Hey, billionaire tech guys; if arts degrees are so worthless why do you keep stealing all the work we created with ours?

I'm pleased to say that I'll be appearing at the Derby Book Festival on Friday 22 May at 1.30pm. I've spoken about my work at the festival twice before and they've been very enjoyable events. I'd be glad to see you – yes, you – there. www.derbybookfestival.co.uk/events/peter...

A Devil’s Alphabet by Annie Hayter has won The Galley Beggar Press short story prize! It's a marvellous story, Details in our newsletter: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

New on the blog today, my thoughts on WOMAN IN THE PILLORY by Brigitte Reimann (tr Lucy Jones). An excellent novella about a forbidden love affair between a young German woman and a sensitive Russian soldier during WW2. Humane, nuanced & quietly powerful 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/03/29/w...

From the archive for Yūko Tsushima, #BornOnThisDay in 1947, my thoughts on WOMAN RUNNING IN THE MOUNTAINS (tr Geraldine Harcourt) I loved this striking, beautifully written novel about a single mother raising her baby in a conservative Japanese society. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2023/08/27/w...

It's just a first draft, Vic. Just a first draft. 😭

Brilliant piece by @richardjmurphy.bsky.social on the ever-more-pressing relevance of the term ‘illth’, coined by John Ruskin, which perfectly describes the unfettered & rapacious Trumpian age we are living in. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/02...

'Study of a Velvet Crab.' (c1870) John Ruskin, one of the most influential voices in the 19thC art world, believed all beauty comes from nature and an artist's acute observation of it.

Details about my latest free workshop for paid Substack subscribers is now live! open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

Today is an exciting day: I have relaunched Inkcap! New website, new branding, lots of in-depth reporting on nature in Britain coming your way. Please share & help me get this thing off the ground. www.inkcap.co.uk/inkcap-is-ba...

And the joint winners were...Nell Osbourne and Moist Press for Ghost Driver, and Rebecca Grandsen and Tangerine Press for Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group. I'm so delighted that we found such stellar winners. www.thebookseller.com/news/the-que...

One of the greatest Irish novels, unpacking the obligations of family & documenting an Ireland of stifling morality, thankfully long gone. McGahern excels at small-town claustrophobia and there is no better chronicler of Leitrim's green lanes. Honoured to write this foreword. @faberbooks.bsky.social

In this week’s Notes from the Margin I’m exploring the way in which historical research turns into historical writing. open.substack.com/pub/wendypra...

POETS! 1 place left & bursary apps closing soon✍️🤗Join myself & Vanessa Lampert @nessalampert.bsky.social this May for a magical poetry retreat at the stunning Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre in Wales! Plus guest Luke Worthy. Both fledgling & on well on the wing poets welcome🙂 tynewydd.wales/course/journ...

Oh oh oh! I am excited!!!!

Yes dear people it's time for the COVER REVEEEAALLL www.waterstones.com/book/a-briti...

"If we write about what we care about, we risk irrelevance. It's worth the risk. it's the only risk." - Lynne Tillman

"There is no place more intimate than the spirit alone." May Sarton's stunning century-old ode to solitude: www.themarginalian.org/2017/12/01/m...

I smirked the first time I watched this, but by my fifth viewing I was howling. 😄

VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England. I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Introducing our Masterclass Webinar & Workshop Season: Eco-poetics and the Environment. 5 of each led by poets Ian Humphreys @lkiew.bsky.social James McDermott @wendypratt.bsky.social & @jsaphra.bsky.social Book one, several, or full seasons. Full descriptions: www.eventbrite.com/cc/eco-poeti...

"The thing is, it’s an unmatchable feeling when writing is good... But it doesn’t matter when it’s shit. No one dies. You just throw it away and write something else." Read our 10 Questions with GBP Short Story Prize nominee Kate Ansell: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/prize

St Patrick described himself as a refugee ("profugus"). He was a Roman Briton, trafficked into slavery in Ireland as a teenager who chose to return in adulthood as a missionary. He was elevated to the role of Ireland's national saint in the 7th century by the church of Armagh. Happy #StPatricksDay ☘️

Very sad to hear of Jane Lapotaire's passing. She played Julian of Norwich in the #BBCRadio4 version of FOR THY GREAT PAIN, alongside Jessica Gunning as Margery Kempe. A remarkable actor. 📻🎧😍

We are proudly brought to you by actual humans 😇 Not only are we book loving weirdos, but our audiobook recommendations are bookseller-driven, & our customer support team actually cares about answering your questions in a helpful, timely manner 💓

I still think about this a lot.

