Catherine Rockwood

Shout out to all the women who wrote under male pseudonyms during the so-called golden age of Sci-fi.

Issue Twenty-Two: Ghost Ship

Proofs to contributors are being prepared...our cracking new issue is out for Halloween in a week's time 👀👻⚓️ badlilies.uk

At the food pantry I volunteer at we were absolutely swamped today and by many first timers. We ran out of whole categories of food. Please donate cash to your local organization if you at all can.

If you have it please donate cash to the food banks. $10 in their hands will feed more people than the $10 worth of canned goods you can buy for retail prices. Also check on your elders. Many of them will not admit they rely on these programs so grocery gift cards or a surprise bag of staples

Gotta hit all the fall goals while I can. 😂

I just donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank and Meals On Wheels. Why now? Because all of these organizations are getting ready for the coming storm. They're probably getting better deals now than they'll be able to after November 1. And, honestly, why *not* now? Carpe diem.

Screenshot of a recommendation by James Crossley's Letter from Leviathan #70: Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman When the days get shorter, I always start thinking about the mysterious, enveloping fantasies of Greer Gilman, who's published too little and whose published writings are too little known. The most recognized among them is Cloud & Ashes, winner of the Tiptree Award and a Mythopoeic Award finalist. It has been described as “a slow whirlwind of language, a button box of words, a mythic fable that invites revisitation.” The Washington Times accurately called it “a rich poetic prose laden with fetching archaisms that's unlike anything else being written today.” The most convincing quotes of all, though, come from Gilman herself. Look at the first line of the book: “He is met at a crossroads on a windy night, the moon in tatters and the mist unclothing stars, the way from Ask to Owlerdale: a man in black, white-headed, with a three-string fiddle in his pack.” It doesn’t matter who the man is or where on earth Owlerdale might be if you’re the sort of reader who perks up her ears at the sound of that language.

Good news for @jamescrossley.bsky.social & readers of the leviathanbookstore.com/newsletter-archive: Greer Gilman's agent is going out with a new novel right now. Ok, I weep a bit we're not going to publish it but getting more publishers for her work is fabulous. Who's Greer? Read this:

The Bear The bear came to me. I did not ask. I did not want.

Today's Featured Poem:

"The Bear" by @amiewhittemore.bsky.social from Nest of Matches published by @autumnhousepress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/the-bear/

I'm so excited for this reading with @heatherchristle.bsky.social and Martha Ronk, introduced by @martin65.bsky.social! Thursday, November 13, at 7:00, Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Cambridge, MA. Links to preregister for in-person and Zoom options below!

WORTH. IT.

"you read too much," they said. "what good will that do, learn a real skill," they said. Well mfer, I _do_ know to head off Watership Down as a children's movie choice before there's been a real discussion about it.

Photo shows a patch of orange, yellow and red leaf-fall (maple) on the ground.

I love this surge in gothic art bubbling up. It's like the big melodramatic unapologetic cringe everyone tried to bury showing up and yelling GUESS WHO'S BACK. BLUNT EMOTION. HIIIIIII

LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of MA

Things in Massachusetts are not as bad as they are in Chicago, but ICE is in our communities. The stories you see on the news don't accurately reflect the daily terror ICE is inflicting on immigrants. Please consider donating to or volunteering with LUCE.

Also, save their number: 617-370-5023

there are people on both the left and in the D establishment who do are uncomfortable with the multiracial, women-leaning coalition they have, and would prefer a party built on white men.

👆🏻

💚 Thank you, Sam.

The dogs have started playing a steal-the-stick game with each other that seems to be very satisfying for both of them. The puppy's technique is currently just "turning into an actual facehugger from Aliens" when the older dog steals the stick from her, but everyone has hope of her improvement.

When people glorify ‘Tough On Crime’ they are just saying that they are gleefully punitive & nothing more.

Being tough on crime isn’t the same as addressing crime. We know that the largest predictor for reducing crime is addressing need.

Reducing benefits increases crime, endangering everyone.

