Leta McCollough Seletzky

13 Sept 2025

I’m re-reading my book THE KNEELING MAN—this time with the realization that it’s as much about gun violence as anything else. From beginning to end (including, of course, Dr. King’s assassination), it’s a story about the degree to which the social order is maintained at the barrel of a gun

Join @unrlowresmfacw.bsky.social and me next Thursday, October 29 at 5:30 pm PT/8:30 pm ET for An Evening with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Here’s the link to register for this free virtual event: www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening...

The University of Nevada, Reno

Jenny McKay will lead us in a virtual discussion about the ins and outs of membership—who can join, the benefits it offers, and how it can enhance your career and creative life. She has authored 34 middle-grade and young adult nonfiction books ranging from criminal investigation to world religions.

Leta McCollough Seletzky reposted

@unevadareno.bsky.social

The new visual identity includes an Interlocked logo, refreshed Nevada Wolf logo and innovative Trio system that strengthens recognition and connection. Read more on Nevada Today, and for more information about the University's new brand identity, visit unr.edu/brand. https://bit.ly/4BCpQ3l

unr.eduOfficial Brand GuidelinesExplore the official brand guidelines for the University of Nevada, Reno. Access tools, templates, visual identity standards, and core messaging to represent the Wolf Pack as one university, one brand.

Are you a writer of children’s, middle grade, or young adult literature? The Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe (@unr_lowresmfacw) has a genre concentration for that.

Applications for Spring 2027 are open through Nov. 1.(And if you’re a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, we have you covered as well.) Apply here: gradcas2026.cas.myliaison.com/applicant-ux/ Questions? Drop a comment or send me a DM 🙏🏽

31 Aug

Writers of literature for children, teens, and young adults: Interested in learning about a low-residency MFA program that can help you build a sustainable life of creation in community? Check out @unrlowresmfacw.bsky.social! Now accepting applications for Spring 2027 🙏🏽

31 Aug

Writing for Children and Young Adults is one of our four genre tracks 💯 (I’m the director—ask me anything)

unr.eduApplications and Admissions | Low-Residency MFA in Creative WritingLearn how to apply to to the low-residency MFA in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno.

31 Aug

Feel free to email me for more info: lseletzky@unr.edu Link to apply: www.unr.edu/liberal-arts...

Whether we’re talking about references to Michelle Obama or Dr. King, there are some lines of discourse that don’t merit engagement. Instead, I turn my attention to Juneteenth, the first and only federal holiday that specifically commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. 1/

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history without discomfort is propaganda. It’s certainly been my experience that the more nuanced and layered my understanding of history becomes, the less room there is for comfort. And yet, the more room there is for hope. 3/

Tomorrow, 6/16, I’ll be joining the Black Staff and Faculty Organization of @uofcalifornia Office of the President at noon PT to discuss this. I’d love to see you there 🙏🏽 4/end

The more I learn about it, the more I’ve revised what I thought I understood—including a piece of family history that connects my father to a singularly tragic event from our nation’s past. There’s a phrase I came across some years back that I often cite, because I think it’s deeply true: 2/

14 June

I can’t believe a sharpie didn’t fix the weather forecast and save the UFC event!

15 June

There’s still time for an Executive Order!

10 June

As a Black woman from the South and former Assistant Federal Public Defender As a Black woman and former Assistant Federal Public Defender As a Black woman As a woman As a human being My heart breaks for Karmelo Anthony and rages against a system that wrought this

10 June

A lot of big opinions and feelings from people with no profile pic and dubious command of their faculties

6 June

I have so much security and required authentication on my apps that my accounts can be reliably accessed by hackers ONLY

6 June

How I sleep knowing that NOBOBDY is getting into my accounts

6 June

I’m leaving the typo 😂

4 June

The only thing Idiocracy got completely wrong is that it would take 500 years

4 June

I’m deeply honored to join the Black Staff and Faculty Organization of @uofcalifornia.bsky.social Office of the President for their Juneteenth 2026 Celebration Series on June 16 at 12:00 pm PT. I hope you can take part in this special event!

