Day five and only four remain! Pour out a cold plum for yesterday’s runner-ups, including “This Is Just To Say,” bad art friend, and the transparency and advocacy campaign #PublishingPaidMe
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The four that are left are some of the most prominent moments on Twitter: cat person, or the short story that launched a thousand takes, the Ana Mardoll-fueled is it ableist to say writers should read? discourse that spiraled so wildly out of control, and Joyce Carol Oates, the master of the short form.
The scrappiest finalist might be @GuyInYourMFA, a brilliant bit account written by Dana Schwartz, who has a new book coming out next May called The Arcane Arts. We emailed Dana some questions about her time as a Lit Twitter celeb.
@GuyInYourMFA, has made it all the way to the quarterfinals of our bracket — congrats! How does it feel to know so many people are voting for your creation?
THANK YOU. I am equal parts mortified and proud. I made @GuyInYourMFA back when I was a senior in college, and now a decade later, I think sometimes I’m inclined to view it a little critically because I associate it with the feeling of being young and desperate for validation and attention of any kind, the humiliating memory of how famous and important I sometimes imagined myself to be.
But I also think it was a very fun exercise, and a chance for a lot of people to commiserate over the pretentious literary bros everyone has met at least once. Although I do think the character feels very of-his-moment: It’s almost quaint now to imagine being annoyed at a man in his early twenties reading Cheever.
What was it like to be a niche Twitter celebrity?
Would you believe me if I told you it really went to my head? I was a 22-year-old in the bubble of college who suddenly had a direct line into the real world, writing little jokes five times a day that people in the real world were actually reading! I remember how whenever a celebrity (or twitter celebrity) followed me or retweeted the account, I would immediately screenshot it and send it to my sister who was equally starstruck as I was.
The real highlight though is the fact that it genuinely launched my career. I found my book agent because he followed @GuyInYourMFA and eventually published by first YA novel because an editor who knew me from Twitter reached out. It feels really enchanted now in retrospect, and I am fully aware of how lucky I was: making the right thing at the exact, brief, moment when the internet felt centralized enough that this sort of thing was able to get traction.
What moments from Literary Twitter stand out in your memory?
Oh, for me it had to be the Cat Person discourse. Cat Person was such an incredible moment—we were all reading and talking about a short story! And then, layered on top of that, the amazing debate about whether or not you were allowed to write fiction inspired by random gossip you’ve heard! It’s all ridiculous and ultimately meaningless and exactly the sort of unifying piece of monoculture that I miss from the golden age of Literary Twitter.
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What do you think @GuyInYourMFA would say if he heard about this bracket?
Oh, he would be honored and delighted. Thrilled to be at the heart of the literary conversation. He’d love to come to a party, drink your wine, and tell you all about how actually, All That Man Is is far superior to Flesh.
Readers, the rest is in your hands now! The polls are open through the weekend, and we’ll see you on Monday for the finals!
Behold, the updated Bracket:
[Click to enlarge]
Rules
Now that Literary Twitter is dead, we’re asking, “What was it?” In this bracket, we’re seeking the Most Literary Twitter moment, discourse, or personage. What has been stuck in your mind, who sent you running to your group chat, what kept you scrolling for longer than you should have? What are you still bringing up in conversation today and having to explain to people with normal brains? In short, what most exemplified whatever the hell Literary Twitter was?
We’ve sorted all of the contenders (that we can remember) into four categories: Existential Crises, Matters of Taste, Bad Behavior, and Reading Comprehension. Each quadrant’s winner will face off on Friday, before the final head-to-head on Monday, November 24th to crown our winner.
Voting Schedule
Round of 64 Character Limit: Voting open now until tonight at 7:00 PM EST (Check out the results from the first round here)
Round of “dang, only 32 likes?”: Voting open Tuesday, November 18th from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST (Round two results are here)
Round of “sweet, 16 new followers”: Voting open Wednesday, November 19th from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST (Results from this round, here)
The Retweeted 8: Voting open Thursday, November 20th from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST (Round four’s results)
You are here –> The Quarter Finals: Voting open Friday, November 21st from 10:00 AM, until Sunday November 23rd at 7:00 PM EST
The Finals: Voting open Monday, November 24th from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST
And the winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 25th!
How To Vote
We’ve got handy voting forms embedded below. Like looking back at the old Twitter interface, they’re a little ugly, but they get the job done. Simply select which of the two discourses you think should advance, and we’ll tabulate the votes at the end of each day.
Scroll on….
is it ableist to say writers should read? (10) vs. joyce carol oates (2)
is it ableist to say writers should read? (10)
Trending Because: The trick to Twitter was to be just popular enough. There has always been a hard ceiling on the benefits of virality: you want to be popular, but never the main character.
One of the most searing examples of this dynamic was when Ana Mardoll got the main character treatment after posting a now deleted Tweet saying it’s ableist to expect writers to read. Weird stuff, by all accounts, and this was such an attention-grabbing take that it also led people to discover that Mardoll was a neoptism hire at the giant weapons company Lockeed Martin, in addition to being a writer. If you don’t remember the details (and want to), Brandon Yu helpfully rounded up the whole story here.
Writing, building bombs, and posting wild takes? That’s the American Dream right there.
Retweeted by: Drone pilots who love YA
VS.
joyce carol oates (2)
Trending Because: Joyce Carol Oates is the demigod of Literary Twitter. This is a woman so prolific she writes a book a year and still has time to tweet about everything under the sun, the takes ranging from terrible to excellent to head-scratching to hilarious to the picture of her foot.
As Eric Thurm put it on this very website: “Like your mythical uncle, Joyce Carol Oates is, at heart, a troll. Prolific across all mediums, it is not difficult to imagine Oates delighting in the act of tweeting, of tossing thoughts into the world, both for the enjoyment of the craft and to see what happens, like tiny crystalline bombs. Joyce Carol Oates is very bad at Twitter, which is also to say she’s very good at Twitter.”
Also: the woman is 87! She just tweeted 3 minutes ago. All hail.
Retweeted by: Wan little husks
guy in your mfa (11) vs. cat person (1)
guy in your mfa (11)
Trending Because: Maybe the most memorable Literary Twitter bit account, just edging out @Kim Kierkegaardashian. @GuyInYourMFA embodies the worst version of the stereotypical dude writer who has both too much and too little to say. The tweets nailed the voice of this workshop menace, who was full of references, ideas for novels, takes on feminism, new Moleskines, spelling opinions, musings on writing women, and so much more. And not to brag, but we got to interview “him.”
Retweeted By: Anyone who has taken a workshop with one of these guys
VS.
cat person (1)
Trending Because: In 2017, The New Yorker published a short story by a then-unknown writer, and within days it had gone viral. It would become the year’s second-most-read piece on the website, despite it being published in (checks watch) December. And again, a short story. Everyone was talking about it, even people who didn’t usually read fiction. (This was during the #MeToo movement.) Some of those people actually didn’t know they were reading fiction. Many women were in awe of how relatable it was. Many men felt they had to explain that it wasn’t that relatable at all. Some people bemoaned the fact that “relatability” was apparently important to readers; other people bemoaned the fact that some people were complaining about literature going viral. Fine.
But THEN, years later, a woman named Alexis Nowicki wrote an article alleging that “Cat Person” was based on her life. The debate about the story was instantly reignited, this time with a new bent: is it okay to steal the lives of others to write viral short stories and get seven figure book deals? Turns out there was actually no answer. Isn’t that always the way?
Retweeted by: People with ex-boyfriends
