KM Crane
LightNews LightNews
banner
kmcrane.bsky.social
KM Crane
@kmcrane.bsky.social
130 followers 130 following 58 posts
Poet. Reads for Variant Lit.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by KM Crane
variantlit.bsky.social
"Around town, they called the factory Mother. Mother had a hundred divisions. Sometimes, when Yvette came home after a shift, her breath smelled like metal. Smelled like the opaque white plumes from the incinerators and the agitating spaces."

Read "Exposure" by David Ryan

variantlit.com/exposure/
Exposure
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
June 5, 2026 at 6:39 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Spider friend and its onion flowers.
A green onion begins to blossom and open. A small garden spider rests on the stalk beneath the closed blossoms and pace web.
May 23, 2026 at 3:52 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Let's write weird! June 18, 2026. 4pm PDT.

Sign up here: variantlit.com/fiction-work...
variantlit.bsky.social Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · May 22
So excited to announce our next free workshop! Write Weirder Fiction: On Leaning into Your Own Strangeness, led by Brandon Ahmad Haffner @thebrandonhaff.bsky.social
Variant Literature is excited to announce Write Weirder Fiction: On Leaning into Your Own Strangeness, a free fiction workshop led by Brandon Ahmad Haffner. Thursday, June 18th, 2026. Time: 4:00 PM PT /  6:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM ET Duration: 90 minutes. Live on Zoom. Free to attend.
May 23, 2026 at 3:30 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
We still have poetry prizes! Send a poem to Variant Lit!!
May 15, 2026 at 5:59 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
So tired of billionaires thinking they are the fix. I want the candidate who knows how to use arcane governmental processes for the betterment of all.
May 7, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by KM Crane
alinaetc.bsky.social
If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America, I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful.

- Roberto Bolaño, "The Best Gang" (translated by Natasha Wimmer)
If I had to hold up the most heavily guarded bank in Europe and I could choose my partners in crime, I'd take a gang of five poets, no question about it. Five real poets, Apollonian or Dionysian, but always real, ready to live and die like poets. No one in the world is as brave as a poet. No one in the world faces disaster with more dignity and understanding. They may seem weak, these readers of Guido Cavalcanti and Arnaut Daniel, these readers of the deserter Archilochus who picked his way across a field of bones. And they work in the void of the word, like astronauts marooned on dead-end planets, in deserts where there are no readers or publishers, just grammatical constructions or stupid songs sung not by men but by ghosts. In the guild of writers they're the greatest and least sought-after jewel. When some deluded kid decides at sixteen or seventeen to be a poet, it's a guaranteed family tragedy. . the Siberia of the poet's exile tends to bring shame on his family too. Readers of Baudelaire don't have it easy in high school, or with their schoolmates, much less with their teachers. But their fragility is deceptive. So is their humor and the fickleness of their declarations of love. Behind these shadowy fronts are probably the toughest people in the world, and definitely the bravest. Not for nothing are they descended from Orpheus, who set the stroke for the Argonauts and who descended into hell and came up again, less alive than before his feat, but still alive. If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America, I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful. Roberto Bolaño, "The Best Gang" (translated by Natasha Wimmer)
February 5, 2026 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by KM Crane
variantlit.bsky.social
Issue 22 is coming soon!
February 4, 2026 at 3:09 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Open until December 4th!
November 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
As the kid who always looked for the latest issue of Bitch magazine in the bookstore, this is so good.
theflytrapmedia.com The Flytrap @theflytrapmedia.com · Oct 29
We were so happy to see everyone's enthusiasm for our project to reprint pieces from Bitch Media! We are all excited because we also loved Bitch just as much as you. It was a formative publication for many of us. So here's a thread of some of our fave Bitch articles.
On a floral fabric, three hard copies of Bitch Magazine are arranged on top of a pink t-shirt with The Flytrap logo in white on it.
October 31, 2025 at 5:59 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
A poem written in all caps is screaming into the void, right? Is that the right form?
October 24, 2025 at 5:29 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
For real! Send your work to Variant!
variantlit.bsky.social Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · Oct 21
We can't wait to read your work!

