Art Winslow
@artwinslow.bsky.social
Owner of literary tote bags, also former magazine editor (The Nation), prior jurist/panelist at Pulitzer Prizes, NEA, NBCC, MacDowell. Have written for many venues, general interests skew to literary journalism and cultural reporting of almost any stripe.
Pinned
Art Winslow
@artwinslow.bsky.social
· Oct 30
Sculpture by Jose Seguiri based on a drawing by Rafael Perez Estrada (Malaga). A message for these times.
Reposted by Art Winslow
I hope you've been following the excellent letters from MN that @lithub.com.web.brid.gy has been running--by writers like Kao Kalia Yang, Kawai Strong Washburn, Charles Baxter and so many others. Mine ran today, about buying gas masks for, well, the first time in my life. lithub.com/letter-from-...
Letter From Minnesota: Our Community Grows Stronger by the Week
You might be surprised to learn how many kinds of gas masks there are. Some are effective if you get pepper-sprayed, others are better for mace or tear gas. Some cover the mouth and nose; others al…
lithub.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:09 PM
I hope you've been following the excellent letters from MN that @lithub.com.web.brid.gy has been running--by writers like Kao Kalia Yang, Kawai Strong Washburn, Charles Baxter and so many others. Mine ran today, about buying gas masks for, well, the first time in my life. lithub.com/letter-from-...
A terrific critic and a nice guy as well (as you might surmise), thrown under the bus with a lot of other professionals at The Washington Post. You can find him here. We served together on a Pulitzer Prize jury a dozen years ago, he saved me (us all) from my pedestrian tastes.
After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done.
After 20 years at The Washington Post, I’m suddenly on my own — and still writing about books.
substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 8:04 PM
A terrific critic and a nice guy as well (as you might surmise), thrown under the bus with a lot of other professionals at The Washington Post. You can find him here. We served together on a Pulitzer Prize jury a dozen years ago, he saved me (us all) from my pedestrian tastes.
Reposted by Art Winslow
From this moment forward (and before, but clearly now):
-If you work for ICE.
-If you vote for money for ICE.
You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.
-If you work for ICE.
-If you vote for money for ICE.
You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.
January 24, 2026 at 5:07 PM
From this moment forward (and before, but clearly now):
-If you work for ICE.
-If you vote for money for ICE.
You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.
-If you work for ICE.
-If you vote for money for ICE.
You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.
So much for my on-again, off-again impulse to re-subscribe to The Washington Post, which I've done more than once in the past couple of years. On balance, it would be only a matter of weeks before the next censorious act by its management caused me to re-cancel.
Wherever Karen goes, follow her. She is an important voice. Unlike the Washington Post, she speaks the truth without fear or favor.
Some personal news:
I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.
Thread incoming.
substack.com/@karenattiah...
I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.
Thread incoming.
substack.com/@karenattiah...
September 15, 2025 at 1:06 PM
So much for my on-again, off-again impulse to re-subscribe to The Washington Post, which I've done more than once in the past couple of years. On balance, it would be only a matter of weeks before the next censorious act by its management caused me to re-cancel.
Reposted by Art Winslow
The indictment was handed down 2 days after career prosecutor Richard Barker, the acting US atty for eastern Washington state, resigned. In a social post, Barker wrote “I am grateful that I never had to sign an indictment or file a brief that I didn’t believe in.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Alarm after FBI arrests US army veteran for ‘conspiracy’ over protest against Ice
Legal experts say the charges against Afghanistan war veteran Bajun Mavalwalla II mark an escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on first amendment rights
www.theguardian.com
September 2, 2025 at 12:31 PM
The indictment was handed down 2 days after career prosecutor Richard Barker, the acting US atty for eastern Washington state, resigned. In a social post, Barker wrote “I am grateful that I never had to sign an indictment or file a brief that I didn’t believe in.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Art Winslow
What an atmospheric, ponderous poem by @janezwart.bsky.social.
