Ellen Dillon

You--yr poems, yr attention to the world, yr respect for the students--were central to my teaching this semester, and it was the most joy I've ever had in a classroom. If I'm ever back in the classroom again (something I'm currently on the fence about) it'll be with some of these up my sleeves

other things I take care to say openly: you matter to me and you CAN write. you deserve to work hard. you deserve to come to an understanding of the difference between pain and hard work. and you can always begin again

there are two things I say to students that I think really matter. one is, I love teaching you, and you are my priority. the other is, your value as a person is absolute; it is distinct from any grade you receive, which is necessarily a snapshot of your performance at a given moment.

this semester my students did long-form process projects exclusively. these projects required them to do real-time observation, making things by hand (including learning physical pasteup and how to reproduce on a copy machine). they wrote and revised four projects. some produced up to ten drafts

'Has the Government ever asked the people of Ireland if they agree with pulling on the green jersey?'
the green jersey woven from the cyanobacteria choking our lakes?
It has in its hoop

'Butter Intervention' features dairy industry profit seeking. My next book features toxic algae choking our lakes. Lady's Island lake, scene of a favourite family holiday 'glows so green, apparently it can be seen from space.'
For my 50s I might need a two-pronged approach--poems and pitchforks

If you or I put a private sewer discharging waste into one of our rivers or lakes, there'd be total *hell* to pay.

But a whole industry doesn't just get away with constantly polluting, the government makes a priority of fighting for their right to continue.

The result is our rivers are dying.

To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies will be bright

I've been thinking a lot about sentences today--the work they do and how they do it. That was before I read this one though. Now I think language was a mistake.

What if an entire profession declared "only God can judge me"

'But mostly I think the patriarchal mass murder of this woman's career and her personhood is a freaksome lynching the likes of which we will look back upon with a dazed compunction.'

#AbundantNumber ahead of the curve since 2024

Now available for pre-order: FOUND IN A CONTEXT OF DESTRUCTION, the debut poetry collection by acclaimed writer Tim MacGabhann, out in February 2026. Cover design by @jackflag.bsky.social 🪨

bansheepress.org/shop/p/found...

“I fear not thy epidemic, man,” said Ahab

Photo of page from a book with a sentence underlined in blue pen: “THE ATLANTIC is one of many media outlets that covered the plight of the underpaid McDonald’s worker—while simultaneously refusing to pay many of their own writers.”

Sarah Kendzior writing in 2013 about what personal experience taught me a decade later.

(I still haven’t been paid.)

'bogus self-employment' is a v. common term in Ireland (for a very common practice here) www.connectunion.ie/wp-content/u...

Blue felt whale with a white quiff hanging in a christmas tree with lights and red tinsel

The Christmas whale is perched in our teeny tiny tree and the cat hasn't seen him yet

There will be a special Aase Berg night in Chicago in January. I will read with a bunch of Chicago writers to welcome my translation of Berg's AASE'S DEATH into the world.

Thanks to @neonpajamas.bsky.social for organizing, for foregrounding translation.

Róisín Ní Neachtain - I, bird | Broken Sleep Books Róisín Ní Neachtain's I, bird is a fragmented, lyrical reckoning with grief, trauma, and the porous boundary between body and voice. Structured in poetic prose and verse, the collection moves between ...

Just 24 days until my book is published. Nervous. Emotional. Happy.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

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168 Resistance is only hope. Like the moon of Hypnos full tonight in all its quarters, tomorrow vision upon the passage of poems.

René Char, tr. Cid Corman

Oh Jesus H Christ

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would you like some Amateur! online art theory for the holidays? @theglobeandmail.com thinks you would...

www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/book...

Last few tickets for this DREAM event tmrw (Fri 5th) 6-7.30 pm. Architectural Association, London. FREE!

Hear Theo Downes-Le Guin talk about @ursulakleguin.com's childhood in Napa Valley, the landscape & ppl that shaped her work

+ convo w/ Theo, Sarah Shin @silver-press.bsky.social & me.

this is why i'm sceptical about ireland's emphasis on individual artist bursaries and artists basic income... it means we can pay rent but its ultimately just more money that goes into landlords pockets, it's not enough, artists need infrastructure and cities need spaces like this, for everyone

I'd love a browser/general software extension that adds a "No, fuck off!" button to any pop-up suggesting "AI" "help" with something --- and the option to send exactly those words to the company producing the software.

oh my god we are cooked

Massive congratulations Dr Clarke!! I was locked out of my account for months so only just saw this. Bloody delighted ❤️

EUROVIsion SONG CONTEST BREAKING RTÉ TO BOYCOTT THE EUROVISION OVER ISRAELI PARTICIPATION.

Finally RTE has made the correct decision. (posted by @newschambers.bsky.social on insta)