every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer

A simple but important way to support Palestinian writers is to read their work. A helpful list is in the link below but please do explore @arablit.bsky.social more widely as well as publishers like @commapress.bsky.social

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Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, will be boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.

I feel like this job (horror scholarship!) would be a great fit for a load of people I know or that follow me on here! Pass it on! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM520/r...

This feels a bit like that A Street through Time book share.google/FSrYTWCgU5C2...

Also people keep asking me if I find AI translation helpful in my work and AI TRANSLATION IS NOWHERE NEAR COMMERCIAL QUALITY and NO I DON'T EDIT AI TRANSLATION BECAUSE IT'S MUCH FASTER FOR ME TO JUST DO THE ACTUAL TRANSLATION THAN EDIT CRAP because PAINTING CRAP WITH GOLD DOESN'T TURN CRAP INTO GOLD

A friend of mine told me the course of the heart @mjohnharrison.bsky.social was the best English novel of the last fifty years. I'm half way through and it may not be hyperbole.

this is a bit of a surprise...

“Children, especially in early developmental stages, are acutely sensitive to tone, timing, and emotional mirroring. A child playing with an AI toy will believe they’re being understood, when in fact, the system is only predicting plausible next words.”

Any other authors inundated with AI scam letters? This one for Bitterhall is especially funny to me since it claims to have gathered all this from a summary. Also kind of sad to me as Bitterhall is now out of print anyway. Barking up a fallen tree

And Helen McClory ( @helenmcclory.bsky.social )'s funny and unsettling festival story www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

I’m raw dogging an idea bro I’m forming synaptic connections in my wetware and transmuting those electrical impulses into semiotic glyphs in wet black ink on pressed tree pulp I am taking it back to the illuminated era this is thought keto

Now watching: Sylvia Scarlett (1935). Katherine Hepburn disguised as a boy! Cary Grant sporting with his original(?) cockney accent!

Some things continue to go well. Just allow yourself a moment to experience it.

It is the first time that Jewish-led organizations in Israel have made such accusations against the country during nearly 22 months of war.

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them. tomlehrersongs.com

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

youtu.be/0f1zVj9qSrg?... (contains a good description of the difference between swamp and bog body preservation)

Denise Levertov

My writing advice is say less.

Absolutely one of the best movies ever made, directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. But unfortunately a box office failure at the time, and Laughton never directed another movie. Such a bummer - I’m guessing he had more great films in him. (He stuck to directing theater after this)

Angela Carter Plaque in Clifton Bristol with cameo from her Bristolian novel Shadow Dance !

Here's the newest story, "The Bacchanal" www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Here's the newest story, "The Bacchanal" www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

It seems impossible to be saying this already, but we’re six years old today! 🥳🌟6️⃣ Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported us, shopped with us, attended, chaired, and hosted events with us, been wonderful neighbours, the list goes on! We couldn’t do it without you all. ❤️

just checking you've all seen my gay tiger tshirt

BBC NEWS / AFP / BBC NEWS / REUTERS JOINT STATEMENT: “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. "They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. "

No aid supplies left, staff starves in Gaza "Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left," Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council, told Reuters @sg-nrc.bsky.social www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Please please sign, UK folks. It takes a few seconds, you don’t even have to write a letter yourself, though you can add to or change the letter if you choose. I added a few choice sentences, not that I think he’ll read them. It’s urgent.

If you'd like to see me talking parasocial relationships/hear a folk horrorish story on BBC radio 4/watch me interview Nell Zink well I have a post for you laughterfromthenextroom.substack.com/p/here-and-t...

If you'd like to see me talking parasocial relationships/hear a folk horrorish story on BBC radio 4/watch me interview Nell Zink well I have a post for you laughterfromthenextroom.substack.com/p/here-and-t...

A request for help: what are your favourite pieces of writing on art? It can be just a sentence, or paragraph, not necessarily an entire essay or book. I'm helping to gather some pieces to share with young people (14–19 yrs old), and have some things already, but am keen to hear what you think too.

Ahead of a new story of mine on BBC radio four, you can listen (should you wish) to a couple of other pieces of mine. Together they'll make a loose folk horrorish trilogy. here's The Death of Wildflowers:

Ahead of a new story of mine on BBC radio four, you can listen (should you wish) to a couple of other pieces of mine. Together they'll make a loose folk horrorish trilogy. here's The Death of Wildflowers:

re: experimental -approach the limitless possibilities of the page & crack the mechanics of writing wide open -push the limits of form -interrogate, explore, fuck shit up -when in doubt, hybridize -we love theory, do something with it -send art, video & sound experiments [art that slaps]

If anyone wants to send off @404ink.bsky.social with a grand hurrah, you could buy up their books and give as presents to everyone you know. Just a suggestion!

Scottish indie book publisher 404 Ink, run by Heather McDaid & Laura Jones-Rivera, will close next summer after ten trailblazing years. Starting with Nasty Women and known for their radical Inklings series, they’ve published titles by authors including Chris McQueer, Helen McClory and Alan Cumming.

I chanced picking up of this book while in the US visiting family- it's brilliant. Cool, like sun slanted through amber window glass. 70s through and through but, that light

Reviewed a great book www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

rewind to summer 2019 with us as we look back to issue 14 of Shirley, which features stories of strange times in strange places by Helen McClory, Carina Martin, Mercedes Lawry, and Emrys Donaldson 〰️ read 'em all over at surelymag.com/archive

And: "The Language of Heaven" by @helenmcclory.bsky.social in Winter Tangerine

A substack! laughterfromthenextroom.substack.com/p/tiny-littl... about the futility of writing!

I tried to do some shadow animals for the amusement of a small person and was not very good. The Thing is, if you make a rubbish looking dog head "explode" into tentacles while making monster noises, that will entertain

Continuing to be a bloomsday baby but with a Douglas Adams answer to the meaning of everything kind of a year to me

A moment of sun. The wind, crows, a lost and wandering pheasant who might be the most photographed creature on Arthur's Seat

I was listening to a popular science book but had to stop as the emphasis on Gaia and in gendering random animals (not specific animals I should add) was getting to me. Just weave me a tapestry of facts! Help me understand the topic!