@kevinmacdonell.bsky.social
Writer and lifelong diarist. Nova Scotia, Canada. Creative nonfiction, personal essays. Recent/forthcoming: Malahat Review, Queen’s Quarterly, Grain, Dalhousie Review, Camel, Rural Delivery, Globe & Mail. A.I.-free since 1969.
I have letter to the editor this week in our local paper.
Our community is, once again, facing a developer who wants to turn public, protected coastal land into a golf course. We've been here before. This time, it's shadier. And God knows it was shady last time. www.invernessoran.ca/top-story/co...
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
08.10.2025 22:44 — 👍 3630 🔁 1073 💬 57 📌 216Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
08.10.2025 10:29 — 👍 25020 🔁 9490 💬 413 📌 170
“We will soon need to read books for protection. We will need them for survival. We will seek them out because they offer an escape from the degraded digital domains, where duplicity is now dictated by the largest platforms with the richest owners.”
07.10.2025 20:31 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
In this week's Stop! Look! Listen! Kim Pittaway recommends something different: Art-scrolling!
Listen to how she accessibly finds art that inspires here:
thefiddlehead.ca/content/stop...
Middle aged man smiling with hands in the pockets of his shorts standing in bright sun on an expansive beach. Yours truly.
Clam Harbour Beach this morning. Twenty degrees. Barbecue dinner home on our deck in Bedford where it is 29 degrees. Normal Nova Scotia weather for October. Yep TOTALLY NORMAL.
06.10.2025 20:39 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Booktoberfest at Halifax Central Library is Oct 11! writers.ns.ca/programs/boo...
06.10.2025 19:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Lovely piece in today's Observer (no paywall) about @lettersofnote.com's latest, DIARIES OF NOTE, which looks like it'll be as fascinating and well-made as the other books in the series. By Anthony Quinn.
observer.co.uk/style/featur...
Postmedia editor fail. Possibly representative.
04.10.2025 13:20 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Snippet of newspaper text about solar flares, which includes the line, “NASA has been monitoring the sun’s activity since the 1600s.”
Say what.
04.10.2025 13:19 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Where they went I cannot name—
those liquefying emissaries
or my aunt’s wishes, whatever it was
that she held tight that morning—
—from Votive by Annick MacAskill, Gaspereau Press, 2024
Read the full excerpt:
www.riverstreetwriting.com/blog/2025/8/...
@gaspereaupress.bsky.social
The Writing Rumble is happening again! Time to sponsor your favourite tag-team in this fun, totally non-violent fundraiser for the Nova Scotia Writers’ Federation!
02.10.2025 23:06 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Poster
What will you be doing at exactly this moment next Thursday evening? I'll be starting up another Writing Your Family Story workshop. 8 weeks, online, all levels — come join in, why don't you? ukings.ca/programs/non... ✍️
02.10.2025 21:52 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Reminder that @theguardian.com has a partnership with OpenAI, and has of late published a spate of asinine articles that are uncritical in framing, and just read as press releases for the company and for "AI" in general.
The headline/implicit framing of this article seems consistent with its biases.
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
01.10.2025 14:38 — 👍 24671 🔁 8238 💬 650 📌 2186Anyone remember a brilliant children’s book called “Drummer Hoff”? I loved that book; so colourful, so scary. The words “Drummer Hoff fired it off” come to mind as Trump and Hegseth make their short-lived strut across the stage.
01.10.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Best Canadian Series: CALL FOR 2025 JOURNAL ISSUES!
Every year, Biblioasis publishes Best Canadian Poetry, Best Canadian Essays, and Best Canadian Stories, anthologies which feature works that were published in magazines/journals/online publications the previous year.
1/5
‘Translators are not traitors’ poster
My splendid translator in France, Mikael Cabon, asked me to support an urgent campaign, launching today, opposing AI being used instead of people. I do so willingly, and feel same on behalf of audiobook readers and bookworld artists. I hope readers worldwide will show their agreement.
30.09.2025 11:46 — 👍 196 🔁 99 💬 3 📌 1It’s easier said than done, for sure.
30.09.2025 12:10 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Shane Neilson on protecting time to write: “Let everyone in your life know that they cannot intrude. ... If anything threatens the fortress, then overreact. Behave like you’re five years old, with a wooden sword. Rush out of your fortress and brandish it at the interloper.” Malahat Review interview.
30.09.2025 11:46 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1THIS ANALOGY THO 🔥
29.09.2025 23:32 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Join us in discussing how poetry can help us make sense of uncertain times and how they informed the panelist's latest poetry collections.
Get tickets here: wildwriters.ca/product/betw...
Fascinating guide to moving your digital existence away from US Big Tech. Lots of useful ideas. Myself I use a @fairphone.com which has been a bit glitchy, @scrivenerapp.bsky.social, @libreoffice.bsky.social, both excellent, and am considering moving email off Google. Worth bookmarking.
28.09.2025 20:50 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Spoiler for tomorrow's episode.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is presented by
@thewalrus.ca
@peterbcounter.com
@houseofanansi.bsky.social
thewalrus.ca/podcasts/wha...
I’m old enough to remember when you could travel across this country easily, efficiently and comfortably by train. Mulroney tore up the tracks to make sure we’d never have that again.
28.09.2025 13:03 — 👍 27 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
The poetry pamphlet Seagulls at the University by Anna Quon (Opaat Press) in light green sits amidst balls and skeins of wool in a basket.
Handwritten transcription of the poem Seagulls at the University by Anna Quon
"They keened like
witches and cut
the stars
in half."
#TodaysPoem #poetry
Seagulls at the University by @annaquon.bsky.social (2025 Opaat Press / @thisisannick.bsky.social) annickmacaskill.com/2025/09/10/s...
