As a multiple language speaker it's also frustrating to see people using AI for translation because the English speaking world tends to treat translators like workers for hire instead of co authors of text and this feels like more of it. Translation at the literary level is creative work. (2/?)

In fact, let’s do this. Comment with what you’re looking for and I’ll try to recommend a read from a Palestinian author for you from my reading list. I’ll do my best to find you a match.

B/c I'm reading THE DANCERS OF ARUN at the moment, it occurs to me that one way to narrate a history of queerness in fantasy could be one in which earlier works that use fantasy to probe at sexual stigmas & taboos on a broad societal scale give way to a modern emphasis on individual validation.

Owen Pallett (2024) Dead Can Dance (2022) Björk (2019) Perfume Genius & Julianna Barwick (2017) Julianna Barwick (2011)

In this week’s @strangehorizons.bsky.social, one of my favourite pieces I’ve edited this year — on orientalism from Star Trek to Game of Thrones. Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed — strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

Today's Love Letter is a stunning meditation on birdwatching and the loss of a friendship, from the one and only @amalelmohtar.com stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...

took this stance real early on, have been paying close attention, and i have yet to see a single thing that manages to challenge that opinion even a little bit, rather than solidifying it into diamond-hard conviction

The UK prefers racism over prosperity as Brexit proved

Call and Response Fun Fact Countdown! 10! We open with “Femme and Sundance,” queer hustlers turned bank robbers with magical complications. Fun Fact: the diner in the opening, mean patrons, nasty bathroom, and all resembles a real one in Nebraska. Song pairing: m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3es...

All of the stories in this collection are, well, fantastic but my personal favourites were "The Beekeeper's Garden", "The Calcified Heart of St Ignace Battiste", & "Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan".

19. CALL AND RESPONSE (Christopher Caldwell, 2025) I found myself lingering over each sentence of these stories, organised as paired dyads in a nested structure. With gorgeous prose, Chris's stories probe at the complex ways Black people & queer people respond to impermanence in a hostile world.

FYI, folks. There is a link to the signing page at the top of the linked letter.

Should this rant I have about an ideological elephant in the room of fantasy studies be a footnote, or should I just make it a full-blown tangent in the main body of this chapter? #amwriting

Both my husband and I have worked jobs where we've *had* to use VPNs to comply with data security regulations. The name of the game for this Labour government seems to be gross violations of privacy that also completely obstruct the basic functioning of society. It's their only move.

My dear friend Sama'a has worked herself to the point of exhaustion to bring her family back to Gaza City, and now she needs our help to feed and clothe them as winter approaches. Please give what you can. gofund.me/db56c7ce3

It’s particularly important to note that legislation to limit what kids can do and see online also limits what *everyone* can do and see online, censors broad swaths of the internet, further disempowers marginalized tech users, and allows the fascist government to control what is on the internet

It’s disturbing and discomforting to examine but there are several anti-phone and anti-social media initiatives weaponizing murders and suicides of teens, leveraging grieving parents, and exaggerating or inventing causation to try and limit speech online and restrict tech freedoms

A reminder that we're hosting the first European Conference on the Fantastic, Fantasy's Present Pasts, in Glasgow next summer (23rd-25th June 2026). The Call for Papers and Sessions can be found here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20.... Closes 12th December. Please do consider submitting!

Very excited for this. Sofia Samatar is one of my favourite living writers so I will be attending!

Good literary translation requires understanding (language, culture, genre--on both sides of the translation) and an ability to write well. "AI" can't do that. There are no shortcuts. Treat your work and foreign language readers with the respect they deserve. You won't fool anyone with this.

someone got indicted on the basis of “transporting antifa materials” for allegedly transporting a box of ZINES THEY’RE PROSECUTING PEOPLE FOR DOMESTIC TERRORISM OVER ZINES

The racism was bad enough, the subsequent lies, gaslighting and bullying campaign against the people who pointed it out was beyond disgusting

but i wouldn’t!!! 😅😅😅😅😅 (unless he became a zombie)

Taking a wee break from final year panic to catch @clclark.bsky.social at Waterstones Argle ST (Taylor Driggers-McDowall and D hosting). @waterstonesargyle.bsky.social

This conversation was an absolute joy! Here's a pic of me being very absorbed in @clclark.bsky.social's wisdom.

This was such a great event! Stop 2 on The Great North Tour did not disappoint!

