McKenzie Watson-Fore

Absolutely loved this essay by Adelle Waldman in @thepointmag.bsky.social -- about how we are all, in different ways, limited by sexism, and whether or not, or to what degree, literature represents universal truths thepointmag.com/criticism/st...

Thanks to @mwatsonfore.bsky.social and @boulderrl.bsky.social for a wonderful profile of our magicmountaintalks.org event series! boulderreportinglab.org/2026/08/20/i... Featuring @jeffsharlet.bsky.social more Don't miss tonight: GERTRUDE STEIN NO RECORDINGS 👩‍🎤

I just got a response on an essay that I submitted in July of 2024. I also paid a small submission fee for the honor of waiting over two years to hear that my work ‘is not right for them at this time.’

New work from @meganstielstra.bsky.social in @therumpus.net and holy cow IT IS SO GOOD therumpus.net/2026/07/10/a...

Teo Rivera-Dundas has written a dry, tender, and darkly funny metacritical novel about working in bookstores in NYC, and I reviewed it for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! @univnebpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2026/06/10/r...

To be clear, it’s disheartening that not only is the New York Times super into lists now, but some of the lists they’re running aren’t even curated. “Here’s what will be popular” (maybe) is so different from “here’s what’s good.”

I wrote about Dobson in the Epstein Files, gender essentialism and r@pe culture. With references to @dlmayfield.bsky.social, @sarahmccammon.bsky.social, @kkdumez.bsky.social, @lizcharlottegrant.bsky.social, @manongarcia.bsky.social, @politybooks.bsky.social @sevenstories.bsky.social and more!

Happy pub day to @stephaniestalvey.bsky.social and her new graphic memoir, EVERYTHING IN COLOR! I reviewed it for @hippocampusmag.bsky.social and wrote some behind-the-scenes thoughts for this week’s Critic at Play. open.substack.com/pub/mwatsonf...

Wanna talk about complicated mother-daughter dynamics, sexual agency, substance use, and tropes of femininity? Check out this panel on May 8! charisbooksandmore.com/event/2026-0... @lwwesterfield.bsky.social @shelbyhinte.bsky.social @bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social

So, when is Netflix going to produce the reality tv show where you forge a connection through a wall and then the production team reveals you’ve been talking to an AI? I suggest they call it, LOVE IS BL(AI)ND #ai #loveisblind

Are you a writer eager to learn from other writers? Do you want to deliver your own craft talk at a small-scale residential writing conference in Boulder, Colorado? Now taking applications for the Thunderdome Conference 2026! mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/announcing...

Trump: "Maybe we do one more term. Should we? Do one more term! We're entitled to it."

I wrote a reading list of my favorite cathartic bathing scenes for @electricliterature.com ! Check it out ~ electricliterature.com/8-books-feat...

So thrilled to have my review of Anna Rollins’s fabulous book live at @christiancentury.bsky.social !

OMG what an honor to have my church camp essay among the top 25 of last year at @christiancentury.bsky.social!! Revisit it here: www.christiancentury.org/features/dea...

@mauchmauch.bsky.social wrote this incredible essay about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now (published by @www.sneakerwavemag.org). Check it out — open.substack.com/pub/sneakerw... #fuckice #minneapolis #reneegood #alexpretti #georgefloyd

Cincinnati Romance Review’s new issue features my review of Anne Berest’s gripping “nonfiction novel,” LA CARTE POSTALE (The Postcard)—incredible storytelling and a chilling reminder about the costs of looking away from rising authoritarianism www.cincinnatiromancereview.org/current-issu...

If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power

I wrote about golf and reading as a portal to empathy and quests that never end. Thanks to Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland for the inspiration, and to my dad for letting me borrow his book for three years. mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/on-reading...

Road tripping from Texas to Colorado (over multiple days, thank goodness), and my partner just put on a Phish song with a duration longer than a standard sitcom episode.

Whose inauguration? What?

I reviewed Stephanie Schechner’s new translation of Mireille Best’s Hymn to Moray Eels (out now via the Pride List from Seagull Books) for @fullstopmag.bsky.social! A sharp interrogation of gender and heteronormativity, set in a French sanatorium. www.full-stop.net/2025/12/15/r...

Flu season is here, folks. Get yourself vaccinated, and then get yourself a cat-panion who will keep watch from the crook of your knee-pits.

