Robert Busby

Twenty-year-old me probably didn’t know what an ARC even was. But he probably definitely thought it was a foregone conclusion he’d hold his own book one day. Forty-year-old me thinks twenty-year-old me had a pretty sizable ego. But I’m also damn grateful for whatever stubborn, optimistic naivety kept all those versions and iterations of myself going through two decades and about a thousand rejections And I’m thankful forever for the folks at @hubcitywriters for giving BODOCK a chance and dressing these stories up in such a gorgeous cover and shipping a few advanced copies to my neck of the woods so they could land here on our dining room table.

Man, y’all — I’m absolutely thrilled with how this came out. Indebted to @katearden11 for designing such a gorgeous cover for my stories. And thanks to all the folks at @hubcitywriters for all the work y’all’ve done so far to get BODOCK: STORIES ready for bookstores on June 3, 2025. And friends, I’d be grateful as hell if you’d preorder your copy now at hubcity.org/bodock.

Thrilled, ecstatic, floored, and just all around tickled to share that my debut collection, Bodock: Ice Storm Stories, will be landing at a bookstore near you in 2025. So damn grateful to @hubcitywriters for taking a chance on and including the manuscript among such a talented assembly of finalists — and for all the whipping-into-shape they’ll put the book through in the next year and change. And eternally grateful to @mauriceruffin for not only selecting Bodock but also for his kind, gracious, poetic description of the work, which elevates these stories to a height I otherwise wouldn’t have fathomed. #fiction #fictionbooks #fictionwriter #shortstorycollection #southernwriter #hubcitypress

@cunningjorden got me a Brick for my 42nd birthday a few weeks ago, so instead of doom-scrolling, here’s #WhatImReading while picking up my kids: CROCODILE TEARS DIDN’T START THE FLOOD by @bradleynsides . Neat cover, neater—both in content and tidiness—stories, these concise oddities make for a good prescription against the mundanity of stop-and-go carpool traffic. (Obviously had to unbrick to post this.)

I don’t follow the logic that posts with human faces encourage more engagement than posts with just cow faces, but I’ll play along and slap my goofy mug on this flyer because I want to encourage you to register for The Yokshop (use the QR code or just visit theyokshop.com). Only a few spots remain, so sign up to drink coffee, talk craft, workshop your writing, listen to some human faces read their human-generated work, and imbibe some fellowship and bourbon at City Grocery (in roughly that order) for three days down in Oxford. Hope to see some of y’all there June 5-7.

A month ago I had the absolute pleasure to be back in Oxford and on the University of Mississippi campus as part of this year’s @oxfordconferenceforthebook . Twenty-plus years ago as an undergraduate at UMiss, I got to see and discover some of my all-time favorite authors come through town for the OCB. I still have posters from some of those conferences, and I’m pretty sure the 2005 Flannery O’Connor one I gave my future wife, @cunningjorden , convinced her to go out with me (eventually). Grabbed lunch at @ajaxdiner , caught a @thackermountain show, upgraded my @squarebooks cap, hung out with new pals and old neighbors, can’t recommend enough the spiced lamb orecchiette at @good_day_oxford , and am indebted to the Center for Southern Studies (@southernstudies ) for having me.

Hey y’all. If you like doing writing things in a writing town, sign up for The Yokshop and come hang out in Oxford the first weekend in June (June 5–7)*. You can take a fiction workshop with Michael Knight or work on your poetry with @olivia_clare_friedman . Hear Annell Lopez and other faculty read at @offsquarebooks . Imbibe with fellow writers at @citygroceryoxford . Eat fried catfish at Taylor Grocery. Hang out and read aloud on Faulkner’s grave. Listen to me drone on about plot and conflict or some other literary something, etc. @m.o.walsh has been putting this thing on for about 15 years now, and I’m thrilled to be included in this year’s faculty. Should be a real good time together in the velvet ditch. *Only TEN spots left. Have to be old enough to drink legally in the state of Mississippi.

Chances are your local Kroger or Piggly Wiggly or Save A Lot are all out of milk and toilet paper at this point. But your local bookstore (@novelmemphis , @squarebooks , etc.) should still have copies of BODOCK, a collection of stories taking place during the 1994 Ice Storm that serves as both a solid tutorial on how to survive potentially inclement winter weather in the Mid-South this weekend and a good (albeit admittedly non-escapist) read to get you through the next few days. #icestorm #icestormessentials #icestorm1994 #winterweather #winterweatheradvisory

In the middle of my panel at @sofestofbooks , I got a voicemail from our oldest kid’s Scoutmaster that Rock had gotten injured at the end of a weekend-long zombie survival skills campout. My initial worry was that we’d have to decapitate our first born or at least impale his brain. Luckily, @cunningjorden could step outside and take the call, and because Rock didn’t sustain the injury from an actual zombie, all he needed was a few stitches. In any case, I’m grateful to @humanities_tn for inviting me to the Southern Festival of Books this past fall. October seems so long ago. Calendars aligned and Jorden and I got to spend the weekend together in Nashville. We arrived in town on Friday and made the good decision to eat at Bad Idea (@badideanashville ). I took zero pictures of either ourselves or the food (photos of menu and wine list will have to serve as proof enough) but did manage to get some shots of some stairwell orb-weavers on my way to the roof of our East Nashville stay to take in the downtown skyline. At the author party on Saturday night, I got to meet, hang out with, and discuss horror movies with @jelliottic6 , with whom I was on the Sunday morning panel. I haven’t worked my entire way through her new book HELLIONS yet but I remember reading THE WILDS back in 2014 and thinking it was something else. Grateful to @airack_ponce for the insightful moderation and the audience for skipping church to hang out with us heathens. Also thankful for organizers who understand writers’ needs and provide hangover remedies in the hospitality bag. Up next: Mississippi Book Festival

Ye olde Blanton-ly obvious — and so far successful — annual attempt to get on the Big Guy’s good side.

If you’ve purchased and/or read BODOCK this year: thank you. And if you enjoyed the stories and feel so inclined and it isn’t too much of an inconvenience, I’d be grateful and indebted in ways I couldn’t repay if you’d leave a written review on Goodreads (and, hell, maybe even copy and paste that same review to Amazon*). Links are below (you can also find clickable links in my bio): Goodreads: /book/show/216306546-bodock Amazon: Bodock: Stories: 9798885740517: Busby, Robert: Books The review doesn’t have to be long. Something short—e.g., “My only regret reading these stories is that ‘Mistletoe’ didn’t have anything to do with the current season” or “This book is chock full of helpful life lessons. For example, if you find yourself on the eve of an ice storm faced with the decision to go home or take a detour to grab a six-pack after muling cr@nk smuggled inside various cuts of venison up to Memphis, you should always, always, always elect to head straight to your house”—would suffice. Many thanks for the support, y’all, and happy holidays, however you celebrate them. (*You don’t have to have purchased the book from Amazon. In fact, if you do gift someone BODOCK this season—again, thank you—I’d recommend purchasing from your local bookstore or direct from @hubcitywriters . I got those links in my bio as well.)

Stoked to be back in Miami for the first time since 2011. Grateful to @mdcollege for inviting me to the @miamibookfair and fulfilling a dream that started when I was a grad student at @creativewritingfiu . Can’t wait to reconnect with some old pals and meet some great authors and celebrate all things books this weekend.