goals

SUBMISSIONS CALL. Our next titles in the 10 Poets series are '... Do Their Bit for the Secret Service' and '... Lose Themselves in the Land of the Fae'. We're looking for original, weird and imaginative poems to fill these books! sidekickbooks.com/booklab/subm...

what is a writer? a miserable little pile of unpublished secrets.

The poet reviews her words before setting out on her final draft of a new poem.

Typically I ignore "How to write" or "How to be a writer" advice, even from the most accomplished authors since what worked for them may ruin my own writing. Everyone is different. However... This is just funny. 😂

Announcing our next spring workshop: Introduction to the short story with @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social! Join us online on March 16th at 7pm for an interactive and practical workshop.

Chronique | La prudence et la nuance ne sont pas des faiblesses, mais des exigences démocratiques.

#writingtips #BooksWorthReading #BookBoost #AmQuerying #AmWriting

A truly magnificent sight (slightly ruined by Windsor Castle). #WorldBollardAssociation

sorry Pink Floyd, turns out that we needed education. a lot of it. all of the education, really

12/12, helt korrekt

if everybody loves your art then you have failed as an artist. Your work is meant to explore and challenge and stir debate or emotion, even anger. #booksky #art #music

I feel like technically "We can't know if it's conscious" can be applied to anything if you really put your mind to it - this shoe, some soup, AI CEOs, farts - these people are lightweights applying it just to their digital watches and calculators and such

Wondering what we're up to this Spring? 🌼 Here are some key dates to add to your calendar 🗓️ More details on the applications for our Summer School & submissions window for our magazine cover artwork will be shared via newsletter 🎨 Sign up to our newsletter for updates🔗 stingingfly.org/newsletter/

Woke up to all my worries lined up like children. I name them and feed them and they barely sleep.

‘Advice’ by Don Paterson (after Antonio Machado)

“Encore une fois, on pense l’avenir d’un État sans ses premiers habitants. Et pour tout dire, c’est assez insultant.” - Isabelle Picard dans La Presse. Elle a raison. www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...

CALL FOR PITCHES @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience. We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not. Details below!

Endless Mike Gough c. 2020

“Nobody in Ireland should be exposed to hate speech, bullying, or child sexual abuse images on X just to find out if their train is delayed” www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

The Goal Bill Brownridge 2013

Received this text message from my father yesterday. Panicked that he had had a stroke, or similar. Turns out it was my iPhone trying to transcribe the Irish language.

#Rain is relentless in Dublin today – sheets of it! 🌧️ This Elizabeth Rivers print, ‘With #wind rain this journal opened…’ (c. 1947), feels like the perfect companion to the #storm. Explore it here: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000041943

Early stroll. The breeze’s deep breathing. Grey bins, full of the reforgotten. I pause to briefly become Rodin’s The Shoelace Tier. Old footprints in old concrete. The tiny poem of a ROAD CLOSED AHEAD sign.

Writer's block? Write an entry in your diary about anything. Serious writer's block? Write an entry in your diary about serious writer's block. Extreme writer's block? Write a BlueSky post about writing an entry in your diary about serious writer's block. #WritingCommunity

La nuit de la lecture commence maintenant en ligne lire-reussir.org/la-nuit-de-l...

#WriterSupport #WritingCommunity #WritingGoals #BookEditorJourney #indieauthor

I #AmWriting an eco-lit book on bogs, #IronAge bog bodies, and preservation. So I am definitely 'singing' about heroic peatlands and the folks working to re-wet and restore them. February 2 is #WorldWetlandsDay!

Irish writers discussing their 2026 fiction debuts with Nadine O’Regan @nadineoregan.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

The best fiction of 2026 to look forward to: Books from Louise Kennedy, Donal Ryan, Sebastian Barry, Maggie O’Farrell, Keith Ridgway, Danielle McLaughlin, Louise Nealon, Sarah Gilmartin, Patrick Freyne, Liz Nugent, Jan Carson, Tana French, Kathleen MacMahon & more www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Random but putting it out there that if you need someone for a conference, panel, reading, podcast, etc., I’d be interested! I’ve been consumed by my day job and would love the chance to talk to people about writing 💕

Will Europe finally choose between Europe and the US? The only thing that can protect us is federalism and a rupture — a real one — with Trump. With the side bonus that just maybe, it will rally Europeans against the far right and shock Americans into action www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kuei nuitsheuakanat ! Just finished my first term studying Innu and got an A+. Yay me! Tshinashkumitin / merci à l'Institut Tshakapesh (great language resources), et à Gaëlle et Yvette à l'Université de Montréal.   www.tshakapesh.ca centre-de-langues.umontreal.ca/cours-et-hor... #innu-aimun

Yo! I'll be in Paris tomorrow launching Ghost Mountain in French translation by Charles Roux. The launch is in L'Ecume des Pages at 7pm. I'll be interviewed by the wonderful Tim MacGabhann. www.parislibrairies.fr/agenda-18792...

"The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and when they can pick it up." - Hannah Arendt.

It's always fascinating to read about a writer's process. Here Sara Levine describes her background research, including her borrowings and pilferings from other writers. I suspect all writers do this—I do—but few talk about it so transparently. Refreshing and inspiring to read.

nice short stories you got there. would be a shame if someone suggests you turn one of them into a novel

Happy New Year! New Substack post, with 3 questions for writers to contemplate at the start of the new year + 3 prompts for (strange) new fiction! Also a hopeful message for the new year! Hope you enjoy! Read here: joybaglio.substack.com/p/a-short-bu...

You know that feeling when you've finally written the thing that's been dogging you for years, and you've nailed it? I want to bottle this feeling and sample it when I'm stuck or uninspired. This is what it's all for.

Today, January 6th, is the day on which James Joyce’s famous short story “The Dead” takes place! The story was adapted for film by John Huston, starring his daughter Angelica Huston, and was the final film of his career. A perfect watch or read as the weather continues to threaten snow! K.H

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” #Epiphany #TheDead #Dubliners www.rte.ie/radio/dramao...

If anyone wants to read along with me this year, am reading all of Hilary Mantel and Flannery O’Connor in chronological order (roughly 2 books per month) The reading order is up on my blog www.jancarson.co.uk and I’ll be using hashtags #MyYearWithFOC and #MyYearWithHM

New blog post: an up-to-date list of Irish literary journals anneolearyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/i...

Surreal and unacceptable.

I've written a novel, Experts in a Dying Field. It's out on Penguin Sandycove in June. It's about about a band and a tragedy & art for art's sake & aging & loss & community & Dublin. There's a fox in it. & sheet music. The beautiful cover's by Jack Smyth. You can preorder: linktr.ee/expertsinady...

are we still on about em dashes and ai. imo human writers should just use the em dashes even harder. we should be out here pummeling out those em dashes like we're emily dickinson

Very much enjoyed talking to the poet and critic, Jack Gutorow, for this issue of Explorations, and at a moment in Europe's history when Poland seems exactly the place to begin talking about Hannah Arendt's legacy. explorations.uni.opole.pl/wp-content/u...

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’