Sam Stephenson
@sfstephenson.bsky.social
Writer. From Washington, NC. Tar Heel. Now based in Bryan, TX. 2019 Guggenheim fellow in nonfiction. Next book about jazz pianist Bill Evans and his wife Ellaine Schultz Evans. samstephenson.org
I read this slim potent book twice in one day this week. Next day I read it back to front. Some deep stuff in here. Tremendous thinking and writing. Gonna be one I keep close by on small shelf of inspiring mainstays.
October 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
I read this slim potent book twice in one day this week. Next day I read it back to front. Some deep stuff in here. Tremendous thinking and writing. Gonna be one I keep close by on small shelf of inspiring mainstays.
In car in College Station TX this morning, listening to radio, a PSA for event at George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. 35th anniversary of Bush 41 signing Americans with Disabilities Act, led by GOP Sen. Bob Dole. Can you Imagine Trump/GOP today supporting a big bill to help handicapped people?
October 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
In car in College Station TX this morning, listening to radio, a PSA for event at George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. 35th anniversary of Bush 41 signing Americans with Disabilities Act, led by GOP Sen. Bob Dole. Can you Imagine Trump/GOP today supporting a big bill to help handicapped people?
My favorite bookstore in Houston this morning.
October 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM
My favorite bookstore in Houston this morning.
My latest Interlibrary Loan caper. Free, I have this book for 6 weeks. One of the great services our culture provides. Book came from a library in Corpus Christi, 204 miles from my house. If MAGA new about this service, they would seek to do abolish it, and call it socialist.
September 18, 2025 at 9:09 PM
My latest Interlibrary Loan caper. Free, I have this book for 6 weeks. One of the great services our culture provides. Book came from a library in Corpus Christi, 204 miles from my house. If MAGA new about this service, they would seek to do abolish it, and call it socialist.
This is one of few books I still have from high school. Public school in town of 10K people in coastal N.C. My great English teacher assigned me this book to read before watching movie (book sadder, deeper). He next assigned me The Magic Barrel and was forever hooked on Malamud.
September 17, 2025 at 3:09 PM
This is one of few books I still have from high school. Public school in town of 10K people in coastal N.C. My great English teacher assigned me this book to read before watching movie (book sadder, deeper). He next assigned me The Magic Barrel and was forever hooked on Malamud.
This 2005 book, "Findings" by photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, is spellbinding. I can't stop looking at it. 61 square, black and white images spanning the globe from the US (mainland plus Alaska and Hawaii), Japan, Ecuador, Iceland, Burma, Spain, Tahiti, India.
September 14, 2025 at 6:57 PM
This 2005 book, "Findings" by photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, is spellbinding. I can't stop looking at it. 61 square, black and white images spanning the globe from the US (mainland plus Alaska and Hawaii), Japan, Ecuador, Iceland, Burma, Spain, Tahiti, India.
GOD GOLD GUNS. And hair style. That pretty much covers it. Texas!
September 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
GOD GOLD GUNS. And hair style. That pretty much covers it. Texas!
Been cranking this CD in my car this week. Holy interplay between piano (Angelica Sanchez) and drums (Chad Taylor). Subtle and sizzling music.
August 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Been cranking this CD in my car this week. Holy interplay between piano (Angelica Sanchez) and drums (Chad Taylor). Subtle and sizzling music.
Dear World, if you've never streamed WKCR out of NYC before, the next three days are a good time to do it. 72 hours of the music of Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Special note for the posthumous shows of Phil Schaap, who was one of a kind, a true American and NYC original.
August 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Dear World, if you've never streamed WKCR out of NYC before, the next three days are a good time to do it. 72 hours of the music of Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Special note for the posthumous shows of Phil Schaap, who was one of a kind, a true American and NYC original.
Facebook just reminded me of this photo I posted 9 years ago today, rendering an epic edit of my book, Gene Smith’s Sink, in which I carved a more/less conventional biography - 20 years of work - down into something I love more, cutting more than half. (The conventional one would have sold more).
August 26, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Facebook just reminded me of this photo I posted 9 years ago today, rendering an epic edit of my book, Gene Smith’s Sink, in which I carved a more/less conventional biography - 20 years of work - down into something I love more, cutting more than half. (The conventional one would have sold more).
BookPeople, Austin TX. Great store. I spent $97 there today. But dismayed by the similarity of book covers in this section. Coming across this feeling often in good bookstores. It’s like a certain kind of same fog over all of them.
