Alexander 🏳️‍🌈🪶🖤

What is a Creative Writing PhD? And how do you apply to one?

So, I've decided to start a Substack! My first post is up and I'm pretty proud of it - if you're looking to do a Creative Writing PhD in the UK but don't know how/what to expect, then give my post a read and let me know what else you'd like to see! 📖🤍 alexshenstone.substack.com/p/what-is-a-...

Plant growing in dry dirt

Drink Up My Spine by Alex Shenstone (@alexanderthewriter.bsky.social)

genrepunkmag.wordpress.com/2025/03/12/d...

Publication news!!!

My dark poem 'Drink Up My Spine' came out with the brilliant @genrepunkmag.bsky.social today --- I've been so PhD focused recently that my poetry has gone ignored, so having this come out today is just the best 🤍🫶

Read it here: genrepunkmag.wordpress.com/2025/03/12/d...

Image of a poetry chapbook. The cover is yellow and black with a Jack playing card design. The text on the cover reads: Jack of All Tales. A Selection of Poemss by Alex Shenstone.

Happy three years to my first poetry chapbook, Jack of All Tales, which came out this time in 2022 courtsey of the wonderful Alien Buddha Press! 🤍📖🤍

Just got my first querying rejection of 2025 from the president of an literary agency who took the time to encourage me to keep querying. Light moments like this are honestly what keep me going 📖 #querying #amquerying

New French guidelines show doctors overwhelmingly support gender-affirming care - LGBTQ Nation The medical guidelines contradict numerous conclusions from the UK's infamous Cass Review.

After extensive review, France has established very positive gender affirming care guidelines, and they’ve rejected the highly politicized Cass Report as simply false.

www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/12/new-...

There are no rules in this no man’s land between Christmas & New Years.

Read all night! Don’t finish a book! Read three books at once!

Just go nuts.

A photo collage of 60+ book covers accompanied by the following text: kith est 2022 trans, queer, and disabled owned and operated submissions always welcome wim@kithbooks.com the funny little press making funny little books

Coming down with a cold. I've armed myself with Lemsip tablets, drink sachets, satsumas, blackcurrent soothers and a Terry's Chocolate Orange. I also had a hot and sour soup earlier. Would appreciate healing vibes 🥲

Two characters kissing each other in their kitchen while it's raining outside.

The rain will stop. 🌈

some of you have really got to lay off the Ai images. not only are you committing art theft and burning the planet down, but you are making horrible taste a big part of your internet persona. i want you to want better for yourself.

Reminder that your favorite local indie bookstores make a lot of their yearly income during the holiday season.

Go shop local today. ❤️

Saw this and had to repost. <3 Credit to Marpal Embroidery for the work!

Selfie of a young man in glasses with a notebook.

Writer-at-work vibes 🪶📖

After having spent an inordinate amount of time on X, one thing that is now abundantly clear is that WE ALL KNOW HOW TO SPELL OVER HERE.

I wondered why the writer in me has been so calm these past few weeks.

Pat yourselves on the back, people. 💙 😁 💞

Oohh, I shall be keeping my peepers peeping 👀

Today, I've seen fake Bluesky accounts for Peter F Hamilton and Tamsyn Muir. If you see a well-known author on here, it's worth checking their replies before following them. The fakes seem to be trying to get unwitting people to DM them.

47 people have pledged so far. Average pledge is $77.80 and we are about 1/3 of the way there!

Artist life

Did you know BlueSky only has 20 employees?

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to those 20 warriors (who are working 24/7 to keep up with the incredible growth) for giving us a space to share.

We escaped hell to be here.

Thank you, @bsky.app & Jay Graber CEO (not a billionaire)

Georgian-style building behind a balustrade and pillars below.

Bath Abbey in the background, gardens in the foreground.

Autumnal waterway with canals and golden-leaved trees.

Pet cemetary. One grave says: "In Remembrance of Tim. A Little Pal. 1912-1925."

Throwback to my trip to Bath earlier this month 🏛🪶🍂

Not only was autumn Serving Looks, but this one grave in a pet cemetary made me cry:

In Remembrance
of
Tim
A Little Pal
1912-1925

😭😭😭

Hetha and I re-mortgaged our house to start an independent publishing company.

We're competing with Billion dollar corporates from our front room.

So to see one of our books on national TV is just brilliant.

Thank you!

#Betweenthecovers @pollyanneconway.bsky.social @bbctwo.bsky.social

Semi-selfish post, but please be generous in following/interacting with/encouraging lit mags, writers, and artists on here. Boost the creators on Bluesky, let the other sites have the bots.

Authors receive a payment every time you borrow a book, audiobook or ebook from libraries in 35 countries. Those countries include the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany to name but a few. Borrowing a book helps the author’s pocket as well as yours.

A quick open submission period for short story collections and short novels only!! This is also the right place to send any other weird stuff (flash hybrid etc) as long as it generally nests under fiction 🩳🩳🩳

i love people who really earnestly love poetry and gladly share that love

I have been using the MHRA referencing system for SIX WHOLE ASS YEARS and now I have to teach myself Harvard....

....for ONE application. My brain hurt 🥲

Assuming all fanfiction is written poorly really just shows you've never been caught in the chokehold of a 150k slowburn that changed the course of your life at 2:40am written by someone whose username has 4 Zs in it and they only wrote one fic and then vanished like an ethereal legend.

Bowl of brothy veggie noodle soup.

I made soup out of chow mein & stir fried veg takeaway leftovers recently. The garlicky broth was HEAVEN in this cold weather 🍜

When doing my essay work I always bullet point my points before I change them to the correct prose-y structure. This helps me actually do the writing I would otherwise procrastinate because going in raw into prose gives me a massive headache 😂