What are the best bookshops in Edmonton for finding languages other than English?

Is there a good source on queer Japanese cultures in the 80s and 90s?

The people we think we’re attracted to are often just a narrow band of who we’re *actually* attracted to, because eros is a huge queer spectrum. Eve Sedgwick said genital-focus was an astonishingly poor way to characterize desire, and they were right, though it is a convenient fascist tool.

Did you see our beautiful, beautiful COMMON BONDS 3 cover? WELL HERE IT IS. Also, you're going to see it a lot more in the coming two months as I plaster the internet with it to convince you all to give us money to make a gorgeous aro anthology :3 www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

Just a reminder to moms: when your kid is trans, you aren’t “losing” anyone. You’re getting to know who your kid has always been, and it’s a privilege to experience that second and deserved adolescence with them as they grow into someone happy and wise and strong.

I was just talking about this with a friend recently. We were talking about movies, but it applies here as well. The middle is where the experimental and mainstream meet. It's where culture expands. It's the big tent. Without it, we stagnate.

Trans+ people in the UK are facing coordinated attacks based on a myth: that being Trans+ is a ‘modern contagion’. History, including Roman Britain, proves otherwise.

I have metastasized breast cancer that resulted in two brain tumors, since removed. I've lost vision and get chronic migraines. All my books are written solely by me, with 10 fingers and 85% of a brain. No AI needed. The answer to disability isn't AI, it's community.

I’ll be launching It’s Only Forever in Vancouver this June at Iron Dog Books. I’m even bringing some friends! Stay tuned for more info. We’re just in time for the 40th anniversary of #labyrinth

Myopic obsession of some in the left with Nordic countries ignores how these welfare states are built on intense nationalism & growing anti migrant racism. Sweden's new legislation includes longer residency period, higher income thresholds, and mandatory language and civic knowledge tests.

What are people’s favorite queer and trans SFF novellas?

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“Thallus, you grasping sodomite, you’re softer than a rabbit’s ear. Give me back my Saetaban napkin!” You can read the beautifully sly, chaotic, and queer poems of Catullus in this 16thc copy of his “little pumiced book,” which he predicted would be used to wrap fish, at the University of Regina.

I just want to hang out with Guy Branum for a day, watch a bunch of tv, eat a pastry, cuddle hard, land a joke that makes him actually chuckle, then retire at a reasonable hour.

I’ve known a lot of academics who are barely-functioning alcoholics, and I sincerely wish they would switch to edibles.

Very annoying that upscale earplug companies are selling “sensory solutions” to neurodiverse people when what we actually need are calm, capitalist-free spaces.

I'm in Edmonton from May 14-18 if anyone wants to grab coffee and pastries and complain about writing/not writing.

Can confirm. Don’t know when I’ve had so much fun reading a series. Eagerly awaiting Game of Hearts. One thing, though: Game of Hearts is the third book in the trilogy! Natania, please give us more. Please? Pretty please??

Tired of hearing "the age of AI" or "the post-AI world." This technology literally sucks and cannot do anything useful, except for quick pattern recognition where it's wrong most of the time. It's killing us and our planet for no reason. Just several tech companies who don't want to lose money.

Close your eyes. It’s 1999. You’re wandering through a Virgin Mega Store. Natalie Imbruglia sings gently about being torn. Are you brave enough to stop by the Much Music speaker’s corner and excoriate your ex? Or will you spend the last of your cash on a conciliatory dinner at Planet Hollywood?

What’s on your coffee table?

Cleanse your timeline with a wacky pet pic

Things I've said to myself today: "I'm alive. I'm outside. I'm medicated." "I know you're unhappy, but you're the *good* ankle." "Even successful adults need a wee credit increase sometimes."

Once again: there is no *ethical* use of AI. Universities "exploring ethical uses" are cashing in and trying to grab money to survive in the face of government shortfalls. You cannot "ethically" use a machine that steals art, energy, water, and land. Using AI to "make art" is exploitation and theft.

Can folks think of queer and trans zines prior to Gender Trash? I only know of a couple examples but want to find more.

Maybe she’s born with this creative drive. Maybe it’s mental illness. She’ll never tell.

Looking for sources on queer culture in Japan in the 80s and 90s—do folks have recs? If material hasn’t been translated into English, I can read it in French or Spanish.

