'For most of my students, the benchmark of whether they fall in love with a work of literature is if they can ‘relate’ to it ... I often suggest that they should go to fiction for the opposite reasons: that it opens up new fields of experience, new worlds, new cultures.' Via @judecook.bsky.social.

'It must have appeared to the young Virginia Stephen as if they were worlds apart; while she was stuck at home with her father and her tedious domestic duties, ‘Miss Harrison’ was a brilliant Cambridge scholar who was already famous for her lectures.' Interesting essay by @akennedysmith.bsky.social.

Wonderful essay by Susie Boyt on Barbara Pym's beautiful, yet quietly devastating, late-career novel The Sweet Dove Died, which Boyt argues may have remained unpublished for so long 'not because it was too quaint but because it was too uncomfortable'. It's a real favourite of mine.

‘For years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: “Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.” David Lynch wasn’t just American, but freakishly American, and like any good scout was both pathologically self-assured and incurably naive.’ Ruby Hamilton on Lynch: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

'The Victorians had turned death into something of a pageant...The Great War, however, turned death into something sudden, cruel and unknowable.' Having written about Victorian Spiritualism in my last book, Out of the Shadows, I found this idea, & @alicevernon10.bsky.social's essay, so interesting.

Morning reading. I love the way that this essay by @judecook.bsky.social captures the essence of a place, & intertwines the author's personal memories with his literary work. It also made me miss Paris. 'Paris in the Blood': open.substack.com/pub/judecook...

'Can you sum up your mixed experience in one word? "Home. Both places are home."' So much chimed with me in this interview with Emily Itami, author of Kakigori Summer: mixedmessages.substack.com/p/emily-itam...

Entries are open for The Book Edit Writers' Prize 2025 judged by @janiceokoh.bsky.social (deadline 13 October). More details here: www.thebookedit.co.uk/writers-prize

'As a teenager who once ached for stories of young people like me, my oft-stung adult heart fills to think that we can now share Tsujimura’s tales with the people we’ve grown up with, grown up around, and grown apart from.' Wonderful LitHub essay by @yukitejima.bsky.social tinyurl.com/mwv7f6dm

Back at my desk today after a summer break & catching up with reading. And what a joyful & inspiring post to get me back into the swing of things: 'Libraries to fall in love with' by @akennedysmith.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

From @oliviacampbell.bsky.social's always interesting Substack - an essay focusing on inventor Leona W. Chalmers and a history of period protection products (a real window into past women's lives) open.substack.com/pub/oliviaca...

Writers! Note that AI translation (under the guise of "global access") is being seen/used as the weak point to get AI into publishing (possible bc Eng lang publishing is weak on translation). Stand with translators & for more human translation, fairly paid!

Great review of Nancy Wu’s narration of Vanishing World, clearly pointing out the ways in which she brings her humanity and skill to the job. A timely reminder why we shouldn’t let AI replace human narrators!

Thanks @akennedysmith.bsky.social! It was an honour to see my book Out of the Shadows featured in your excellent Substack newsletter. It's great to see Emma Hardinge Britten - famed orator & spirit medium - getting more of the interest she deserves.

Love and good London novel, and there are some great recommendations in this interesting piece by @jacquiwine.bsky.social.

Jane Harrison was also a notable Town figure in #Cambridge - she was in the first cohort of new women magistrates to serve the Borough (with Florence Ada Keynes, Clara Rackham, & Leah Manning IIRC) in 1920 following a change in the law removing the ban on women magistrates.

What a fantastic portrait of the amazing Jane Ellen Harrison. I have written about her early career, when she collaborated with Oscar Wilde among others. oscarwildesociety.co.uk/publications...

I wrote the preface for the first issue of new literary mag Bluebell - out now - & was delighted to discover so many interesting new voices in its pages. I look forward to many future issues. www.bluebellmag.com/bluebell-iss...

Lots of great cultural recommendations, plus an interesting profile of classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, in @akennedysmith.bsky.social's latest Substack: Cambridge Notebook #16 open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

'Here’s what I wish I knew all those years ago. It can be better to take decades to get published.' Such a heartening piece on learning from experience & writing what pleases you by @jessicabergergross.bsky.social, author of fiction debut Hazel Says No. @literaryhub.bsky.social. tinyurl.com/snrwtbf7

Completely fascinating - & moving - piece by Yukiko Duke on a mother-daughter book translating relationship, & the joys & challenges of transforming Japanese prose into another language. Essay translated by @iangiles.bsky.social. Thanks @jolloyds.bsky.social for sharing this.

On Bloomsday, I enjoyed reading this round-up of One-Day Novels by Henry Eliot. open.substack.com/pub/henryeli...

'Her landladies were deeply suspicious of Sayers’s wish to hold literary salons for Somerville students ... One landlady told her that she would rather have a badly behaved male undergraduate as a lodger than "a permanent woman". Catching up on reading. Enjoyed this by @akennedysmith.bsky.social.

'I never expected to win with a little story about a woman going through the menopause and joining the Townswomen’s Guild!' I really enjoyed this interview with Clair Humphries -- this year's winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. I look forward to reading more of her work.

