Laura van den Berg @lmvandenberg Twitter profile

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Laura van den Berg

2 months

So so grateful for this dreamy @nytimes review of STATE OF PARADISE by Ruth Franklin (!):

Reality Is Imploding in This Post-Pandemic, Fever-Dream Novel

Laura van den Berg’s new book, “State of Paradise,” sends readers down surreal portals to ask: How do we distinguish reality from its opposite — whatever that might be?

www.nytimes.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

If I could convey one thing to the emerging writers I work with it might be that perfectionism is usually less about being excellent and more about being afraid

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

I'm working on a lecture on Munro & was just writing about "Friend of My Youth" this morning. I've learned an endless amount from Munro's refusal of clean resolution & her embrace of unfurling possibility. The quiet art of wrestling w/ the big questions.

Alice Munro, Canadian author who won Nobel Prize for Literature, dies at 92

Acclaimed writer and master of the short story, she could pack more insight, nuance and suspense into a few pages than most writers could cram into a novel

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

The partners of writers with forthcoming books should be awarded medals

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Really really thrilled that my second story collection, THE ISLE OF YOUTH, is getting a beautiful reissue from @PicadorUSA :

The Isle of Youth

"[Laura van den Berg is] a master of the short story form. Hers are deliciously unnerving, moving, and monstrous tales.” —Karen Russell, author of Orange...

us.macmillan.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

SO MANY people told me that absolutely no one in publishing wanted a writer's 2nd book to be *another* story collection. & so it is extra moving to read @kyledillonhertz 's generous consideration of THE ISLE OF YOUTH, recently reissued by @PicadorUSA

Ten Years Later: Reading Laura van den Berg’s Timeless Classic, The Isle of Youth

A decade ago, I wanted to be known for writing. I dropped out of massage school, couldn’t get into college, and began taking online writing courses through adult education programs. We read Raymond…

lithub.com

Kyle Dillon Hertz

@kyledillonhertz

3 months

For @lithub I wrote about the reissue of Laura van den Berg’s THE ISLE OF YOUTH, one of my favorite books of all time. The book helped shape me as a writer, and it will shape you. Read what I wrote below.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

❤️🍯❤️

The Story Prize

@TheStoryPrize

6 months

The 20th Story Prize Winner is … PAUL YOON

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

THE PORTAL HAS OPENED. Had the dreamiest book launch at @greenlightbklyn last night, with @mhbertino & @hilsaphina . Today STATE OF PARADISE is officially out in the world.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

An excerpt from STATE OF PARADISE is up at @ElectricLit this week, intro-ed & annotated (!) by the one & only PAUL: @fsgbooks @shipman_agency

Florida Is a Strange Wilderness Growing Inside Me - Electric Literature

An excerpt from STATE OF PARADISE by Laura van den Berg, recommended by Paul Yoon

electricliterature.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Kind of amazed at how many hostile emails I've gotten for saying (in an interview) that I can't imagine teaching Munro rn w/out bringing Andrea Skinner into the conversation. Some people are dug into this "separate the art from the artist" business to the point of derangement.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Sheila Heti on Alice Munro: "the art of hearing the voice of a fictional person or sensing a fictional world or working for years on some unfathomable creation is, in fact, the opposite of saying something with the opinionated and knowledgeable part of one’s mind."

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

I think about this nearly every time I read Edward P. Jones and Alice Munro too. And Helen Oyeyemi's stories, which would set a conventional workshop's hair on fire.

Roya Khatiblou

@Roya_Khatiblou

6 months

I'm reading a collection of Tolstoy novellas rn and he breaks every single rule you're supposed to follow to make a plot 'propulsive' and is riveting and I just want to know when writing became so formulaic and when we can stop

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

My essay on sweat, Florida, & going home in the current issue of @NYTmag 💦💦💦

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Really grateful to Elaine Szewczyk for this deep & thoughtful profile in the current issue of @PublishersWkly :

Laura van den Berg’s Parallel Lives

In life and in her new novel, 'State of Paradise,' the author isn’t afraid to embrace uncertainty and the unknown.

www.publishersweekly.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

So grateful for this dream of a review! "With exquisite prose, smart lines on every page, a building sense of growing strangeness tinged with dread, and surprises all the way to the end, State of Paradise might be van den Berg's best novel so far...Don't miss it." 🦎 @fsgbooks

Gabino Iglesias

@Gabino_Iglesias

2 months

My review of @lmvandenberg ’s State of Paradise, from @fsgbooks , is now up at @nprbooks .

