Tajja Isen @tajjaisen Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Tajja Isen

@tajjaisen

7,841

Followers

726

Following

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Author, SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS (2022) & TOUGH LOVE (2026) | Interim EIC @Orion_Magazine | Contributing writer @thewalrus | tajjadee @gmail .com | She/her

Las Vegas, NV

https://t.co/2Q85jPf9OL

Joined December 2009

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

11 months

Some news: I’m writing another book—a memoir. TOUGH LOVE is about mentorship and ambition, but also desire and discipline, submission and kink, power and control. It is the best, most personal thing I’ve ever written and I can’t wait to work on it in Vegas this spring.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Extremely Toronto tweet but why would you call it the Eaton Centre Food Court when you could call it the Eaton Centre Eatin' Centre

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

11 months

Walked past this stack on the street today … somebody had listened and learned enough, apparently

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@JanelCubbage

Janel Cubbage

11 months

A lot of yall didn’t learn not a thing in your lil 2020 anti-racist book clubs and it shows

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Tajja Isen

3 years

I can't take the phrase "the before times" seriously; it has real "doggo" energy

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

*Phoebe Bridgers voice* emotional, a bear

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

The level of collective burnout we're experiencing right now is some truly dystopian shit, largely because we've agreed to act like it's not happening

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Tajja Isen

3 years

@theferocity Mal has been giving her that same limp handhold for how many years with no heat ... hot mysterious general touches her wrist for two seconds and the goddamn sun explodes

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

I'm incredibly proud to share some masthead changes over at @CatapultStory . I am honored, and so excited, to be the magazine's new editor-in-chief!

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Tajja Isen

3 years

As a huge fan of all things @CatapultStory , I am thrilled to announce that I’m joining Catapult Magazine as an editor! I've loved being a contributing editor for this team and I’m so excited to work with them full-time. Stay tuned for a pitch call next week!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

As promised, I am now taking pitches/submissions for @CatapultStory ! This thread gives a sense of what I'm looking for and examples of pieces I’ve edited for the magazine. It's lengthy, but hopefully it contains all the info you'll need.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Truly not the dek I was expecting!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

My baby is published today! Please join me in welcoming her to the stage. I hope she makes you laugh:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

I'm looking to commission some new essays for @CatapultStory for Dec/Jan! Here's a guide that includes what I'm looking for, how to pitch, examples, and rate info. I'm reading on a rolling basis for now but will update the doc if that changes.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Looking to commission some new essays for @CatapultStory for Feb/March! I'm looking for first-person essays that use the personal as a portal to broader questions & conversations. Here's my pitch guide, which has everything you need to know:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Stewardship of this vital literary space has been the greatest honor of my career. I'm deeply grateful for the trust of my mentors, my team, and the community, and I'll forever be proud of the work we did.

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Catapult to Shutter Online Magazine, Writing Classes

The decision to suspend the publisher's editorial and educational arms will

www.publishersweekly.com

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

The usual upsetting stats about millennial housing takes a surprising and welcome turn towards hope!

@thewalrus

The Walrus

4 years

Home ownership for many millennials will never be a reality. Even if you’re lucky enough to get help from your parents, so many in this generation have had to work harder, earn less, and have their adulthood shaped by precarity, writes @kelkord . 1/6

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Tajja Isen

3 years

Oh lord I just signed off with "my besty best" instead of "my very best"

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

I wrote about how there's nowhere fun to be a writer (or reader) online anymore—and what that must feel like for the next generation of journalists:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 months

This is gutting. I have so much respect for Andrea for writing this, especially amidst a flood of pieces—including mine, just last week—that missed this part of her mother's legacy:

@TorontoStar

Toronto Star

2 months

In the home of Alice Munro, a dark secret lurked. Now, her children want the world to know.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

6 years

Hey @WritersofColor ! I'm a contributing editor at @CatapultStory and would love to see your pitches (or drafts, if it's your first publication) for narrative nonfiction/personal essays. Send pitches and clips to tajjadee @gmail .com.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Do you ever look at an email you sent earlier in the day like .... who the fuck wrote this

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

6 months

For @vulture , I wrote about one of the most vexing expectations in the publishing process: that writers become mouthpieces for the issues in their books, and how that takes form in the promotional essay. Then I convinced them to run it on my pub day 😈:

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Do I Really Need to Op-Ed to Sell Books?

