Brett Biebel
Writer, teacher, sports fan. Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, Wigleaf Top 50.
- "No," a spokesperson for the administration said. "The San Siro crowd was simply chanting 'OOOOsha.'" www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-bru...
- Cheers to @terryhorstman.bsky.social and @underreviewlit.bsky.social. One of my favorite journals out there. Terry's "Letter From the Editor" is a must read.
- I know Italy is a big country, but JD Vance needs to be much, much farther away from the pope.
- This was a great first day of class piece! I LOVE the way the narrative moves forward while remaining stuck in place. I love the way it takes something familiar and recreates its texture. I love the inner life it lets us into. Excellent writing. ghostparachute.com/issue/januar...
- Ghost Parachute always brings it, so I'm extra honored this piece will be in their forthcoming anthology! ghostparachute.com/issue/august...
- At a certain point, "ideological litmus tests" are actually just citizenship tests. If you're out there complaining about "too much politics," you might just be failing civics.
- My serious question for the "stop saying Nazi" people is: where would you place this administration? If ICE isn't the Gestapo, are they the Stasi? Is Trump closer to Pinochet or Orban? I'm all for linguistic precision, but there's no point quibbling when the main point's conceded wherever you land.
- So far, it is indeed our female Olympians making the most direct anti-ICE statements. More of this please. And it is definitely worth violating an IOC rule to do something on the medal stand. www.nbcnews.com/sports/olymp...
- Going to be monitoring political statements by athletes during the Olympics. Two early hypotheses: 1) Female athletes will be more outspoken (braver) than their male counterparts. 2) You'll hear almost nothing from NHL players, aside from aggressive non-participation. Hope we get robust dissent.
- The case against boycotting internat'l sporting events rests on the idea that making dissent highly visible is more effective than non-participation. That case gets weaker if athletes aren't taking opportunities to rebuff the Trump admin forthrightly and in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.
- This headline is data fraud. Sure, documentaries don't usually earn $8mil at the box office. But NONE have ever cost $75mil to make and market. Denominator erasure. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/b...