“When at last we invent it, the Time Machine / won’t have any flash—not forward, not back—“
Today’s poem is Time Machine by Jane Zwart.
Read it here: www.dustpoetry.co.uk/post/the-tim...
Today’s poem is Time Machine by Jane Zwart.
Read it here: www.dustpoetry.co.uk/post/the-tim...
The Time Machine by Jane Zwart
The Time Machine When at last we invent it, the time machinewon’t have any flash—not forward, not back— but this will be only one disappointmentamong many: that an hour will be as leaden as ever; that...
www.dustpoetry.co.uk
July 8, 2025 at 11:22 AM
What an atmospheric, ponderous poem by @janezwart.bsky.social.
A smart dissection of an Orwell essay that pins our political moment with precision, with human nature the underlying component of both his time and ours.
Notes on George Orwell's Notes on Nationalism:
blog.wdclarke.org/notes-on-nat...
blog.wdclarke.org/notes-on-nat...
Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell
This slim volume of three essays is not likely worth your consumer dollars, especially since it is really the one long, title essay that make sup the bulk of its few, scant pages, with two shorter …
blog.wdclarke.org
June 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
A smart dissection of an Orwell essay that pins our political moment with precision, with human nature the underlying component of both his time and ours.
It's a rhetorical question that reveals a truth about today's media ecosystem (an echo system) -- things commonly get endlessly repeated without secondary attempts at verification. So, caveat lector.
How could 20 news sites - including big MSM sites - cover a Truth Social SEC filing and get an important number wrong, in exactly the same way?
And it was costly, too, since it has led to yet another frivolous suit from the Trump team
Via @columjournreview.bsky.social
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
And it was costly, too, since it has led to yet another frivolous suit from the Trump team
Via @columjournreview.bsky.social
www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
April 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
It's a rhetorical question that reveals a truth about today's media ecosystem (an echo system) -- things commonly get endlessly repeated without secondary attempts at verification. So, caveat lector.
Reposted by Art Winslow
Yet another example of how a corporate media conglomerate cannot privilege democratic needs over profit imperatives. It's almost as if this hyper-capitalist media system is incompatible with democracy, especially when the latter is threatened by authoritarian power.
Breaking News: The executive producer of “60 Minutes” said that he would resign from the long-running program because he had lost his journalistic independence.
Top Producer of ‘60 Minutes’ Quits, Saying He Lost Independence
The news program has faced mounting pressure from both President Trump and its corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.
www.nytimes.com
April 22, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Yet another example of how a corporate media conglomerate cannot privilege democratic needs over profit imperatives. It's almost as if this hyper-capitalist media system is incompatible with democracy, especially when the latter is threatened by authoritarian power.
Terrific essay. If you haven't read Nguyen's The Sympathizer, pick it up, and he mentions Bob Shacochis's excellent The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, well worth your time as well. Let the uneasy assertions of the essay sink in. He doesn't mention Twain, who was explicitly anti-jingoist.
@vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social explains why most American literature is the literature of empire.
Viet Thanh Nguyen: Most American Literature is the Literature of Empire
One way to understand the dilemma of contemporary American literature in the age of Donald Trump is to see it as an imperial literature. The United States is a different kind of empire, exerting gl…
buff.ly
April 11, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Terrific essay. If you haven't read Nguyen's The Sympathizer, pick it up, and he mentions Bob Shacochis's excellent The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, well worth your time as well. Let the uneasy assertions of the essay sink in. He doesn't mention Twain, who was explicitly anti-jingoist.
I've enjoyed much of Outside's reporting over the years. This is not much different from what has happened to many print enterprises, but it's a process sad to witness.
Inside Outside: Layoffs, acquisitions, and a contributors’ revolt, by @laurenwatsonjourno.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/news/outside...