18. FATE'S BANE (C. L. Clark, 2025) If you're based in Glasgow, you can hear me discuss this book with the author tomorrow (Wednesday 5th November) at Waterstones Argyle Street at 7 p.m. Get your tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

After a whirlwind time in Brighton at World Fantasy Con, here’s a quick reminder of the last few UK tour stops! Edinburgh, Nov 4 w/ Hannah Kaner Glasgow, Nov 5 w/ @taylorwdriggers.bsky.social Leeds, Nov 6 w/ @tashasuri.bsky.social @toribovalino.bsky.social Tickets below!

“Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe. And their guides, the writers of fantasy, should take their responsibilities seriously." From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, Ursula K Le Guin

17. THE SOVEREIGN (C. L. Clark, 2025) If you live in or near Glasgow, you can hear me discuss this book with C. L. Clark next Wednesday 5th November at Waterstones Argyle Street! Find more info & get tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

'The "uncle" who Frodo said got rich by adventuring with Dwarves is actually a distant cousin, he clarified on Monday.' - Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, The Shire Post

Zohran caught in LIES: Mamdani claims to have "loved Final Fantasy III" when he was growing up. yet research indicates that the game he played was in fact the SIXTH Final Fantasy game

Excited to be participating in this Glasgow Ursula Le Guin love fest on 4/11 with @suchmayer.bsky.social, @taylorwdriggers.bsky.social, @mjrsangster.bsky.social We're celebrating @silver-press.bsky.social gorgeous new book The Word for World which centres on Le Guin's imaginative maps. Come!

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast yes YES the plums are gone

I can't articulate it well but I don't care what punctuation/ set of words is the current tell for Chatgpt. I'm not changing my voice or the way I write for this program, my writing will evolve the way it evolves. I am not panicking that it uses em dashes. They should panic and pay me.

Support the Sameer Project chuffed.org/project/1132...

A Bard College student was kidnapped by ICE and Bard’s administration is advocating for his release and has created a website to assist the rest of the community in joining them. That’s what academic leaders should be doing for their students right now. www.instagram.com/p/DQKSTDJkeF...

It’s still weird that you have multiple parties running on making the country so shite no one will want to live here

*screams*

Glasgow friends: I have a couple of book events coming up at Waterstones Argyle Street in a couple weeks' time! On Tuesday 4th November I'll be taking part in "A Celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin" with @suchmayer.bsky.social, @philcrockettthomas.bsky.social, & @mjrsangster.bsky.social.

2 weeks to go until A Celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin at @waterstonesargyle.bsky.social, just before the full supermoon! With me, @taylorwdriggers.bsky.social @philcrockettthomas.bsky.social & @mjrsangster.bsky.social, celebrating @silver-press.bsky.social's The Word for World. Book now!

Marie McGowan, 89, has died 3 years after a brutal assault during which she was put headfirst into a rubbish bin. Her attacker, Alex Bailey, believed she was "a man dressed as a woman." This is the world the transphobes are creating "to protect women." RIP Marie. share.google/PFaI5YTh9tBw...

ANNOUNCEMENT🎺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Introducing our bona new quarterly literary magazine: FANTABULOSA! Pushing the boundaries of bold, authentic, QUEER storytelling. Bringing you stories of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical. & thanks to our brilliant #WrathMonth backers, we're fully funded for 2026 🤘

Anyone need a good proofreader or queer sensitivity reader? A friend of mine is going through a rough time at the moment and could do with some paid work. She has loads of experience with editing & proofreading, and I've paid her to do sensitivity reads for me in the past. DM me if interested.

16. THE FAITHLESS (C. L. Clark, 2023) Read in preparation for "An Evening with C. L. Clark" at Waterstones Argyle Street in Glasgow, 5th November. Get your tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

I was mired in evangelical culture back when Matt Walsh was still a popular conservative Calvinist blogger. Seeing him pivot to Catholicism only to be constantly furious that it isn't more Calvinist will always be funny to me.

Pay attention to the language that will be used by much of the media. The Global Sumud Flotilla never entered Israeli waters. They are in international waters attempting to reach Palestinian waters. Israel is once again breaking international law

So, I'm making a video game based on Palestinian folklore. It's called Thursday of the Dead, and you can talk to a Palestinian ghouleh. It will have branching narrative, and art all made by a human (me). I need exactly $100 to launch it on Steam when it's finished. ko-fi.com/soniasulaiman