"In Tait’s case, no part of his public persona allows him to name harmful elements of the theology he was raised with. Theology wielded to inculcate hatred or disgust rather than grace is one of the most destructive forces I know." @mwatsonfore.bsky.social www.christiancentury.org/features/sin...

Has anyone written a cultural history of the paint-and-sip?? I would love to read that. #culturalcriticism #arthistory #historyinthemaking

I wrote about the #michaeltait scandal and about the iconic Christian music drag queen, @flamygrant.bandcamp.com — read it now!

Gabriella D'Italia’s memoir, GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK, is out now from @unsolicitedpress.bsky.app, and I wrote about it for Heavy Feather Review! A dazzling contemplative journey for anyone with a material art practice alongside your writing practice. heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/11/17/d...

@bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social’s memoir WORLDLY GIRLS offers readers a tender journey through intergenerational trauma, female relationships, and the narrative unmooring that comes after leaving high-control religion. Read my review here! @bookhugpress.bsky.social www.full-stop.net/2025/11/12/r...

Guess I’ve made an annual habit of writing an essay about my Halloween costume? Check out my new substack, Critic at Play, and read about my choice to dress up as The Good Place’s Bad Janet! #thegoodplace #badjanet #halloween #onhell mwatsonfore.substack.com/p/what-up-sk...

Had this thought in the shower this morning that I should stop saying I’m a freelancer and instead I should refer to myself an editorial mercenary.

Distribution is a facet of the book market that doesn't get discussed nearly enough, and @mariabustillos.com does a great job breaking down how that puts the whole industry at risk. cjr.org/analysis/the...

Love getting to write about one of my favorite new spots in #Boulder! If you haven’t yet, go get some pastries from #Maisonette

My interview with the brilliant Natasha Lehrer — translator of SAD TIGER by Neige Sinno from @sevenstories.bsky.social and THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies from @newvesselpress.bsky.social — is up now at the Master’s Review! #interview #translation mastersreview.com/a-conversati...

“I saw the rot and I had the training to do something about it.” So grateful for the unflinching reporting coming from #theroysreport, especially about the allegations toward #michaeltait // #ccm #michaeltaitallegations #churchaccountability #christianscandal www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dY...

So honored to receive a heartfelt response to my essay in the July issue of @christiancentury.bsky.social ! #churchcamp #religioustrauma #readerresponse

Grateful for this piece from Elizabeth Kaye Cook in @literaryhub.bsky.social today, and grateful to @clmporg.bsky.social for surfacing it. It’s a bleak time for small presses and lit mags—remember to support the ones you love. We really are all each others’ got. #litmags lithub.com/on-the-futur...

Thrilled to see Jenny Phillips’ essay for @www.sneakerwavemag.org featured in this week’s #memoirmonday roundup from @memoirland.bsky.social !!!

Learn about William Bartlett’s brief life as a teenage Amway distributor in this week’s #personalessay from @www.sneakerwavemag.org !!!

Loved this bold and impeccably footnoted essay/book review from #AndreaLongChu — about the legacy of 2020, woke panic, and the smokescreens through which we think and speak (or don’t) #freepress #freespeech www.vulture.com/article/post...

Tomorrow, fix yourself a lunch of frito pie and come hang out with @carameredithwrites.bsky.social and me while we talk all things church camp! Substack live at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET #churchcamp

Gorgeous and devastating story by Allison Macy-Steines in this week’s issue from @www.sneakerwavemag.org!

I absolutely love running into friends unexpectedly at the library. What a delight. #library #publicspace #ilovemylibrary

I wrote about the way the doctrine of total depravity alienated me from my inner knowing — read it now in @christiancentury.bsky.social!! #church #totaldepravity #churchcamp #crynight #youthgroup

This entry in the Farmer’s Almanac implies that Johnson’s impeachment and McKinley’s assassination were both results of their beardlessness 😂

What a narrow view of the world to think that only your definition of “technical abilities” can justify an educational program to exist.

Love seeing Connie Petersen’s @www.sneakerwavemag.org story, “Dislodging a Navel Stone,” featured in this week’s #MemoirMonday!

A story for anyone who’s ever had a total haircut disaster and lived to tell the tale—and, more personally, a story for all of us who have struggled to match the verve inside of us to the appearance outside, to find the right way to express our inner ‘fuckitall.’ #sneakerwavemag#pridemonth#truestory