Thank you @ruebaldry.bsky.social @histnovsoc.bsky.social for including Cottonopolis in this amazing list! 🏳️‍🌈

Good Morning Blue sky! Hope you’re all ok? Today I’m currently reading the final chapters of the excellent Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward. What are you reading at the moment?

Girlduiding and Women's Institute say the law forces them to exclude trans women. But that's not true. We are offering to indemnify them against legal risk if they change course. If they remain trans exclusive, their members can know it's management's ideological choice.

I did a deep dive of t.A.T.u.’s music & its connections to the Winter Olympics, from Sochi to Milano Cortina, & the connections that music has to anti-LGBTQ+ resistance at the Games & in the host countries.

'To be a writer, all you need to do is write.' Experimental writer, scientist and creative writing mentor @taniahershman.bsky.social is on Northern Voices today talking about blending science, creativity and genre, plus much more. on.soundcloud.com/zET3rRUVdz6Q...

Let's hear from you writers, tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other #WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚 alt text please

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

Time to squeeze a fresh lemon on my #ShroveTuesday poem, 'pancake day in district 12', alternatively titled 'katniss and peeta get a divorce', published in @feralpoetryandart.bsky.social 🥞🍋 feralpoetry.net/pancake-day-...

So sorry! Here it is again: uk.bookshop.org/shop/letterb...

Give trans kids a chance to be kids.

I cannot wait to read this book!

In Alaska, we recognize Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. Her words really resonate today. “Asking you to give me equal rights implies that they are yours to give. Instead, I must demand that you stop trying to deny me the rights that all people deserve.”

Ever looked through a Victorian telescope at the night sky? You can – and you don’t need to be an expert. Read on to discover where you can enjoy open lectures, observatory tours, and hands-on stargazing. Bill Barton reports. #NorwichScienceFestival #Astronomy

“The first thought that comes to my mind when I see ‘Alex Wheatle Reading Room’…it feels like he’s accomplished his goal, that he’s got more people reading of all ages…his legacy continues and lives on.”

🪧✊🏽📣Dear fans of social justice children’s books: You likely heard that the #LittleRebelsAward for Radical Children’s Fiction is on ⏸️/seeking funding. The smallest thing you can do to offer support is to follow the award at @littlerebsprize.bsky.social + Insta Thank you! #KidLitUK

Sharing merfolk on the lead-up to my online talk for @folkloretodmorden.bsky.social Here’s a very enjoyable book I just finished reading. The Mermaid the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall 🧜🏿 Sapphic love and nonbinary rep!

Celebrate with us the launch of the special section on “Diversity and Inclusion in International YA Sports Fiction”, guest edited by Drs Carla Plieth and Sarah Layzell. Monday Feb 16, 13:00- 14:00 GMT on MS Teams. Registration: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/RBPDsHMiJZ

Earlier this week, @alomshaha.bsky.social was chatting about how the message of loving each other should inform more public discourse (beyond religion). So, for #KidsBooksFriday this week what kids books help kids to understand the importance of love in all its forms? #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit

This coming Monday, I'll be in discussion with the authors of essays on diversity in young adult sports fiction. Free, online and open to all - see quoted thread for details 👇 #YALit #KidLit

Telling parents is downright dangerous. It will very clearly put many trans and non-binary young people at risk of abuse, bullying, potentially homelessness, among other things. This is the exact opposite of "protecting children". It's transphobia as policy.

Labour has brought back section 28 against trans and non-binary individuals. I lived through section 28 last time. I suffered the harms of it. This will do the same thing. Not even allowing young people to socially transition is plain wrong. It prevents them finding their own identity.

If you're a UK citizen who cares about the wellbeing of trans kids you have until April 22nd to do everything in your power to make sure these new rules do not come into effect. Lives are literally on the line. Respond at this link 👇

Inherited grief. The things your family carries that never get named but shape every room they enter. I keep circling back to it. It’s not supernatural, but it behaves like a haunting. I’d rather write about ancient gods, honestly. This is closer to the bone. #HorrorWritersChat

I don't actually promo much of late but I will this time. It's a domestic noir more than a horror: about menopausal ladies bumping off bad guys with poisoned tea. It's quite irreverent and rather funny, I think. But there's something about the Aunties. I really like them. #HorrorWritersChat

I'm working on a couple of ghost stories, plus my queer historical Fen rebels novel. There's a flavour of it in this story: northerngravy.com/the-lantern-... Thanks Eryn for hosting! #HorrorWritersChat

Haunted schools. I've put it off because it's a sharp stick poking at unexamined childhood traumas. But it's a very persistent sharp stick so I will have to write it eventually.

OK, so here we go, #HorrorWritersChat bods. You know the drill. Four questions, repost as many as you like, no links: promo at the end. First I want to know. What makes you write the kind of horror that you write?

Come hear me waffle!