Inside Outside
Layoffs, acquisitions, and a contributors’ revolt.
www.cjr.org
April 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I've enjoyed much of Outside's reporting over the years. This is not much different from what has happened to many print enterprises, but it's a process sad to witness.
Reposted by Art Winslow
The Trump administration is continuing its unconstitutional attack on attorneys it disagrees with—this time detaining an American attorney representing a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested at the University of Michigan last year.
Immigration Agents Detain Lawyer Representing Student Protester
Amir Makled, a U.S. citizen, was detained by federal agents at an airport for 90 minutes.
newrepublic.com
April 8, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The Trump administration is continuing its unconstitutional attack on attorneys it disagrees with—this time detaining an American attorney representing a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested at the University of Michigan last year.
O'Donnell articulates a sad but intuitively sensible perspective re Musk's claims: because they lack a shred of evidence, assume they are false unless proved true.
Magnificent, rigorously vicious 17 minutes by @Lawrence-ODonnell.bsky.social on the baseless lies and soulless cruelty of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and the Oval Office photo op dominance show that Musk won yesterday. www.msnbc.com/the-last-wor...
Lawrence: In Oval Office, Elon Musk shows the world Trump ‘is not the boss of me’
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details the display of the presidential subservience to Elon Musk in the Oval Office as they made baseless claims of waste, fraud and abuse without any evidence and turned t...
www.msnbc.com
February 12, 2025 at 4:57 PM
O'Donnell articulates a sad but intuitively sensible perspective re Musk's claims: because they lack a shred of evidence, assume they are false unless proved true.
Apparently the evangelicals have it all wrong. Stirring words here (eg, "We are becoming the voice on the 'Access Hollywood' tape...")
Cruelty this truly is, with no other apparent motive than to demean others and to save what amounts to a paltry sum in federal spending. For those of us in the Catholic community, cruelty should be especially alarming. And a call to action.
Editorial: Silence in the face of Trump's cruelty is complicity
It is time to name the result of this chaos — unbounded cruelty. Complicit Catholics, in particular, must stop aiding and abetting cruelty by asserting that this administration is in any way pro-life....
bit.ly
February 10, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Apparently the evangelicals have it all wrong. Stirring words here (eg, "We are becoming the voice on the 'Access Hollywood' tape...")
Thought this sticker was odd when I picked it up at the polls, but it pretty much matches the times now. Multiple ways to read it.
February 5, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Thought this sticker was odd when I picked it up at the polls, but it pretty much matches the times now. Multiple ways to read it.
Reposted by Art Winslow
This CNN piece is the best I’ve seen, and includes info on actions before the inauguration. www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/p...
How an arcane Treasury Department office is now ground zero in the war over federal spending | CNN Politics
A few weeks before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, members of his transition team went to the Treasury Department to talk about the handover of power.
www.cnn.com
February 1, 2025 at 3:29 PM
This CNN piece is the best I’ve seen, and includes info on actions before the inauguration. www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/p...
"How do you build popular support for democratic institutions when the very mechanisms of public communications are increasingly controlled by anti-democratic forces?" A sobering reflection on where we find ourselves.
Let's walk through some cold, hard truths about the reality we now live in. www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/you-are-li...
You are Living Through a Great Power Competition Amongst Elites. The Populism Really is for Show.
It's a tough pill to swallow this narrative, because the truth involves admitting our lack of agency in this process. But it happens to be the cold, hard truth.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
January 31, 2025 at 3:48 AM
"How do you build popular support for democratic institutions when the very mechanisms of public communications are increasingly controlled by anti-democratic forces?" A sobering reflection on where we find ourselves.
Reposted by Art Winslow
Krugman says the editors at the Times editorial page were increasingly trying to water down his columns and arguments www.cjr.org/analysis/pau...
Paul Krugman on Leaving the New York Times
The paper wanted to take away his newsletter or make him write less frequently, he says.
www.cjr.org
January 24, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Krugman says the editors at the Times editorial page were increasingly trying to water down his columns and arguments www.cjr.org/analysis/pau...
