35 years ago today this happened. I’d grown up in the belief it could never happen, but then it did. It’s not been easy and even now reunification is an ongoing process. However, it makes me wonder what good things may be just around the corner that we currently think are impossible.

Some good news. London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

Happy International Translation Day! Here’s part of my translation manifesto, which can be found in full at the end of Fair: The Life-Art of Translation. (Written out in replies)

📢 Translators, you too can join the @alcs.co.uk and get paid for having your books checked out of the library. A lifetime membership costs just £36. They take it out of your first payment, so you don’t pay a penny up front. Since I joined in 2020, I have received £515.45! What are you waiting for?

Academics in #Gaza reflect on how a virtual fellowship scheme with the @bristoluni.bsky.social has offered "a lifeline for researchers, fighting to keep our voices heard despite the #war and the destruction of our academic institutions" and explain how it works: ow.ly/yfsl50WZisX #academicsky

It's here! The Petrona Award 2025- Best Scandinavian Crime Novel Of The Year- The Shortlist. #PetronaAward25 ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/2025/09/18/p...

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 13: If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.

I’ll be visiting Hamburg for soon for two weeks. I know the city pretty well, but haven’t been back for 7 years. Those of you in the know, do you have cafe, bookshop, restaurant recommendations? Places that you really, really love? 💛🇩🇪

People are constantly asking me — what can I do? Between now and the 2026 midterm elections, here are five practical steps you can take to make a difference.

I occasionally do proofreading and editing for non-English organisations. Absolutely spending way more time trying to decipher AI translated nonsense that completely erases original language nuances and meaning (and assume these jobs will dry up now bc I'm costing people more). Hire translators!

And that's really one of the biggest issues I have with AI: it trivializes everything and turns it into “content” that is “good enough,” turning everything into a worthless mush; just stuff to fill our (work)days. AI killed everyone's capacity to care about anything but the bottom line...

This is an important thread & piece about the negative impact of AI on the translation sector - sobering & illuminating #xl8

I love the competing ideas 70's British production designers had about the future . Bladerunner : eating noodles in the rain Flash Gordon : Decadent Disco Dystopia Star Wars: Bath Robes and Nazis Alien : Atari Sex Lizards Blake 7 : Gravel pit egg box Totalitarianism

It's here! The longlisted books for the #PetronaAward25 and what a cracking line up from Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland. Congratulations to all the authors and translators.... 🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇮🇸 🇫🇮 #PetronaAward25 #BookSky 💙📚 ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/p...

#WITmonth Mallorca-born author Maria-Antònia Oliver who writes in Catalan has also been translated into English, specifically her crime trilogy with a social/feminist theme. Not read them yet but this post gives a good idea what they're about + details=> jiescribano.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/2...

An interesting list for #WIT month (and yes, it includes a nice notice for Dilemmas! My other pick from this list is Good and Evil and Other Stories, by Samanta Schweblin (Megan McDowell, trans.) #womenintranslation #translation #translatedliterature #japaneseliterature

Delighted that I’ll be at @lighthousebks.bsky.social to talk about Together: A Manifesto Against A Heartless World. Come and we talk about how we stay humane in these inhumane times. 20th of August. @canongate.co.uk

New Bibliophile post: Florence Knapp's The Names -- an incredible debut novel 💙📚 #booksky bibliophile.ink/2025/07/31/f...

We are delighted to reveal the #BookerPrize2025 longlist – 13 books ‘all alive with great characters and narrative surprises’. Huge congratulations to the authors who make up this year's Booker Dozen. ➡️ Discover the full list: thebookerprizes.com/bp2025

🚀 Cover reveal + pre-order link! 🚀 Our sixth Praspar Press title is the speculative epic BEFORE THE ROCKET by Loranne Vella translated from Maltese by Kat Storace. Winner of the National Book Prize of Malta Winner of a PEN Translates Award Out this September 🚀 www.praspar.com/product/befo...

As Bookbanks new Ambassador I’d like to spread the word about this brilliant charity giving books with food at food banks. Please share and support if you’re able :) www.bookbanks.co.uk

New Bibliophile post: Elif Shafak's How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division 💙📚 bibliophile.ink/2025/07/20/e...

Book lovers! I've started a new blog called Bibliophile. A chilled place for reviews of fiction, non-fiction and whatever else takes my fancy 💙📚 bibliophile.ink/2025/07/11/r...

Reminder: When billionaires take control of communication platforms, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for oligarchy. And when those billionaires justify their business motives by citing “freedom,” what they really seek is freedom from accountability. Don't be fooled.

