John Linstrom (he/him)

@johnlinstrom.bsky.social

222 Followers 317 Following

A public-engaged scholar, poet, nonprofit guy on a mission to save Liberty Hyde Bailey's historic home in Ithaca, NY for the good of climate & democracy ( www.bailey-center.org ). poetry book: tinyurl.com/5n8ruav6

A grayscale photograph of a group of young men standing in front of what appears to be a barn. To the far right is a man in his 40s.
Grayscale head shot of the dapper David A. Williston, as described in the post
An image of a bird on the edge of a rooftop singing toward the rising sun. This is a Substack ad tile, featuring the post title, "Moving to Ithaca in Search of Deep Gladness, Deep Hunger," and the explanatory tag, "On leaving the tenure track and learning to follow my own vocational advice."
I flip through my copy of PMLA that includes my edition described above. It is tactile, glossy, pages slightly charged with static—a thing!
A bunch of books and issues of journals and magazines are spread across a concrete patio. Plastic ziplock bags that recently held them in a freezer are pinned to a chain-link fence, along with a couple dust jackets and like items.
Books are propped on a concrete patio in the sun, with their dust jackets affixed to a chain-link fence with clothes pins. A series of decorative postcards are also pinned in the breeze, and a framed portrait of the author’s wife and a couple other desktop odds and ends sit in the sun.
Bunch of books on the shelves of an industrial storage unit
Many books on a back patio propped spines-up in the sun (with a section of softcovers lying flat) and many dust jackets clothes-pinned to a wire fence. The scene is that of a mad person’s patio
Footage of books, dust jackets, and bags described
A dozen books on a shelf
Bunch of books on shelves of a storage unit intended for garage-type storage (but in our dining room)
A walk-through of many many books propped in the Louisiana sun for some UV treatment
Mold spot on ceiling
Wagonload of books
Me in an N-95 mask in my moldy office, which is still over 80% humidity, with stacks of ziplock-bagged books behind me on the floor and a shelf and many many more books still on shelves across the entire wall behind them.
A row of mostly old books on a shelf
A small device propped on a shelf in front of books spines reads 87% humidity and 67.5° Fahrenheit.
In a cursive child’s hand, in pencil: When days are dark And friends are few; Remember me And I will you.
Beat-up brown cover of Sheldon’s Modern School: Fifth Reader. The cloth is gone from the spine.
Five shelves of sturdy storage, wide enough for two rows of books, newly reconstructed
The books, previously depicted with spines up in the sun, now bagged in ziplocks.
Line graph of UV exposure across 24 hours today, showing current levels rated “very high”
A bunch of books on a shelf related to the three classes named
A platter with breakfast, ready to bring in to bed
A Substack link card with the title “It has been a year” and the image of a three-year-old child walking away from the viewer down a broken sidewalk toward the setting sun, which is viewed through a fretwork of tree branches
Hidden Easter eggs
Clouds tear themselves over the backs of low mountains. An airplane slowly crosses the tarmac. Gray and blue
View of some of the Rocky Mountains from a plane, outside of Denver
A large crane fly, mangled, in the web of a compact little spider, also present
An image of the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf’s name replaced with Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl, and the following caption: ‘The Gulf of Mexico could rightfully be called “Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl.” It is what the Nahuatl People originally called it as it is the domain of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is assoc w/water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico.’
An “Imperial Sheet Atlas” showing “Mexico en 1794,” in which a yellow region comprising Mexico, New Mexico, Louisiana, Florida, and other areas variously labeled are all shaded yellow and surround the Gulf of Mexico and extend far up the North American continent, with a smaller region to the east and north in orange with labels like United States and Canada, above which someone has placed a caption reading, “And, this is why it’s called the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Because One Is Always Forgotten” by Carolyn Forché
A text from an unknown number reads, “I want to go fishing tomorrow. Can you go with me?”
A small living room is lit by multicolored lights on a natural Christmas tree, flanked to the right by an old, defunct fireplace with a fake gas setup and a single stocking hung at the center of the mantel
My office door with a “Happy Birthday” banner hung in front of it
The author and his beautiful bride sit behind a great mass of spicy-sauced fried shrimps
The cover of Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums, edited by Kristin Alford
A full conference room, standing-room only.
A vast plane of mottled cloud-tops, reaching for the sun, casting long shadows, fronting a vast, much higher plateau of cloud in the far distance. One comes into the awareness that one lives on a marvelous space rock, wreathed in the stuff of life.
A photo of me wearing a Trampleman T-shirt under an open plaid button-down with a Louisiana “I Voted” sticker on it
An “I voted” sticker held before a rainy parking lot scene, with a mother and child under an umbrella in the out-of-focus background
A lion requests treats from her mother skeleton at a handsome bungalow porch in the Highland neighborhood of Shreveport, LA
An advertisement for the reading, with pictures of my head and the book cover as well as the info mentioned in the above post.
Stack of books
Cover of Northwest Reviw
Centenary College business cards with my name on them
The sun rises behind the main entrance to Centenary College of Louisiana