Join us this Friday at House of books and friends, Manchester for a book swap social! Bring a book to swap and get a Fly on the Wall Press title and tote of your choice! Come make new friends and grab a cuppa this Pal-entines day :D fly-on-the-wall-press.eventcube.io/events/92694...

I urge you to fill in this consultation if you can - with this very helpful support from Amnesty International - although AND because ! it is heart-breaking that this country has sunk so low that Amnesty suggest in a number of cases to provide no answer as the terms of the question are so evil

Little Rebels shines a light on radical books that confront and represent the realities of children's lives, what shapes people, how we love, how we fight back. Being shortlisted is one of the proudest moments of my career. Sad news, but as always, there is a spark of hope. Can anyone help?

You can go along to Central Library in Cambridge on Saturday 21st Feb to meet Sarah Hagger-Holt and find out more about The Fights That Make Us www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-fights...

Publication Day! 🕯️ Livi Michael’s #ElizabethAndRuth is out now. 1849 Manchester: Elizabeth Gaskell & Charles Dickens unite to save a girl from the cycle of New Bailey prison. "A gripping social-realist horror tale." — Xan Brooks Get it: www.saltpublishing.com/products/eli... 📚✨ #Booksky

This is such a shame, but understandable. Hopefully there's funding out there to make 2027 a brilliant year coz @littlerebsprize.bsky.social is one of my favourite awards! #KidLitUK

“She should have just kept walking on that moor.” @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social talks to the Island of Brillianters re: Jane Eyre rewriting, Crosstown Doughnuts & harnessing rage. @nadiashireen.bsky.social @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social #KidLitUK podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Two book events next week. Come along, why don't you? Feb 17th, House of Books & Friends, Manchester: houseofbooksandfriends.com/event/author... Feb 19th, Urmston Books & Board Games, Urmston: www.urmstonbooks.co.uk/broken-biscu... #booksky

I love that @haymarketbooks.org has published a children's picture book advocating for prison abolition. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2588-p...

PSA. Every single garment in existence is handmade. Clothing requires people. A £2 t-shirt isn’t made by a machine, it’s just made by a very exploited person. And that person is probably a woman. And that woman is probably from the Global Majority.

You're going to need more water than that... KAYAK coming Feb. 17 from @tenebrouspress.bsky.social store.tenebrouspress.com Ask your local libraries and bookstores to stock it!

I do not think the most significant cultural shifts will come from a World War, Class War, Race War, or whatever other battle people weirdly fantasize about. I think it’ll be an integration of the idea that children are people and not the property of their parents.

Thank you for attending #HorrorWritersChat and sharing your horror with us. Once you’ve answered the questions, it’s time to share your stuff! It's promo time. Let’s also uplift each other and reshare what we see. --- Join us again next Wednesday...but don't be a stranger.

The first thing to go was the wallpaper. One day there had been forest green and gold curlicues, the next only white walls. Now, a soft shadow of sadness hung over the place where the dining room used to be. The slates flew from the roof, and the birds outside stopped singing. #HorrorWritersChat

My characters are looking for small spaces they can control and feel safe within. Kitchens are sites of chaos - too much food, not enough, rot and spills abound #HorrorWritersChat

Hello #HorrorWritersChat! I'm Sarah, sometime writer of ghost stories. My favourite horror movie set in a home is Get Out, and a recent haunted house novel I would recommend is Model Home by Rivers Solomon.

Let's hear from you writers, tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other #WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚 alt text please

🚀 YO COMICS FAIR IS BACK! We are thrilled to announce that Yo Comics Fair, a comic fair FOR kids and BY kids, is back at South London's @stanleyarts.uk on MARCH 22nd 2026! Woo hoo! See you there! www.yocomicsfair.co.uk

Coming soon! Actor and writer Paterson Joseph and I will be in conversation with Dr Darren Chetty at the Story Museum in Oxford on 16th February. More details below. Hope to see you there. 😊 #noughtsandcroses www.storymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/exp...

For those unable to join us last night at our @ihr.bsky.social seminar last night, you can now listen to the event with @fionaskillen.bsky.social, @juliemcneillwrites.bsky.social & Karen Fraser discussing their 2024 book, A most beautiful game Available now ⬇️ open.spotify.com/episode/6jVS1v…

The Healthcare in Children's Media online book launch is on Mon 9 Feb! Editors & contributors to this essay collection will discuss NHS nostalgia, Artificial Life, surgery in verse novels, substance use disorder representation & more. All welcome. @upmississippi.bsky.social #KidLit #EduSky #BookSky

This Thursday, 7pm on YouTube, come listen to me & @lyndseycroal.bsky.social talk about our new books! Earth & rain, ghosts & monsters, scifi & the fantastical. There will be readings. There will book chat. There will be authors lurking in the comments to answer your questions. Good times!