gwendolyn maia hicks
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prioryruins.bsky.social
gwendolyn maia hicks
@prioryruins.bsky.social
320 followers 250 following 260 posts
tender-hearted writer of fiction (and fanfiction). they/them

🖇️ Clarion ’22, SFSU MFA ’27, Lambda ’25
🖇️ Rhysling finalist
🖇️ words now or soon in Heartlines Spec, Small Wonders, Trollbreath, Uncanny, Kaleidotrope

🌐 prioryruins.carrd.co
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prioryruins.bsky.social
so this was neat @kqedforum.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 10:33 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
we read small things like these for class last week
A classroom whiteboard. In black ink, the words “What was it all for?” are in a speech bubble attributed to a floating headshot of a tired man in a beanie. He is labeled “most haunted man in Ireland.” On the other side of the board is written “Bill Furlong, Small Things Like These.”
September 29, 2025 at 1:18 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
on this fine saturday, i can only assume you want to read about Fathers. well, i have great news. i've got a poem about one of em

www.cottonmouthjournal.com/gwendolyn-ma...
Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, dutifully making a mountain out of clay.
September 6, 2025 at 8:20 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
🛸🛸🛸

ICYMI: “Hand Signs,” my poem about Close Encounters of the Third Kind, dads we can never quite reach, and the vastness of space is free to read in @cottonmouthjournal.bsky.social.

Fly on, Roy Neary… www.cottonmouthjournal.com/gwendolyn-ma...
I miss the old garage in Muncie and your strange clay mountain in it and the five-note song that you would hum and the summer at its deepest— long dusk, distant thunder, the tiny lives of fireflies— and the sky, the bottomless sky without threats or possibilities. I miss knowing you, like anyone, were ruled by gravity.
September 4, 2025 at 3:44 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
my haul! >:)
An arrangement of zines and riso prints. Two pins. One says “Life’s not easy when your gender is green” and one is a drawing of an orange tabby cat curled up and napping.
September 1, 2025 at 1:08 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
some #dandadan silliness thanks @englelaird.bsky.social for my new obsession
Fanart of the two main characters from the manga Dandadan, Momo and Okarun. Okarun looks worried and Momo looks like she’s about to beat somebody’s ass. Okarun is barefoot so that at any moment he can transform into a scrungly beast with clinical depression.
August 22, 2025 at 2:27 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
born to talk about dandadan in the convention center lobby with strangers forced to have a body that gets tired at 8 pm
Selfie of a non-binary white person with a weary but contented smile on their face, holding up a Seattle WorldCon badge.
August 17, 2025 at 4:20 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
me when i am writing a project and make things hard for myself on purpose and then they're actually hard
August 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
happy non-binary day :)
Sketch of a person in a baseball cap, mask, and long coat standing in line. They have short hair and are wearing glasses. Another person stands in line behind them and points at them, smiling, talking to someone out of frame. Text: Last year, I was waiting in line, and overheard someone say, “I think we line up behind him. I mean, her. I mean, him. I mean… yeah.” Text only. It says: I think I loved that most of all.
July 15, 2025 at 3:05 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
Sketch of a person with long hair in a ponytail, from behind. They’re not smiling. Text: So for years, I said, “girl,” even though it felt like I was faking. Sketch of moon phases, except the light and dark parts are labeled “F” and “M.” Text: If I had to describe it, I guess I’d say my gender waxes and wanes. So much affects it. Sketch of four heads. They’re all the same person with different haircuts: buzzcut, long hair in a claw clip, baby mullet, long hair down with straight bangs. They are all smiling peacefully with their eyes closed. Text: I love finding new ways to play with perception, like through my hair.
July 15, 2025 at 3:03 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
comic about being non-binary
Sketch of a person with glasses and short hair smiling and waving. Text: I’m non-binary. Sketch of a person with glasses and short hair looking thoughtful. Text: I’m still figuring it all out, but “genderqueer” and “gender-fluid” both speak to how I experience myself. A sketch of a person with glasses and a pixie cut looking around nervously. A sketch of a person with glasses and long hair also looks around nervously. Text: In my teens and 20s, I often felt “not masc enough” to be a guy and “not femme enough” to be a girl. Nothing about me “fit.” A sketch of a body floating in space, looking sad. Text. And for years, I thought those were my only two options.
July 15, 2025 at 2:59 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
the post directly above this one in my feed… the resemblance
July 14, 2025 at 6:17 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
how it started vs. how it’s going @nisishawl.bsky.social
A Twitter exchange from October 2024 regarding the faculty announcement for the 2025 Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Voices. Lily M. Rosenthal quote tweets the faculty list and says “YOOOOOO EVERYONE APPLYYY i know they dont open til nov 1 but i am simply too seated” Gwendolyn Maia Hicks replies “NISI SHAWL? seated” The press release listing the 2025 Lambda Literary Retreat Fellows for Speculative Fiction, who will be studying under Nisi Shawl’s tutelage. Gwendolyn Hicks is one of the fellows.
July 14, 2025 at 12:14 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
here’s my first doodle of charli and harriet. 🫀
Pencil sketches in a notebook. One is of a non-binary person with bleached hair tips and dark roots and strange scars crawling up their right arm. They’re wearing a baggy t-shirt and have a septum piercing. Their name is Charli. The other is of a person named Harriet (any pronouns) with a dark curly bob and a sleeveless turtleneck top. She has the same septum piercing as Charli. Neither of them are smiling.
June 17, 2025 at 2:27 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
this is therru. she passed away in 2023.

