Michelle (she/her)

This whole thread

A crowd of 20 writers and readers gather outside on a sidewalk. They all smile at the camera. For a moment, there is only joy.

Michelle, a young-ish white woman, stands before an audience (not pictured), with hundreds of colorful books behind her. She is laughing. Life is good.

Last night I opened for the incredible poet Christine Wu (author of Familial Hungers) at Westminster Bookmark. After the reading, everyone lingered until the owners had to politely shuffle us out so they could close. We gathered on the sidewalks & kept talking for several minutes. ✨Community heals✨

the two types of vehicle are cars and trucks, with every vehicle being a subclass of one of those two. a jeep is a truck. a motorcycle is obviously a car. a boat is a truck. an airplane is a car and a helicopter is a truck. trucks are cars, interestingly enough, and cars are a specific type of chair

A flyer for the UNB reading series. On February 19th at 7 pm, authors Christine Wu and Michelle Hoeckel-Neal will read at Westminster Bookmark in Fredericton, NB.

If you're in the Fredericton area & you love words, or stories, or great sweaters... Come listen to Christine Wu read her poems at Westminster Bookmark this Thurs at 7 pm! I'll be opening with a couple poems/stories of my own!

Look! I wrote a review about your new favorite book! Check it out then get yourself a copy :-)

@toriiellen.bsky.social 💕☠️💕

Also grateful to the folx at New Session for causing a cute bonding moment in which my techy wife teaches me how to use telnet 🫣

So thrilled to be included in this issue!

Check out "This Story Eats" today— and again each time SCOTUS rules on a 2nd amendment case... Watch it shrink until "the whole story" is unrecognizable...

with stories from @mhn-hello.bsky.social as well!

(I promise next time I'm gonna ask people's socials, and I *will* tag everyone when web goes live tomorrow afternoon)

Screen showing a telnet service on an old green monitor connecting to new session issue 4 And showing the logo (Upheaval)

New Session Issue 4: Upheaval

now live on telnet: issue4.anewsession.com

featuring work by:

@asterolsen.bsky.social
@mbbischoff.com
@ultraviolet.gay
@jana-aych-ess.bsky.social
...and more!

web release coming on Saturday so STAY TUNED!

I'm in there too! Congrats on having your work published! 🤗👩‍💻

Just four days until @toriiellen.bsky.social's newest collection Destroy Me, Desecrate My Bones is released through Girl Noise Press!!

And if you need any extra convincing to order your copy asap, check out my review in @sotospeakjournal.bsky.social, which will be published on the same day 🩷☠️🩷

Cover of Event Factory

But there was a gesture I was to make upon entering a place that was already peopled, something between "hello", "sorry", and "congratulations I'm here," and I could not remember what it was. As subtly as I could, I bent here and there trying to jog my memory: was I to do a shake, a roundoff? I kept thinking, "How great it would be to enter." If only traveling were about showing off your language skills, if only it did not also demand a certain commitment of body communication, of outright singing or dancing -- I think I would be absolutely global by now. In Ravicka, I was barely urban. a child approached me and asked if I were sleepy. Why it was this question that recalled the missing gesture, I shall never know. But there it was: you folded your body and though you were taking a bow with your legs spread far apart, and then, after holding that position for several seconds (depending on your age) you brought your legs together quickly. I stepped inside the door; the patrons turned to me; I performed and was right.

Was I a spy? Did I have a message? I told them at best I was a linguist and that the dream was about architecture. But they stared at me, still waiting. I dug deep within myself for words that might satisfy them. "Do I have something?" I asked Dar in her language. She said, "Well, tell them why you came here." Which was perhaps more what se wanted to know. I thought about the gaps and breaths and my failure to record them. I said "At some point I knew we'd have to leave here." And they breathed and beat back "The violence of your premise." Leaving no room for response.

Architecture again. It always comes to that. I can never get inside it; the singing structure eludes me. All my life, I swear that that this has been true: I look at a shape, then look ut into the world for the contents to fill it, but the thing I bring back does not fit -- it more than not-fits, it destroys the shape altogether. As though putting my hands on things causes their distinctions to blur, as though I am not right to touch.

No. 6 - Event Factory by Renee Gladman

@dorothyproject.bsky.social 1st release. Gladman’s themes of architecture (who is it for, what is its nature) & limits of language are here but it’s also elusive; open to interpretation. Most of all, a joy to read. The Ravickians is next

💙📚 #Booksky #LitFic

Just played basketball with a group of friends for nearly 3 hours. Child-me would have never imagined feeling joy in a gym. Good friends heal us.

It's day one of The Stafford Challenge —writing a poem a day for a whole year. I feel so energized, and I'm thrilled to have several friends who have joined along for the journey.

A white cat with a tricolor tail sleeps pressed against a person's leg. The person is sitting on a couch with a laptop.

If anything is going to get me to submit my work to lit mags, it's having this little gal cozied up next to me

First semester done ✅

#art by Sliman Mansour

Temporary escape, oil on canvas, 2018

#Palestine

You as well, Ian! Here's to day 2!

Thrilled to have participated in my first Poetry Weekend! So many inspired poets, so much stunning verse. I love being here. If you're local, come!

UNB Reading Series Presents:
Anuja Varghese, Author of Chrysalis and winner of the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, with an opening reading by Alessandra Naccarato
OCT 2nd 2025
7:30 PM @ UNB Art
Centre - Memorial
Hall (9 Bailey Dr.)
(An accessible venue)
FREE OF CHARGE AND ALL ARE WELCOME!

Mirror selfie—wearing a black skirt and brown shirt.

Autumnal landscape: orange and yellow trees with pines in the foreground. A red bench. Blue sky, partly cloudy.

Quiche! With farm fresh kale, tomatoes, and feta. So delish.

Update from our new home in Freddy: I am writing, I am running, I am biking, I am cooking, I am reading, I am learning, I am I am I am

On Thursday I visited our bike shed only to find that my bike was stolen! Ah, well. Now I'm "officially" a Freddy resident. Plus, it offered the perfect writing prompt for that day's session!

Our contests are OPEN until November 1st!
Learn more in the thread & submit today! fictioncollective2.submittable.com/submit

I figure now would be a good time to actually establish a consistent writing practice (mere days before my PhD program begins). I'm at 2 hrs/day, 4 days running. About 5k words. Better late than never! 💪🖋️💪🖋️

This was terrific! Aimee Bender discusses noticing and defamiliarizing 🦋🦋

August 9th! Aimee Bender! www.smokelong.com/august-9th-m...

Beatrice, a tall woman wearing denim shorts, a t-shirt, and cute little space buns, smiles next to a sign made of flowers that says "Fredericton"

An image of a hazy sun through a gap in an abstract stone statue.

We're here!!!! Happy New Brunswick Day to all who celebrate!

kitty located

I move to Canada in a week. My home is in shambles. The walls are freshly spackled. Our chairs are gone. My cat is missing amongst the cardboard. I am 🐝 buzzing 🐝

I forget about this platform sometimes, but I should share this here: I was honored to host a workshop titled "Creative Activist Approaches to Archival Research" with an incredible team of scholars & writers at #FemRhet2025. Thanks to all who attended & offered their insights!