Courtney Pasko

Honored and very glad to be back in fave @hexliterary.bsky.social today with this story about daughters and the dark!!

Get to know a lit pub: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: through 10/31 (5 days left!) for Grist Subscribers only. Editors “want to see your best work, regardless of form, style, subject matter.” Check out 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐨’s “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫” for a taste: @cpasko.bsky.social #booksky #litfic

“Beyond a small holler filled with mayapples the cave waits, its mouth a dark, neat slash that looks like someone sliced into the hill with a cake knife.” love all the lyrical imagery in this story, Courtney, & the door that is not a door & that ending. such a sad beautiful story, congratulations

Hell yeah, @iamchrisscott.bsky.social in BRUISER: “Kid-thing me looks up at adult me with these needy eyes, like, can you please just take me home.”

Accidentally read a romance novel because it had what I thought was a minimalist, lit-fic-type cover. I hope there’s a moral or life lesson I can take away from this experience.

Can't wait to get a visit from Professor X about my psychic baby. So far her extra-perception skills seem limited to knowing instantly when I've set coffee to brew or attempted to leave the house without her, but I'm sure there's much more coming.

Never heard of these losers but I will never understand why the worst companies think it’s cool to scrape names from Tolkien. They are completely incapable of understanding that they’re the orcs chopping down trees in Isengard.

Finally caught some finches eating my coneflower seeds 🥰

I know social media is evil, 100%, but it has also served me fifty videos from today’s Paris Sausage Dog Walk, basically the pinnacle of all my interests

Elena Zhang for #smallpoemsunday @ezhang77.bsky.social cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

They don’t want you to know this but it’s actually good for babies to have toast crumbs dropped on their heads every once in a while

Managed one pass through the Baltimore Book Fest while the baby took a carrier nap and calling it a big success. Gorgeous day for it 📚

Can't believe we got to publish Courtney on her birthday week!!! Don't miss this spectacular story!!!

“Are there mountains in New Jersey? Jason?”

"The daughter is tired of walking, the muscles in her thighs and calves trembling as they climb..." Such an absolute pleasure to have @cpasko.bsky.social back in @hexliterary.bsky.social this week. Find a kind of freedom through The Wind Cave in this beautifully written tale, up now on the site!

"The daughter tries to speak but cannot make a sound: her mouth is a cave, wet and cold and full of bats..." New on hex today, @cpasko.bsky.social's "The Wind Cave," an expansive shortie that feels both ancient and fresh! 👇🦇👇

Love this new story from Nathan, now in Echidna lit: “If the clocks were as old as the countryside and the doctor’s house had been built around them, it would come as no surprise.” echidnalitmag.com/2026/09/06/l...

Me asked to assess my mood over the past seven days on yet another PPD risk assessment form:

Maybe too broad an ask but if you have a favorite poem about mother/parenthood that is A) NOT about grief or death, at least not entirely and B) is actually a good poem and not hallmarky/instagrammy I’d love to read it!

“Isn’t this the most spectacular thing you’ve ever seen? I asked them, but I wasn’t sure anymore. I wasn’t sure I liked my arms so leafy, so conspicuous.”

a poet writing poems (spotted in Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day, 1968)

The makeup summons arrived while I was mid-induction at the hospital, lmao. (My midwife already sent an excusal letter.) The devil works hard but Baltimore Circuit Court, etc etc

Went to two different convenience stores and neither of them had a working slushie machine. Why even OPEN

thedodgemagarchive.com/courtneypasko1

FYI: if you crave more of that sweet Odyssey discourse, Emily Wilson is coming to the Pratt Library in September! calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/emily-...

Worked out this morning (put on a pair of compression socks all by myself)

Many thanks to Frank over at @short-story-shout.bsky.social for featuring "The Flatlander" this week!

"God sent me down to kiss a lot of people."

Saw Indy on the big screen/35mm tonight for the first time and in addition to obviously looking and sounding gorgeous, it was SO FUN to see in a warm, all-ages crowd! Good laughs including my past-life cameo.

My OB, aka my new best friend, sent me home after today's appointment with instructions to "go get yourself a doughnut." 🫡

I* love and feel seen by this one! *a person who called my cat, named Poe, "Doodoe" this morning for complex but very real etymological reasons

"She says the goal is not to outsource our feelings to a landform. Easy for her to say. She has a face like a retired planet." 🌑

Bringing my copy of Pride & Prejudice along to a dr's appointment I'm nervous about like some people carry the bible

We picked out a paint color called "Cotton Balls" this weekend and I can't stop repeating it to myself. COTTON. BALLS. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixOJ...