My son just told me is favourite sentence is: “I didn’t say we should kill him” because if you emphasise each different word it changes the entire meaning

It's going to be Trump holding Milei's hand as he climbs the trophy podium on Sunday right?

“The word ‘leprosy’ has become divorced from the disease, slipping into a synonym for anything or anyone shunned or cast beyond the pale of society.” Our July issue features a short Q&A with Oliver Basciano, author of Utcast. @olibasciano.bsky.social worldliteraturetoday.org/2026/july/re...

Excellent In Our time on Machado de Assis. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The art critic and poet Edward Lucie-Smith, who wrote for ArtReview for almost thirty years, has died.

Folha has a thing that tells Brazilians who to support in the Copa now they're out, decided via countries colonised, gay rights, CO2 emissions, your favourite authors. Not entirely faultless: ie, Spain conquered more countries, but, come on, Belgium in Congo... www1.folha.uol.com.br/esporte/folh...

Sad to hear of Shahrnush Parsipur's death, she gave her last interview to Shirin Neshat, sometime collaborator, for @artreview.bsky.social a week or so ago. Speaking in typically forthright manner on Iran, America, how she was done with writing. artreview.com/the-intervie...

I am sad and my Brazilian dog is furious

Cabo Verde para os livros de história

In his recent interview Cărtărescu reveals that his work in progress is going to be a long text after all, and that it is going to be “a very bizarre book”.

Publication week starred review in Publishers Weekly for Outcast. Out in the US with @graywolfpress.bsky.social on 7 July.

Portrait of the author happy to have laid hands on the US edition of his book. Coming from @graywolfpress.bsky.social on 7 July. Hit me (or them) up for review copies, etc etc. www.graywolfpress.org/books/outcast

Béla Tarr didn't put a baguette on the head of a drunken man participating in a seemingly endless bacchanal in a ramshackle Hungarian pub just so you could say that AI is inevitable

Love this on the fatberg as art artreview.com/ar-summer-20... HT @olibasciano.bsky.social

I've found a new winner, trouncing even British universities in their intentionally evil invoicing bureaucracies: FRENCH LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

May I be the first to celebrate the reopening London Museum for showing a London sewer fatberg alongside the first Morley's Chicken sign.

For the Financial Times I spoke Gilberto Gil – icon of Brazilian music and former Minister of Culture – about his life, going to prison during the dictorship, his possible last concerts and Lula's October election chances. www.ft.com/content/f92b...

Easy day for Hemingway fans (this also my best score yet on this game). www.maptap.gg June 8 96🔥 98🎯 99🎯 90🌟 97🔥 Final score: 953

Exciting news! Too Little, Too Hard forthcoming from Peninsula Press in July (preorder✨) A collection of essays on writing & work, writing & value. We are proud of this book that looks at the conditions for writers & of book production under neoliberalism. peninsulapress.co.uk/products/too...

This is also excellent.

The Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s recent comments on her use of AI in ‘preliminary research’ have hit a nerve – and rightly so, says Helen Charman artreview.com/why-olga-tok...

In a Turing Test of sorts, it looks like a 100% AI generated story just won the Commonwealth Prize for the Caribbean region "for its lyrical precision and haunting atmosphere, the story stood out for the confidence and restraint of its voice." Published in Granta: granta.com/the-serpent-...

Indexes to fiction are sometimes made, although they are unusual. Philip Bradley considered the topic in his 1989 article for @theindexer.bsky.social www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/epdf/10....

How much deception between lovers is acceptable before it mitigages consent between the sheets?: my review os Izabella Scott's The Bed Trick. artreview.com/the-bed-tric...

Through an existing legal case, Izabella Scott questions how much you should know about who you’re having sex with. artreview.com/the-bed-tric...

Nightmare scenario of dog speeding ahead and passing a coral snake, which I then discover lying, twitching its tail, on the narrow path between me and her. Managed to climb up embankment and round. Both unscathed.

⚠️ A lot of misinformation circulating about the #hantavirus outbreak. Facts: 🦠 Hantaviruses are not new; cases occur in the Americas every year 🚫 This is NOT “the next COVID” 💊 Ivermectin does not treat hantavirus infection Concern and vigilance are appropriate. Panic and misinformation are not.

Good to see a very early review for the US edition of Outcast from Kirkus. Will be out with @graywolfpress.bsky.social in July! I like a "philosophically charged journey". www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

This is cool

Someone on this website was talking about Algernon Blackwood and I consequently ended up reading him over the weekend / having creepy dreams. Would recommend.

For @artreview.bsky.social I wrote about the Venice Biennale shit show and a century of Israeli, Russian and US propaganda in the exhibition. artreview.com/there-has-ne...

Very sad news about Desmond Morris. What a CV: from London Zoo's head of mammals to director of the ICA to TV. Interviewed him 20 years ago – one of my first features – and he was incredibly encouraging. Patience learned from teaching Congo the ape to paint probably.

It never really comes up in profiles, maybe because I don't think he ever wrote about it weirdly, but my abiding memory are the seminars spent talking about Peep Show as the embodiment of lethargic times rather than whatever we were supposed to talk about. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

Lovely to see another fan of Carole Rawcliffe’s Leprosy in Medieval England, my copy obviously well annotated and thumbed, but also just because it's so GOOD (it's fun!). Looking forward to your book too @katherineharvey.bsky.social.

Uh oh, @guardian, you should take a hint from a lesson @npr learned years ago. If you're going to use a "historical" image in a piece, make sure it actually relates to the history you're talking about. Your Black Death (plague) image is actually leprosy! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a... 🗃️

Thank you @profannagreenwood.bsky.social for this fantastic review of Outcast in The Lancet. So many of the historic 'culture wars' over the disease and its stigma were played out in the pages of the journal, so its particularly touching to see it covered there.

☺️

“The psyche is miraculous,” Ghersi says. “Over the course of time we fragment and fracture through trauma, and hopefully somehow recombine and stay steady enough to survive and, if you’re lucky, reach a point where it’s safe to unpack those experiences.” Great interview and quote from her.

Spoke to the musician Arca about her post-burnout painting (and Venezuela) www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

"The climate is not neutral... disaster is a political choice." Sad and urgently needed despatch from the flooding in my adopted home state. Worth running though translate if you don't read Portuguese. vozdascomunidades.com.br/destaques/op...

This is the nub of it (cf AI being used in criticism, book writing etc.) You'd be a fool to do this for the money, but if you can get by with the pay, then you're doing the most fun work possible. Why would you ask a machine to take that away from you?

Thanks for everyone who bid on this, shared etc, the organisers say they raised over £5k. The hub is great: providing for those unhoused or in emergency housing for whatever reason. You can also donate furniture, electricals, tents, etc here lewishamdonationhub.org#SupportOurWork

There's an online auction ending today, which various friends have contributed to, as well as local artists, all in aid of the brilliant Lewisham Hub, an excellent "everything bank", providing all the resources to set up a home in the borough. www.ebay.co.uk/usr/lewisham...

It's insanely cringe: and I've done it all and will do it again.

So everyone thinks kids should be able to go to pubs and mess around, but when I turn up drunk and shouting at the soft play zone, that's a problem.

In which I suggest the greatest work of 21st century war art has come out of Ukraine's queer anarchist techno scene (Went to Lviv to see an exhibition)

Clear example of absolutely terrible school leadership. Truly pernicious stupidity that makes you think the harm they inflicted on the library must be the least of it. At the same time, wow, the librarian sounds incredible. What a job she was doing!