Steve Edwards
@the-big-quiet.bsky.social
Writer, teacher, friend. Words in: The Sun, Orion, The Yale Review, Literary Hub, & more. Author of BREAKING INTO THE BACKCOUNTRY, a memoir. https://www.steveedwardswriter.com
Pinned
Steve Edwards: "Yellow Band"
An autism diagnosis in adulthood changes the writer's relationship to his work and to himself.
yalereview.org
Sharing this piece of mine from @yalereview.bsky.social last spring so I can pin it. Also as a way of saying hi to the new community here.
Annual shameless self-promotion! This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to leave civilization behind for a spell of personal growth & refreshment by a stream in the mountains far from town. Makes a great gift!
Breaking Into the Backcountry Book Review
Breaking Into the Backcountry (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), is a memoir of solitude, anxiety, and beauty. It is the story of Edwards’s 2001 experience with the famed Boyden Wilderness Residenc...
www.trailgroove.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Annual shameless self-promotion! This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to leave civilization behind for a spell of personal growth & refreshment by a stream in the mountains far from town. Makes a great gift!
Reposted by Steve Edwards
It’s nomination season, and if you’re a former guest editor of BAE or a writer who has appeared in its pages, I’d be really honored if you’d consider nominating my essay for BAE 2026. Nominations are due December 15. A link to nom guidelines in the thread.
My essay is up at @literaryhub.bsky.social about the late, great Lana Clarkson and other promising young women whose lives have been derailed or destroyed by men. It’s also about my childhood sexual abuse and how I have tried, and failed, to reckon with it.
lithub.com/on-promising...
lithub.com/on-promising...
On Promising Young Women (and the Nameless Men Who Get in Their Way)
“The woman is a footnote in the man’s history.” –Rebecca Hazelton * There’s this photo of Lana Clarkson that I think about often. She’s outside, backed by a blue sky, the green and brown spotted hi…
lithub.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:08 PM
It’s nomination season, and if you’re a former guest editor of BAE or a writer who has appeared in its pages, I’d be really honored if you’d consider nominating my essay for BAE 2026. Nominations are due December 15. A link to nom guidelines in the thread.
Park your muffins elsewhere!
November 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Park your muffins elsewhere!
Reposted by Steve Edwards
November 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Something terrible has happened. People have been so kind to me this week that I’m considering being a better person.
November 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Something terrible has happened. People have been so kind to me this week that I’m considering being a better person.
Reposted by Steve Edwards
I wish this didn't feel like a typical feature of rape culture: denying the capacity of women and girls to bear witness, refusing to listen to them, erasing their voices.....
40 minors gave sworn testimonies that they’d been raped & trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.
Kash Patel Under Oath: “There’s no credible information that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked minors”
FBI Kash Patel needs to be charged with perjury.
Kash Patel Under Oath: “There’s no credible information that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked minors”
FBI Kash Patel needs to be charged with perjury.
November 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I wish this didn't feel like a typical feature of rape culture: denying the capacity of women and girls to bear witness, refusing to listen to them, erasing their voices.....
Reposted by Steve Edwards
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Reposted by Steve Edwards
To everyone saying that people in our military already know not to follow unlawful orders, how do you explain almost 100 civilians murdered on fishing boats in the Caribbean so far?
November 20, 2025 at 5:42 PM
To everyone saying that people in our military already know not to follow unlawful orders, how do you explain almost 100 civilians murdered on fishing boats in the Caribbean so far?
Reposted by Steve Edwards
We've reached the end of another session of Essay Camp, but it's still okay to start late—quite a few people are just beginning—so feel free to work at your own pace. It's free and open to all. Thanks to those who joined xo www.awritersnotebook.org/p/essay-camp...
Essay Camp Day 5
Enough talk. Let's make something.
www.awritersnotebook.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:01 AM
We've reached the end of another session of Essay Camp, but it's still okay to start late—quite a few people are just beginning—so feel free to work at your own pace. It's free and open to all. Thanks to those who joined xo www.awritersnotebook.org/p/essay-camp...
Reposted by Steve Edwards
“I think most humans don’t really realize how interdependent we are to other organisms. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, bugs—there is still this binary thinking… which really obscures the reality.”
Alice Wong, you will be missed.
Alice Wong, you will be missed.
What Counts as Seeing - Orion Magazine
A conversation between Alice Wong and Ed Yong
orionmagazine.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:40 PM
“I think most humans don’t really realize how interdependent we are to other organisms. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, bugs—there is still this binary thinking… which really obscures the reality.”
Alice Wong, you will be missed.
Alice Wong, you will be missed.
Reposted by Steve Edwards
What even was literary Twitter? Vote in the first round of our bracket to determine the literary internet’s wildest, weirdest, most iconic moment!
