Sharing one of my favourite short stories this week—from perhaps the greatest Turkish writer of the 20th century, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. A gentle, sharp satire on Turkey’s modernization. Brilliant translation by film critic Fatih Ozguven. wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Had three short fictions accepted in @thebrusselsreview.bsky.social today. In other news: Karen Schauber from Vancouver Flash Fiction kindly asked me to provide a “writing tip” for their FB page, so here it is. It’s not Seneca or La Rochefoucauld, but you’re getting it for free so don’t complain.

Huge congratulations to Imogen Reid @imogenreid.bsky.social for getting her story “Fabrication” into Best British Short Stories 2025 alongside Ian Critchley, Alison Moore, Pippa Goldschmidt and others. Will definitely buy a copy when I’m back in the UK.

More photos from Turkey - this time eastern Turkey. 1/2

Just watched the indie horror Milk & Serial (2024). Started half-bored, ended impressed: yes, some formulaic turns, but the young director nails the atmosphere and gives us a genuinely disturbing protagonist. Strange age when a phone can outdo a $50m studio. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzG...

Beautiful piece by the California poet Natalie Marino this week. I loved how the closing lines of this text communicate through images the remembered bigness of everything in childhood without actually saying it.

A short fiction of mine, “On the Outside of Something”, came out in the Southeast Review this week. @southeastreview.bsky.social . www.southeastreview.org/single-post/...

The peer I’m sharing this week is Megan A. Schikora, a Michigan writer based in Michigan who has a novel out next year. The story below will resonate with anyone who’s had to negotiate the odd, sometimes awkward space of the children’s playground. frictionlit.org/sticks-and-s...

I’ve tried a couple of Rachel Cusk novels in the past and not been able to get very far. I’m a quarter of the way into this one – “Outline” – and its odd, monotone, weirdly detached narrator has me absolutely hooked.

We visited Brighton in the UK for a couple of days in the summer. I had Graham Greene on my mind, and tried my hardest to find the seedy, dilapidated, fifties seaside resort – but to no avail. Tescos, organic cafés, overpriced wine bars and ubiquitous London English was my superficial impression.

Finally got my paper copy of the Quarterl(y) journal today. When a suitable stretch of time has passed, I’ll share the complete story. Many thanks to Chris Smith for accepting the piece. @quarterpress.bsky.social

One of my favourite stories: Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. A masterclass in turning a grumpy, unlikeable narrator into the vehicle of an epiphany. I read it reluctantly a year ago, but it pulled me in like a black hole—into its dark, silent centre. thelondonmagazine.org/cathedral-by...

Last year I got a tax refund from the US gov for $1,400. We spent it straightaway. This week, I got another letter, saying this had been an error and, with no trace of an apology, demanding immediate repayment with a self-addressed envelope for the purpose. It’s the little things that count, right?

This week a curious piece that I really liked by @andrewbertaina.bsky.social Andrew Bertaina in The Forge @theforge.bsky.social . I think I was intrigued by the disparity between the calm, reflective tone of the narrator and the aggressive episodes he describes. forgelitmag.com/2025/08/04/p...

Tunisia, 2020. 1/2

Today I sat down by the window and spent an uninterrupted two hours just reading paper books: a Bengali short story, half an hour of Schopenhauer, a horror novel by Ramsay Campbell and a history of medieval Spanish Jews. I feel rejuvenated.

I’ve been posting my top ten favourite pieces of literary criticism(see first comment for entire list). Number one position goes to: Walter Benjamin’s “The Task of the Translator”. This essay is a pearl of poetry in itself …one of the most lyrical things ever written on what it means to translate.

Just had a story accepted in Catamaran! It’s a long one, too, 7000 words – something I thought would be difficult to place.

Reading this at the moment. A collection of stories by Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social with Boilerhouse Press. Absolute cracker of a title story – dark and sad, but beautifully written.

The peer I’m sharing this week is Noemi Schering-Olah, @itssonoemi.bsky.social a Hungarian writer who is a Best Small Fictions Winner and a SmokeLong Quarterly contributor. A selection of her pieces is here, and I think my favorite is “The Possessive Form” – very disturbing. noemiwrites.com

As I hardly ever try to get my creative non-fiction published, I’ve no qualms about putting this one up online for people to read. It’s about a year I spent working the night shift at a gas station in Scotland.

More photos from Ladakh. 1/2

Sharing the most recent issue of The Lincoln Review @thelincolnreview.bsky.social , which has the beautiful prints of Imogen Reid @imogenreid.bsky.social featured in it (link in first comment).

Looking forward to starting these three I bought today. Amit Chaudhuri, “Sweet Shop”; Banu Mushtaq, Heart Lamp (which won the International Booker); and one of these ghost/horror collections that Penguin are starting, clustered around a single idea – this one is on myth, edited by Katy Soar.