'9 Books for Fans of the TV Series Miss Austen' by @ceilidhann.bsky.social. Lovely to see Rachel Cohen's The Austen Years here - as well as my book A Secret Sisterhood (cowritten with Emma Claire Sweeney), which explores the friendships of 4 great female authors, inc Austen: tinyurl.com/5bkkxwv3

I've been inspired by this @openbookon.bsky.social piece on writing seasonally by @samanthakgarner.bsky.social. I plan to get out into the city to write today.

'Compared to Hitchin, with its toytown streets and manicured lawns, Soho felt like real life. London was jammed with restaurants and cinemas and hustling nutters on the make. It was grown-up, scary and serious.' @judecook.bsky.social's essay recalls the imaginative world of a teenage film enthusiast

So looking forward to seeing this adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills, directed by Kei Ishikawa, who says 'In a few years' time, we might not be able to get to hear [the stories of those who experienced the Second World War], and that weighed heavily on me.' tinyurl.com/4e4mm329

Many congratulations to @sarahemsley.bsky.social, whose well-researched & atmospheric novel, The Austens, comes out this autumn! I was lucky enough to read an advance copy & can't wait to see it fully out in the world.

Great to be at @lucycavcoll.bsky.social last night for the fifteenth anniversary of the annual Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Congratulations to this year's winner, Clair Humphries, plus all the long and shortlistees! Looking forward to reading your books. open.substack.com/pub/lcfictio...

Congratulations to all the writers shortlisted (and longlisted) for this year's Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize! open.substack.com/pub/lcfictio...

'[The books] weren’t all true, but there were things in them that were. They were true and yet they were not specifically true.' I never tire of reading these past Art of Fiction interviews by @parisreview.bsky.social. This one by the late Jane Gardam is typically compelling.

In a rare post on SomethingRhymed.com (which profiles female literary friendship), my Secret Sisterhood coauthor Emma Claire Sweeney shares news about a writing retreat she's running in Paris this May with @ruppin.bsky.social. A few places still available! tinyurl.com/mw2a48vp

'A few of [these languages] are under threat, their continued existence in question, because of creeping linguistic homogeneity, moving like a silencing killer across our landscapes, rendering words unspoken and forgotten.' Very interesting essay on endangered languages by @drlornagibb.bsky.social:

“You’re working at the edge of risk, if you’re lucky. The writing can so easily go dead—you want to feel some excitement when you’re in the room, some throbbing in the gristle. You want to hit the wave.” We’ve unlocked our interview with Hanif Kureishi. buff.ly/IqKhBzy

'In her letters to friends and editors at this time she starts to use ‘we’ and ‘our’ unselfconsciously about her husband’s poetry and it is evident from what she wrote that they worked closely together from then on.' Fascinating portrait of Emily and Alfred Tennyson by @akennedysmith.bsky.social:

Entering the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, back in 2015, turned out to be very fortuitous for me & so I always feel excited on behalf of anyone who finds their work longlisted. Congratulations to all the writers whose names appear here! www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/news/lucy-ca...

Just came across @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social's review of Roland Allen's The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper via @sarahemsley.bsky.social's brilliant blog. I have now ordered Allen's book. It sounds like a wonderful read, as is the review that drew me to it. rohanmaitzen.com/2025/02/28/i...

You can make a change 📢 Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training by signing this open letter ✒️ authr.uk/sp40 #MakeitFair #MetaBookThieves #DoTheWriteThing

Here's my Substack essay for March: How the Bond films compare with the original Fleming novels (badly, is the answer). Read A Cup of Mud for FREE here 👇 judecook.substack.com/p/a-cup-of-mud

'I know a lot of people say ‘both,’ but there's a complexity with Japan. You can’t have dual-nationality, it’s either Japanese or nothing.' Enjoyed this interview with @callieuntitled.bsky.social, which explores mixed British-Japanese identities. Via the Mixed Messages Substack: tinyurl.com/39x4tztp

As always, some great reading suggestions from @akennedysmith.bsky.social:

As the @societyofauthors.bsky.social says, this is disappointing but not surprising. In my case, two out of two of my books have been pirated - a percentage that seems to be pretty standard among the writers I know.

Great to be taking part in this ‘Historians on Substack’ live event in London on 27 March, with a focus on modern storytelling in the digital era, tips & tricks for Substack writers and wine-fuelled networking. Booking details below. akennedysmith.substack.com/p/historians...

30 years after the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack, Tetsu Okumura, a doctor who treated victims, recalls his confusion & fear in an interview with @japantimes.co.jp. I also recommend Haruki Murakami's nonfiction book Underground, which explores the memories of others caught up in the horror of the day.

Thought-provoking piece exploring mixed Asian identity, US military occupation in Asia and the development of Yuko Tsushima's literary focus & style, written by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, translator of Tsushima's novel Wildcat Dome: lithub.com/race-made-ra...

This short documentary follows preteen sisters who, with the encouragement of their parents, are trying to leverage a social media presence into income. The film juxtaposes more conventional images of childhood with the hyperreal world of content creation.⁠ Watch here:

Interesting @literaryhub.bsky.social essay by @henrylienauthor.bsky.social on Hayao Miyazaki's storytelling, which runs counter to archetypal Western conventions, in the much loved Japanese film My Neighbor Totoro.

Teaching this online for City Lit, Sat, 22 March. In life we’re imprisoned by chronology but in fiction we are free to play. A day for writers who want to explore the challenges of fictional time. www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/craf...

Lots of great advice from @judecook.bsky.social in this essay on writing, & it's an engaging read, too.