Maybe there are still a few Labour MP’s who remember that the left used to be against racism

If the UK government doesn’t respond strongly to this, then the consequences will be grave.

"I read of dogs furiously digging holes in the ground to escape the 35-degree heat. Children fainting during assembly early in the morning." @arielsaramandi.bsky.social for @thedialmag.bsky.social: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

'I wrote those essays for myself first, to better understand my island, make sense of my thoughts, learn more history, and to remember the last couple of years, because they were momentous.' Ariel Saramandi on her collection PORTRAIT OF AN ISLAND ON FIRE: marthasmonthly.substack.com/p/interview-...

RIP Simon James. Generous, joyful, gentle, and sharp as a tack. He’ll be remembered as a world renown scholar and ambassador for literary studies, and I’m today remembering him rocking out to Shellac. What a loss.

Absolutely heartbroken to learn that Professor Simon James has passed away after a short illness. Simon was a stalwart union rep in the English Department, and a personal friend to many of us in the branch. We'll miss his humour, his passion, and his dedication to making things better for people.

observer.co.uk/culture/inte... @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @arielsaramandi.bsky.social plus others.

📚 JUNE PUBLICATIONS 📚 We are excited to announce our June titles: 📚 – LILI IS CRYING by Hélène Bessette, tr. Kate Briggs, with an introduction by Eimear McBride, out on 5 June; – PORTRAIT OF AN ISLAND ON FIRE by Ariel Saramandi, out on 19 June. 📚 Read extracts and preorder: fitzcarraldoeditions.com

I’ll be in Bristol (Gloucester Road Books) on the 16th June with the great Gurnaik Johal, discussing his novel Saraswati and my collection Portrait of an Island on Fire. Tickets here: www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/glo...

Portrait of an Island on Fire will be published by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social on 19 June 2025. It’s an essay collection that examines different aspects of Mauritius: our colonial inheritances, the structures and operations of racism and patriarchy, our languages, our political system.

I'd bet most Americans don't realize the six Nazi extermination camps during World War II also involved rendition to a foreign country. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno and Majdanek were all located in Poland. Not Germany. Important historical fact.

Don’t miss this beauty if you can help it. One of the finest short story writers ever, Tessa Hadley, weighs in on what made Mavis Gallant one of the world’s most exceptional short story writers. #shortstory #booksky

Oh shit lithub.com/thomas-pynch...

this is a staggering amount of money to build camps—suggesting that building & running a gulag will be the primary function of the otherwise gutted Trump-state in last fiscal yr: "D.H.S. allocated about $3.4 billion for the entire custody operation overseen by ICE" www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/u...

oh look an excerpt from my translation of Constance Debré's NAME is up at @parisreview.bsky.social www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/04...

Incredibly, this appears to be true. We tariffed our own (jointly operated with the UK) military base.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING??

Forgot to post this but: along with Gilbert Ahnee, I was interviewed by Asymptote. It was fun! Got to talk about the state of Mauritian literature, Exils, and my forthcoming essay collection. www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2025/02...

The former Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, was arrested at 3am this morning on a charge of money laundering.

Such exciting news and congratulations to the great @arielsaramandi.bsky.social

Some news! My debut essay collection, Portrait of an Island on Fire, will be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in June 2025.

The cruelty is what they enjoy—it’s the point—it’s the nature of this coup. Cruelty.Hatred of all but the white & the few…Not a trace of empathy,& no instinct towards,no human grasp of, justice.It’s monstrous.It will not last.They will overreach.We will wake up. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Lydia was the campaign manager for our endorsed candidate Tiffany Koyama Lane, and we are so proud to call them both comrades. Read her story 👇 www.thecut.com/article/how-...

Coming in 2025: books to make us see the world anew, from writers including @philipmarsden.bsky.social, @kerriandrewsuk.bsky.social, @danzep.bsky.social, @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social, @julianhoffman.bsky.social, @adamweymouth.bsky.social & @arielsaramandi.bsky.social. See deskboundtraveller.com.

May the world that makes this possible one day become compost for something else.

“There is my inner assertion of who I am that is consistently knocking up against another person’s conception of me and of what institutions are making of us both, and I wanted my characters to embody that tension.” Devika Rege and Merve Emre discuss ‘Quarterlife’ www.publicbooks.org/the-poetics-...

IT'S PERCIVAL EVERETT! Percival Everett, author of JAMES, is the winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction! "Hope is really no substitute for strategy." bookshop.org/a/169/978038...

Love to see this shout-out to Mobility by Lydia Kiesling. It's a great read -- definitely has a capital M message about climate a la Ministry for the Future, but a much better novel. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/c...

"I’m less interested in conducting a postmortem of this election and tweaking the Democrats’ tactics than trying to understand how to build a movement—not in reaction to Trump, but toward workers’ power, a just economy, reproductive justice, queer and trans liberation, and ending racism..." YUP

So the opposition won in our general elections held three days ago. It’s a story of corruption, revelations, audio leaks, drugs, cartels, the mafia and lots of diplomatic f*-ups. Hopefully coming to you next year!

The general elections in Mauritius are planned for next month. Yesterday night, a new page was created on Facebook and TikTok. It posted a series of recordings - telephone conversations, whatsapp conversations - of opposition MPs, journalists, and the British ambassador to Mauritius.

Wrote about this beautiful book for The Stinging Fly: stingingfly.org/review/pleas...

Some news. Will be in London for the launch!

We have a cyclone upon us. The government told us to go to work as usual. Then the flooding happened — #cyclonebelal #mauritius

Claudine Gay pens an essay about her resignation. Everyone should read and absorb this paragraph. Because it encapsulates everything that the next year is going to be. From the election to culture, education, culture, you name it. www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/o...

Colonial bullshit continues to reign supreme

This is brilliant—in response to the Frankfurt Book Fair's contemptible erasure of Adania Shibli's brilliant MINOR DETAIL, her publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions has made the ebook free to download for the duration of the Book Fair, on Amazon UK, Apple Books, and Kobo.

the press conference among the bodies of the murdered is a letter from a damned world that will swallow us all if it doesn't stop

Fitzcarraldo Editions have made the eBook of Adania Shibli's Minor Detail, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, free to download for the entirety of the Frankfurt Bookfair (via Amazon, Apple Books and Kobo - links in their tweet: twitter.com/Fitzcarraldo... )

Bluesky doesn't suppress links like twitter, so here are clickable links, if that helps! www.map.org.uk www.pcrf.net www.wfp.org www.doctorswithoutborders.org www.unrwausa.org

Nickhyl Dawoor and Geetanjali Shree at yesterday’s Festival du Livre de Trou d’Eau Douce.

A Louise Glück line I’ve never forgotten is, “At the end of my suffering, there was a door” and in ‘A Fantasy’, there is so much resonance with all of the grief in the news. Glück is a huge loss. RIP. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Jon Fosse's Nobel Literature Prize means that in last eight years, four of the #NobelPrize winners (Fosse, Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk and Annie Ernaux) have been published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. fitzcarraldoeditions.com

An excellent read

‘The Inheritors’ appeared in The White Review’s 33rd issue. Had absolutely no idea it would be the magazine’s last. Gutted. www.thewhitereview.org/feature/the-...

Very sad news from the White Review, and yet more evidence that arts funding in the UK is in a state of confusion and crisis.