Oh, my response was 100% a diplomatic version of that.

Trust me, I am!

Do I know anyone with a copy of the letters between Bachmann and Enzensberger? @pdavies.bsky.social, maybe? Am looking for a quote from a December 1963 letter...

Always good to be able to tick something off the to do list because it turns out your client decided to cancel the project 6 weeks ago but forgot to tell you and so you find out 10 days before the deadline when you send them an incidental question. Love that. Love that so much.

Open Book Chronic Illness Creative Writing Group Shared Reading and Creative Writing for writers living with chronic illnesses.

For regulars and newbies - due to a calendar confusion we missed out on our normal date on 13th - so this month's Chronic Illness writing group through Open Book is this evening, 20th April - on the April theme of 'wonder' - sign up here -

Scottish Greens are committed to protecting and restoring our green spaces.

Let's demand better.

Vote Scottish Greens on May 7th.

Poetry Beyond Borders: Ghayath Almadhoun and Catherine Cobham - Buy tickets Readings and discussions between Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun and his translator Catherine Cobham

Thrilled to be starting a (roughly quarterly) online event series with @ptbopoetry.bsky.social, showcasing international poets and their English-language translators. First up on 28 April: Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun and his translator Catherine Cobham: www.citizenticket.com/events/push-...

Scottish Greens deliver for a fairer, greener Scotland #bbcdn 👇

New poll. Scottish Greens to beat Labour and Reform. Greens 17 MSPs, Labour 14, Reform 15. Let's Demand better. On May 7th vote Scottish Greens.

The latest poll has the Scottish Greens as the 2nd largest party - overtaking Labour & the Tories and ahead of Reform.

Let's demand better. On May 7th vote Scottish Greens.

As well as being the #2 candidate for the Greens on the Edinburgh & Lothians East regional list, I am delighted to announce I am also the constituency candidate for Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith! I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to be standing for such an inspiring part of our city 🌱 ⚓️ ✊️

Review: The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran by Shida Bazyar — Aniko Press Starting from the 1979 Iranian revolution, The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran centres on one family and the far-reaching impact of their father’s involvement.

The best thing about the IB longlisting has been seeing so many people discovering this novel for the first time and appreciating the complex personal stories of ordinary Iranians, in contrast to the statistics and snippets of current news coverage. www.anikopress.com/book-reviews...

Would you like to stay and write in a global literary hub? Here are the latest opportunities:

1. Residency in Lyon for French-language poetry (dl 28 Feb)
2. Korean–English translation residency in Norwich (dl 9 March)
3. Norwich–Jakarta circular residency (dl 31 March)

buff.ly/vziVRSz

Also remember; a Scottish concessionary bus pass has been an approved form of ID in previous elections (and, hopefully, in future too)

Sadly I can't make it this year! @rebeccadewald.bsky.social will be around though. (And famously, we are the same person, just with different hair.)

Opportunities - Highlight Arts Highlight Arts is recruiting for Trustees, including a Treasurer and Chair, to join our small...

I've been wanting to do more work championing artists at risk - and connecting Scottish and international artists - for quite a while now, so am super excited to be coming on board to Highlight Arts to do just that. Join me on this journey by joining our Board! highlightarts.org/about/volunt...

Spain has already banned the US military from using their air bases to wage Trump's illegal war in Iran.

Scotland must do the same.

Opportunities - Highlight Arts Highlight Arts is recruiting for Trustees, including a Treasurer and Chair, to join our small...

I've been wanting to do more work championing artists at risk - and connecting Scottish and international artists - for quite a while now, so am super excited to be coming on board to Highlight Arts to do just that. Join me on this journey by joining our Board! highlightarts.org/about/volunt...

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez: “Today more than ever, it is essential to remember that one can be against a hateful regime as is the case with the Iranian regime…and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law.”

Emergency Dream by @pollyrowena.bsky.social is so, so good. The book I needed to read, the book that held me ❤️

Open call: two five-day residencies for writers experiencing displacement to the UK - News & Events - English PEN English PEN open call: two five-day residencies for writers experiencing displacement to the UK

Apply & share! @englishpen.bsky.social writing residencies for "writers currently based in England who identify as experiencing displacement – including (but not only) refugee writers, writers seeking asylum, and writers in exile."

www.englishpen.org/posts/campai...

close up of snow drop in clutch of snowdrops, in low light, dark behind, but the front ones have a little weak sunlight on them, and are just beginning to open.