What Was Literary Twitter? The Bracket
We are gathered here to celebrate the brief, bright, Roman Candle life of Literary Twitter, a mesmerizing and maddening place where the most talented writers used to rub shoulders with the most unb…
buff.ly
November 17, 2025 at 3:30 PM
What even was literary Twitter? Vote in the first round of our bracket to determine the literary internet’s wildest, weirdest, most iconic moment!
Reposted by Steve Edwards
A Cooper's hawk flying near a flock of starlings, this morning at Rosehill Cemetery
November 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
A Cooper's hawk flying near a flock of starlings, this morning at Rosehill Cemetery
Reposted by Steve Edwards
I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed.
Here are the words she left behind:
www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...
Here are the words she left behind:
www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...
Alice Wong on Instagram: "ID: Yellow background with black text "This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it ...
423 likes, 73 comments - alicatsamurai on November 14, 2025: "ID: Yellow background with black text "This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the t...
www.instagram.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:57 AM
I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed.
Here are the words she left behind:
www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...
Here are the words she left behind:
www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...
Reposted by Steve Edwards
Coming at you in May 👀@tortoisebooks.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Coming at you in May 👀@tortoisebooks.bsky.social
Reposted by Steve Edwards
Also, I have some copies—both hardcover and paperback—that I'd be happy to sign. If you're interested in one, DM me! (shipping within US only please)
It's #TransgenderAwarenessWeek. My own awareness of my nonbinary gender identity solidified while I was writing my debut novel ENDPAPERS—about a genderqueer bookbinder struggling to understand herself in post-9/11 NYC, while there was no mainstream language to help her.
November 14, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Also, I have some copies—both hardcover and paperback—that I'd be happy to sign. If you're interested in one, DM me! (shipping within US only please)
Reposted by Steve Edwards
My essay "Aftermath" is up at The Rumpus. It's about the Eaton Fire, and the Aurora Borealis, and what we do with loss. This one means a great deal to me. I'd be honored if you read it.
therumpus.net/2025/11/12/a...
therumpus.net/2025/11/12/a...
Aftermath - The Rumpus
Time-lapsed satellite video shows the Palisades Fire at 10:45 a.m., a hot red ball with an orange center sitting right on the coast. A wedge of smoke shoots out over the Pacific Ocean. At around 7:00 ...
therumpus.net
November 13, 2025 at 1:52 PM
My essay "Aftermath" is up at The Rumpus. It's about the Eaton Fire, and the Aurora Borealis, and what we do with loss. This one means a great deal to me. I'd be honored if you read it.
therumpus.net/2025/11/12/a...
therumpus.net/2025/11/12/a...
Heard there was an amazing aurora display last night. Why didn’t any of you photograph it & share?!
November 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Heard there was an amazing aurora display last night. Why didn’t any of you photograph it & share?!
Once in a blue moon I write a poem.
November 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Once in a blue moon I write a poem.
One detail from my day—the narrowest of footholds.
November 3, 2025 at 10:51 PM
One detail from my day—the narrowest of footholds.
Reposted by Steve Edwards
The book I was writing wasn’t something that could be hurried into existence. Rather, it had to be lived with and through.
“Accomplished.”
On guiding your own writing—with a little help.
open.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The book I was writing wasn’t something that could be hurried into existence. Rather, it had to be lived with and through.
Once upon a time as a child, early one spring, out with my folks while they prepped the garden for another year, I felt a chill seeping out of the still-hard earth. A robin chirped in a tree somewhere. A cloud pushed by, divided & re-divided by a March breeze. It was enough. I lean on that memory...
October 28, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Once upon a time as a child, early one spring, out with my folks while they prepped the garden for another year, I felt a chill seeping out of the still-hard earth. A robin chirped in a tree somewhere. A cloud pushed by, divided & re-divided by a March breeze. It was enough. I lean on that memory...
Reposted by Steve Edwards
"How has being part of jmww influenced you as a writer?"
Reading the queue at jmww has influenced the way I edit my own flash fiction.
Get to Know: Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/g...
Reading the queue at jmww has influenced the way I edit my own flash fiction.
Get to Know: Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/g...
Get to Know: Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
Behind the Scenes, featuring a jmww editorial team member. This week, get to know Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
jmwwblog.wordpress.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"How has being part of jmww influenced you as a writer?"
Reading the queue at jmww has influenced the way I edit my own flash fiction.
Get to Know: Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/g...
Reading the queue at jmww has influenced the way I edit my own flash fiction.
Get to Know: Lisa Thornton, Associate Flash Fiction Editor
jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/g...
@dem8z.bsky.social I was so excited to discover you here! Missed you from the other place!
October 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM
@dem8z.bsky.social I was so excited to discover you here! Missed you from the other place!