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.’

Aujourd'hui, nous nous rappelons les quatorze jeunes femmes dont les vies ont été volées à Polytechnique Montréal il y a 36 ans. Leurs noms nous rappellent les conséquences dévastatrices de la violence fondée sur le sexe et la responsabilité qui accompagne notre souvenir.

The memory of the mass femicide at Polytechnique is still painful. Today marks the 36th anniversary of the Montreal massacre, where 14 women — students at Université de Montréal’s École Polytechnique — lost their lives in a mass shooting motivated by misogyny. #December6

“Nearly all of our modern gun control legislation came about as a consequence of the tragedy and subsequent lobbying by the gun control advocates born at Polytechnique that night. “We must fight like hell to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” An editorial by @taylornoakes.com. #December6

New blog this morning. Some hard learnt tips on making the most of residencies www.jancarson.co.uk/blog/advice-for-writers-in-residence

I wrote my book on Hannah Arendt during Covid, watching the world contract. Delighted to be joining this discussion on Arendt now. Has political violence finally undone any hope of natality? Are we, for better or worse, firmly in a post-Arendtian time?

sometimes you can find me writing short stories unaminhkavanagh.com/short-stories/

I really wish we'd stop calling them climate "skeptics" or "vaccine skeptics", if you jump off a cliff we don't call you a "gravity skeptic"

Marcus lived inside my head for a few years, but I finally wrote him into the world.

Featured this week in The New Quarterly is Laurence Lumsden's "Marcus of Montreal", from Issue 175! Click here to read the full story: tnq.ca/story/marcus-of-montreal/

My essay about the joy of the night train is up on The Winding Trail, a long read for a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning, dreaming about adventures past and journeys to come… the-winding-trail.com/2025/07/25/t...

Super article. Added Leon Diop’s memoir to my “must read” list.

And brilliant it is too.

happy no novel november to all who celebrate in which we will continue to write new short stories instead of our novels

This is how you blurb

My short story "The Leftovers of Sugaring Season", just published in the Canadian literary journal Agnes and True. www.agnesandtrue.com/the-leftover...

You love The Smiths, but you hate Morrissey. You need Adam Barrett. youtu.be/TbCYqkmBdcE?...

L’innu-aimun s’apprend aussi en jouant ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-auto...

Dans @lapresse.ca du jour (plus.lapresse.ca/screens/bdba...), Régis Labeaume frappe juste et fort : «Je me répète, cette campagne sera sale, et ça pue déjà.»

Good news for fans of poems about hedges, frogs and long-handled spades: The Poems of Seamus Heaney is out now. Here's a great review by Philip Terry:

Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military. If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:

Saw Isabelle Faust play the Beethoven Concerto with the OSM @osmconcerts.bsky.social last night...and went back to see her again this morning. Such a brilliant and charismatic musician. #EmotionallyDrained bigloolaa.blogspot.com/2025/10/isab...

Kassinu auass apatenitakushu | Chaque enfant compte. www.tshakapesh.ca #JNVR, #VéritéEtRéconciliation, #JournéeDuChandailOrange #ChaqueEnfantCompte

Get your orange shirt on! "Le 30 septembre, nous encourageons tous les Canadiens à porter du orange pour rendre hommage aux milliers de survivants des pensionnats." #JNVR, #VéritéEtRéconciliation, #JournéeDuChandailOrange #ChaqueEnfantCompte www.canada.ca/fr/patrimoin...

Grand format | Le legs de Joyce ici.radio-canada.ca/recit-numeri...

TODAY! If you live in #HFX/HRM, I'm leading a free 'FotoBalm' event (photo walk exploring the practice of #photography as healing for the #grief process.) Part of GriefMatters.ca Grief Gatherings Week happening all around Nova Scotia. Bring your camera and meet at The Dingle gazebo for 4 PM start.

Brilliant article by Finn McRedmond @finnmcredmond.bsky.social defending the study of Shakespeare in Leaving Cert (I.e. high school) English. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

my essay on slow walkers for the BBC www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

How I "found the form" of my story Marcus of Montreal - an online exclusive at The New Quarterly @thenewquarterly.bsky.social . tnq.ca/finding-the-...

"À l’école ou dans leurs équipes de sport, les jeunes côtoyaient quotidiennement des enfants d’immigrants dans lesquels ils voyaient des amis qui n’avaient rien d’inquiétant. [...] Aux yeux de plusieurs, le PQ est alors apparu comme un parti xénophobe" Je suis séparatiste, mais M. David a raison.

Delighted to be published in The New Quarterly!

Ishhh Est-ce qu’on peut vraiment être fiers de ce que devient notre Québec quand des gens comme Kim Thuy pensent à le quitter parce que les discours de nos politiciens les ciblent? Va falloir se parler avant les prochaines élections…

100% d'accord avec Kim Thúy et Rima Elkouri @rimaelkouri.bsky.social www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...

Il faut écouter Kim Thuy pour comprendre la toxicité du discours de ceux qui pointent les "immigrants" comme étant une menace pour le Québec. Les petits chroniqueurs agitateurs et les politiciens qui récupèrent ce discours (Legault et PSPP) font reculer le Québec.

A brilliant article by Irish writer Cauvery Madhavan. @cauverymadhavan.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A brilliant article by Irish writer Cauvery Madhavan. @cauverymadhavan.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Love Joyce, love trains, love this article.

I've a piece in the September issue of Blank Spaces, one of my favourite Canadian magazines - their production and artwork are always stunning. www.blankspaces.ca

“I have often looked at photographs of writers in their elegant book-lined studies and marvelled at […] the illusion of mental processes on public display, as though writing a book were not the work of someone capable of all the shame and deviousness and cold-heartedness in the world.” Rachel Cusk

Thabks to Books of Some Substance for asking me these questions. www.booksofsomesubstance.com/blog/13-ques...

I’m with Sally on this. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

I too have known the chill. Am I also to be damned?

I’m not really a fan of his fiction, but Stephen King’s writings about writing are always interesting. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Like a lot of people of my generation I “discovered” Shelagh Delaney thanks to Morrissey. I’m long over him now (still love The Smiths tho), but this podcast was a lovely reminder of her brilliance.

me at 2am: I’ve written a masterpiece. me reading it the next morning: what was I even trying to say

“Exile is the nursery of political thought.” – Hannah Arendt @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social on Hannah Arendt’s radical understanding of exile. A powerful companion to Marina Warner Sanctuary, exploring how stories and ideas build meaning when homes are lost. #ReliableKnowledge