Someone (not me, I don’t know anything about this) should do some kind of panel about how writers can build “platform” without twitter. This comes up a lot. Twitter is a form I like to write in but asking all writers to perform in this often vile space needs revisiting

I do encourage my students to *read* tweets because this place is great for learning about other people without demanding anything from them

But demanding that people, especially BIPOC and white women writers, put their real names and likenesses on thousands of pieces of public speech in a time of widespread targeted harassment and threats? Literary publishing, it’s time to imagine something else.

What are some ways to build platform that are not this website? Or what are some ways to satisfy the desire for this without actually building platform? What is platform? Earnest questions--students have asked me this on multiple occasions over the last year & I want to help.