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

@KateDwyer Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patrick Cottrell & Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam & The Orange Eats Creeps Grace Krilanovich. Every year I hope for news of a new Grace Krilanovich novel!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

STATE OF PARADISE gets a ⭐️ from Kirkus! Those last lines especially made my heart leap.

STATE OF PARADISE | Kirkus Reviews

A woman returns to the Florida of her childhood and is destabilized by the collision of her present and her past.

www.kirkusreviews.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

Thrilled that STATE OF PARADISE is an Indie Next Pick for July!

The July 2024 Indie Next List Preview

Here are the 25 Indie Next List and 6 Now in Paperback picks on the July 2024 Indie Next List flier.

www.bookweb.org

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Very happy to see STATE OF PARADISE on @OprahDaily 's list of summer reads!

The Best Books to Read on Your Summer Vacation

Whether you are looking for a beach-blanket escapism, campfire thrillers, or books that will make you the most interesting person at the Fourth of July BBQ, we’ve got you covered.

www.oprahdaily.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

All my gratitude to this sweatshirt I bought at the SF airport to keep from freezing to death. Will be at @booksonthepark tonight!!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Bananas grateful for this dream review of STATE OF PARADISE by Rhoda Feng in @BostonGlobe : SOP is out on July 9th from @fsgbooks !

In Laura van den Berg’s ‘State of Paradise,’ reconsidering Florida - The Boston Globe

When a writer returns to her native Florida during the pandemic, things fall apart, in all the weirdest ways.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

14 days

STATE OF PARADISE is one of @ELLEmagazine 's best novels of 2024! Thank you so much, @laurpuckett ! 🌴✨ @fsgbooks

The Best Literary Fiction Books of 2024, So Far

Critical darlings, prize nominees, and book-club favorites galore.

www.elle.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

Not the most important thing here, but that boxer who quit, I could tell something was off w/ her mindset when she stopped to have her headgear adjusted. It's the ref's job to notice if something is off w/ the equipment. Fighters are usually too in the zone to notice or care.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

While in FL for book events I had time to swing through the boxing gym I used to go to for some sparring. My old coach (who changed my life!) said he could tell I'd been putting in a lot of work at my new gym, that I looked really solid. Literally my most important review.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

& SOP makes @TIME 's summer reads list too!

25 Books You Need to Read This Summer

From 'Long Island Compromise' to 'Tell Me Everything'

time.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

I'm not working on fiction right now, so I've been using #1000wordsofsummer to draft lectures for a class I'm teaching in the fall & it has been the EXACT roadblock-buster that I needed.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

I'm teaching a "reading fiction" class in a fall that'll largely be a novel a week (on some other weeks more like 50 or so pages of short stories)

Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué

@hadeejasouffle

2 months

so is the “novel a week” university lit seminar style just….not viable/popular anymore? that’s what I did in most of my lit classes in undergrad but I’m seeing it less and less

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

If you are in the Hudson Valley & want to step away from the internet for a few hours this week I am reallllly excited to be doing these 2 events at 2 of my fave bookstores in the area & with 2 of my fave writers

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

If you are working on a novel & feel like you are in a wilderness with no exit trails, or all the exit trails are guarded by ravenous bears & giant unmovable boulders, I have got a class for you:

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

My new book is written in the present tense 🤷‍♀️

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

My mom and I are currently road tripping through FL for this leg of my tour & can I tell you that we are having the best time

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

8 months

✨New book coming in July✨

Farrar,Straus&Giroux

@fsgbooks

8 months

This morning @ELLEmagazine shared an exclusive cover reveal for Laura van den Berg's new novel, STATE OF PARADISE! A heart-racing fun house of uncanniness hidden in Florida’s underbelly, from a reality-warping storyteller, coming 7/9.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

13 days

One funny thing about my dog is there are certain actors he absolutely cannot abide. If he so much as hears Mark Wahlberg's voice he will get up and leave the room.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Recommending books is one of my favorite thing on this earth & very glad to rec 6 of my faves about secrets & home:

