landed on my favorite from @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social's elj-editions.com/lighting-is-... from @emergejournal.bsky.social.
Your bookshelf is begging for these snapshots of Appalachia and motherhood.
After much debate, I've landed on my favorite from @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social's elj-editions.com/lighting-is-... from @emergejournal.bsky.social.
Your bookshelf is begging for these snapshots of Appalachia and motherhood.
Anyone else in need of a small dose of hope? My gratitude to @mrbullbull.bsky.social for giving this flash piece a home!
"In the twilight years, familiar lights grow dim. But are there others that might also flicker on?" @markabdonwrites.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...
February 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Anyone else in need of a small dose of hope? My gratitude to @mrbullbull.bsky.social for giving this flash piece a home!
"Was my mother as tired before I arrived? Was my father still brave then—did he trust his own voice? Was my sister filled with insecurity, or was it me that did that to them?"
Great nostalgia-with-a-twist miCRo up today from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social over at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social.
Great nostalgia-with-a-twist miCRo up today from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social over at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social.
Thrilled to have a micro in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social today! Much thanks to the editors.
Read “The Man Under the Blanket” here ⬇️
www.cincinnatireview.com/micro/micro-...
Read “The Man Under the Blanket” here ⬇️
www.cincinnatireview.com/micro/micro-...
miCRo: "The Man Under the Blanket" by Lisa Thornton
A story that examines the nature of belonging to a family, with an undercurrent of imagined violence.
www.cincinnatireview.com
December 18, 2024 at 6:24 PM
"Was my mother as tired before I arrived? Was my father still brave then—did he trust his own voice? Was my sister filled with insecurity, or was it me that did that to them?"
Great nostalgia-with-a-twist miCRo up today from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social over at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social.
Great nostalgia-with-a-twist miCRo up today from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social over at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social.
"Don't usually love happy stories about Grandpas but..."
– @mrbullbull.bsky.social
So that's my new favorite acceptance letter. See you in March of 2025 😃
For now, new work up at @maudlinhouse.bsky.social this month: maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
– @mrbullbull.bsky.social
So that's my new favorite acceptance letter. See you in March of 2025 😃
For now, new work up at @maudlinhouse.bsky.social this month: maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
Two-Party System
Coyote’s scat smells of stolen meat. With no thought to the impacts on the ecology, he’s taken to filling in prairie dog holes – my prairie dog holes – with dirt, pushing the rodents above-ground to h...
maudlinhouse.net
November 23, 2024 at 8:58 PM
"Don't usually love happy stories about Grandpas but..."
– @mrbullbull.bsky.social
So that's my new favorite acceptance letter. See you in March of 2025 😃
For now, new work up at @maudlinhouse.bsky.social this month: maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
– @mrbullbull.bsky.social
So that's my new favorite acceptance letter. See you in March of 2025 😃
For now, new work up at @maudlinhouse.bsky.social this month: maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
Doesn't everyone need something to get them through the grayscale of February?
Then Pre-ordering is really just proactively practicing good mental health. Do it and thank yourself later.
Then Pre-ordering is really just proactively practicing good mental health. Do it and thank yourself later.
Eeeek!!! COVER REVEAL and preorder link now available for my debut full-length poetry collection LIGHTNING IS A MOTHER!
Preorder here: elj-editions.com/lighting-is-...
Cover design by @mrwojorising.bsky.social
Preorder here: elj-editions.com/lighting-is-...
Cover design by @mrwojorising.bsky.social
November 19, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Doesn't everyone need something to get them through the grayscale of February?
Then Pre-ordering is really just proactively practicing good mental health. Do it and thank yourself later.
Then Pre-ordering is really just proactively practicing good mental health. Do it and thank yourself later.
Hello! Testing the waters to see if the skies are truly bluest here. Say hey, befriend me, etc. I'm nice!
“Farm Hands” in X-R-A-Y
xraylitmag.com/farm-hands-b...
“Airport Barn Swallows” in Gone Lawn
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
“Two-Party System” in Maudlin House
maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
“Farm Hands” in X-R-A-Y
xraylitmag.com/farm-hands-b...
“Airport Barn Swallows” in Gone Lawn
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
“Two-Party System” in Maudlin House
maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
November 18, 2024 at 10:29 PM
Hello! Testing the waters to see if the skies are truly bluest here. Say hey, befriend me, etc. I'm nice!
“Farm Hands” in X-R-A-Y
xraylitmag.com/farm-hands-b...
“Airport Barn Swallows” in Gone Lawn
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
“Two-Party System” in Maudlin House
maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...
“Farm Hands” in X-R-A-Y
xraylitmag.com/farm-hands-b...
“Airport Barn Swallows” in Gone Lawn
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
“Two-Party System” in Maudlin House
maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...