variantlit.com/submit/
Text on blue background: "we're open for submissions" and "submit your poetry, flash prose, and fiction to Variant Literature between October 21 and December 4"
October 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
After reading "Paperweight" by Ryan Teitman. Wondering why not a brick? Why not a stone?
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Paperweight
I’m glad I don’t become a brick or, God forbid, a stone. When I’m a rock, I appreciate so many things I don’t otherwise notice. A breeze moving through the room like a dancer stretching her limbs.
www.poetryfoundation.org
October 20, 2025 at 6:28 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Last night I told a family member I don't have "a take." It's not worth it to share an opinion with someone who won't listen.
October 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
I've not been very good about reading a poetry book a day. But a poem a day, that I can do.

theaccountmagazine.com/article/foun...
Found: Lines from My Mother’s Emails, 2002–2012 | The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought
theaccountmagazine.com
August 18, 2025 at 1:49 AM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Some of my favorite days are book mail days. Looking forward to spending time with these two.
August 12, 2025 at 1:08 AM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Watching the suffragette episodes of "The Gilded Age" within a current women-shouldn't-vote backdrop should not come as a surprise. But it still does.
August 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Work just added the approved AI a few days ago. I may not want to help train AI but hope it remembers that I was always polite.
Gov. Newsom announces new statewide partnership with tech giants to bolster AI education, resources
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that California will partner with four major tech companies to boost generative AI education, resources and skills.
www.kcra.com
August 9, 2025 at 3:07 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
And also disgusted that any kind of empathy or basic politeness is a weakness.
August 5, 2025 at 3:22 AM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Absolutely disgusted that the phrase "equal rights, equal fights" is now a part of the atmosphere in my home.
August 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Because so much of my life was spent crossing train tracks. Sophie Hoss frames the risk so well.

newflashfiction.com/i-was-sevent...
I Was Seventeen and a Half by Sophie Hoss | Issue #37
and in those days I played chicken with life and roulette with oblivion. I ducked under the lowered crossing signals to race the oncoming train across the tracks, and when I reached the other side, I ...
newflashfiction.com
July 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Anyone else remember when people didn't want to be a sellout?
July 3, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by KM Crane
variantlit.bsky.social
Congratulations to the Variant writers on the Wigleaf Top 50 2025 Longlist!

@danbillyc.bsky.social "Kilter" (Spring 2024)

@courtludwick.bsky.social "Quarter" (Spring 2024)

@emilyrinkema.bsky.social "The Interview" (Fall 2024)

@sarahroth.bsky.social "Postnatural" (Winter 2024)
wigleaf.bsky.social Wigleaf @wigleaf.bsky.social · Jun 28
new on our mainpage: THE WIGLEAF TOP 50 VERY SHORT FICTIONS 2025 (selecting editor @samanito.bsky.social )
June 30, 2025 at 2:18 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Mark your calendars!
variantlit.bsky.social Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · Jun 10
Join MJ Gomez and Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott for Birdsong, Wildfires, and Faith: A Poetry Reading hosted by Variant Lit. Sunday, June 22 10 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. BST. Live on Zoom.

@bluejayverses.bsky.social @iamgoingtocry.bsky.social @kithbooks.bsky.social

Register:
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Join MJ Gomez and Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott for Birdsong, Wildfires, and Faith: A Poetry Reading hosted by Variant Lit. Sunday, June 22 at 10 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. BST. Live on Zoom
June 11, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by KM Crane
driftwoodpress.bsky.social
Tag a friend who has a novella or poetry collection that they should send to Driftwood Press! Use the link in bio for details and to submit. #callforsubmisions
April 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
kmcrane.bsky.social
Baby bonuses and a"National Medal of Motherhood"?!? This is worse than weird.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/u...
Trump Aides Solicit Ideas to Raise Birthrate, From Baby Bonuses to Fertility Planning
Baby bonuses and menstrual cycle classes are among the ideas pitched to Trump aides as they consider plans to try boosting the birthrate.
www.nytimes.com
April 21, 2025 at 3:44 PM