Brian Benson

People all over Portland, Oregon were impacted by the chemical warfare deployed by the feds tonight. Here’s a thread of some Portlanders experiences who weren’t even at the protest:

If you are pissed off at how the Feds tear gassed families - tell it to the DA - Nathan Vasquez. He has more options than city council. And get it on public legal record with the Attorney General @agdanrayfield.bsky.social

A cloud of tear gas outside the Portland ICE facility. A person in a shark costume emerging from the cloud.

Like many have said, the gassing outside ICE today was really bad, and it impacted a huge group of people. I heard multiple people say they felt like they were going to throw up as they tried to leave the area. (I experienced similar effects.) It followed a peaceful protest led by labor groups.

So much gas shot into a shoulder-to-shoulder march on a tight street with no easy exits. So many kids and old folks. Absolutely fucking vile.

Thrilled to get a Best of the Net nom from @pitheadchapel.bsky.social for my essay about men’s inability to communicate, and more specifically about that time Dad and I accidentally ate an ego death dose of weed and got lost in the woods

pitheadchapel.com/are-you-okay...

Very cool!

Thanks again for publishing this one, @tahomareview.bsky.social!

This week, we're reading: Chloé Caldwell's tell-all about selling her book WOMEN on dating apps; @mrbrianbenson.bsky.social's flash piece on the bane of existence that is 3:27pm; & Megan Marshall's essay on the left-handed women in her family, drawn from her book AFTER LIVES.

Read: buff.ly/6J14g1M

I have a new piece in Permafrost, the perfect home for a story set in subzero Northwoods winter. This one’s about teenage naïveté, my failure to be the kind of man I was raised to believe I should be, and a small kindness from a stranger.

www.uaf.edu/permafrostma...

Brian Benson: DON’T FIND ME • Cleaver Magazine Brian Benson, originally from the hinterlands of Wisconsin, is the author of GOING SOMEWHERE and co-author of THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.

Alternate title: what I talk about when I talk about the white male victim complex. This one means a lot to me, so happy it ended up with Cleaver!

www.cleavermagazine.com/dont-find-me...

Thank you! Loved your story, too.

I’ve got a tiny story about a big boy, a little boy, & a doomed teddy bear in Six Sentences, a rad journal I somehow only learned of last week, after reading @miriamgershow.bsky.social’s stellar six-line micro. (Fellow writers of tiny stories, submit here!)

sixsentences.blogspot.com/2025/03/toy-...

Um, everything is awful but I submitted a flash to Six Sentences & a little over an hour later, they published it!

sixsentences.blogspot.com/2025/03/maw....

Against Afternoon - Tahoma Literary Review You hear a lot of chatter about canceling daylight saving time, but not nearly enough about abolishing the afternoon, more specifically mid-afternoon, and

Having trouble adjusting to Daylight Savings? How do you feel about 3:27 pm specifically? Read this deliciously-unhinged sentence by @mrbrianbenson.bsky.social about how it feels to live in this more-than-slightly-unhinged society
tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/a...

This Wednesday at 6, I'll be at Broadway Books, talking with @gfaulknerwriter.bsky.social about his fantastic new book, THE ART OF BREVITY. Come hang out with us!

Thank you, Adam!

Against Afternoon - Tahoma Literary Review You hear a lot of chatter about canceling daylight saving time, but not nearly enough about abolishing the afternoon, more specifically mid-afternoon, and

I wrote a slightly-unhinged sentence about how it feels to live in this more-than-slightly-unhinged society and I’m so happy it landed in @tahomareview.bsky.social

tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/a...

My neighborhood is getting such a cool bookstore! Can’t wait for this place to open its doors.

I’ve got two new essays up at Harpur Palate: the first is about an ill-fated “guys trip,” the second about my younger self’s (mis)understanding of strength. Thanks, @oozannesay.bsky.social, for giving these such a good home!

harpurpalate.binghamton.edu/benson-brian...

Congratulations to all of these amazing writers, and especially to @ericajberry.bsky.social, whose work I look forward to reading for years and years and years.

Randy Foster has worked at New Seasons for 19 years. At 1:30pm today mgmt fired him for “violating Oregon break laws.” His infraction, helping a blind coworker close out his till while on lunch break. By 3:15 his coworkers walked out the Arbor Lodge store demanding reinstatement.

ANNOUNCING THE 2025 OREGON BOOK AWARDS FINALISTS AND SPECIAL AWARDS RECIPIENTS Literary Arts is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2025 Oregon Book Awards. The winners of each category will be announced live at the 2025 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony,

Huge congrats to @rclarren.bsky.social, @miriamgershow.bsky.social, Laura Moulton & all the other OR Book Award finalists & award recipients!

literary-arts.org/2025/01/anno...

It’s so powerful! Very much looking forward to reading more of your stuff 💙

Love a dog love story

“I was almost five years old, it was Christmas day, and I knew something was wrong because I’d gotten everything I’d asked for.”

This essay by @femmeintheory.bsky.social ground me to a pulp. So good.

Thanks for reading it!

I wrote this love letter to my deranged muppet of a dog way back in 2020, but it sure does read like I wrote it yesterday. So happy it landed in @xraylitmag.bsky.social, a journal I’ve adored for years.

Same here! The last line in this one, oof, so good.

“I always thought I was a science project. Maybe all girls are.”

Loved this trippy micro by @oozannesay.bsky.social.

A good time to look at the work Authors Against Book Bans has been doing. www.authorsagainstbookbans.com