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B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
Ben. Literature scholar & writer; Ass. Prof. of English at Marquette University. He/him. Debut DRY LAND out now from UWP: tinyurl.com/4mpasvyy website: bpladek.net
292 followers291 following256 posts
BPbpladek.bsky.social

two particularly cool recent things: the Wisconsin Library Association gave DL an Outstanding Achievement Award, in some extraordinarily humbling company (Lauren Groff jfc)

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BPbpladek.bsky.social

placeholder post (will do longer one next week): it's officially been a year since DRY LAND, my debut novel, appeared with the lovely U of Wisconsin Press! more people than I could've imagined have read my bittersweet little trees book, & I am very grateful uwpress.wisc.edu/books/6180.htm

DRY LAND cover, a green tree on black background
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BPbpladek.bsky.social

I quietly passed 3 years on testosterone this summer & was too busy to note it publicly, so doing so now by reposting my little Dante coming-out essay. being trans remains life-changing & I remain incredibly grateful for it.

Virgil Opts Out (or: how Dante made me trans) - B. Pladek
Virgil Opts Out (or: how Dante made me trans) - B. Pladek

For years I’ve been mildly obsessed with canto 30 of Dante’s Purgatorio—in particular, what happens to Virgil afterwards. In the canto, Virgil has led Dante up mount purgatory to the edenic garden tha...

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BPbpladek.bsky.social

<3 <3 thank you!! that means the world to hear.

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BPbpladek.bsky.social

here's the story! it's about a trans guy who dream-meets a beloved author he thinks was trans too, & about what books and history can (& can't) do for us. this one's very special to me -- if you read one thing from me this year, please read this. strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-...

The Spindle of Necessity
The Spindle of Necessity

Andrew was convinced the writer had been trans. By this point his friends were tired of hearing about it, but he had no one else to tell besides the internet, and he was too smart for that. That wo…

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BPbpladek.bsky.social

He does say just that—genre fiction doesn’t broadly share this problem and he is speaking specifically to literary realist fiction; hence Zola and Wharton as his interlocutors.

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BPbpladek.bsky.social

I just finished a novel that's sorta abt why "am I capital-G good?" is so compelling a question but also a moral distraction, & I constantly had to fight a weird terror that I myself was somehow not-Good for even asking the question. Feels like a metaphor for where we're at, somehow.

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B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
Ben. Literature scholar & writer; Ass. Prof. of English at Marquette University. He/him. Debut DRY LAND out now from UWP: tinyurl.com/4mpasvyy website: bpladek.net
292 followers291 following256 posts