It has been a week of awful news for various people. Here are some links that might be helpful in the UK. The Samaritans are available any time with various forms of contact. Call 116123, chat online, or you can write an email and letter. More information here. www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-h...

ICYMI: Transworld has acquired Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. Transworld will publish the book on 21st October 2025 👇 #BookSky

⭐️ Thank you to all at the wonderful POET TOWN launch at Hastings Book Festival this week. Edited by Richard Newham-Sullivan, POET TOWN Celebrates 200years of Hastings Poets, available in hardback, paperback, plus a poets portraits edition by photographer Maxine Silver. Out now! #poetry #hastings

#Poetry #Poem #BlueskyPoetry #SalenaGodden #Courage Courage is a Muscle by Salena Godden

The shadow of truth. You cannot erase an idea. You cannot scrub away what has been done. Salena Godden

📻 𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬 📡 Tune into Soho Radio from 2-4pm as we're joined live in the studio by superstar guest Sukie Smith! Ep54 will include our usual round-ups and features, plus a perfect playlist to kick-start your week. Hosts: @salenagodden.bsky.social, @amahrose.bsky.social & @mattabbottpoet.com

We made a radio show! New September episode of @roaring20sradio.bsky.social out now Listen online at sohoradiolondon.com

Quick post to say one month to go: 'With Love, Grief and Fury' paperback will be with you this time next month, October 9th, @canongate.co.uk - uk.bookshop.org/p/books/with... ✨Launch party at beautiful Libreria bookshop, off Brick Lane, libreria.io/with-love-gr... more soon, thank you xx

Oh and here's a beautiful gig coming up, Friday September 12th OWN IT! QEH, Southbank @southbankcentre.bsky.social, sensational line up marking 10 years of OWN IT! Join us for a vibrant night of poetry, performance and comedy from indie house of OWN IT! - www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/own...

🍂📚 Waiting For Godden: Gigs and festivals, new books and journals, stories and poetry for autumn, thanks for sharing these adventures, see you out and about, paperback tour starts soon my friends … www.salenagodden.co.uk?fbclid=PAdGR...

A first review for POET TOWN - Out this month! hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/arts-culture...

I'm reading poetry at TOAST, Reading Room, Sunday 7th September from 10.30am to 3.30pm, with three readings of around 30mins each across the day. Catch me if you can. My books will be available too, here's link, it looks like I will part of an amazing weekend... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/toast-pres...

💜 Last weekend I was in Exeter doing a reading at the lovely indie BookBag Bookshop, excited to see a poster of my poem permanently displayed in the window - Welcome to Hope - the lines ‘change is in the wind, wild is the weather’ keep swirling around my head today. In short Hope is a group project.

Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but has not solved one yet. (Quote by #MayaAngelou)

Lifestyle business OWN IT! was founded to publish stories across all media, to tap into hitherto under-represented voices and to show the bigger publishers what they were missing 👇 #BookSky

The moment fascists started using woke as an insult, we should have launched a festival called The Woke Festival and curated a lineup from the gods. One way to kill a persistent joke against you is to own it.

Saw this on a friend’s page and decided to repost. Being a friend really means stepping up behind the scenes at times like this. And please don’t dismiss their concerns by trying to reassure them it’s all OK - just allow people the space to be worried, scared, whatever.

My tour kicks off in earnest at this week. I’ll be visiting libraries and galleries and indie bookshops the length of the UK, meeting readers and writers and inhaling too much cake along the way. Possibly also gin. And defo books. Join us!

🎵💚 love song xx "However far away I will always love you However long I stay I will always love you Whatever words I say I will always love you I will always love you"

Look if people insist on electing 80 year olds with bad McDonalds habits as President, we will all have to play the very silly game of “dead or not dead” on the regular.

It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.

Its more of a saxophone solo than a question really

So we’re getting a government emergency test at 3pm today. When the siren goes, you have to run outside and make sure your home is completely covered with flags and bunting. Every wall, every window. 🚨

The Poetry of #gregdulli of #afghanwhigs - part of an occasional series on #substack - come and join us! #music #grunge #90s #blog themadridreview.substack.com/p/the-poetry...

