This poem does not support Palestine Action hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/this-poem-...

I'm teaching a course at Moniack Mhor in September, with Hannah Lavery, & our guest is Roger Robinson. It's space to think about how politics & writing intertwine, what we can & can't do with words, the possibilities and frustrations of activist writing. www.moniackmhor.org.uk/courses/2537...

Some words from Poland on multilingualism, with a speculative translation of Màiri Mhòr at the end: I'm sick of English bullshit I'm really fucking sick Sorry not sorry my song's so long I'm sick of English bullshit hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/in-transla...

Orkney friends, we're coming home with Deep Wheel Orcadia a week today. www.scissorkick.co.uk/tour

This hits very hard. I, and many of my trans colleagues, operated from this logic by default. Many now, I think, are waking up to its flaws. Some, sadly, still do not and cling to the hope of a quick fix or compromise.

"We cannot show segregation as the moral abhorrence, practical disaster and mechanism of terrifying social control that it is with open letters, symbolic protests and lobbying campaigns. We show segregation for what it is by collectively making segregation impossible to enforce"

"Your trans colleagues are receiving emails from their bosses saying that they have to use segregated facilities because they’re frightened of getting sued. "You have to be able to present those bosses with something scarier than the anti-trans legal budget." substack.com/home/post/p-...

I started screengrabbing excerpts of @hjosephinegiles.bsky.social's latest to share, and then had to stop because I was screengrabbing all of it: hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/stepping-o...

I went to visit the last great auk. "This extinction belongs to me, and I belong to it. I’m named for it. It’s my history, in my place. I came to Fowl Craig to pay my respects to my King." hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/klumsed

dàn beag ùr www.juliejohnstone.com/essence-pres...

I've been thinking about how to tend to a political fire: hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/luntit

Want to come see my gay sci fi love story with live string quartet this summer? 26th June 2025 - St Magnus International Festival, Orkney 18th + 19th July 2025 - The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen 25th + 26th July 2025 - Eden Court, Inverness www.scissorkick.co.uk/tour

"We learn more about trans life from figures who are worrying and incomprehensible than we do from any potted biography of a political hero. If we look at our inauthentic origins and find them true, we can better live as the contradictions we are." hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-transfi...

Stùc an Lochain Tuppi o the Lochan Lochan’s Pinnacle #Munros4TransLiberation NUMBER ONE HUNDRED munros4translib.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/1...

If you're at a trans liberation protest today, here's some chants and songs for you! Print and share and use! Chants: transhealthuk.noblogs.org/resources-fo... Songs: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zni6r...

[Community healthcare clinic] Me: [chanting] blood, blood- Other queers: blood, BLOOD Implausibly hot trans woman: [pounding her clipboard] BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD! www.gofundme.com/f/blood-test...

If you want to do a practical thing for trans people, please support and share this fundraiser. We're organising blood tests for trans people excluded by healthcare. This is the work I wrote about yesterday! Thank you so much for you kind words and help. www.gofundme.com/f/blood-test...

The Supreme Court is wishing a problem away and so gifting more problems to trans lives. Those lives can, must and will continue being lived in their fullness and their joy. My sisters, please give all your love to each other and none of it to the state. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/while-the-...

What do H.P. Lovecraft, Jean Sibelius, Carson McCullers and a 1970s medium in the Isle of Wight have in common? That’s right, it’s our friend Fiona Macleod. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-ghosts

If you thought the story of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod I've been telling couldn’t get any weirder, let me now tell you about how Tennessee Williams’ lover met them at a seance. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-ghosts

If you thought the story of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod I've been telling couldn’t get any weirder, let me now tell you about how Tennessee Williams’ lover met them at a seance. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-ghosts

What do H.P. Lovecraft, Jean Sibelius, Carson McCullers and a 1970s medium in the Isle of Wight have in common? That’s right, it’s our friend Fiona Macleod. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-ghosts

In May I'm going to walk the outline of Gaza across Edinburgh and Midlothian, as part of a group raising emergency funds for displaced families from Gaza. I'd be really grateful if you'd contribute. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

My pal Dr Christina Neuwirth has today released the results of 7 years of research into gender inequality in Scottish literature. I'm so, so proud of them. www.quinereport.com

Cruachan Beann is Stob Daimh Rucksome Ben an Hert’s Stab Hill of Stacks and Stag’s Stump #Munros4TransLiberation 98-99 munros4translib.wordpress.com/2025/04/08/9...

It's time to retire the Caledonian antisyzygy. Let a girl rest. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-the-gae...

"Cultural appropriation is not an ethical failing or a creative faux pas but a political strategy." A third essay on Fiona Macleod and William Sharp, looking at the uses and abuses of Gaelic in Scottish literature and politics. open.substack.com/pub/hjosephi...

Sgiath Chùil agus Meall Glas Hinderweeng an Haw Hill Rear Wing and Grey-Green Hill #Munros4TransLiberation 96 & 97 munros4translib.wordpress.com/2025/03/24/9...

Geal Chàrn White Cairn White Stanes #Munros4TransLiberation 95 munros4translib.wordpress.com/2025/03/20/9...

With apologies to every lovely Fiona I know, I have written an essay on the origins of the name Fiona, which are much weirder than you might imagine. hjosephinegiles.substack.com/p/on-the-ori...

Meall a’ Bhùiridh ‘s Creise Hill o the Rowtin an Strait Rutting Hill and Narrow #Munros4TransLiberation 93-94 munros4translib.wordpress.com/2025/03/07/9...

William Sharp's last letter: You will think I have deceived you about Fiona Macleod. I have not, however in certain details I have (inevitably) misled you. Only, it is a mystery. Perhaps you will intuitively understand, or may come to understand. The rest is silence. Farewell.

In 2019, @hjosephinegiles.bsky.social’s scifi verse novel DEEP WHEEL ORCADIA was a work-in-progress, & we were delighted to feature an extract. Published in 2021, DEEP WHEEL ORCADIA won the 2022 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Book of the Year www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2019/07/the-...

The New Orkney Language Literature @hjosephinegiles.bsky.social looks at “the minoritisation of the language, perpetuated not just through literary snobbery but also through an education system that beat out Orcadian with physical force” & a literary rebirth www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2019/07/the-...

I am finally writing up my years-long obsession with William Sharp and Fiona Macleod. There is too much, so this is part one of at least four, looking at them through a trans lens. If you like it, I'd be very grateful if you'd send it on to one other person. open.substack.com/pub/hjosephi...

On Wednesday I'm speaking at Lavender Menace about my number one weird obsession, the Scottish fin de siècle author William Sharp / Fiona MacLeod, a mad trans writer avant la lettre. I'm reading a story and some poems via spirit medium. Would you like to come? lavendermenace.org.uk/event/wilfion

Waas an Walls: On Toponymy and Ecological Memory "Ecology is always changing, & where language & place-naming is strong the toponymy would reflect shifting social knowledge: instead, we have withering local languages & maps that keep a fading memory." open.substack.com/pub/hjosephi...

Waas an Walls: On Toponymy and Ecological Memory "Ecology is always changing, & where language & place-naming is strong the toponymy would reflect shifting social knowledge: instead, we have withering local languages & maps that keep a fading memory." open.substack.com/pub/hjosephi...