Summarize your WIP: In 1991–the last gasp of BBS culture and birth of queer cinema—two trans and autistic teens accidentally turn their small-town mall into a living RPG, and have to rescue their figure-skater best friend from a cyber dragon.

Kara is a friend, a fellow writer (I recommend their awesome books), and a dog parent. Please help if you can.

Whenever my bus idles for 5 minutes, everyone makes the collective decision to watch loud and disparate videos on their phones, without headphones. It gives me panic attacks, and I hate that the response is: "just wear headphones", not "stop playing full-volume videos in public."

yesterday i sat through a 45 minute presentation about how to develop students 'ai fluency' in order to *ethically* make students 'career ready' 10 minutes before a discussion about how we're probably going to lay people off, then asked us to share some joys. nobody had any if you were wondering!!!

There are people still living who fought — and watched their compatriots be murdered — for the passage of this act and to attempt to democratize America. To see it completed felled in the span of their OWN lifetime is just absolutely devastating.

“Mattel gave $5,000.”

Despite creating a billion-dollar franchise - with a new $200M budget Hollywood blockbuster launching in a month - the creator of He-Man's family were unable to afford his dementia and care facility costs, and had to setup a GoFundMe. Mattel gave $5,000.

Can't really stress enough how invasive digital exploitation, the erosion of critical thought via AI, and what my colleague calls "the polycrisis"--environment, housing, health, war, genocide--is making our students sick. They are stuck in survival mode. It's like post-illness malaise, but constant.

In case folks are curious about what we read in high school in a small town in the nineties: All Quiet on the Western Front (kinda gay) A Separate Peace (very gay) The Stone Angel (quietly devastating) Pride and Prejudice (tough relationship goals) Poetry including Beowulf, Chaucer et al.

A lot of people have pointed out how contradictory this seems in light of so many anti-trans actors seeking to use autism as a reason to gatekeep healthcare, but it makes sense when you view psychiatry as a disciplinary structure tbh.

Trying to think of a venue for short essays/creative pieces. Is Substack fully compromised? Medium? Should I just resurrect my old blog? I want to connect with readers but also limit my use of social media, because it's just getting a bit too immersive and exhausting. Do folks have suggestions?

Thanks to Rebekah Buchanan for this great interview on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about It's Only Forever--I loved talking about 90s zines, fantasy cultures, and resisting nostalgia: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j... #labyrinth

Do folks have recs for books on the history of PC games?

Taking Japanese classes in high school was liberatory for me because I’d had a string of abusive French teachers who didn’t teach us grammar, and then suddenly I could learn calligraphy and hiragana in my little Bible Belt town, and it felt like a new world.

If I attended Texas Tech right now for my Ph.D., the university would bar me from writing my dissertation about sexuality in the Cold War U.S. Navy. If TTU receives federal dollars, is this not illegal under the First Amendment?

If you’re like, “Wait, everyone is shackled on ICE flights?! Wait, there are 50 ICE flights a day?! Wait, they’re sending people to countries they’ve never been to?!” I am begging you to please read my ICE Air FAQ. 🙏 gillianbrockell.com/what-is-ice-...

What we need here in SK #SkPoli

Massive AI data centre--largest in Canada--was recently approved for construction about 1km outside of my city, on land belonging to the George Gordon First Nation. Approvals rushed. "Council" created a week before the decision. Oppositional speakers silenced at council meeting. This is pure greed.

Not to keep banging on about this, but we're basically seeing zero academic jobs in the humanities, with only a few term positions across multiple fields, while jobs like Chair in AI Studies go forward with high salaries because universities know they can squeeze money out before the bubble pops.

this looks so good

TODAY! 4pm SK time. Link in the QR code. TELL YOUR MEDIEVAL NERD FRIENDS. @transliterature.bsky.social @kzooicms.bsky.social @imc-leeds.bsky.social @medievalismist.bsky.social @uvic-medi.bsky.social @cmrsedinburgh.bsky.social @crems-york.bsky.social @monashcmrs.bsky.social

We, the Carney critics, predicted this: “The federal government is ignoring the concerns of First Nations in their continued efforts to placate a United Conservative Party government that does not appear to have any interest in acknowledging and protecting Treaties and Treaty rights, or …”