I can never resist a good library book...

A librarian at my favourite library just told me there are more than 100 libraries in the Western Cape. That makes me so happy! 📚

It's my husband's birthday but he doesn't like birthdays, so we may or may not go out for dinner later...or we may go tomorrow...or not... 😆

the secret to being a good writer is to be a good reader

Next up is my friend Julia's wondrous book on the cultural and ecological legacy of sponge diving - with an endorsement by Anne Michaels, no less! Such beautiful writing.

Have people learnt nothing? Or are they just irredeemably lazy? This is a *reputational risk* for companies. 🙄 www.ft.com/content/a61c...

"Cooking was by no means the exclusive preserve of women. Indeed it was an essential accomplishment for the ideal Abbasid man." Take that, manosphere dudes! (My Iraqi husband loves cooking.)

Meeting my bestie tomorrow to trawl secondhand bookshops. Can't wait! 📚

My forthcoming book, With the Pen In One Hand and the Sword in the Other: Haiti and the United States in the Nineteenth Century, is now available for pre-order with @ugapress.bsky.social www.ugapress.org/978082038100...

Day after day, a nonstop stream of the most horrible videos depicting murders and mutilations committed by the gangs in Haiti over a wide swathe of the country reach me and somehow the nation’s agony does not resonate with the professional political activist class abroad in any way whatsoever.

We hope you will join Meredith D. Clark in conversation with Adrienne Williams from the @dairinstitute.bsky.social on Friday, May 15th, 2026 from 12pm-1:30pm EST. Please register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... More info about the series: www.archivingtheblackweb.org/events/

“This idea of superintelligence or consciousness [of LLMs] is pushed by the companies building these things. So when you talk about the systems as conscious, you’re actually doing marketing for these companies.” @timnitgebru.blacksky.app nails it, in this on point opinion piece by Arwa Mahdawi.

The situation of criminal violence and failed government policy that I found in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, when I visited earlier this month was incredibly alarming and upsetting. Please read the results of that investigation here. michaeldeibert.substack.com/p/living-and...

Kevin Warsh, a crypto fascist allied with Thiel, Musk, and Andreessen, was just confirmed as chair of the United States Federal Reserve.

folx, I’ve been working on AI "ethics" for almost a decade now & hate to tell you there’s no such thing as "ethical AI" the only "ethical principle" that works is regulating the shit out of the industry & to take back control of our autonomy, fundamental rights, freedoms & right to exist w/out AI

No big surprise... www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Today marks four years since an Israeli soldier shot and killed US citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was wearing her press vest and covering the news. The IDF has continued to target journalists with impunity. No one has been held accountable for Shireen's killing.

I love my job. I'm editing a book written by one of the world's foremost experts on rivers. And it's something of a memoir!

Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park Tom Thomson 1914

Society is cooked. 🤷‍♀️ futurism.com/future-socie...

Preview from my next book of poems. If you've lost your mother, I see you. #MothersDay

So damn difficult to sketch cats! 😖

Charcoal will always be my favourite medium.

too many people want to believe that white supremacists have a redemption arc despite hundreds of years of evidence to the contrary

Almond flour pecan pancakes with blueberries, raspberries, cottage cheese, grenadilla pulp and a dusting of cinnamon. Who says there's no heaven on earth? 😋

"Datacenters provide a physical place and focal point where people can show up and directly confront out-of-control and otherwise impossible-to-reach tech billionaires," write @astra.bsky.social and Saul Levin.

After 12 years, the EU flag is back on Hungary’s Parliament building — the new Speaker’s very first decision. A happy Schuman Day indeed.

Good morning from THE garden.

Another decent game - but only because my opponent played a textbook game and didn't do anything startling. 😆

Attending an online conference today. This is how I work. 😆

I told young people in Esslingen, Germany, how Russian paramilitaries operate in Africa. I explained how these mercenaries have massacred hundreds of civilians, raped dozens of girls and tortured so many boys. I warned that if we overlooked this, someday it could happen in Europe

We left the washing basket out for one minute... 😆

Research.

Fish Hoek today

Study of my grumpy kitty (she didn't want to move when I was doing washing).

Had jollof rice for the first time today since I was in Ghana and it was AMAZING (sorry, Nigeria, I vote for Ghanaian jollof!). 🇬🇭

Charlottesville used bookstore’s got game

There will be many more unintended consequences before this war is over. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Whoa! One of my best games!

This looks wonderful! Can't wait to read it. Twenty-two stories about Haiti.

This article is truly horrifying. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

"In the right context and with enough interactions between the user and the AI, a relationship can develop,” he said. ☠️ www.politico.eu/article/ai-c...

Peter Thiel going after journalists. Be very afraid. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026...

Today, two (two!) men ran sub two-hour marathons for the first time in human history and the news is nowhere to be found on the ESPN or Sports Illustrated home pages. One of the greatest feats in sports history and it’s less important than the final round of the NFL Draft.

Noise-cancelling headphones are the best thing I've ever bought. I can't even hear our new neighbour's dog barking right outside my bedroom window (luckily it doesn't bark excessively...but it does distract me while I work).

Opposing white supremacy is a crime in Trump’s America. This feels a lot like southern states persecuting the NAACP during Jim Crow.

I just didn't enjoy this. It was ambitious but unwieldy. The characters were cynically unlikable and I didn't care what happened to any of them. I thought I would love it because it's about poems and poetry, but...it seemed awfully self-congratulatory, for no good reason. 🤷‍♀️

Chekhov’s guns?