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @theferocity.bsky.social @richfergusonpoet.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @pfanderson.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @lauragraceweldon.bsky.social @renee-emerson.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

An ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) is one who loves to give their opinion, at length, on matters they know nothing about.

Is anyone shocked that the "we risk becoming an island of strangers" guy likes that racists intimidate vulnerable people with flags?

"The International Association of Genocide Scholars says the legal criteria have been met that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza They called upon Israel government to "immediately cease all acts constituting genocide, war crimes & crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza" via DW news

“I think they’re patriotic and I think they’re a great symbol of our nation.”

"I've got a swastika dress, I've got a black moustache, I've got a white hood and burning cross all ready to go, I made an Auschwitz in Lego, I've got hate is hate tattooed on my fists, I wear a pentagram, I play my vinyl backwards to hear our lord Satan's voice, I bite kittens to feel something..."

my heart is a boat

In garden news, this summer I accidentally grew a lot of nasturtiums and enjoyed the kaleidoscope of butterflies it attracts. That whole plant is currently covered in caterpillars. From this day forth I would like to simply be known as the butterfly mother, I'm fascinated watching them... look!!

As promised, a live recording of my poem, How To Riot in A Wheelchair. Thanks for shares ❤️ @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #poetryprompts #riot #VIP #accessible #inclusive #disabilityrights

Thanks for kind words & follows. Poets, mostly, are the best ❤️ @dis-ppl-protest.bsky.social @paulapeters19.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @olispleen.bsky.social #poetrycommunity #lovenothate #disabledactivist

"A point that needs making time and time again" via @thelondoneconomic.bsky.social

I haven't posted properly for a bit. sorry. how are you? I follow amazing people here. I just got back from a batch of gigs, thank you to all that joined me With Love, Grief and Fury, St Agnes, Exeter, Bath. We united in mourning, wept and hugged each other, the world is traumatised Free Palestine

Oh and here's a beautiful gig coming up, Friday September 12th OWN IT! QEH, Southbank @southbankcentre.bsky.social, sensational line up marking 10 years of OWN IT! Join us for a vibrant night of poetry, performance and comedy from indie house of OWN IT! - www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/own...

NEW this month, Rough Trade Books Audio Books. Excited to see 'Pessimism is for Lightweights' here, or should I say hear, haha, check out fantastic RTB audio books including work by @ellafrears.bsky.social and @okwonga.bsky.social and more via Bandcamp: roughtradebooks.bandcamp.com/album/pessim...

Poet Town is published this month, launching at Hastings Book Festival with exhibition and poetry party, September 18th! Two books, the poetry anthology celebrating 200 years of poetry from Hastings and thereabouts, plus poets portraits by Maxine Silver - www.hastingsbookfest.org/events/launc...

GOODLORD the audiobook out now with Rough Trade Books 💫 get it here (or wherever you normally get your audiobooks) roughtradebooks.bandcamp.com/album/goodlo...

How to Riot From a Wheelchair—in remembrance of those who've gone before & that acts of rebellion are not about the body's agency alone. Even while we – #disabledcommunity – become targets of successive governments #PoemsAbout #Riots @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity

📖 Our new issue (this Thursday), features an interview with Salena Godden + 2 translated poems from 'With Love, Grief and Fury'. She returns to Madrid this autumn 🤞 💫 @salenagodden.bsky.social @canongate.co.uk @roughtradebooks.bsky.social @desperatelit.bsky.social #Poetry #Palestine #Madrid #Gaza

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @kent-nj.bsky.social @matriches.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

"She knew about a world that was unequal and was afraid of those who lived on the margins. ... It was these early experiences that made her ask questions about who had power and why." Biographer Susana M. Morris on Octavia E. Butler lithub.com/exploring-oc...

Not long now before we live through Reform's version of this in Britain.

I'm enjoying the new Attenborough series about how different animals parent: I'm glad I'm not a spider who is eaten by her children. I'm glad I'm not an octopus who lays her eggs and dies as the babies are born. I love the egg care of male seadragons. Watch some Attenborough, it's good for you.

We’re building something special and we’re going to change British politics forever. Join us: yourparty.uk

For those of you that like substack posts and books and poems and short stories you might like this new post here... salenagodden.substack.com/p/new-books