Laura van den Berg's 6 favorite books with hidden secrets

The author recommends works by Patricia Lockwood, Gillian Flynn, and more

theweek.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

7 months

Very excited to share everything I know on the art of writing short story endings that will absolutely fuck your readers up.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Truly one of the best life lessons I ever learned ways telling someone “I do not have the capacity to do this right now” is both a kindness to yourself AND the person you’re in conversation with

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Utterly incomplete list / just the names flying out of my brain at the moment: Edward P. Jones, Joy Williams, Mariana Enriquez, Borges, Ted Chiang, Amy Hempel, Denis Johnson…

Vanessa Saunders

@postcardsfrmv

6 months

Who are the best short stories writers of all time?

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

7 months

Loved loved SORRY TO DISRUPT THE PEACE. Wildly excited to read AFTERNOON HOURS OF A HERMIT.

Astra House

@astrahousebooks

7 months

From Patrick Cottrell, Whiting Award and Barnes & Noble Discover Award-winning author of SORRY TO DISRUPT THE PEACE, comes this funny, moving, philosophical novel about a trans man haunted by his past. AFTERNOON HOURS OF A HERMIT will be available in Spring 2026.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

✨EVENTS are coming! NY, Boston, FLORIDA, LA, SF, Providence, Hudson Valley: it would mean the world to see you there! ✨ CC @fsgbooks @CurtisBrownLtd @shipman_agency

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

An honor to say a few words about @PemiAguda 's stunning GHOSTROOTS in the current issue of @poetswritersinc !

'P.

@PemiAguda

3 months

Everyone who's heard me teach, or go on about the reality-tilting stories I adore, have absolutely heard about @lmvandenberg So, what an honour to have her introduce, & talk to me about, Ghostroots in @poetswritersinc ! There might have been tears. <3

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

Hiiii @BostonGlobe : "van den Berg skillfully swerves through trauma, mental illness, and memory, shifting from autofiction to thriller. This book feels like a powerful hurricane." (rec by Lauren LeBlanc)

75 books we’re most excited to read this summer - The Boston Globe

The Globe’s annual summer reading preview features 75 books — fiction, nonfiction, romance, and mystery — we think you’ll want to slip into that beach bag, backpack, or picnic basket.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Hiiii it's @goodreads giveaway time for STATE OF PARADISE: . Five copies up for grabs!

State of Paradise

A heart-racing fun house of uncanniness hidden in Flori…

www.goodreads.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

"What what I see in these artists is a polymorphous, metamorphic spirit, and an openness to that spirit. Over time, the spirit moves. How could it not?" Gorgeous conversation between Stacey D’Erasmo & @mbsycamore for @LAReviewofBooks :

Over Time, the Spirit Moves | Los Angeles Review of Books

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore interviews Stacey D’Erasmo about “The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry.”

lareviewofbooks.org

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

"I wonder if my perfectionist friends out there can see how giving yourself that kind of permission as a gift. The first draft is the one thing that does not have to be right in your life. It only has to exist." from a truly beautiful @jamiattenberg Craft Talk today

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

Aaaaaaand it is super common, even in the same weight class, for one person to have a natural advantage. Reach, strength, speed, reflexes, whatever. That’s where technique and strategy are supposed to come in!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Thrilled to see STATE OF PARADISE on here! "The summer’s sweatiest novel is State of Paradise...The author’s inimitable talents shine in this spiky and sinister Floridian fever dream." Thank you so much, @esquire & @adriennemwest ! @fsgbooks

Adrienne Westenfeld

@adriennemwest

2 months

I rounded up my favorite books of summer for @esquire , featuring @JosephONeillx , @essiejchambers , @michaelwwaters , @racheld , @laurenmechling , @madhumita29 , @emilynussbaum , @ChuckTingle , @lmvandenberg , @leverus , @helencphillips , @andrewrchow , and more!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Attention Boston area earthlings! Wildly excited to be in convo with @mhbertino at @HarvardBooks on TUESDAY 4/23 to discuss her magical & devastating BEAUTYLAND:

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Love seeing this (long overdue) recognition of Percival Everett's brilliance. Truly one of the best to ever do it.

