Please take time to read this luminous story by @tomvowler.bsky.social. How open-mindedness, and the willingness to innovate, can lead to healing and the evolution of human understanding.

‘The participant seemed alone now and, I sensed, having escaped the exchanges of fire, found himself in a village of some kind, the centre of which was made up of a series of mud-huts…’ Don’t miss @tomvowler.bsky.social’s powerful #shortstoryofthemonth thelonelycrowd.org/2026/07/12/s...

Our #shortstoryofthemonth for July is by the brilliant @tomvowler.bsky.social. Don’t miss ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’: thelonelycrowd.org/2026/07/12/s...

Our #shortstoryofthemonth for July is by the brilliant @tomvowler.bsky.social. Don’t miss ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’: thelonelycrowd.org/2026/07/12/s...

“At one stage I even flew to Australia to get him to answer my questions” Nerve co-founder @carolecadwalla.bsky.social on her loooong decade investigating Nigel Farage* *including first raising questions about George Cottrell in 2018 🤔

‘These verses are typical for me in that they are clearly inspired by the natural world. I live with the deep, deep green of Somerset all around our house, every window lets in bleats, chirps, neighs, furry moths (hence the poem ‘Dark Bordered’).’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/27/p...

‘Exeunt’ by Melanie Marshall ‘Day One From nowhere a displaced, Cloven, braced in the shallows Marmite eyes unanswered He vaults over the ford Interrupted…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/27/e...

‘These verses are typical for me in that they are clearly inspired by the natural world. I live with the deep, deep green of Somerset all around our house, every window lets in bleats, chirps, neighs, furry moths (hence the poem ‘Dark Bordered’).’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/27/p...

‘Exeunt’ by Melanie Marshall ‘Day One From nowhere a displaced, Cloven, braced in the shallows Marmite eyes unanswered He vaults over the ford Interrupted…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/27/e...

‘It was devastatingly straightforward: Her youngest child Jamie had been beside her at the fairground & then he wasn’t. Over his almost 4 years on the planet, they had rarely been more than the length of his shadow apart, & now he was nowhere...’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/14/s...

‘It was devastatingly straightforward: Her youngest child Jamie had been beside her at the fairground & then he wasn’t. Over his almost 4 years on the planet, they had rarely been more than the length of his shadow apart, & now he was nowhere...’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/14/s...

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For June, we are delighted to publish a new piece, ‘The Brutality of Fairy Tales’ by Conor Griffin. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/14/s...

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For June, we are delighted to publish a new piece, ‘The Brutality of Fairy Tales’ by Conor Griffin. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/14/s...

from Dark bordered (Epione vespertaria) by Melanie Marshall #poetofthemonth ‘Repelled by cedar, I learn, and at night they curl and skim around chimney smoke and security lights in courtship agitating secreting and never sleep on the wing…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/05/p...

from Dark bordered (Epione vespertaria) by Melanie Marshall #poetofthemonth ‘Repelled by cedar, I learn, and at night they curl and skim around chimney smoke and security lights in courtship agitating secreting and never sleep on the wing…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/06/05/p...

We are looking for either photography or artwork to accompany our regular Short Story of the Month and Poet of the Month features. If you would be interested in your work being featured on The Lonely Crowd please include a short bio and send to our editor, John Lavin thelonelycrowd.org/submissions/

We are looking for either photography or artwork to accompany our regular Short Story of the Month and Poet of the Month features. If you would be interested in your work being featured on The Lonely Crowd please include a short bio and send to our editor, John Lavin thelonelycrowd.org/submissions/

‘Separate episodes at the panelbeater’s left his ninety-eight Fiat Punto a particoloured motley: red body, black bonnet, right front hub blue, the other cowled under dinted dirty white…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/25/f...

‘Separate episodes at the panelbeater’s left his ninety-eight Fiat Punto a particoloured motley: red body, black bonnet, right front hub blue, the other cowled under dinted dirty white…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/25/f...

‘Chains of thrushes, flecked bellies uplit, heltered chittering through bright fog…’ Read Saint Julian in Winter by @elfodongo.bsky.social, our #poetofthemonth thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/16/s...

‘Saint Julian in Winter’ by Tim MacGabhann ‘Stood, leadenboned, before the bed-length grooved barrows. Lit rainwater brimmed there: the tombstone’s saddle-gloss became a font…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/16/s...

FInally, one regulator will look at Nigel Farage and his (changing) explanation of the secret £5m he pocketed. Even Ofcom has shown a twitch of life But the media regulator still doesn’t get it app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/73586/...

‘The Trampoline Act’ by Katherine Stansfield The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For May, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Katherine Stansfield. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/t...

‘How do I dream myself back to sleep? Rehash a moody Norse fable, maybe, mutter about how ink and pigments were rendered from seawater brimming on obliterated moraines…’ – thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/p...

‘How do I dream myself back to sleep? Rehash a moody Norse fable, maybe, mutter about how ink and pigments were rendered from seawater brimming on obliterated moraines…’ – thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/p...

‘The Trampoline Act’ by Katherine Stansfield The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For May, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Katherine Stansfield. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/t...

bsky.app/profile/thel... really don't have words for how happy it makes me that this poem exists or how grateful I am for the countless hours of intensive blather it describes.

‘The Trampoline Act’ by Katherine Stansfield The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For May, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Katherine Stansfield. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/t...

‘The talk sinks deliciously towards truth’: If you only read one poem today, read this one, by Tim MacGabhann @thelonelycrowd.bsky.social #poetry

‘That 3am turn for the worst has me crediting the old myth of how fog rose from the sky-god’s tears so he could play pretend that his solitude was eternal…’ Read A Winter Dedication by @elfodongo.bsky.social thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/p...

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For May, we are delighted to publish three new works by Tim MacGabhann. The first of these, ‘A Winter Dedication’, is published today. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/05/10/p...

‘A lot of my work is nature themed, exploring and reflecting on ecocentrism. As a child, I spent hours drawing, writing and making things, collecting details even then from simply observing the minutiae of everything around me.’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/04/25/p...

‘It looked like an old tool box, handmade from planks, screwed together at the corners. A cloth cover, stiff with grime, failed to contain the disconcertingly sweet reek of rotting meat…’ thelonelycrowd.org/2026/04/06/s...