Mikhail Iossel
@mikhail-iossel.bsky.social
I am a writer and university professor of English/Creative Writing, founding director of Summer Literary Seminars (Russia, Kenya, Lithuania, Georgia, Canada), originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, and currently living in Montreal.
Not to toot my own horn (while, of course, still partially tooting it), but it's not an everyday occurrence that a great American essayist and literary critic - Sven Birkerts, in Tupelo Quarterly - likens your writing to the work of two Nobel Prize winners at once in one sentence... or Sentence.
October 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Not to toot my own horn (while, of course, still partially tooting it), but it's not an everyday occurrence that a great American essayist and literary critic - Sven Birkerts, in Tupelo Quarterly - likens your writing to the work of two Nobel Prize winners at once in one sentence... or Sentence.
Reposted by Mikhail Iossel
"...the stories are bursting real heart, real melancholy, and real questioning from an acutely sensitive and perceptive soul," writes Alexander Hackett. Read the rest of the review at the link below: mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/sent...
@mikhail-iossel.bsky.social @llpmtl.bsky.social
@mikhail-iossel.bsky.social @llpmtl.bsky.social
July 22, 2025 at 5:27 PM
"...the stories are bursting real heart, real melancholy, and real questioning from an acutely sensitive and perceptive soul," writes Alexander Hackett. Read the rest of the review at the link below: mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/sent...
@mikhail-iossel.bsky.social @llpmtl.bsky.social
@mikhail-iossel.bsky.social @llpmtl.bsky.social
Never once has Trump condemned a single atrocity committed by Putin. Trump played golf while Putin was killing women and children with a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's hometown. Trump played golf and didn’t say a word about it.
April 6, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Never once has Trump condemned a single atrocity committed by Putin. Trump played golf while Putin was killing women and children with a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's hometown. Trump played golf and didn’t say a word about it.
The dedications page of my upcoming book, SENTENCE
December 12, 2024 at 10:00 AM
The dedications page of my upcoming book, SENTENCE
Let me know if you've ever seen anything more ridiculously and obscenely pathetic than this so-called "Trump dance" -- the Dance of the Dunces.
December 5, 2024 at 6:19 AM
Let me know if you've ever seen anything more ridiculously and obscenely pathetic than this so-called "Trump dance" -- the Dance of the Dunces.
early-morning window view, Nairobi
December 5, 2024 at 6:06 AM
early-morning window view, Nairobi
I was born under totalitarianism and spent the first 30 years of my life in a totalitarian society. It is no place for one to remain unbroken for too long. Believe me when I say, a bit grandiloquent as it may sound: freedom is better, under any and all circumstances. It's as uncomplicated as that.
December 3, 2024 at 7:20 PM
I was born under totalitarianism and spent the first 30 years of my life in a totalitarian society. It is no place for one to remain unbroken for too long. Believe me when I say, a bit grandiloquent as it may sound: freedom is better, under any and all circumstances. It's as uncomplicated as that.
Nominating the universally loathed pedophile and totally incompetent blowhard for the AG was the first sign of Trump's seriously overestimating the scope of his political mandate. Gaetz goes down in flames, withdrawing from consideration -- Trump's first defeat as president-elect. More will follow.
November 21, 2024 at 8:34 PM
Nominating the universally loathed pedophile and totally incompetent blowhard for the AG was the first sign of Trump's seriously overestimating the scope of his political mandate. Gaetz goes down in flames, withdrawing from consideration -- Trump's first defeat as president-elect. More will follow.
1000 days ago Russia launched its unconscionable, criminal, lawless, entirely unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. The sole reason for unleashing it was the increasingly deranged Putin's messianic desire to demolish the Ukrainian state and annihilate the very Ukrainian ethnic identity.
November 21, 2024 at 2:51 AM
1000 days ago Russia launched its unconscionable, criminal, lawless, entirely unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. The sole reason for unleashing it was the increasingly deranged Putin's messianic desire to demolish the Ukrainian state and annihilate the very Ukrainian ethnic identity.
It would seem self-evident that if you can't release a House Ethics report for public consumption on the findings about Matt Gaetz's activities, he can't be the US Attorney General.
November 19, 2024 at 3:48 AM
It would seem self-evident that if you can't release a House Ethics report for public consumption on the findings about Matt Gaetz's activities, he can't be the US Attorney General.
If only I could persuade that boy who still, incredibly, re-inhabits me from time to time -- more out of a mix of pity and curiosity than anything else -- to be the author of my stories, how infinitely better his writing would've been than anything I ever could hope to come up with.
November 19, 2024 at 2:14 AM
If only I could persuade that boy who still, incredibly, re-inhabits me from time to time -- more out of a mix of pity and curiosity than anything else -- to be the author of my stories, how infinitely better his writing would've been than anything I ever could hope to come up with.
Piet Mondrian. Windmill in the Evening. 1906
November 18, 2024 at 10:14 PM
Piet Mondrian. Windmill in the Evening. 1906
Claude Monet. Corner of the Apartment. 1875
November 18, 2024 at 10:14 PM
Claude Monet. Corner of the Apartment. 1875
René Magritte. The Telescope. 1963
November 18, 2024 at 9:41 PM
René Magritte. The Telescope. 1963
The incoming president of the United States has paid hush money to a porn star.
His nominee for the Secretary of Defense -- a FOX talk show host, all covered in Christian-Right tattoos -- has paid hush money to a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.
Trash of a feather crawls together.
His nominee for the Secretary of Defense -- a FOX talk show host, all covered in Christian-Right tattoos -- has paid hush money to a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.
Trash of a feather crawls together.
November 18, 2024 at 9:30 PM
The incoming president of the United States has paid hush money to a porn star.
His nominee for the Secretary of Defense -- a FOX talk show host, all covered in Christian-Right tattoos -- has paid hush money to a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.
Trash of a feather crawls together.
His nominee for the Secretary of Defense -- a FOX talk show host, all covered in Christian-Right tattoos -- has paid hush money to a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.
Trash of a feather crawls together.
“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time,” to quote Andre Gide.
November 18, 2024 at 8:03 PM
“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time,” to quote Andre Gide.
Zelenskyy: "We are an independent country."
Musk: "His sense of humor is amazing."
Musk, a product of South African apartheid, should not be insulting any country, let alone Ukraine amidst the war criminally unleashed by Russia.
Musk: "His sense of humor is amazing."
Musk, a product of South African apartheid, should not be insulting any country, let alone Ukraine amidst the war criminally unleashed by Russia.
November 16, 2024 at 10:28 PM
Zelenskyy: "We are an independent country."
Musk: "His sense of humor is amazing."
Musk, a product of South African apartheid, should not be insulting any country, let alone Ukraine amidst the war criminally unleashed by Russia.
Musk: "His sense of humor is amazing."
Musk, a product of South African apartheid, should not be insulting any country, let alone Ukraine amidst the war criminally unleashed by Russia.
“…for we don’t exist, we get existed…”
--Bernhard, The Loser
--Bernhard, The Loser
November 15, 2024 at 6:01 PM
“…for we don’t exist, we get existed…”
--Bernhard, The Loser
--Bernhard, The Loser
More than half of all adult Americans read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.
And they vote.
And they vote.
November 15, 2024 at 5:59 PM
More than half of all adult Americans read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.
And they vote.
And they vote.
James Baldwin, for LIFE Magazine, 1963
November 15, 2024 at 3:58 PM
James Baldwin, for LIFE Magazine, 1963
Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, in July, 2023:
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
OK, it’s good to know I’m immune, even though I had it… twice.
.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
OK, it’s good to know I’m immune, even though I had it… twice.
.
November 15, 2024 at 3:03 AM
Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, in July, 2023:
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
OK, it’s good to know I’m immune, even though I had it… twice.
.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
OK, it’s good to know I’m immune, even though I had it… twice.
.
Jose Escofet. Basket of Lemons. 1992
November 14, 2024 at 12:09 PM
Jose Escofet. Basket of Lemons. 1992
A guy who funnelled thousands of dollars to teenage prostitutes through Venmo is Trump's pick for AG.
Make sense. All those godly evangelicals supported a man who was found liable for sexual assault for president, and now they get Matt Gaetz.
Make sense. All those godly evangelicals supported a man who was found liable for sexual assault for president, and now they get Matt Gaetz.
November 13, 2024 at 11:20 PM
A guy who funnelled thousands of dollars to teenage prostitutes through Venmo is Trump's pick for AG.
Make sense. All those godly evangelicals supported a man who was found liable for sexual assault for president, and now they get Matt Gaetz.
Make sense. All those godly evangelicals supported a man who was found liable for sexual assault for president, and now they get Matt Gaetz.
Matt Gaetz for Attorney General?
Too bad, Jeffrey Epstein no longer available.
Too bad, Jeffrey Epstein no longer available.
November 13, 2024 at 10:24 PM
Matt Gaetz for Attorney General?
Too bad, Jeffrey Epstein no longer available.
Too bad, Jeffrey Epstein no longer available.