“therru” means “little flame” in ursula k. le guin’s constructed language, kargish. i named her in 2008, when i was 16.

“leygr” means “flame” in poetic old norse.
The tiniest sweetest orange tabby girl cat you ever saw gets her head scritched. Her eyes are happily closed. Her legs are tucked under her fluffy chest. She looks like she is smiling. Her nose has little dark freckles. Her name is Therru.
June 16, 2025 at 5:55 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
blorbos from my time loop novella <3 #oc
Drawing of a character named Javi. He has dark brown skin and curly black hair and is wearing a yellow t-shirt with a hole in the collar. His expression is a relaxed half-smile. There is a smaller doodle of him making double peace signs with his fingers and sticking his tongue out, labeled “suicide risk.” Text reads “Javi - 25 (or is he…?) - like: surfboard - dislike: consequences) A drawing of a character named Romi. She has very short brown hair, light brown skin, and an apathetic expression. She’s wearing a red camisole. There is a smaller doodle of her looking mad with huge exaggerated eyes. Text reads: “Romi - 27 (or is she…?) - like: bass boost - dislike: reruns)
June 14, 2025 at 6:11 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
i downloaded that app that can identify plants because i wanted to know all the names of my best friends, The Weeds, but i am also misusing it just a little bit
A screenshot of an app’s camera, which can identify birds, that instructs, “Keep the bird in focus.” The camera is focused on a cat.
June 4, 2025 at 12:24 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
i was so bewitched by all the star jasmine in italy that i had to scrabble to sloat over the weekend… look at her… beauteous

(wall in florence included for scale)
June 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
I’M MARRIED!!!!!!!!! (pics by my good friend lily rosenthal)
March 21, 2025 at 11:01 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
high school diary
March 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
thank you! i've never hated any feature more :)
Screenshot of text in Microsoft Word. The phrase "where no one but the . . ." has been highlighted, with a pop-up from Word suggesting the change from "no one but" to "only." It explains, "More concise language would be clearer for your reader."
February 5, 2025 at 5:34 PM
prioryruins.bsky.social
DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! 2: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAMER POETRY is available in digital, paperback, and hardcover formats from @cbdroege.bsky.social!!!

"ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEGENDS AND THE LONGING UNDERNEATH," my #zelink poem, is featured in this volume. NEVER SHY AWAY FROM UR DREAMS!

payhip.com/Manawaker
Graphic of a hardcover edition of "Dangerous to Go Alone! 2: An Anthology of Gamer Poetry" from Manawaker Studios. A called out excerpt reads: "I. I died for you. I should remember you. Let me start again. Once there was the sky, and the two of us in it. Your hands balancing a harp. My hands balancing a blade. The thread between. Fate pulled. You fell. I followed." The poem is titled "ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEGENDS AND THE LONGING UNDERNEATH" and is about The Legend of Zelda.
February 4, 2025 at 2:11 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
forgot to use the hashtag! happy #AwardsEligibility to all who celebrate.

see this thread for my eligible novelette, short story, and poem! 🐚
December 14, 2024 at 4:25 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
it's awards eligibility time! thank you to all of the wonderful editors who believed in my work. this is my first year putting one of these together!

you can read more about my pieces and find links on my website: prioryruins.carrd.co#awards2024
An illustrated awards eligibility post for Gwendolyn Maia Hicks. In order, the eligible publications are a novelette called "How Islands are Named" in The Lit Nerds, a short story called "The Heart That Beats Behind the Bones" in Hearth Stories, and a poem called "Change Your Mind" in Small Wonders. The graphic is fancied up with a vintage illustration of a woman in a flowing gown dancing with cymbals, and an oak and juniper tree branch on the margins.
December 14, 2024 at 12:09 AM
prioryruins.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you.
One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order.
No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#BookSky #BookChallenge #Books 💙📚
DAY 11/20
The cover of The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
December 5, 2024 at 7:47 PM