Aube Rey Lescure

Autofiction can help distill your writing's deeper truth. Thru generative exercises, close readings, & craft discussions led by @aubereylescure.bsky.social‬ w @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Laura van den Berg, Andrew Sean Greer, & Zinzi Clemmons, we’ll explore fictionalizing real life: buff.ly/cpod41Y

OA contributor @lucaseschaefer.bsky.social 's debut novel THE SLIP is out TOMORROW! If you're in the Boston area, mark your calendars for June 13th, when Lucas will be joined at @portersquarebooks by OA editor-in-chief @aubereylescure.bsky.social to celebrate THE SLIP.

RSVP here: buff.ly/812uuSr

Love this, Tom! I'll have to pay a visit!

Stripes of Inspiration: Drawing Garfield in Muncie — Off Assignment At the end of August 2023, I flew to Indianapolis where my friend, the artist Kate Parnell, picked me up in her mom’s silver Hyundai Sonata of late-90s vintage. It maxed out at 62 mph. Above the licen...

In this frank and funny "Under the Influence" essay, Jack Christian explores how Monday-hating, lasagna-loving Garfield can inspire an unexpected journey to re-energize a creative life.

Read it here: www.offassignment.com/undertheinfl...

No One Will Ever Love Me Like Rotisserie Chicken Does

For my New York Times debut, I wrote about how much I love rotisserie chicken, obviously: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/m...

In 2007, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai stood outside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, unable to enter—until a letter at the foot of the black marble changed her life.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Vietnam war; this powerful essay calls for humanity in the face of horror: buff.ly/sm1yfrF

Goodbye to the Home Lost in the Palisades Fire — Off Assignment “Where my grandmother gave me bridge lessons and kept Sunkist fruit gems in her porcelain candy bowl. Where I did not give my pet cactus enough water. Where we shot our BB gun at the lemon tree in the...

Launching our new @offassignment.bsky.social column, "Goodbye to that Place," with a stunning essay by Leslie Jamison. Please read: it's short &oh-so-powerful. Writers, if you have your own narrative farewell to a bygone place--start drafting, we'd love to read.
www.offassignment.com/gttp/leslie-...

River East, River West is on the Carol Shields Prize longlist!!! Look at this glorious company. Thank you so much to the judges and @carolshieldsprize.bsky.social ❤️🥳!

Pink Rivers: Reading Yōko Ogawa in Cairo — Off Assignment "I always have to go back to where I came from. I have to go back alone. One must always be prepared in the morning to find oneself carrying a new cavity." The Memory Police, Yōko Ogawa, 1994 R...

An Iraqi writer living in Helsinki travels to Cairo while reading The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa: this "Under the Influence" essay by Aya Chalabee for @offassignment.bsky.social is the kind of travel writing I am so proud we publish. Read this gorgeous piece: www.offassignment.com/undertheinfl...

“A fascinating novel full of so much life. Lucas Schaefer takes a lapidary eye to these characters and Austin, holding them up to the light and tracing stories only he could tell. I can’t think of another writer like this except maybe Marquez, though I think THE SLIP is bawdier than his work—and thus, a novel he might’ve loved.” -Alexander Chee, bestselling author of THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT

Lucas in front of a blue door holding up a copy of EDINBURGH by Alexander Chee.

Dream blurb alert! Grateful to @alexanderchee.bsky.social for his writing (including the stunning EDINBURGH, pictured here), for his generosity as a teacher, and for his very kind words about THE SLIP,
coming June 3 from Simon & Schuster

In April I’m teaching an online masterclass for bsky.app/profile/offa... about writing grief, five sessions on Saturday mornings. I wrote you a letter about why this work matters; it's here, along with info about how you (and your friends and maybe your mom?) can join us.
mailchi.mp/offassignmen...

Thank you so much, Susan!

thank you for reading!

Thank you, Alex. Always glad to be part of the world of essays with you❤️

Headline: The Secret Pattern Dek: There is something terrifying in the face of a Buddha, in the curve of the eye and the lip: beauty, but also an expression that is not quite benevolent, an expression that reminds you that awe also means fear. An expression like knowing. Tagline: Aube Rey Lescure for Granta A logo in the bottom right reads “Longreads Editor’s Pick”

"There is something terrifying in the face of a Buddha, in the curve of the eye and the lip: beauty, but also an expression that is not quite benevolent, an expression that reminds you that awe also means fear." @aubereylescure.bsky.social @grantamag.bsky.social
longreads.com/2025/02/17/t...

Thank you so much for reading with such insight <3

The Secret Pattern ‘Filtered only through headlines, China had become a political entity more than a physical place where I had grown up, where half of my family still lived.’

A very special essay out with @grantamag.bsky.social. It’s about worship, China, patterns, food deliveries, burials, divinations, gorges, moths, padded bras, and silk worms. To see how it all connects, please give this a read — and share if you enjoyed it 🙏
granta.com/the-secret-p...