2 June

Not above throwing a blazer on this and calling it business extremely casual

2 June

Was hanging up laundry to dry after airing out the house when it occurred to me that pretty much every household in generations past regularly used solar and wind power

26 May

America prepares to go FULLY under the big top. “So it would seem that a robust and nuanced understanding of human nature, especially in times like these, requires an understanding of the clown.” -Seletzky, “The Clownishness of Evil”

CNN@cnn.com

Preparations are underway at the White House for a UFC match on the South Lawn. President Trump is set to host the match next month to celebrate 250 years of American independence. Construction cranes could be seen Tuesday hoisting elements in place.

letaseletzky.comletaseletzky.com

26 May

If I may expound on this idea: www.letaseletzky.com/post/the-clo...

letaseletzky.comThe Clownishness of EvilRosemary’s Baby as a Meditation on Aesthetics, Authoritarianism, and the False Selfby Leta McCollough SeletzkyPresented to the Chit Chat ClubSan Francisco, CaliforniaFebruary 10, 2026By Paramount Pict...

22 May

Friends, the time has come to share a piece on a topic I’ve been thinking about for some time—since at least 2016, at any rate—THE CLOWNISHNESS OF EVIL. I won’t bore you with preliminaries. But this is only the beginning of a conversation that must be had. 1/ www.letaseletzky.com/post/the-clo...

22 May

Let’s just say that the pervasive and growing element of clownishness in so many spheres of society may point to deeper moral failures. You be the judge.

17 May

That a Tennessee school district has banned ROOTS speaks to the book’s power. They can’t ban ideas, so they try this instead. I was a student in Tennessee when I first encountered ROOTS and the great Alex Haley. Like many others, I carry the power of this work with me. No book ban will stop us

13 May

Quick question: how useful will data centers be once they’ve depleted our resources, human and otherwise?

11 May

Once again, the people most likely to hide a zombie bite are guiding our infectious disease response

It’s always sobering to share memories of growing up in Memphis in the ‘80s and ‘90s, because some of the things that were normalized for us sound bonkers when I tell people about them. Like how in high school in the 1990s, they did a race-based roll call in homeroom every year 1/

to ensure compliance with court-ordered desegregation. (“Raise your hand if you’re Black…”) Or how the first school-wide elected office I ever held was “Minority Vice President,” created to ensure Black representation. So when I jokingly say I grew up under Jim Crow, I’m only half-kidding2/

Every now and then, I Google my name to see what’s out there, and you know what? This ”People also search for” box raises a very good question: WHERE IS MY WIKIPEDIA PAGE? 🗣️🔊

AND MY DADDY’S PAGE 😅 No but seriously y’all, how do you get a Wikipedia page? (I feel like making one for yourself is frowned upon 👀)

7 May

Like I said, BUILT UPON A GRAVEYARD

Leta McCollough Seletzky@letaseletzky.com

(I would add that I see Memphis as the US writ small.) Many thanks to @theintellectualist.bsky.social’s History of the Present and @lincolnsquare.media for this crucial conversation 🙏🏽

3 May

After engaging with the news of Richard Dawkins’ interactions with Claude, I have concluded that Dawkins is not conscious

We should make people confirm they are humans before they’re allowed to hold elected office or sit on the bench

Make them select all images with traffic lights or something

On voting rights: One of the little (yet big) things I’ll never forget is the time my little brother and I were rifling through our grandparents’ stuff one boring afternoon in Memphis when my brother found one of Granddaddy’s old voter registration cards. It had a space for the voter’s race. 1/

The space was marked “C.” It took us a minute to realize that stood for “colored.” Though the meaning of this discovery was a lot for our young minds to grasp, its weight has never lifted from my soul 2/

None of this is long ago. In fact, it’s never been closer

Still wrestling with the fact that we have selfies from a purported episode of gun violence

There’s a lot to unpack

Even if you assume for the sake of argument that the attack at that dinner was authentic, that the reflexive response was to seek a ballroom rather than do something about gun violence speaks extremely loudly

Just another reason why it’s mostly shoulder shrugs across the board