‘After all the horrible things we’ve been through,’ he said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster First there was the double tragedy that tore the family apart – then came a deadly diagnosis. The writer reflects on life after the death of her novelist husband

‘After all the horrible things we’ve been through,’ he said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Orange tulips

Manchester, 1976, photo by John Bulmer. The shoes!

‘For leftist Jews, the Bund is a model’: the radical history behind one of Europe’s biggest socialist movements A new book by Molly Crabapple documents the rise and fall of a revolutionary Jewish party that fought against Zionism and for ‘solidarity across difference’

I profiled @mollycrabapple.bsky.social for @us.theguardian.com. We discuss her timely new book, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Organizers End Giller Prize Boycott, Say Demands Have Been Met The embattled literary organization is no longer sponsored by Scotiabank, Indigo or the Azrieli Foundation, organizers confirmed. The Grind spoke to several authors about what this means for the…

NEW: The Giller Prize boycott has ended. The embattled literary prize confirmed that it is no longer sponsored by groups with ties to Israeli occupation and genocide.

I spoke to previous Giller winners and nominees about the news for @thegrindto.bsky.social.

www.thegrindmag.ca/organizers-e...

What to watch at the UK Asian Film Festival 2026.

@leilalatif.bsky.social shares her top picks.
hyphenonline.com/2026/04/10/u...

The beauty of dying tulips

Took a 2025 Booker-shortlisted novel back to library, couldn't finish... Got this by Mohammed Hanif instead. #books #libraries

spring

‘Soon publishers won’t stand a chance’: literary world in struggle to detect AI-written books US release of horror novel Shy Girl cancelled and UK book discontinued after suspected AI use, as publishers feel ‘cold shiver’

Wherever I've been asked in interviews about AI taking over literature I ask what the person's favourite AI novels are. There never are any.

The Shy Girl extracts released are clearly garbage, so the question is not so much why the AI wasn't spotted, but why the poor quality wasn't spotted.

Like two different skies

ice on door-mat #easter

Maruska the cat, at the window, very interested in something down there, and drawn by Leonid Pasternak whose day is today.

Azalea

Two elephants

Light through daffodils.

Beach Cat thinking about things

Enjoyed catching up with conversation with Imtiaz Dharker via @societyofauthors.bsky.social on Vimeo. #writing

[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]

Interesting essay from Leila Aboulela in @societyofauthors.bsky.social magazine.

I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful piece of writing by @audreygillan.bsky.social in which she evokes the past “glitter” of Glasgow’s Union Street. We have been reminiscing over on Instagram about all the long lost shops - Bus Stop, Virgo, The Warehouse. So lucky to have known that era.

One daffodil

Children at an Edinburgh hospital painted pebbles for the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo and will be able to watch them choose and present them to their mates via livestream.

#SundayMorning

Cover of Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark. Cover features a photo of Spark holding a black cat.

‘When a cat voluntarily disappears from home’, Muriel Spark once said, ‘it’s merely because the whim has seized it to look for something less boring elsewhere’. That was Spark, in her life and in her work: untethered, aloof, and forever seeking a life less ordinary. 🐈‍⬛

Out 9th April! (link in bio…)

Hassan Ayman Herzallah | Eight Kilos of Gas For months, I had watched our pile of firewood shrink. We didn’t burn it to keep warm but reserved it for cooking....

‘My mother said she would cook kabsa. Kabsa was not just a meal. It was a declaration that this day was different. The tent slowly filled with the smell of spices – a scent we had not experienced in months.’

Hassan Ayman Herzallah collects gas in Gaza, from the blog.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Just listened to ten minutes so far. Dr Stephen Holgate sympathetically says the medical disbelief around ME was harnessed around ignorance. I would add that the ignorance was utterly wilful. The arrogance of those who harmed #pwME - with impunity - will never not make me furious.

A stylized owl sculpted into a heating grate at Walter Library.

One of many owls carved into the stone wall of the Walter Library Reading Room.

An owl sculpted into a metal gate on the first floor of Walter Library.

The vast majority of the owls can be found in light fixtures of the library. There are 946 of these stylized owl logos.

Screw it. It is Spring Break here at the U and I've finally done something I have always wanted to do: count all the owls at Walter Library. For the first time since the library was renovated in 2002, here is a complete count of all the owls carved, chiseled, and sculpted into the library: 1,167!

I SWEAR is such a beautiful film. And I loved the evocation of Scotland in 80s/90s. #ISwear

A great pleasure and an honor to speak to Rob Malley and Esfandyar Batmanghelidj about Trump and Netanyahu’s war against Iran, and the internal dynamics of the Islamic Republic. Highly illuminating conversation.