Inclement Weather for Immortal Hags February comes in on a storm, wind shaking the roof to its rotten core, slates chattering. We are spare teeth compacted in its jaw like enchanted sleepers. Trees tapping at our panes with fingerbones loaned from the dead, infecting our fractured dreams. Everything screaming. All gale, no owl. No one could rest through a night like this. The day rises up like a flood, inevitable. My ancestors shudder in my skin. We go out not because the day is better, but because the nights are worse. We go out to move our blood. We meet three deer on the common. We see a giant raven carrying sticks in their beak. At the top of our tiny world, a weak sun blinks through cloud. The lightning rod of the white birch I tied a red thread round on this same day in an antique era watching suspiciously with its many eyes. The thread – a spell against loss, a plea for mercy from the perilous realm – frays into a sleety wind. Next year it will vanish entirely. I won’t notice for months. It’s not raining or snowing. It’s not fine either. The lake slate grey like a roof or wall that would shut any mortal out. Is it winter enough for an end to winter? We declare inclement weather for immortal hags. Aged as we have, a thousand years in the turbulent dark, my crone shadow on top of me now. We have one foot in this place and one in another and something is dragging at both of our hands. I want to go home. I want to sleep through. I want the cave and the torpor. I want to take all these layers off and lie skin bared to a parallel sky. Do immortal hags feel their feelings? I’m feeling all mine. We have left an offering of our sadness, our small despairs poor fuel for her fire.

An imbolc poem from #EmergencyDream. I wish you inclement weather for immortal hags today. I wish you fuel enough for your fire but less need for it. I wish you an early and thorough thaw. Melted ice. A new season of hope blooming. Spring spring spring spring spring. #Imbolc #BrigidsDay #Cailleach

"If you use AI there’s a loss of process—art process, theatre making, translation....Process is where you build knowledge. Just going from A to B without process, you gain no knowledge, no human experience. You gain zero opportunity because you are not having to engage with anybody else..."

#xl8 💙📚

78 loans of Basic Nest Architecture
27 loans of Much With Body 
8 loans of Recovering Dorothy
1 loan of Shadow Dispatches
304 loans of hardback Some of Us Just Fall
264 loans of paperback Some of Us Just Fall 
387 loans of hardback The Company of Owls 61 loans of The Company of Owls ebook

In Praise of PLR (Public Lending Rights), all those who fought for them, lending services, all those who use them! Viva Libraries!

PLR statement day. Incredibly helpful payment (£140 for me this time) but most of all I love to see which of my books have been borrowed. Keep reading!

Masterclass: Winter writing as (self) preservation | Saving up Light for The Long Night | Arvon What does winter mean to you? Is it something to celebrate or something to survive? Would you rather hibernate through it or do you relish the cold? In 'Summer Haibun' Aimee Nezhukumatathil writes of...

Ahhhh I almost forgot to do one last shout out about my NEXT event.

Join me online tomorrow evening - Tuesday 20th January - for an @arvonfoundation.bsky.social at home Online Masterclass -

On 'winter writing as (self) preservation Saving up Light for The Long Night'.

#WritingSky #BookSky

Question for publishing people! Is Unbound Edition Press connected in anyway to the now defunct Unbound publishers, or is the name just a coincidence?...

'Write a memory, soak and tear
into as many pieces as your years...
I cannot promise you it will work'.

Love this poem, 'Home-Charm' by Harry Josephine Giles on @annierutherford.bsky.social 's Advent Calendar today in aid of #msf Still time to sign up!
mailchi.mp/posteo/poetr...

“There is still hope in the handwriting that refuses to be mass-produced for the world.” Leena Norms

Let me recommend the Advent Poetry Calendar by @annierutherford.bsky.social raising funds for #MSF

This year’s selection fits the world we live in like a glove

mailchi.mp/posteo/poetr...

So glad you're enjoying, Sam!

My email account finally learnt not to send these to junk today 🤦‍♀️ no taste! Every day so far has been a jewel, so glad I signed up

V proud to have had poems included in Annie’s brilliant poetry advent calendar each year. It can be a difficult time but what better company through it than a poem sent to you every day? And knowing that is helping others in terrible need? That’s the spirit of the season. Not too late to sign up!