Our public school has a food pantry that gives a big bag of food and hygiene products weekly to about 50 families. We’re having a food and toiletries drive over the 4 weeks in anticipation of extra need. Many communities are. Please give locally—it’s all hands on deck to help each other survive.

Hound: An old hat.
Puppy: AN OLD HAT?
Hound: yes
Puppy: THIS IS THE BEST HAT
Hound: ?
Puppy: SO GLAD YOU DON'T WANT IT
Hound: I don't?
Puppy: MY GOOD HAT, WATCH ME PRANCE
Hound: mmph
Puppy: MY HAT MY HAT MY HAT
Hound: ....my
Puppy: NO
Hound: MY hat!
Puppy: COME AND TAKE IT MFER
(Exeunt, tussling)

hi folks, this is Tom Snarsky and I’m so excited to be hosting a HAD call this Sunday :) for the past two years, I’ve been sharing my favorite small poems every week and encouraging others to do the same under the hashtag #smallpoemsunday. I hope you’ll chime in at 12PM EDT this Sunday, 10/26 by sending in your own small poems to be considered for HAD! 💀 I am so excited to read your small poems!! but first, a few ground rules: per usual, subs will be capped at 150. the call could close really quickly (i.e. in seconds)! in your submission, please include one or two small poems. what qualifies as a small poem? a small poem can be in verse or prose; it might have one image, several, or none; it may be one line long, one sentence, more, or less; it may be a poem in a received form (sonnet, haiku, cinquain, etc.), a play, a fiction, or something wildly different from all those; “small poem,” here, is aspirationally expansive. with that in mind, if you send in something that truly doesn’t pass the small poem sniff test, I’ll have to politely decline. (& in any case, a rejection is in no way an ultimate verdict on your work! my intent is to read and respond as quickly as one person can.) if you’re still not sure what to send, consider browsing the #smallpoemsunday hashtag for inspiration (and to read & support small poems everywhere!). thanks so much to Aaron & Crow for welcoming me back for this call, and happy small-poeming!

We've got a #smallpoemsunday call coming on Sunday at noon ET from @tomsnarsky.bsky.social !!

full info in image, alt text, and replies!

Hound: An old hat.
Puppy: AN OLD HAT?
Hound: yes
Puppy: THIS IS THE BEST HAT
Hound: ?
Puppy: SO GLAD YOU DON'T WANT IT
Hound: I don't?
Puppy: MY GOOD HAT, WATCH ME PRANCE
Hound: mmph
Puppy: MY HAT MY HAT MY HAT
Hound: ....my
Puppy: NO
Hound: MY hat!
Puppy: COME AND TAKE IT MFER
(Exeunt, tussling)

Buy SoniaSulaiman a Coffee Sonia is writing speculative fiction inspired by Palestinian folklore. Leave her a tip to support her work!

Friends, I'm overwhelmed. Trying hard to keep mom's care at the nursing home up while I'm on a disability pension is kicking my @ss right now. I'm pouring my energy into game dev and writing, but work is scarce. Please donate, or share if you see this. ko-fi.com/soniasulaima...

Double rainbow over the old West Roxbury HS

How to end a day
www.universalhub.com/2025/how-end...
#rainbows #Boston #WestRoxbury

Practice Ellen Bryant Voigt To weep unbidden, to wake at night in order to weep, to wait for the whisker on the face of the clock to twitch again, moving the dumb day forward— is this merely practice? Some believe in heaven, some in rest. We'll float, you said. Afterward we'll float between two worlds— five bronze beetles stacked like spoons in one peony blossom, drugged by lust: it I came back as a bird I'd remember that— until everyone we love is safe is what you said.

Ellen Bryant Voigt 💙

I love this story so much. Morris Hinkle creates a terrible, vivid, and amazing world, painting an entire society in such a short space, and the horrors that society enacts for the "good" of all.

oof it's so good.

welp. we don't have to see that dude again in any case, which is probably best for everyone.