Percival Everett Can’t Say What His Novels Mean

The author of “Erasure” is renowned for his satires of genre, identity, and America. But his great target may be language itself.

www.newyorker.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Boston! I'll be at @HarvardBooks TONIGHT (7PM) with the amazing Shuchi Saraswat & would loooove to see you! @fsgbooks

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Back by popular demand! This class sold out when I when I taught it in April, so we're offering it again! @Tin_House

Summer Craft Intensive: Laura van den Berg - Tin House

This intensive will focus on the art of writing speculative / fantastic short stories, with a particular emphasis on experiments in time, from Julio Cortázar’s parallel timelines in “Island at Noon”...

tinhouse.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

@LiXinWrites For me, understanding what is fueling the fear has been super helpful, as has shifting away from thinking of fear as something to be overcome but rather as an element we can learn how to move with and through.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

This is all to say the way that boxer quit says a lot more about her mindset, about where her head was or wasn't, than about her opponent.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

“I am finished with my book, but my book is not finished with me.” - Shelia Heti, Alphabet Diaries

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

On here just enough to understand when a discourse is occurring but not enough to grasp the nature / details of said discourse

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

28 days

Super excited to be teaching this seminar this weekend. We're gonna get into techniques for moving a draft forward, towards its best self, & how to navigate those moments of feeling stuck / overwhelmed.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

& it is highly unusual for a fighter to quit on their own like that. Especially at such an elite level. I'm not sure I've ever seen it before? When a fight is stopped it's nearly always a decision made in the corner, by your coach, or by the ref.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

I never felt called to be a parent & have been told many times (often by strangers!) that I'll regret the decision (which was never so much a decision as an intrinsic truth). Appreciate seeing the complex & unpredictable landscape of regret explored from a different perspective.

R. O. Kwon 권오경

@rokwon

5 months

I wrote for @TIME about people who regret having children I've often been told that such regret isn’t possible; for this piece, I interviewed parents who love their kids & who, if they could turn back time, might not choose to be parents again

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Very excited to talk about novels & what in the world to do after you've written one at #muse24 . @GrubWriters

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

West coast up next! Super excited to be at @booksonthepark on Weds, 7/17, with the amazing @jinittowinit . Would love to see you, SF! @fsgbooks @CurtisBrownLtd @shipman_agency

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Love to see STATE OF PARADISE out in the wild & to be alongside @askanyone !

Michael Colbert

@mjcolbert16

6 months

Blown away by both of these books @lmvandenberg @askanyone @fsgbooks

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Feeling scared is a good sign

Toby Litt

@tobylitt

6 months

What’s the BEST writing advice you’ve ever heard? 👇

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

7 months

I am DELIGHTED to be offering 2 craft seminars via @shipman_agency : 1. on how the heck to end your short story (4/6) and 2. on how the heck to revise your novel (5/18-19).

The Work Room — The Shipman Agency

www.theshipmanagency.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

This @Tin_House craft intensive is back by popular demand & still has a few seats left!

Summer Craft Intensive: Laura van den Berg - Tin House

This intensive will focus on the art of writing speculative / fantastic short stories, with a particular emphasis on experiments in time, from Julio Cortázar’s parallel timelines in “Island at Noon”...

tinhouse.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Actually *my* imaginative energy lives in a place deep within that no other entity has the power to touch but OKAY. There are some wild generalizations happening in this review.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Loved talking to @mjcolbert16 fo @InterviewMag !

Interview Magazine

@InterviewMag

2 months

To mark her sixth novel, the surreal “State of Paradise,” author @lmvandenberg joins @mjcolbert16 to discuss Freud, Florida, and writing speculative fiction for the post-pandemic age 📖

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

“Everything important started out as mysterious & this mystery was like a great sea you had to be brave enough to cross…You had to withstand a profound sense of wrongness if you ever wanted to get somewhere new.” - ALL FOURS

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

Three seats left in this @Tin_House worksop on bending time in speculative fiction! It'll be a good weird time

Summer Craft Intensive: Laura van den Berg - Tin House

This intensive will focus on the art of writing speculative / fantastic short stories, with a particular emphasis on experiments in time, from Julio Cortázar’s parallel timelines in “Island at Noon”...

tinhouse.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Also, Munro DGAF about convention. Start a story with a dream? Sure! Answer not one single question raised? Absolutely! Land on a ending that appears (at first glance!) entirely disconnected from the rest of the story? Why not! She exploded my sense of what the form can be & do.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Lost my pillow while I was on book tour

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

A joy to get to say a few words about @mhbertino ’s BEAUTYLAND

Elisa Gabbert

@egabbert

6 months

What Writers Are Reading, Vol. 3! Today we have Amitava Kumar on Bohumil Hrabal and Laura van den Berg on Marie-Helene Bertino:

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

This is unconscionable.