Joe Brainard’s ‘I Remember’ (1970-1975) is a small book that is immense inside, not least because of the way it—generously, wittily, companionably—opens up the reader to their own worlds of memory and feeling. There’s no such thing as an everybody book, but this is one. @dauntbookspub.bsky.social.

Yes everything is terrible but let’s not lose sight of the fact that someone has written the Headline to End All Headlines.

Just got the "first pass" of my novel through! Whoop! (That's the typeset manuscript, not yet proofread, but otherwise looking like a REAL book) 📚 Feel madly emotional! 😭(I had thought it would be less intense the second time. Nope). #EachLeafEachCurveOfStem #JohnRuskin

‘Do you know what else can go? Brass rubbings, that’s what. Nobody’s interested. Not me, anyway. Oh, and let’s get rid of people playing the spoons while we’re at it’ Timothée Chalamet

‘It’s International Women’s Day. Why aren’t you smiling?’

The sharp, dark, dazzling fiction of Beryl Bainbridge is being reissued by @dauntbookspub.bsky.social, starting with ‘The Bottle Factory Outing’ & ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ intros by Yiyun Li & A.K. Blakemore. @mcnallyeditions.com in US. Two of my faves ‘The Dressmaker’ & ‘Harriet Said’ to follow.

Hello Bluesky! I am looking for anyone who cares about/writes about/thinks about Rebecca West. I've been on a 10 year mission to get her a blue plaque in London and am finally allowed to re-apply after it was last turned down. I'd welcome help building a strong application. Thank you 💙🙏

I’ve just seen an early cover design for my second novel and I am very excited! #EachLeafEachCurveOfStem #JohnRuskin🍃📚

For an act of resistance to the tyranny of algorithms, try the Marginalian newsletter—undistracted notes on the search for meaning, free, ad-free, AI-free, fully human since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter

'He had changed everything in her life and solved nothing: the first rush of the excitement of discovery, and then the failure of love, contempt changing to self-contempt and final destruction, its futile ashes left in her own hands.' #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/03/03/t...

We are so excited that Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Congratulations to Rozie and all the longlisted authors! Visit the @womensprize.bsky.social website to read more 📚 womensprize.com/revealing-th... #Booksky #WomensPrize

My new novel BLACK BAG comes out next week and here are some readings I’m doing from it.

Submissions for issue 22 (autumn/winter 2026) are now open until 31 March! We’re looking forward to reading your short fiction, poetry, flash & essays ✨ bansheepress.org/submit

My March Substack newsletter is now live, featuring two new writing workshops (one FREE to paid Substack subscribers) as well as waffling about my first book being discussed on Corrie! open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

My March Substack newsletter is now live, featuring two new writing workshops (one FREE to paid Substack subscribers) as well as waffling about my first book being discussed on Corrie! open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

Congratulations to my mentee Faith Cotter who has been shortlisted for the Historical Novel Society First Chapters Competition for her brilliant novel NO COWARD SOUL! So brilliant to see her writing recognised like this - and so deserved! hns2026.com/competition

I'm running a one-day online workshop on Writing Historical Fiction on Sat 16th May, 10.00am-4.00pm. More details on my website. Fee: £150, and writers at all levels welcome! Let me know if you've any questions. 1/2 victoriamackenzie.net/teaching/

Really looking forward to this! 📚💙 #HistFic #CreativeWriting (And now I get to say - I'll be discussing my novel FOR THY GREAT PAIN - "as recommended on #CoronationStreet! "😂)

This sounds absolutely amazing!

Calling #poetry friends in #Cambridge You're invited to Poetry of Care - readings from BYCATCH by @csmithpoet.bsky.social Rock Road Library, CB1 7UG Wednesday 25th February at 7.15pm Book your free place here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-of-...

When is Peter Mandelson's birthday?

I'd say he's sweating now

The most surreal experience. FOR THY GREAT PAIN was recommended in the women's prison library on Coronation Street tonight! 📚😍

The most surreal experience. FOR THY GREAT PAIN was recommended in the women's prison library on Coronation Street tonight! 📚😍