Calling all crime fans! This is a fabulous list 💙📚

Orwell prize for political writing awarded to novelist killed in Ukraine war

Sick of AI-generated results popping up after every Google search? Want to prevent the massive extra energy and water use by data centres for these searches? Just type “-ai” (minus ai) after the search term and you won’t get a AI search result. It works!

Right now we need them more than ever.

We're thrilled to present the shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction:

🇪🇺Naomi Smith, B4B CEO: “As the EU has approved detailed talks, the ball is in the Prime Minister’s court" 🇬🇧“With B4B's polling showing two-thirds of Brits want the government to deliver an EU scheme, it’s time to say yes to YMS www.bestforbritain.org/youth_mobili...

The Royal Historical Society currently invites applications for 4 funding programmes to support historical research: bit.ly/4kHaOQH Grants are open to historians across a range of career stages and professional backgrounds. Applications between July and September 2025 #Skystorians

Liza Adamczewski (aka the Accidental Ecologist), artist and creator of the 1000 postcards project; mini paintings of natural life inspired by her ‘re-wilding’ of a Welsh farm #WomensArt

ICYMI: Ashani Lewis has won both the £10,000 Betty Trask Prize and the £4,000 Somerset Maugham Award for her novel Winter Animals (Dialogue Books) 👇 #BookSky

Intrigued that this week's #Whodunnit on #BBCSounds, #FriedrichDürrenmatt The Judge and his Hangman, was read (in 1984) by unmistakeable #BernardHepton This narrator, Swiss setting + plot details make me wonder abt Dürrenmatt - #JohnLeCarre connections. May interest @secretarmypod.bsky.social fans

Caswell path on the Gower today. Proper lush!

🎉 SARAI KIRSHNER AWARDED THE 2025 FITZCARRALDO EDITIONS/MAHLER & LEWITT STUDIOS ESSAY PRIZE 🎉 We’re thrilled to announce that Sarai Kirshner has won the 2025 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize with her proposal for ON REFUSAL: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/2025/06/sara...

Welsh universities have always been centres of excellence in languages, German in particular - no more, it seems. Cardiff is ditching excellent courses in German, Italian and Portuguese, and now Bangor is proposing the same for German and Chinese. Please sign / share the petition.

Among the many issues I have with AI (while acknowledging there's little to be done about it): 1. If you cut out the entry level jobs, how do people gain the experience/skills to become mid-level / management level / news editor / literary translator. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t...

My latest Substack missive is live. A look at the entire run of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series, from best to worst. Free to read and Subscribe to at the link below. andrewnette.substack.com/p/last-drink...

Today on my blog: margot-kin-berg.com/2025/05/29/s...

Congratulations to Deepa Bhasthi and Banu Mushtaq, winners of this year’s International Booker Prize. We’re hugely honoured to publish HEART LAMP. Our deepest thanks to the judges and, indeed, to all of you who have read and loved this extraordinary collection.

Just looked at the news. I am so, so tired of warmongering, power-crazy, greedy, divisive, truth-twisting right-wing male ‘leaders’. It’s like they’re all trying to outdo each other. Simply the worst of us.

‘Radical translation’ of Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq wins #InternationalBooker prize 🥳 Translator Deepa Bhasthi’s pick of 12 of Mushtaq’s ‘life-affirming’ tales about women’s lives in southern India becomes first short story collection to win the £50,000 award www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Starmer's EU deal is a big break in the suffocating Brexit consensus that has held Britain back for the past decade. For the first time a British government is doing things to actually undo the damage of Brexit, rather than increase it. For that alone it should be welcomed

Robert Peston: "Look at that chart, our trade with India, £43bn, our trade with the US, £315bn, our trade with the EU, £813bn!" "At a time when people in Britain feel poor, why not be more ambitious?" @itvpeston.bsky.social on the potential gains from tomorrow's UK-EU Summit.

Of course we had a question about AI's impact on writing and translating at our #CrimeFest panel today, but also how to keep the author/translator partnership successful and serene @teresasolanawriter.bsky.social @solveigpals.bsky.social @graskeggur.bsky.social

‘Things could fall over’: businesses and public services on Starmer’s immigration crackdown (I’ve worked in the university & hospitality sectors, and leaned heavily on the care sector in my mum’s final years - this Labour policy will be disastrous for all) 😳 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Incredibly disappointed by Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ line. So many migrant stories & international friendships in my own family and community. I do not recognise the image he paints of the UK and cannot understand how he & Labour can justify such divisive rhetoric.

We are proud signatories of this letter to the PM. Good to see powerful names speaking out to protect the rights of all creators, and continuing to keep this issue in the news. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...