Ruth Joffre

@ruthjoffre

Author of Night Beast and Lies I Tell My Children | Co-founder, Nightjar Arts Collective Just a queer Bolivian American woman who likes books and birds and making billionaires cry www.ruthjoffre.org www.nightjarartscollective.com

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Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 19d

I love a mountain lake

A lake with mountains in the background and a big blue sky with a tiny white dot that looks like a cloud but is actually the moon

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 19d

writer achievement unlocked: I got to add a books dropdown to my website because now I have two 😭

A screenshot of Ruth Joffre's website showing the Books dropdown menu and the page for her new chapbook, Lies I Tell My Children. The page has an image of the cover (bright red, with a silhouette of a condor surrounded by iridescent green bubbles) and the following text:

Almost a decade in the making, Lies I Tell My Children is a collection of surreal and fanciful falsehoods dreamed up by a single mom just doing her best. Originally inspired by the things parents say to get kids to do their homework or clean their rooms, this series of flash fictions expanded into an intimate portrait of one woman’s mind: her fears, her desires, and the secrets she keeps from her children.

Built around a series of hypotheticals (e.g. “if they don’t stop growing up so fast…”), the stories in this chapbook often veer into fantasy and fabulism, depicting a world where nightmares come to life, ghosts haunt the backyard, and slime molds creep out of the air conditioner. Everything in this chapbook is a lie, and yet every word of it is true.

Available now from Bottlecap Press! Many thanks to the magazines where pieces in this chapbook appear: Cascadia, FlashFlood, Flash Frog, Fractured Literary, Juked, khōréō, matchbook, and Necessary Fiction.

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 20d

wildflowers of the sierras

Sierra lily, an orange flower with brown spots and petals that curve back toward the stem

Monkshood, a purple flower with an irregular shape to its petals that recalls a hood or a dancer

Fireweed, a plant that produces so many flowers up its stem that it looks like a torch

White-flowered bog orchid or rein orchid, which produces many tiny delicate white flowers on its central stem

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 20d

meanwhile, in the meadows

An alpine meadow with a mountain and ’ Big fluffy clouds in the background

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 21d

meanwhile, in the mountains

The view from Olmsted Point with Half Dome way in the distance

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 22d

I’ve been keeping this secret for MONTHS and now I can finally scream about it: I’VE GOT A FLASH CHAPBOOK COMING OUT!!!! it’s called Lies I Tell My Children and it has an amazing cover!! order it from Bottlecap Press: bottlecap.press/products/lie...

The front and back covers of the chapbook Lies I Tell My Children by Ruth Joffre. The front cover is bright red and features the silhouette of a condor surrounded by iridescent blue bubbles. The back cover has the following text:

Almost a decade in the making, Lies I Tell My Children is a collection of surreal and fanciful falsehoods dreamed up by a single mom just doing her best. Originally inspired by the things parents say to get kids to do their homework or clean their rooms, this series of flash fictions expanded into an intimate portrait of one woman’s mind: her fears, her desires, and the secrets she keeps from her children.

Built around a series of hypotheticals (e.g. “if they don’t stop growing up so fast…”), the stories in this chapbook often veer into fantasy and fabulism, depicting a world where nightmares come to life, ghosts haunt the backyard, and slime molds creep out of the air conditioner. Everything in this chapbook is a lie, and yet every word of it is true.

Ruth Joffre is a Bolivian American writer and the author of the story collection Night Beast. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in more than 100 publications, including Wigleaf, SmokeLong Quarterly, TriQuarterly, Fractured Lit, Pleiades, hex literary, and the anthologies Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions. She does not have children.

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 22d

hello from the high sierras!

An alpine lake with a crag in the background

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 25d

hello from San Diego

Two palm trees swaying in the breeze against a backdrop of a deep blue sky

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 26d

sleepy little birdie 🪶

A juvenile yellow-crowned night heron falling asleep on a rock with one of its legs tucked up into its belly

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 26d

a reminder that the world is still so beautiful

A hooded oriole perched on the branch of a flowering bush

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 28d

there’s so much more to story structure than just the hero’s journey. come see what’s possible in this online class starting next month hugohouse.org/product/unde...

A flyer for Understanding Story Structure with Ruth Joffre, an online class for intro to intermediate writers meeting for three sessions, starting Wednesday August 19 and ending September 2. Underneath all the details there’s a cross section image of the inside is a spiral shell

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· 28d

in food heaven 🤤

A giant plate of carne asada in a verde sauce with a side of rice and beans

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· Jul 10

reviewing proofs for my forthcoming @adventitiouswords.bsky.social story "A Hole in My Heart the Shape of the Multiverse" and getting excited to share this with all of you! it's like a cross between Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Fountain (but is actually inspired by Maya Deren)

A shot from Everything Everywhere All at Once where Michelle Yeoh's character is looking at her hot dog fingers

That scene from The Fountain where Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz are standing beside the gnarled tree inside the orange bubble hurtling through the vast reaches of space

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· Jul 10

ICYMI: I have a new story out in Lightspeed about a young woman whose grandmother feeds her ancestral memories! it's a bit like that one episode of Wheel of Time where Rand goes to Rhuidean and uncovers thousands of years of memories about the Aiel, except the main character's gay and Bolivian

A shot from that episode of Wheel of Time. Rand is standing in front of the glass columns/trees, about to walk in and experience all these memories

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· Jul 10

a sleepy snoot

A close up on the face of a sleeping black dog with a graying chin

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· Jul 6

I’ve made an extremely important scientific discovery! my dog is part elf

A large black dog with spotted white paws whose ears are folded in such a way that they look like they’re standing up like an elf’s ears

Ruth Joffre@ruthjoffre· Jul 1

it's finally here!!! the July issue of @lightspeedmagazine.com, featuring my story "Waru Waru," about a young woman whose grandmother feeds her ancestral memories. it's available now to subscribers or free to read later this month. check it out! it has an amazing cover! www.lightspeedmagazine.com