In the midst of these turbulent times, I will monastically continue to list my top ten list of literary criticism – no. 2: “Literary Theory” by Terry Eagleton (1983). It’s hard to write ‘funny’ literary theory, but Eagleton on the fascism of British modernism is just exquisite.

Great piece came out this week by Swetha Amit in Bending Genres @bendinggenres.bsky.social . Well worth the read. bendinggenres.com/mountain-lio...

A short fiction of mine came out in a previous issue of the Stand last year. Now their new issue is out, I’ll share it. (there’s also a link to the pdf in the first comment). It’s called “Walking in Circles”.

About a month ago I posted some pictures of an art gallery I visited in the state of Orissa, India. Now here are a few pictures from the actual place itself. 1/2

Sitting in a UK café: a British Asian Muslim in full kurtah, joking with older white working-class folks. It strikes me—if no one’s feeding us hate, most people manage difference just fine.

The writer whose work I’m sharing this week is Sean Padraic Birnie @seanbirnie.bsky.social , a writer of dark/horror short fiction based in Brighton, UK. Some very disturbing atmospheres in these texts – check out “Nubbins” and “Three Stories”. seanbirnie.com

A disturbing but enlightening interview with an American academic about the effect of instagram/tiktok/snapchat on youth. Three recommendations at the end: no personal device until you’re 14, no social media account until you’re 16,and a ban on all devices in schools. www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0MX...

Pleasantly surprised to find my name on the Best Small Fictions list of 2025 for a piece I had in @bendinggenres.bsky.social called “Apparitions”. Many thanks to Robert Vaughan for nominating me. Big congrats to all the other winners. altcurrentpress.com/best-small-f...

Arrived five days ago in my father’s (British) hometown. I yearned to flee this place as a kid. And yet I’ve been gravitating back to it every summer for over half my life now. Odd how you never really escape life’s rhythms, no matter what you think of them, and no matter how hard you try.

The peer whose work I’m sharing this week is Mikki Aronoff, a fiction writer based in New Mexico. What I really loved about this piece was the relationship between the siblings, and the amount of story the writer wisely leaves unsaid. midwayjournal.com/wasps/

My top ten list of literary criticism – no. 3: Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude. For all its faults, still the most amazing piece of prose ever written on what it means to be Mexican.

Today's view.

I’m sharing the contents and the first page of a short story of mine (“The Enormous Man”) which came out last week in the Quarter(ly), published by @quarterpress.bsky.social . Many thanks to Chris Smith for accepting the piece. Link in first comment.

Another interesting piece - "Wild Man" - has just come out from Kylie Hough, an Australian poet and writer widely published in many venues including LITRO and Maudlin House.

Pictures from Chile 1/2

I saw this article trending in the UK Guardian last month and wanted to share it then, but somehow forgot. My own mother was a cleaner, although without the racism and hatred this person had. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...

My top ten list of literary criticism – no. 4: “Cruel Optimism” by Laura Berlanti. I fundamentally disagree with its political content (it ends up exhorting a kind of anodyne, liberal stoicism), but it is so so so beautifully written. Great gateway to the stories of Charles Johnson, too.

Today my short fiction piece "The Ever-Changing Book" came out in the Los Angeles Review. losangelesreview.org/the-ever-cha...

Three days ago I was in the state of Orissa, India, walking around their museum. This is some of the contemporary artwork that people in Orissa are doing right now. (Courtesy of Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar). I was really impressed. 1/2

Sharing an exquisite story today by Laura van den Berg - “Transfer”. I think what I liked most was the incomplete but palpable sense of the protagonist’s oddness by the end of the story. @conjunctions.bsky.social conjunctions.com/articles/lau...

Writing’s funny. Initially you’re this space of endless spontaneity, open to new ideas. After 20 stories, you see the things that recur: certain themes, phrases, scenarios you keep gravitating to. No endless well of possibility, but a sprawling, finite eco-system, with its own habits and laws.

Talked with a friend who teaches at a private school in Istanbul last week. All their colleagues are using AI to do everything - to make lesson plans, school posters, classroom themes, even school plays and musicals. What will be the long-term effect when people don’t do these things anymore?

After a month-long drought, I got two stories accepted last week – one in a UK anthology, the other in the Quarter(ly) from Quarter Press. @quarterpress.bsky.social

Great new poem by Natalie Marino - "Portrait of America as Dennis Rader." @nataliemarino.bsky.social villaineralit.com/2025/03/11/p...

Reading this at the moment. Amazing how many gems are out there once you decide to go outside the ‘Western canon’.

Istanbul. 1/2