Writing essays to help promote your work is a growing expectation that merits more scrutiny.

www.vulture.com

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Binders Full of Kidneys

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 months

A lil job news: I'll be stepping in as interim EIC of @Orion_Magazine for the rest of this year! I didn't think I'd get this kind of opportunity again and I'm really grateful.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 years

I'd love to get more pitches for @CatapultStory ––seeking smart, scene-driven narrative nonfiction (personal or not!) that intersects with culture and politics. Full drafts preferred, word limit approx. 2500, and we pay! Send to tajjadee @gmail .com. cc: @WritersofColor

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Today, an excerpt from my book appears in @TIME (!). It’s about the poses and artifices of literary whiteness, my attempts to mimic them as a teenager, and the privilege of being read generously:

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America Doesn’t Know How to Read the Work of Black Writers

Their writing is seen as "good for you" rather than simply good

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

I submitted my book 😱

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

This is the least erotic thing I've ever seen

@CPingMedia

CPing Media

3 years

Chris Martin covering Pony by Ginuwine 😂🐴 | via

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

10 months

What if, instead of blurbs, books had quotes from the editors who passed on the manuscript while it was on submission

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

For @TheAtlantic , I wrote about reassessing my relationship to work, want, and where those things intersect—all through the books that have guided my thinking:

What to Read When You’re Feeling Ambitious

Literature, rife with tales of ambition or slackerdom, can be well-equipped to answer questions about the costs and benefits of striving.

www.theatlantic.com

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

@Lubchansky My landlord is literally called Karen #intersectionality

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

A "nice" deal in publishing is when the book sells for $69,000

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

Some professional news! Delighted to be returning part-time to @thewalrus as a contributing writer, where I look forward to having them change all my Americanized spelling. And alongside the amazing @michellecyca !

@thewalrus

The Walrus

1 year

We are thrilled to announce that @michellecyca and @tajjaisen are joining The Walrus as contributing writers. Read the first of their pieces on starting next week.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Please do your year-end writing roundup threads! They make me so happy (and I'm always looking for new writers to commission).

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 years

Some exciting news––I'm now the Digital Editor at @walrusmagazine , working with the greatest web team this side of paradise!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

I'd like to read a column called "How I Didn't Get It Done"

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

My book, SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: ESSAYS ON LIP SERVICE, is available for preorder! It’s about how we live, and what we demand, amid token apologies for structural racism; out 4/19/22 from @OneSignalPub & @DoubledayCA . US: Canada:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

Wrote the first draft of this proposal almost a year ago, in the cafés of lower Manhattan. Rewrote it during lockdown in Toronto, from the depths of lip service–induced despair. Then I spent an hour writing this tweet.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

if you're gonna ask me for something, please be nicer than this. I'm having kind of a hard time.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

My first book comes out in exactly three months! Early reviews and blurbs have affirmed the things about it that I'm proudest of—humor, pleasure, sharpness. For debuts especially, every preorder helps! US: Canada:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

I'm seeking pitches for The Walrus about home and housing! What (or where) is home to you, especially now? How have your ties to it changed? What the hell is this rental market? Send pitches (essays, culture, short features) to tajja @thewalrus .ca by June 1st.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

Overheard from next door: "You are a GROWN MAN. You should know better than to [unintelligible] a PIZZA POCKET."

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

“Doesn’t it scan as odd that the collective book industry reply to “your working conditions are so racist they’re a form of psychological horror” was an ecstatic ‘yes, drag me’?” An excerpt of my book is out today in @lithub :

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How the Book Industry Turns Its Own Racism into a Marketable Product

The failure of progressive change in contemporary book publishing is so total that there is now a whole string of books about the failure of progressive change in contemporary book publishing, ofte…

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

When editors are like "Why can't I find any new writers? Why are we publishing the same five people? Why are all of them white? Where are my 'diverse' writers?" Shit like this is why!!!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

25 days

This idea's been burning a hole in my brain for about a year. Grateful to the writers and designers who spoke to me for my favorite publishing essay yet:

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The Hidden Racism of Book Cover Design | The Walrus

The publishing industry’s troubling reliance on visual stereotypes

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

6 years

Inbox at zero, so please pitch me your personal essays/narrative nonfiction for @CatapultStory ! Word limit of 2500; full drafts strongly preferred (esp. if you have no clips); please send your work to tajjadee @gmail .com. @WritersofColor @DisabledWriters @LatinxinPub @PocPub

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

The site for getting your driver's licence in Canada has a different white girl for every province:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

More essays should be funny.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

oh, no. @BitchMedia is a huge, heartbreaking loss.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

