The contribution of sewing in the history of engineering often gets overlooked. In the early days of aviation, even well beyond WW1, the skin of the wings, fins, and rudders of airplanes were made with fabric, and most of that work was done by women.

Finger lakes writers: the annual Spring Writes Literary Festival starts this Thursday! Over 40 events, free to attend (though registration is helpful for the organizers). I'm co-leading a workshop on Sunday, 2:15-3:15, come write with us! springwrites.org

Love building projects or the vibes of the in-person Clarion West Six-Week Workshop? Need some good news for a change? Learn about our exciting new initiative to rehabilitate the El Rey building in Seattle and develop an artist residency program (and contribute) here: www.wagives.org/organization...

Nothing is as urgent as class warfare right now. The billionaires control our lives and our dreams and the aspirational fantasies of our children. All politics on this planet is tied to the rule of the billionaires right now. #endbillionaires

"Vultures filled the sky, waiting for corpses to fall, but the corpses never did. The vultures starved instead, falling to the ground like bags of garbage, and other vultures descended on the dead and dying vultures in slow circles with open, scheming beaks."

Re-upping this Scratch interview for anyone feeling bad about taxes/themselves today, especially freelancers. I hope it finds those who need it most.

what next? what, are we gonna provide *roads* for the wealthy too? gonna have health inspectors keep contaminants out of their groceries? are we just gonna have gutters and sewer systems around rich people's homes?

A Transmasc Ironman Trio Won Third Place in a Relay, Beating Over 200 Other Teams

I am so anti-AI, I have stopped using word databases because they added AI. Do not make these assumptions about professional creatives.

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce our 2026 Climate Writing Series 🪻🌿 With 5 sessions taking place from April to November this year, there's something here for everyone interested in writing on climate issues! More information and booking here: irishwriterscentre.ie/climate-writ...

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

Frida Kahlo is a famous disabled artist. Her art explores her disability. When she had the accident that disabled her, she painted from her bed in her casts. Many artists in history have been disabled. Many are now. You will not find them fighting to have AI take their creative process from them.

i've decided not to listen to the audio of a teacher reporting a kindergartender because frankly I don't want to become the person that that event would turn me into. but one thing I hope we are collectively coming to grips with is what it meant that we have lived among such people this whole time

1940 Irish language scif-fi book Manannán by Máiréad Ní Ghráda It is the first Mecha Robot outside of Japan and mention of a Gravity assist in fiction. It was never republished or translated.

Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century. He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times.

"Medusa's Ship, or the Thing About Bodies" is out now! Formally Experimental Greeks in Space, anyone? www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/medu... @bcsmagazine.bsky.social also did an incredible job podcasting the story. Listen, I am in awe: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/bcs-35...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

74% of Democrats support abolishing ICE, with 53% *strongly* supporting it, according to YouGov polling from last month. Weak calls for "reform" are coming from *elected* Democrats like Chuck, not the average Democratic voter.

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

USian trans people aren't telling you they won't vote for Gavin Newsom to cause you distress and despair. USian trans people are telling you they won't vote for Gavin Newsom so you don't vote for his transphobic ass in the primaries. They are giving you actionable information.

oh hey my "fuck-AI-in-the-literature-classroom" story from @lightspeedmagazine.com back in January made the Locus Recommended Reading list! rad, and also fuck AI in the literature classroom! (story here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...)

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

BREAKING: recently murdered guy did something dope as hell a couple weeks prior

WELL SHIVER ME TIMBERS! This MAGNIFICENT BSFA list! So many people whose work I love - @voidcricket.bsky.social !!!! @nassos.bsky.social @kristinaten.bsky.social and not one but TWO @stelliform.press writers... the brilliant Rebecca Campbell and the other is, err, me? www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-...

