@patrickobrienstrickland.com
Writer from Texas Managing editor @inkstickmedia.com Books: You Can Kill Each Other After I Leave (2025), The Marauders (2022) & Alerta! Alerta! (2018) Short fiction collection forthcoming: A History of Heartache
As Trump's DHS fights to pull local police onto its side, an immigrant’s safety largely depends on how much their community stands up for them.
By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/how-trumps-d...
At Inkstick, @moiralavelle.bsky.social reviews @mollycrabapple.bsky.social's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country,' out next month.
A harrowing letter from Gaza: "For two years, I have not so much as turned on a heater. What would be the point? There is neither gas nor electricity. The only source of warmth are wood fires, and they are suffocating."
At Inkstick, @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social spoke to Behrooz Ghamari, a former political prisoner in Iran and author of the new book 'The Long War on Iran' (from @orbooks.bsky.social)
"The interventionist policy only creates disasters," he said.
"When family members of the disappeared immigrants arrived, there was no sign of their loved ones. What they found instead were customized ace of spades playing cards that read 'ICE Denver Field Office.'"
inkstickmedia.com/how-trump-is...
Pre-order here at @deepvellumbooks.bsky.social Bookshop: bookshop.org/a/121591/978...
Stories of addiction and underemployment feature in the bare-knuckled fiction debut from journalist Strickland (You Can Kill Each Other After I Leave). The unnamed narrator of the title entry, a high school senior, dreams about heading to California from his hometown in north Texas, leaving behind his alcoholic mother and memories of his older brother who died at age 16 from a heroin overdose. In “Mockingbirds,” a former teacher, now mopping floors at an abortion clinic, is hounded by an anti-abortion protester intent on making him into a villain online. In “Rent Money,” a woman in her early 20s comes to terms with the shortcomings of her 41-year-old husband, a heavy-drinking slumlord for “meth monsters” who tries to goad her into collecting rent, a far cry from the “clean, simple life” he promised her when they got married five years earlier. Strickland laces his hardscrabble scenes with lyricism, as in “Screaming East on I-10,” when a young drifter living alongside crack addicts describes taking a hit of the drug, then notices how “night bruises the sky purple.” In each piece, grief underscores the characters’ recklessness, imbuing the collection with an unsentimental but tender emotional register. Strickland’s humane depictions of people living on the margins acknowledge the forces that shape them.
I am downright stoked to get such a generous and positive review from Publishers Weekly for this story collection I’ve spent six, seven years chipping away at.
‘A History of Heartache’ is out April 21 with @melvillehouse.bsky.social —
www.publishersweekly.com/9781685892357
Important piece @inkstickmedia.com by @tylermcbrien.com on the ever-worsening drive to profit off deportation and immigrant incarceration in America.
At least five people are dead and another 20 are missing after a boat carrying refugees and migrants capsized near Greece's Crete.
Tripoli is Lebanon’s medieval-era jewel by the sea. But decades of state neglect and poverty are coming to a head amid a deadly spate of collapsing buildings.
inkstickmedia.com/lebanons-dea...
A Greek coast guard ship "collided with" a boat carrying refugees, killing 15. Now an autopsy shows that the Afghans who died in the incident perished because of head wounds rather than drowning.
This is a powerful and grim piece by Palestinian journalist Issam Adwan, a reflection on what it truly means to be a reporter in Gaza and how grave the risks are.
"Imperialism defines much of this country’s history, but the latest escalation comes at a time when ICE agents have also been deployed to grab immigrants off the streets and whisk them to detention centers. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to preach the jingoistic gospel of stopping new arrivals."
"In a world divided by borders, the US has a long tradition of blaming people fleeing the wars and violence it played a large part in fueling."
US Vice President JD Vance wants to use law enforcement to punish his critics — regardless of any proof of criminality.
By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/with-defense...
3 yrs ago I started writing a book that is in stores TODAY. It's narrative nonfiction, anti-fascist spy thriller set in Trump era. It's timely as hell & I'm proud of it.
A thread of what people are saying abt it & why I hope you'll help make it a bestseller www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Cat...
The great @patrickobrienstrickland.com wrote this absolute banger of a review for @inksters.bsky.social inkstickmedia.com/on-surveilli...
In his new book 'The Long War on Iran,' former political prisoner and sociologist Behrooz Ghamari takes a scalpel to decades of misguided US policy toward Tehran.
By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/once-a-priso...
I did a deep dive on @letsgomathias.bsky.social's very important, very timely, and very well-done new book, 'To Catch a Fascist,' out next week.
it's just so extremely cool to wake up one morning and find a writer you admire, @patrickobrienstrickland.com, do a close read of the book you've worked on for three years.
via @inkstickmedia.com inkstickmedia.com/on-surveilli...
“For those tens of millions of people, borders don’t stop where one country ends and the next begins; they stalk and haunt across endless miles and years. Borders are both crime scenes and crimes, with nationalism the motive.”
I’m in @thenation.com today:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
From TomDispatch last evening: The nightmare of immigration in the age of Donald Trump, up close and personal -- Patrick Strickland, "Immigration and the Invasion Story, Borders as Crime Scenes and Crimes" tomdispatch.com/immigration-...
"[B]orders don't stop where one country ends and the next begins; they stalk and haunt across endless miles and years."
"Borders are both crime scenes and crimes, with nationalism the motive."
#USA #Lebanon #Palestine #Israel #Greece #Military #Deportation #EthnicCleansing
In a world divided by borders, the US has a long tradition of blaming people fleeing the wars and violence it either waged or played a part in fueling.
By: @patrickobrienstrickland.com with @tomdispatch.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/when-the-bor...
Sure thing. What we'd consider a standard reported feature of around 1,200 or so words is generally $500. For essays and long reads, it really would vary significantly based on the nature of the piece, the depth of reporting, and the length.
Pitch us at Inkstick. We're a nonprofit newsroom focused on endless war and all that it entails: the military industrial complex, growing authoritarianism, militarization of policing, borders everywhere, and human rights crises in the US and beyond. (We pay -- rates depend on scope of pieces, etc.)
Inkstick’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026 (So Far)
Ft.
- @jmhattem.bsky.social
- @mollycrabapple.bsky.social
- Robin Andersen
- Lionel & Liz Morrison
- @rozinaali.bsky.social
- @reecejones.bsky.social & Greg Boos
a stack of copies of Shelter from the Storm
Shelter from the Storm: How Climate Change Is Creating a New Era of Migration is out ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!
Pick up a copy from your local bookstore or wherever else you get books (but especially your local bookstore)
"People fleeing warzones may sometimes successfully outrun the bullets. But disasters do not stop at the border and often follow people into refugee camps."
Read an excerpt of Julian Hattem’s new book, ‘Shelter from the Storm,’ which will be out tomorrow with
@thenewpress.bsky.social
My debut fiction book, a short story collection called ‘A History of Heartache,’ comes out with @melvillehouse.bsky.social this April. It’s available for preorder now. It has 14 loosely linked stories connected to North Texas about coming up strange in a strange place.
mhpbooks.com/books/a-hist...