This is kind of niche, but I'd love a writer to pitch me a piece on recording their own audiobook and what that confrontation with their work was like.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

I'll think I'm having a normal day and then Google docs will call me some shit like "Anonymous Quokka"

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Re: American Dirt and "risk-taking" in publishing, just gonna leave this here:

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How the Book Industry Turns Its Own Racism into a Marketable Product

The failure of progressive change in contemporary book publishing is so total that there is now a whole string of books about the failure of progressive change in contemporary book publishing, ofte…

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Just wrote in an email that my book comes out on April 93th, pre-pub is going great

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Looking to commission some new @CatapultStory essays! Pitch guide has been ~revised and updated~ so please read carefully.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

I have an irritatingly on-the-nose craving to read books that are set mostly, if not entirely, in a single house. Ideally a sprawling one, haunting optional. Recommendations?

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 years

I've recently started editing for The Walrus, and I'm currently seeking web pitches! Here's a short thread of the sort of thing I'd love to assign (and that we're looking to do more of, in general):

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

Some personal news! I adore the work Black Mountain Institute does and the community they’ve built. I can’t wait to work on book two in the Vegas desert:

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UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute Announces 2023–24 Shearing Fellows

Writers-in-residence program brings diverse literary perspectives to the Las Vegas Valley.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

The Catapult mag 2022 wrap-up newsletter just landed in my inbox and I am verklempt, first full year as EIC and what a year it's been.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

6 years

Good morning, writers! I’m currently seeking personal essay and narrative nonfiction submissions for @CatapultStory . 800-2,000 words, full drafts preferred. Please send pieces to tajjadee @gmail .com.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

@ortile exhausted

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

As an avowed Zillow-scroller (show yourselves!!!), I love this piece by @amil on real estate TV, house prices, and being a property-ladder voyeur:

@thewalrus

The Walrus

4 years

Home ownership is increasingly out of reach for the majority of millennials. But that hasn’t stopped a generation from trying to participate in the property ladder as voyeurs, writes @amil . Read about the baffling popularity of real estate TV: 1/6 #housing

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Tajja Isen

4 months

Thrilled and stunned that my work at @thewalrus is a finalist for Best Column at the National Magazine Awards—it means a lot to have arts & culture crit get this kind of recognition

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

6 years

@WritersofColor Always seeking narrative-driven personal essays and nonfiction for @CatapultStory ! I love a strong sense of voice. 2,000 words max; full drafts preferred; we pay! Inbox open at tajjadee @gmail .com.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Catapult was my second-ever byline. I'm still stunned @nicolesjchung took a chance on me and offered me a contributing editor position. Taking over as EIC was only possible because of the stellar team she already had in place: @ortile , @ssrosecw , @Allisen_ , @elizaeharris . Stars.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

newsletter, (racist) op-ed, profile, personal essay

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

A part of publishing I think we ought to discuss more is the way "things you mention in your book" shades into "things you're expected to be an expert on" pre- and post-pub—on social, in branding, in "op-eds"

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

Really grateful, in this blighted landscape, to have a writing gig where I can just be like "hey can I write about this thing on my mind" and the answer is usually "hell yeah"

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Cut off many, many inches of hair and feeling very nice about it.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Wrote about the language of “that’s not my Canada” and the country’s obsession with seeming chill and nice and Not Like Them:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

7 months

Once Vice sent me money long overdue for a freelance piece and then asked me to send it back

@GrimKim

Kim Kelly

7 months

“The company’s chief people officer Daisy Augur-Dominguez received a $99,000 bonus, while admonishing staff trying to get their expenses back for not being polite. Augur-Dominguez was paid $749,000 in annual compensation” .

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Gonna have a book cover and a preorder link to share next week 👀👀👀

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

might do a @CatapultStory column pitch call soonish ... feel like we've all got a lot to say. watch this space. and also this one:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Some housekeeping: the mag will remain archived online, so you can access your prior work. We will be publishing for the rest of this week. If you've contracted a piece with us for beyond Friday, we will be in touch to make sure you get paid.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

In ideas-driven memoir, you can totally tell when the writer hasn’t read around a little in the subject area and acts like they’re the first one ever to have these thoughts

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

Sometimes you write the pitch and in doing so realize the essay should not exist! And that's okay!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

If you want more puns and snark (including about Canada), have I got the book for you:

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Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen | Penguin Random House Canada

A fearless and darkly comic essay collection about race, justice and the limits of good intentions from the editor in chief of Catapult.

