How do you make housing *permanently* affordable? The Catskills Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Sullivan County, offers one answer: buy a piece of land and set it aside, earmarked for locals, in perpetuity. Homes on this land are rented and sold at prices calibrated to local incomes, not to “what the market will bear.”
They’ve recently been awarded a $98,000 grant from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s Smart Growth program, which means they can purchase their first chunk of land—a small vacant lot on Meadow Street in the town or Rockland. They’ll be able to buy the lot, hire an architect, and prepare the site to be “shovel-ready.” It’s a beautiful, small thing, a potential model for how small communities can fight the rising tide of housing inequality. I’d like for it to be bigger.
Guess what: building a climate-resilient, beautiful, sturdy, two-family rental home from local hemlock timber costs more than $98,000. Building the home is Phase Two.
Please reach out to me—either through here in the comments or in DM, or over email—if you’re interested in helping build this beautiful house up from the ground.
If you’d like to donate, you can do it here:
/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=9976
“Whenever a rapper digs into their brain folds to root out whatever lint has accumulated there, Redman’s spirit lingers.”
I haven’t done this* (*write criticism, post on IG) in a while! I had a very, very good time writing about Redman’s second album, Dare Iz A Darkside—his best album, as well as his least favorite and one he claims not to remember making—for Pitchfork’s Sunday Review.
/reviews/albums/redman-dare-iz-a-darkside/
I remember feeling so gripped and moved by this conversation with @greenejayson , recorded live at @blackmtninst last fall. Listening back, it’s clear why: Jayson is a fascinating thinker/feeler into the uncanny neurological confusion of loss, the way that that uncanniness can be reproduced in literary forms, the trick of writing a consciousness capable of consuming itself, AI, and so much more. Grateful grateful to be bringing this to the wider world. Special thanks to @blackmtninst for having us. Listen at the link in my bio.
Do you want to learn how to write creepy, realistic, disturbing speculative fiction and/or sci-fi? Come join me on January 20th at @lizsbookbar , where there will be drinks, writing tips, and some deep craft stuff that will hand you tools to make your writing dig deeper.
Tickets here, I’d love to see your smiling face:
/e/the-literary-uncanny-valley-how-to-write-realistic-sci-fi-tickets-1979545562064
***DRUM ROLL***
Announcing my first ever writing workshop, in collaboration with the @center4fiction and taking place first weekend in March. I’m SO excited.
Sign up! We’ll be delving deep into the granular details of speculative fiction for clues on “world-building.” How do you introduce readers to the strange new world you’re creating without distracting them from the muddled, human characters you’ve placed in that world? How do you write speculative fiction so immersive, so enveloping, that readers forget about “the rules” completely?
Over the weekend, we’ll be sifting work by masters like Yoko Ogawa, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kelly Link, Octavia Butler, and others for techniques. By the end, you will hold new tools in your hands for submerging your readers in your invented reality so deeply they’ll never think to look up.
Register here:
/group-workshop/weekend-intensive-bring-your-speculative-fiction-to-life-with-jayson-greene/
Thank you to @anthonyjeselnik , a standup comedian who writes cleaner prose than most novelists in his jokes, for choosing UnWorld as one of his favorite books of the year for @vulture
Blown away by this full-throated endorsement of UNWORLD from @nycdivorcelawyer James Sexton on the latest episode of @daniellerobay ’s QUESTION EVERYTHING. Massive gratitude to both of them for helping spread the word.
LINK IN BIO: This Thursday come out to hear my brilliant partner @robwhart1 talk shop with @greenejayson and @jmkarmstrong on what it takes to make a book come to life on the shelf at @newyorkcomiccon !
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#comiccon #bookcovers #graphicdesign #robhart #writing #writingcommunityofinstagram
Chat: please create copy for a social media post about the vulnerable and inspiring Thresholds live recording at the @beverlytheater last week. The tone should be friendly and not-too serious, with hints that someone with a modicum of writerly ability is responsible.
Be sure to mention how skillful Jordan Kisner is as an interviewer and her refined ability to draw out helpful insight on craft from her guests. Also mention how Jayson Greene’s incredible debut novel not only tackled the issue of AI (no offense, Chat) before anyone else, but did so with a tenderness of heart that won’t soon be replicated, if ever.
Include a line expressing our gratitude to Beverly Rogers for introducing Jordan and Jayson in her eponymous theater, and to Gustavo Alvarenga for kicking things off and facilitating the student talk-back after the main program.
And don’t forget to give props to @normajeanortega for photographs that capture the light and gravity of this splendid Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.
End the post with a reminder to subscribe to Thresholds wherever one listens to podcasts and that this episode will be available at a later date. Keep emoji use to a minimum.
IN THREE WEEKS 🎙️ Thresholds with Jordan Kisner (@jordan.kisner ) and Jayson Greene (@greenejayson )
Join BMI at the @beverlytheater for a live-taping of the Thresholds podcast hosted by former Shearing Fellow Jordan Kisner. Thresholds, co-produced by @literaryhub and BMI, is a series of interviews with writers and artists about the transformative experiences (surprises, crises, existential freakouts, u-turns, breakthroughs) that have shaped their work.
In this taping, Jordan Kisner will sit down with writer Jayson Greene, the author of UnWorld, a speculative novel where the boundaries between the human and AI blur.
Visit the link in bio for $0 tickets.
Today's print version of my latest book review for the @wsj , this time of @greenejayson 's novel UNWORLD, a satisfyingly weird and emotionally resonant novel about AI. "This is less I, ROBOT and more ORDINARY PEOPLE . . . humane and refreshingly idiosyncratic."
