Mark Bowles

new post from me over at Substack
markbowles.substack.com/p/cat-rug

Thanks to @galleybeggars.bsky.social for their care and help at every step of the way! Can’t wait until July..

I love these joyous GBP newsletters, especially all the overspilling PS's.

Excited to read the new @markabowles.bsky.social, didn't realise it due so soon!

Been following these from the off but never been to one before. What a tremendous evening that was. Great writing/readings + such a supportive vibe. Deffo going back for more. Big up Kik for organising + everyone who shared their work, terrific stuff 🙏🖤

“Compensation” - like when you suffer injury or accident.

“Can’t eat in restaurants, people spit on you”. Maybe stop humiliating and murdering them?

The Crime of Witness | Fintan O’Toole Renée Good and Alex Pretti were murdered for daring to interfere with the Trump administration’s efforts to normalize abductions and state violence.

www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
#fascismintheusa

BBC useless as ever. There are always “conflicting accounts”. Of almost anything. In this case, one account is demonstrably false.

Early Bird Tickets for our Annual Salon in Madrid Find out about our exciting plans and book a reduced Early Bird place

Twit tweet tawooo. Early bird tickets open for Madrid salon in September! 🦅🐓🦤🐦🪶 @saloneurope.bsky.social

Maybe you need to buy an extra hot Americano from the buffet..

Great introduction to the European Writers Salon, and what’s happening in September..

The Safekeep is one of my favourite books of the past few years, so I am very proud and happy about this news ✨️

The only value of the “board of peace” is to serve as a prime example when defining the word “misnomer”.

Very much looking forward to this! We’ve got some amazing writers coming, plus it’s an inspiring community of folk. #ews #madrid #creativewriting

Check this out!

Did you buy a copy. Would be curious to see full review!

Well done Stu!!

Here it is again: “What we witnessed in Switzerland was not a policy address. It was an X-ray.
[…]
[Trumps supporters] They don’t tolerate the chaos; they require it. They don’t excuse the cruelty; they cheer it. […] The spectacle is the substance.”

Thoughts?

Genet, on why he didn't steal in 30's Germany: "“In Nazi Germany I no longer felt the urge to break the law, because the law itself had become criminal. The regime was committing the crime. History had taken over my role, and I was dispossessed of my vocation.”" #fascism #trump

Yes, we’re dealing with a petulant unevolved baby. It must be demeaning for political commentators, treating his gibberish as ideas and doctrines. Like an art critic asked to appraise the scribblings of a marmoset.

I really hope that’s true.

Got this today, typical AI. But what’s the name for the particular rhetorical device. It’s endemic to AI. “ not x but y”…

“Mark Bowles,

I’m reaching out because All My Precious Madness doesn’t need exposure it needs precision.”

#AI #rhetoric

I will book!

In the interval between Trumps, I’d almost forgotten the drip drip of gibberish and petulance. The 8 wars thing. And of course he wouldn’t be able to name the combatants in these “wars” nor point to them on a map. It’s less a dictatorship than a Bebocracy.

New Year's resolution: meet more writers Plus a multi-city birthday party across Europe!

open.substack.com/pub/european...

Ridiculous Keshed blurbs in my profile here from folk like @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social @jamesscudamore.bsky.social @heidijames.bsky.social @susannacrossman.bsky.social @regretteruane.bsky.social @markabowles.bsky.social @leebrackstone.bsky.social

uk.bookshop.org/shop/Stu_Hen...

Censorship of books in the US has always been predominantly from the right. The whole “cancel culture” debate (it was scarcely a debate) rested on a this very basic error.

John Berger on Ramallah:

www.threepennyreview.com/a-place-weep...

Black text on a peach background: online course, Writing What Can’t Be Said, a workshop series with Mark Bowles. 21 Jan 2026-22 Apr 2026, *can be taken together or separately. In the bottom right corner, a colour photo of Mark looking way too friendly to write the book he wrote

Join author Mark Bowles for 4 writing workshops tracing how we write what resists language: trauma, rage, madness, silence—and finding form, vitality, or even grace within that tension ⚡

Telenovela by Gonzalo C. Garcia: Chile’s dark era revisited through a family drama Novel examines the moral compromises of ordinary Chileans living under Pinochet’s dictatorship

Great review of Telenovela just arrived in the Irish Times: www.irishtimes.com/culture/book... "a convincing portrait of the darkest period in Chile’s modern history, which, by homing in on those on the wrong side of history, reflects the subtle weaponry of silence and language"