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Please send me books in the mail. Truly, nothing makes me happier than slouching down to the mailbox and seeing a little book or two

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

4 years

Over at @walrusmagazine , we've launched a new digital series on all things outer space. We'll be publishing new stories every day this week, on subjects from Indigenous star stories to the dangers of space junk. I'm so proud of what we've created:

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In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration | The Walrus

The stars are closer to home than we think

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

"In the nine essays in this stellar debut collection, the author probes the gap between expectation and reality." Thank you to @KirkusReviews for this ⭐️starred⭐️ review of SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS:

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS | Kirkus Reviews

Social justice—or what passes for it—falls under the scrutiny of a Canadian voice actor, cultural critic, and editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine.

www.kirkusreviews.com

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Moving to New York next month; will be sending out lots of applications to be your friend

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Submissions are preferred but pitches work, provided they’re detailed and give a strong sense of the arc. Finished pieces run to ~2000 words and all contributors are paid. Please send submissions to tajja.isen @catapult .co **please note that's .co, NOT .com**

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

One of my favorite things about editing essays is asking writers "Do you think there might be a book here?" and seeing the lightbulb go off. It can be a hard thing to see for oneself—it was for me—and I love extending that little gift of possibility.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

11 months

Can also share the anxiety of receiving multiple emails from my agent and editor with the subject line “TOUGH LOVE” before remembering it’s what I named the thing

@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

11 months

Some news: I’m writing another book—a memoir. TOUGH LOVE is about mentorship and ambition, but also desire and discipline, submission and kink, power and control. It is the best, most personal thing I’ve ever written and I can’t wait to work on it in Vegas this spring.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Broadly speaking, I’m excited to commission essays that balance personal narrative with sharp cultural analysis. I love to see a writer attending carefully to sources, texts, and contexts to clarify—or complicate—the story of themselves.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

I'm incredibly excited to introduce I GIVE UP, a new series from @CatapultStory magazine. Each day, we'll be publishing two new pieces in which writers reflect on something they've renounced—today is @j_zimms on pants:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 years

The news is out! I'll be the visiting deputy editor at @ElectricLit in August, pinch-hitting for my fave editor @j_zimms . Send your essay pitches to tajja @electricliterature .com! Will shortly put out a thread for the sorts of stuff I'm keen to assign.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Wrote a little tribute to the magazine:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

My grandmother has been found. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and amplified.

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Tajja Isen

8 months

Dream assignment to be asked to write about books that make me cry, to which my answer was basically “most of them, for different reasons; how much space do I have?”:

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Seven Books That Earn Your Tears

Getting a cheap rise out of readers is easy. Faithfully representing life on the page takes more skill.

www.theatlantic.com

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Wished my copy editor a "Happy New Year," almost everyone else a regular "Happy new year," and at least one person a "Happy new head"

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Tajja Isen

1 year

What a life this essay's had in the past week. Thank you so much to everyone who read and shared it:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 years

I'm so thrilled to announce HOUSE ON FIRE, a forthcoming essay anthology about climate change––with a truly stellar slate of writers––co-edited by me and the genius @ingredient_x . Our subject is the planet but our contributors are OUTTA THIS WORLD:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

5 months

It's really special to have my column for @thewalrus recognized by the @DPAwards . Thank you to editors/visionaries @cstarnino , @dannyviola , and @dafnaizenberg —and congratulations to @michellecyca , whose brilliant column is also a finalist.

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

Catapult mag ends on a strong note with this banger by @tnwhiskeywoman , on writing a romance novel after being an avid reader of the genre for years. Edited by @ortile as part of Romance Week (led by @ssrosecw ) with art direction by @elizaeharris :

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

2 years

happy third (!) anniversary to this legendary @RaxKingIsDead essay:

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

9 months

I’m right and more people should say it!

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The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket | The Walrus

I don’t want to be told what’s going to happen and I definitely don’t want to be told what the book is “about”

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

3 years

Writers: what goes through your mind when you put a section break in an essay? (For me: "key change," "mic drop," "I sleepy.") I am curious about why and how you make the choice!

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

24 days

For the evening crowd: I wrote about the way the book-cover design process often fails racialized authors. I'm really proud of this piece and it'd mean a lot if you read it.

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The Hidden Racism of Book Cover Design | The Walrus

The publishing industry’s troubling reliance on visual stereotypes

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@tajjaisen

Tajja Isen

1 year

"These closures represent a tremendous loss not only of talent but also of critical onramps into the industry: places that aren’t cordoned off by house voices and legacy branding ... Where being subversive or pioneering or niche is the point."

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