BreakThrough News

@BTnewsroom

5 months

BREAKING: NYPD have begun arresting members of the Columbia University Palestine solidarity encampment

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

✨Oscar is 10 today ✨

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Literally cannot WAIT to visit The Lynx this Thursday and to be in conversation with the wondrous Lauren Groff!

Lauren Groff

@legroff

2 months

I’m the interlocutor tonight for Leela Corman’s event at The Lynx. On Thursday, I get to host Laura van den Berg there, too. A dazzling week for my brilliant friends and the bookstore. Both ticketed; info at .

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

The best part of writing a NYT essay on sweat has been getting messages from my fellow heat freaks. The summer people are finding each other.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

“Fiction and nonfiction together, because the imagination is more amazing that anything in life, and life is more amazing than anything you can make up.” - Shelia Heti, ALPHABET DIARIES

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

I was living in Baltimore & teaching in DC when I was writing my first novel. A few mornings a week I had an hour on the commuter train. I wrote on the ride to DC & sometimes on the way back. + a weekly accountability deadline with a friend who was also working on her first book.

Shannon Sanders

@ShandersWrites

6 months

Tell me about how you finished your novel manuscript without ever doing a residency or going on a retreat or taking a sabbatical or ever having more than 3 consecutive hours of free time, because I really need to hear about that please

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Loved talking to @stupidnovel for this piece! @fsgbooks

Elaine Szewczyk

@stupidnovel

4 months

Here's my @PublishersWkly profile of @lmvandenberg . We discussed the uncertainties of speculative fiction; Florida alligators; Laura's love of boxing; and of course her new novel State of Paradise out in July. Thx Laura! @fsgbooks @Kfauss @CurtisBrownLtd

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Loved getting to write a story for @esquire 's The Napkin Project, alongside some of my favorite writers. I wrote about the weird magic of traveling with friends.

Adrienne Westenfeld

@adriennemwest

2 months

Next up from Summer Fiction Week at @esquire : a new round of The Napkin Project, featuring stories about summer vacation by @askanyone , @ChuckTingle , @lmvandenberg , Bryan Washington, and @charles_yu . Always one of my favorite things to work on!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

3 months

Loved getting to write about Florida, sweat, & going home for @NYTmag ! Massive gratitude to @trapmotives for the precise & thoughtful edit

The Ecstasy of Humidity

Living in a place with seasons is overrated. There’s nothing like a sweaty Florida summer to bring you back to your body.

www.nytimes.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

Back on the road this week for events in Boston & Providence! First up is @GrubWriters with Jonathan Escoffery on Weds 8/7. We'll be talking about the writing life & what sustains it

GrubStreet | The Writing Life with Jonathan Escoffery and Laura van…

The nation's leading and largest center for creative writing for over 25 years, GrubStreet offers classes and events for writers from all stages and…

grubstreet.org

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

Wildly excited for this! Would love to see you, Providence!

Lucas Mann

@LucasWMann

1 month

Hey Rhode Island, @lmvandenberg and Jessica Anthony are at Riffraff on Thursday!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

I'm w/ @Kristen_Arnett on this one: "...once someone very nicely provides a blurb, please feel free to simply thank them for those kind words...There is no need to provide compensation for this nice favor. And by that, I mean please don’t provide a gift."

My “Friend” Keeps Sending Me Their Writing and I Need It To Stop: Am I the Literary Asshole?

Hello again! Welcome back to another installment of Am I the Literary Asshole?, the biweekly advice column that (incoherently) wonders as it (drunkenly) wanders. Speaking philosophically, if a tree…

lithub.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

1 month

Gotta say that Kinderhook Books has one of the dreamiest event set-ups in the HV

Richard Mirabella🦌

@RPMirabella

1 month

What I wore. Who I saw. @lmvandenberg and @mhbertino at Kinderhook Books in upstate NY. A wonderful conversation about State of Paradise in a beautiful setting.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Have you ever seen a more precious lunch date in your LIFE

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

Quick update: Kinderhook event is now *sold out* (folks can still come if they're cool with standing) but if you want a CHAIR and AC Oblong Books (Morton Library location) has got you covered!

Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

If you are in the Hudson Valley & want to step away from the internet for a few hours this week I am reallllly excited to be doing these 2 events at 2 of my fave bookstores in the area & with 2 of my fave writers

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Good god I feel such tenderness toward that last letter writer, as someone has never managed to gracefully navigate meeting my living heroes. Excellent advice as always from @Kristen_Arnett .

Am I the Literary Asshole? When to Mute Your Friend on the Internet

Hello again! It’s time for the latest installment of that magical column, Am I The Literary Asshole, a place where alcohol and advice come together to shake hands like the very best of friends. Tea…

lithub.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

Absolutely essential reading.

TIME

@TIME

4 months

"Today’s writing students will record how our current events become history," writes Matthew Salesses

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

♥️🌴🙏

N.S. Ahmed

@NSAhmed99

5 months

Oh my god oh my god oh my god!!! I first heard about this novel two years ago under my mentorship with @lmvandenberg through @PeriplusCollect , and dear reader, I have been eagerly WAITING for this! Now, I'm dropping everything and reading this asap! Laura hive rise up🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

@RPMirabella I’ve found reverse outlining what I I have to be really helpful—allows me to see gaps and patterns that I hadn’t previously. Also sometimes the only thing is to just press on, put something down—like a temporary bridge to get you to the next place.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Love this description of STATE OF PARADISE (from the great @KristenIsk ) so much I'm just gonna say this when people ask me what my book is about: "Like your favorite Twilight Zone episode if it had been written by Proust and performed by a troupe of sagacious Floridian kappas."

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

4 months

"It is rather the humble craft of putting your opinions and ego aside and letting something be said through you."

Opinion | I Don’t Write Like Alice Munro, but I Want to Live Like Her

We are very different writers, but I have kept Alice Munro in mind, daily and for decades, as an example to follow.

www.nytimes.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Took a career assessment test with my sister over the weekend. We were asked to answer questions like “what do you think about all the time” and “what do you never get tired of talking about or researching” and my answer to literally every single question was DOG

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

Speculative short story writers! Very excited to be teaching this craft intensive on speculative / fantastic short stories for @Tin_House .

Summer Craft Intensive: Laura van den Berg - Tin House

This intensive will focus on the art of writing speculative / fantastic short stories, with a particular emphasis on experiments in time, from Julio Cortázar’s parallel timelines in “Island at Noon”...

tinhouse.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Tbh one of the reasons I signed up for a boxing tournament this year was to ensure I was absolutely compelled to focus on another "project" beyond publishing a book. Otherwise I find it near impossible!

Corey Farrenkopf

@CoreyFarrenkopf

5 months

Friends who have had books come out recently: did you find it nearly impossible to concentrate on anything the week your book came out??? I listened to like 3 hours of an audiobook today and couldn’t tell you anything that happened…at all…

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Thrilled to be teaming up with @OblongBooks for STATE OF PARADISE pre-orders!

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

7 months

I would personally like to kill this narrative and bury it deep in the earth

Amy Stuber

@amy_stuber_

7 months

I'm really so tired of the narrative that every short story writer must produce a novel in order to sell anything to traditional publishers. I think a lot of mediocre novels we see were written by good short story writers who were told they had to write a novel to break through.

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

5 months

Thrilled to see STATE OF PARADISE on @PublishersWkly Summer Reads list: "Van den Berg is a master at nudging the familiar world slightly off its axis" @fsgbooks

Summer Reads 2024 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

The hot books of summer 2024 as chosen by the editors of Publishers Weekly. Picks for fiction, mystery, memoir, romance, children's books, YA, graphic novels, picture books, middle grade

best-books.publishersweekly.com

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

6 months

So many excellent books are coming out this month that I think my brain is melting a little

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

This is the second time I've come by since moving to NY. The first time he said "how did you forget so much so fast" so this was a major improvement lol

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Laura van den Berg

@lmvandenberg

2 months

The need to beat Trump—who is obvs a threat to democracy & the absolute worst in every conceivable way—has also been a great excuse for the democratic party to not take chances & to duck taking progressive stances on...so many things!

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