August 23, 2025 at 1:57 AM
BookPeople, Austin TX. Great store. I spent $97 there today. But dismayed by the similarity of book covers in this section. Coming across this feeling often in good bookstores. It’s like a certain kind of same fog over all of them.
First day of 4th grade for our son today. Last night we gave him choice for dinner. Anything he wanted. He chose Rockfish Stew a family favorite, a traditional dish from coastal N.C. Yum.
August 13, 2025 at 12:55 PM
First day of 4th grade for our son today. Last night we gave him choice for dinner. Anything he wanted. He chose Rockfish Stew a family favorite, a traditional dish from coastal N.C. Yum.
Pamlico River near Bath, N.C. looking west this evening. Been seeing variations of this regularly since Day 1. Never gets old.
August 4, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Pamlico River near Bath, N.C. looking west this evening. Been seeing variations of this regularly since Day 1. Never gets old.
Me at work. With writer Allan Gurganus. Durham Bulls Athletic Park 2013. I was directing a doc project called Bull City Summer, documenting a season at AAA baseball stadium.
July 31, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Me at work. With writer Allan Gurganus. Durham Bulls Athletic Park 2013. I was directing a doc project called Bull City Summer, documenting a season at AAA baseball stadium.
Four benches by Jenny Holzer in light rain. Also saw a large late Turner inside and, of course, it was stormy. Not a bad day here. The Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA.
July 27, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Four benches by Jenny Holzer in light rain. Also saw a large late Turner inside and, of course, it was stormy. Not a bad day here. The Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA.
A brood of barn swallow fledglings above our front stoop. Them and their parents poop everywhere but we don’t care. An absolute privilege to have them. It’s the 3rd brood of the parents this year, and their most successful. Kudos to them. Extraordinary how hard the parents work to feed them.
July 21, 2025 at 11:13 PM
A brood of barn swallow fledglings above our front stoop. Them and their parents poop everywhere but we don’t care. An absolute privilege to have them. It’s the 3rd brood of the parents this year, and their most successful. Kudos to them. Extraordinary how hard the parents work to feed them.
I've been cranking this new CD in the car this week. Sounds absolutely great. Unusual blend of instruments in a band led by the drummer - guitar, vibes, and trumpet. Highly recommended.
July 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
I've been cranking this new CD in the car this week. Sounds absolutely great. Unusual blend of instruments in a band led by the drummer - guitar, vibes, and trumpet. Highly recommended.
Not everything living in TX I love. But my loft office downtown Bryan makes me feel lucky.That’s my maternal grandfather’s (Galax, VA) fiddle case on wall, my paternal grandmother’s (Smithfield, NC) loveseat foreground and W. Eugene Smith’s (821 6th Ave. NYC) darkroom sink (my high desk) on right.
July 1, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Not everything living in TX I love. But my loft office downtown Bryan makes me feel lucky.That’s my maternal grandfather’s (Galax, VA) fiddle case on wall, my paternal grandmother’s (Smithfield, NC) loveseat foreground and W. Eugene Smith’s (821 6th Ave. NYC) darkroom sink (my high desk) on right.
“I did not write this book for those traditional leftists who have traded in their dreams for orthodoxy and sectarianism. Most of those folks are hopeless, I’m sad to say.” - Robin D.G. Kelley from his brilliant 2002 book.
June 28, 2025 at 7:08 PM
“I did not write this book for those traditional leftists who have traded in their dreams for orthodoxy and sectarianism. Most of those folks are hopeless, I’m sad to say.” - Robin D.G. Kelley from his brilliant 2002 book.
Cool clouds and some blue sky while in line to pick up son from half day camp.
June 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Cool clouds and some blue sky while in line to pick up son from half day camp.
I used to make a mixed tape/cd every December to mark my year. Each track connects directly, in one way or another, with something going on in some facet of my life at the time. Recently I came across this one from 2012 while unpacking some boxes long in storage. For the archives.
June 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I used to make a mixed tape/cd every December to mark my year. Each track connects directly, in one way or another, with something going on in some facet of my life at the time. Recently I came across this one from 2012 while unpacking some boxes long in storage. For the archives.
The $1 cassette bin at Breakaway Records in Austin TX today. Something about this is perfect. Time capsule of a sort.
May 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
The $1 cassette bin at Breakaway Records in Austin TX today. Something about this is perfect. Time capsule of a sort.
Absurdly large Ford pick-up truck in my rear view mirror at a stoplight today. College Station TX.
May 8, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Absurdly large Ford pick-up truck in my rear view mirror at a stoplight today. College Station TX.