Shareholder society as anachronism?
ASA member Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social talks to Jon Stewart about the emerging tech CEO “broligarchy” @thedailyshow.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvCm...
Brooke Harrington - Trump’s “Broligarchy” of Tech Billionaires | The Daily Show
YouTube video by The Daily Show
www.youtube.com
January 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Shareholder society as anachronism?
The writer Peter Matthiessen was among those convinced of Peltier's innocence. I published a piece of his contending that, part of his then-forthcoming book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, long ago but had since accepted that no redress for Peltier would ever come.
Breaking News
Crimes against Mr Peltier
Extradited illegally from Canada
Falsified evidence
Witness tampering
Evidence tampering
Documents tampering
Government attorney admitted they don't know who committed the crimes for which Leonard is convicted.
apnews.com/article/leon...
Crimes against Mr Peltier
Extradited illegally from Canada
Falsified evidence
Witness tampering
Evidence tampering
Documents tampering
Government attorney admitted they don't know who committed the crimes for which Leonard is convicted.
apnews.com/article/leon...
Biden commutes sentence for Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, convicted in killing of FBI agents
President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents and is serving life in prison.
apnews.com
January 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
The writer Peter Matthiessen was among those convinced of Peltier's innocence. I published a piece of his contending that, part of his then-forthcoming book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, long ago but had since accepted that no redress for Peltier would ever come.
Curiouser and curiouser...
January 18, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Curiouser and curiouser...
The Regret That Haunted Me for 50 Years www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/o...
Don't dismiss this halfway through, thinking you've absorbed Dorfman's message, it corkscrews in a fascinating way. Beliefs are us, that's my takeaway.
Don't dismiss this halfway through, thinking you've absorbed Dorfman's message, it corkscrews in a fascinating way. Beliefs are us, that's my takeaway.
Opinion | After Chile’s Coup, My Regret Was That I Didn’t Die
I believed my friend died because of me. Fifty years later, I learned the truth.
www.nytimes.com
January 7, 2025 at 2:07 PM
The Regret That Haunted Me for 50 Years www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/o...
Don't dismiss this halfway through, thinking you've absorbed Dorfman's message, it corkscrews in a fascinating way. Beliefs are us, that's my takeaway.
Don't dismiss this halfway through, thinking you've absorbed Dorfman's message, it corkscrews in a fascinating way. Beliefs are us, that's my takeaway.
Of mountains and molehills. A fine corrective to iterations of an overblown idea.
So in all the discourse over how men don't read, I've noticed something weird.
All the articles about this issue say that there are multiple studies showing women account for 80% of fiction sales. But none of them link to the studies — just to each other. www.vox.com/culture/3929...
All the articles about this issue say that there are multiple studies showing women account for 80% of fiction sales. But none of them link to the studies — just to each other. www.vox.com/culture/3929...
Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?
The questionable statistic at the heart of the “men don’t read fiction” discourse.
www.vox.com
January 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Of mountains and molehills. A fine corrective to iterations of an overblown idea.
slate.com/culture/2024...
Laura Miller's eclectic year-end best books list: read it for her astute, context-rich descriptions if nothing else, although I'm confident you will come away with a few ideas for your reading future.
Laura Miller's eclectic year-end best books list: read it for her astute, context-rich descriptions if nothing else, although I'm confident you will come away with a few ideas for your reading future.
The 10 Best Books of 2024
According to Slate’s book critic.
slate.com
December 11, 2024 at 3:46 PM
slate.com/culture/2024...
Laura Miller's eclectic year-end best books list: read it for her astute, context-rich descriptions if nothing else, although I'm confident you will come away with a few ideas for your reading future.
Laura Miller's eclectic year-end best books list: read it for her astute, context-rich descriptions if nothing else, although I'm confident you will come away with a few ideas for your reading future.