Baroness Kidron calls for justice in her foreword to our ‘Brave New World?’ report on GenAI Stand up for creators and write to your MP today - you'll find a link to the report, and how to write to your MP ihttps://buff.ly/HLhczJy #JusticeForCreators

I’ve just written a story on this very theme, will air on Radio4 in April. (Yes, mainly putting this here so it’s clear I didn’t plagiarise…!)

“War. War. War. Someone’s dog wearing a birthday hat. War. War. War. Kylie Jenner’s dress at the Golden Globes. ...This is how memory is organised online: not as lived experience,but as a flicker of unrelated images flattened into the same scroll...Everything adjacent. Everything equally temporary.”

"Agnes Owens was overlooked even within her own lifetime. The condescending media narrative around her never got over the facts of her life" - @kirstininnes.bsky.social. She's no wrong! Happy to see a bit of attention being paid to Owens' work this year.

Thanks to @scotnational.bsky.social & @kirstininnes.bsky.social for featuring Agnes Owens as one of the ‘10 Things That Changed My Life’ in todays issue. We’re thrilled to welcome Kirstin & @heatherparry.bsky.social next week to begin their writer residencies with us & @agrayarchive.bsky.social

Sunday viewing proven to lower your blood pressure, enlarge your brain and expand your soul. #booksky #whattoread #whattowatch

Great piece by @danigaravelli.bsky.social It is without hyperbole to say that as a writer of short stories Agnes Owens is equal to Flannery O’Connor. And her novellas sit right next to those of Rachel Ingalls.

Nobody could have predicted this.

🔥 2026 Residencies 🔥 @kirstininnes.bsky.social & @heatherparry.bsky.social named Writers-in-Residence at the Alasdair Gray & @aowensarchive.bsky.social Chosen from 130+ applicants, they’ll spend 8 months creating new work inspired by overlooked voices, supported by @creativescots.bsky.social

Humidity will be high in Gaza all this week, so the risk of storms is high. Even when fortified with tarpaulins, the ruins don't offer much shelter. Please help Samaa if you can tinyurl.com/SamaasFamily @mommunism.bsky.social @lexialex.bsky.social @fairshare.help @slimyswampghost.bsky.social #Gaza 🍉

Andrew O’Hagan: On Friendship 16 Oct, Glasgow. £5–£15 From the author of MAYFLIES and CALEDONIAN ROAD, a celebration of what makes us great: our friends. With @kirstininnes.bsky.social, Andrew O’Hagan explores friendship through music, poetry, memory, & history www.waterstones.com/events/andre...

No words.

Scotland’s leading academic on refugees warns that British political rhetoric is taking the UK ‘into the foothills of genocide’ Professor Alison Phipps, Unesco chair in refugee integration at Glasgow University, says demonisation will end in deaths www.heraldscotland.com/news/2544663...

I've recently been engaged with some important work on the far right and what many people see as the social decline of the UK - the tide of hatred against vulnerable minoritised groups that has arisen in the wake of economic decline. it's not inevitable, and we can do something about it.

This is how you do it #Welcome

A real treat to welcome the brilliant @kirstininnes.bsky.social to AGA today and to show her the @aowensarchive.bsky.social archive collection ❤️ #alasdairgray #agnesowens #thealasdairgrayarchive #theagnesowensarchive

This phoney, 100% fabricated narrative has been concocted to do one thing only: elevate the interests of a tiny, obscenely wealthy elite over all others and all else.

It is astounding how much time I spent declining genAI services right now. No, I don't want you to summarize this novel for me. No, I don't want you to compose a message to my mom. No, I don't want you to create a picture for me. Fuck. Off.

I've been on anti-war and anti-cuts marches 10 times bigger, even 100 times bigger that have barely received a fraction of the coverage. Seems the media are more sympathetic to the far right than they are to people advocating adherence to international law and a Keynesian approach to fiscal deficits

Like I say: the entire business of about half of British national newspapers is the constant recruitment and promotion of horrific far right wingnuts with horrendous views, to further the papers’ own extremely weird crank agendas.

Leaflets have been dropped from the sky near where Majd is staying, telling everybody to go south. Majd can't walk due to being hit by an explosive bullet last month, and his wife Aya has no money for transport. Can you help? gofund.me/be672f7c @mommunism.bsky.social @lexialex.bsky.social #MutualAid

<- a very happy small writer person who has just heard back from her editors with their verdict on the new novel. Pretty darn excited to introduce The Book Of Risk to the world next year now.🌳🍄‍🟫🌱🍁🌝👯✨🪶🪺

“I was baptised by the explosion of Scottish writing that burst forth in the nineties. I remember the glory of seeing your own people on the page, how it made me feel worthy, and really, really powerful.”

