“I’ve always told people that all they have to do is read. But that’s the hardest thing to do.” From our Art of Criticism interview with Hélène Cixous in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/zshigS4

Only when she has disappeared can the curtain go up; she is relegated to repression, to the grave, the asylum, oblivion and silence… She is loved only when absent or abused, a phantom or a fascinating abyss. ~ Hélène Cixous, Aller à la mer, On Ophelia www.freetheatre.org.nz/uploads/1/4/...

It was making me desperate, thinking I was going to have to find a job. A job for Christ's sake. ~ Eve Babitz All about Eve 💅 www.theparisreview.org/authors/3437...

I have always said that one should consider the féminine in l'écriture féminine as a sort of adjective, not a noun. As if the writing were by peonies or by a horse. ~ Hélène Cixous 🌸 www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...

Kamal Chomani argues that the Middle East is undergoing rapid transformation and that Kurdish inclusion is essential for regional stability www.theamargi.com/posts/the-mi...

Worrying for Kurdistan, and the whole region…

“This morning, I was a depressed, frumpy loser. But then, in a moment, everything changed. You see, I just purchased a forty-five-dollar bouquet of dried willow branches from a pixie-haired woman at the farmers’ market. Now… my life sings with limitless potential.” www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts...

Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us. … According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them. ~ Edmund Burke, c. 19 Quite amusing op-ed 🦃

A wonderful Christmas story 🎄 about dreams and secrets www.newyorker.com/podcast/fict...

When I was in Wellington, NZ, this campaign had dropped by the Ministry of Social Development. What if Australia and USA followed suit? Could intimate partner violence and DV be reduced? I hope so… www.lovebetter.org.nz?gad_source=1...

“The writer and director's new film plays with surreality and cinematic language that borders on supernatural horror” This film reminded me of Andrzej Żuławski’s ‘Possession’ www.bkmag.com/2025/11/18/m...

“Tobacco, swiss roll, Irish whiskey, Guinness and monkey nuts” - Dylan Thomas’ shopping list (I’d read it) 🥜 www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

The ballet duo in the swinging sixties in Lebanon 🩰🧿 open.substack.com/pub/leilaloi...

My favorite time is in time’s other side, its other identity, the kind that collapses and sometimes reappears, and sometimes doesn’t. The one that looks like marshmallows, pomegranates, and stranger things… ~ Etel Adnan www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/16/e...

Black Grace world premiere of “If There Ever Was a Time” by Neil Leremia and Paul Taylor’s “Esplanade”. The words in the programme provoke: “If ever was a time for rebellion, for action, for hope, for humanity, for love—it’s probably now.”

open.spotify.com/episode/0TpS... We should be interested in untold stories ~ Elif Shafak 💕

My beautiful friend Joëlle has published these lovely ballet journals for young dancers: www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1HKD7C... 🩰💕

“In Lanthimos’s movies, the sacrificial victim is a central figure, and it is very often the protagonist himself or herself … These are rites that demand no belief in anything, but, rather, mere vicarious participation.” salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/847...

Swans, scrap journals, ballet class & staying whimsical www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... 🦢

A new short story, in time for Gingerbread Season 🍭💕 open.substack.com/pub/leilaloi...

This month’s issue includes a previously unpublished poem by Dorothy Porter alongside poems by Mindy Gill and Peter Goldsworthy.

A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM

He speaks Spanish, & loves Bodega cats! variety.com/2025/digital...

I turn to novels, and death haunts my reading, my familiar places, my reading about familiar places.” A beautiful essay on grief by my dear friend Kylie 🤍 sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essays/books...

A wonderful essay on “fiction” 🧿 substack.com/@elifshafak/...

A new essay for Clare Carlin’s Textile Message 🪡✨ on remembering and becoming, through the clothing I’ve loved emergingwritersfestival.org.au/leila-lois-f...

Everyone has their own inner battles~ Ghayath Almadhoun open.spotify.com/episode/1C9L...

Happy All Souls’ Day!✨ Welsh folklore tells us to give our eyes a blessing today: “In almost every parish there was a holy well, and on All Souls’ Day old women generally washed their eyes in the waters so that their eyesight might retain its strength” 📸 St Non's Well #folkloresunday

A new essay & a poem on my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/leilaloi...

I’m interested in offering a picture of not only Kurdish suffering and grief but also the joy, beauty, delight, and bounty within Kurdish experience. ~Holly Mason Badra www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/an-... So honoured to have my poems included in this collection

“One young woman described IPV as “Like being controlled, being told what to do, being told what not to do, like being forced to do stuff… It’s not even just physical, it's mental, emotional, like it’s a lot of stuff involved.”” Wonderful PhD & zine by a friend www.monash.edu/medicine/new...

“In her younger years, Annie Clark, the forty-three-year-old singer-songwriter who performs as St. Vincent, was twice mistaken for a prostitute at the Carlyle hotel.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Divinity ✨ youtu.be/KX1YtvFZOj0?...

“There is a “hype cycle” that maps the euphoria and hysteria generated by new technology and then the consequent plunge into the “trough of disillusionment” when it fails to deliver on its promises.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Rogue AI therapy bots & eerily accurate dark humour www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Legendary ✨

Misty Copeland for Harper’s Bazaar

“I think delusion is an appropriate word for acting in general…Can you give yourself over to another environment and situation? I think in order to do that, there has to be a certain amount of delusion or romanticism.” Dreamy editorial 💭 www.interviewmagazine.com/film/jeremy-...

Oh Neil… & Joni 💘 open.spotify.com/track/34kula...

Pin-sharp writing ✨

For the fit checks alone… numero.com/en/culture-e...

Manon. A ballet I could see so many times… An excerpt from my review (closing words) below~~ Her character once received by audiences as reprehensible, leaves us with a timely question: how has the policing of and exploitation of women’s bodies led to violence and why does this violence persist?

Winogrand shot women across New York, LA, and Texas in the 1960s and '70s. The shots of women on the streets, beaches, clubs, and suburbs of America typified street style photography. — Women Are Beautiful publicdelivery.org/garry-winogr...

Look, a butterfly. Did you make a wish? ~ Louise Glück 🦋

The idiosyncrasies of his dancing style are already perceptible: his animal-like energy, his feline bounds, the peculiar physicality which made him an overnight sensation during his Parisian tour in 1961 www.dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com/en/diamond-r...

💘 Fashion Neurosis with Ocean Vuong 🌊 open.spotify.com/episode/1qSc...

Messa da Requiem, Hamlet & Little Red Riding Hood as ballets— oh my ❤️ www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/queensl...

Florie—& I mean this, honey—I hope you never reached the interior of the planet Earth, never discovered uranium, rubies, & Unspoiled Monsters. With all my heart, what there is of it, I hope you moved to the country and lived there happily ever after. ~Truman Capote open.spotify.com/episode/4x93...

"We loved her for her ambivalence about performing, how she wanted to be seen even as she ran from it, hiding her face under the brim of a hat, or behind tinted glasses, or in the arms of one of her onscreen lovers" www.newyorker.com/culture/post...