Since people are asking if they can do something for me, here is a short thread. I'm clearly going to be laid up for a lot longer. Here are a few simple links. Patreon: www.patreon.com/Wiswell Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/johnwiswell Amazon wishlist: www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

Jonathan Ross—the ICE fascist who killed Renee Good—is an 18-year ICE veteran, firearms instructor, & active shooter trainer. The people claiming "ICE needs more training" are missing the point. Ross's 2 DECADES of training IS what led him to execute Good. ICE Training IS the problem. Abolish ICE.

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

I don't quite know what to do with the information of the brilliance that is @redfernjon.bsky.social engaging so incisively with my book in @reckoningmag.bsky.social . I may never get over it. I am so very honored. Thank you, and thank you always @stelliform.press, now excuse me so I can go (!!!!)

"Of all the books I’ve had the opportunity to review, 'What a Fish Looks Like' is one of my absolute favourites." When a reviewer as thoughtful and cogent as @redfernjon.bsky.social writes that, I pay attention. Check out the review we just published of @syr.bsky.social's debut novella!

Of course I am thinking of all those struggling for Black lives, but also those struggling for trans people, especially Black and brown trans folks, as well as all the immigrants documented and otherwise Fuck borders, fuck gender enforcement, abolish ICE, abolish carceral values and systems

pulling this reflection on white silence/fear over here, too:

Why I love horror. Also: this is not just a post about horror.

*clears throat* The TENTH ANNIVERSARY edition of @reckoningmag.bsky.social comes out tomorrow. Huge congratulations to @michaeljdeluca.bsky.social on a decade of imagining, working, and collaborating this remarkable magazine--"creative writing on environmental justice-- into existence.

On January 14, after ICE carried out yet another shooting in Minneapolis, a crowd chased them out of the neighborhood and gained control of their vehicles. In this firsthand account, an anonymous participant describes what took place.

"The sweeping study... found that using AI in education can 'undermine children's foundational development' and that 'the damages it has already caused are daunting.'" They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity. www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

the people of MN have been murdered, brutalized and kidnapped for weeks now and have remained *amazingly* peaceful in the face of it. lecturing citizens to not “take the bait” etc is pretty disrespectful after a point and avoids the real question: how long are they supposed to take this, undefended?

For all those who have been calling for a General Strike. How we support a localized/ state-wide General Strike to succeed, is an important muscle building exercise for a larger General Strike.

This. I am done returning to the status quo of what got us here. I want universal healthcare. I want a maximum wage tied to the minimum wage. I want omnipresent, cheap public transit and walkable neighborhoods. I want Supreme Court and police reform, and I want the rich to pay their fair share.

thinking about this one again

Too many people are trying to differentiate between ICE and police. I will hold your hand as I say this: Police in the US treat marginalized people the way ICE treats everyone. They're far more similar than you want to admit. Defunding the police and abolishing ICE are the same fight.

Turns out Roseanna's favourite novella of the year is really very good in facts that perhaps do not surprise. Gloriously eclectic in form, it threads community and joy through the climate crisis in a way that resonates with many of my favourite works from last year.

It's incredibly demoralizing to constantly see the highest institutions of government and academia and the most important and widely seen news outlets knuckle under one after another, but then to see the gulf between that and the bravery of communities and neighbors and teachers - that's something

Quick update on the political situation in the US: the government is led by a billionaire pedophile who believes he can murder American citizens with impunity. Seems bad!

they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.

The New York Times described a harrassment campaign that helped drive a young trans woman to suicide as "online criticisms." Today on Assigned, @evanurquhart.bsky.social responds with contained fury to New York Times piece on the suicide of Lia Smith. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Also want to repost this beautiful short story about community action and the environment, by @ecbarrett.bsky.social, at @reckoningmag.bsky.social. "...he spider-webbed caution tape between the trees and nailed posted signs to their bark." but watch what happens. reckoning.press/swimming-who...

Great to see a Daniel Rabuzzi review for @strangehorizons.bsky.social in this ARB list. I've a strong memory of first reading it, and the manner in which it impressed me. Daniel praises Murphy's study of William Hope Hodgson: "It makes me think hard and it spurs my imagination." So, too, his piece.