NEW: The National is launching a new series highlighting positive stories of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland. The increasingly hostile political commentary and media coverage is appalling. We have a duty to correct misinformation and stand up for those without a voice

(Someone else already made my observation.)

Hello. I deleted this app five months ago when I was trying to finish a book. I’ve remembered about it specifically because I wanted to post an observation about K-Pop Demon Hunters and didn’t think Instagram was the right place. How yous all doing then?

@irvinewelsh.bsky.social talking about writing and Shakespeare and drugs and Proust and Joyce and love… check this out, particularly great episode. With the brilliant @kirstininnes.bsky.social too👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Well this is EXCELLENT!

BBC News, "The United Nations humanitarian chief says that Israel's suspension of aid into Gaza is a violation of international law" "Israel stopped aid.. After Israel breached the ceasefire fire timetable"

The last few places for @kirstininnes.bsky.social's visit to #WishawLib on Thursday 7 March at 7pm are still available. Book one now to avoid missing out on this early #InternationalWomensDay event. Book now: tinyurl.com/4acb85pn

We don’t just live in a world where rapists and misogynists are tolerated. We now live in a world where rapists and misogynists have all the political power and will confidently protect and amplify one another in defiance of the law. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

What’s it about? I hear you ask. It’s a big gay Scottish love story. I’ve fictionalised the lives and loves of two real artists: Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, who met at @glasgowschoolofart.bsky.social in 1933 then blazed a trail through wartime London before losing (almost) everything.

Pleasing savings to be had if you fancy preordering my new novel now. It’s 25% off at Waterstones. Buy four copies of The Two Roberts, get one free!* www.waterstones.com/book/the-two... *maths really not my strength.

This book sounds AMAZING! Cannae wait to read it!

Hello! Blimming delighted to announce that my third novel, The Book Of Risk, has been picked up by @oneworldbooks.bsky.social in the U.K. and @avidreaderpress.bsky.social in the U.S. www.thebookseller.com/rights/onewo...

We should be screaming this from the rooftops: "As politicians on the far right and the right compete for votes by peddling hostility towards migrants, ageing populations are shrinking the pool of workers who can pay for pensions and support the welfare state." Q. Want a pension? A. Immigration.

A BBC study just found that generative AI can't even generate news story synopses with any consistent accuracy, and here we are happily pretending it's a symmetrical replacement for education and experience

It's time for A Kick Up The Arts! And it’s an Alasdair Gray love-in with Alan Bissett & @agrayarchive.bsky.social for Gray Day at Glasgow’s Oran Mor, Feb 25th starring Alan, @sarasheridan.bsky.social, Ashley Storrie, @macarthurboyd; I’m hosting. Listen on all pod platforms / here! AKickUpTheArts.org

To those who did not believe that I saw a Lawrence of Arabia Good Luck Babe edit on twitter, here it is. It was made by @xenomorph247

Horrified by news of our friend & fellow bookseller Mahmoud being arrested by Israeli forces alongside his nephew. A tireless campaigner for the power of literature, Mahmoud was in Edinburgh with us just months ago - please join call for their release! #Booksky www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

It's not a demolition site it's a mass grave. It's not a demolition site it's a crime scene. It's not a demolition site its a homeland. It's not a demolition site it's Palestine. It's not a demolition site it's a genocide.

And as it's International Unicorn Day I should also share my favourite unicorn-related image...

Farage's Reform are claiming 8,000 members in Scotland & 191,000 members overall. FACT CHECK: Reform currently have ZERO members. They are still a private company owned by Farage & Richard Tice.

A thread that is worth a read/all just a little bit of history repeating

In this era the question is not if you are centre-left or centre right etc it will simply be “Are you a nazi collaborator or are you not?”

Very good advice to find after a day of doomscrolling

Counterpoint: as book review space shrivels into nothing while thousands more books are published every month, do readers need a guarantor of quality to convince them to buy? (counterpoint to my counterpoint: I really don’t like blurbing and yet continue to do it as I feel I owe it to other authors)

Bookseller announcement for The Mirror Halls! Feeling like the luckiest writer in the world right now 🥰

"If you miss #TheTraitors, don't worry, The Apprentice is back next week" yeah alright, if you miss Christmas don't worry, it's Ash Wednesday next week. Fuck are you on about.