Brian Willems

Hall of mirrors

Michèle Roberts on filling the pages through life’s vicissitudes

What was in the Iran nuclear deal and why did Trump withdraw the US from it? Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, the deal followed two years of negotiations during the Obama administration.

Just in case anyone wants a reminder of how Trump helped create the situation he's now using as justification to bomb Iran. abcnews.go.com/Politics/ira...

“Love of My Days,” by Louise Erdrich She knew who the man was, knew a bullet furrow when she saw one.

“Early one morning, Jake Weir went to town to see about a mixture of grains for his horses. When he returned to his farm and went into the house, he saw a stranger sitting at his table.” Read a short story by Louise Erdrich.

NYC: Wednesday, June, 4 at 7PM at join @twolinespress.bsky.social for the MENDING BODIES book tour with author Hon Lai Chu and translator @jacqlyy.bsky.social‬ with writer/translator Bonnie Chau. More at: www.yuandmebooks.com/products/boo...

🔹Wednesday, 4 June🔹 Kate Briggs and Jen Calleja will be in conversation about the Art and Politics of Literary Translation. In partnership with @prototypepubs.bsky.social and CAPONEU @brightonuni.bsky.social. Sign up here to join in person: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

I wrote about the politics & aesthetics of the floral in recent exhibitions (Inka Essenhigh, Sharon Core) & two of my favourite books like Ordinary Notes @dauntbookspub.bsky.social by Christina Sharpe (@hystericalblkns.bsky.social) & more by Jamaica Kincaid for Elephant

elephant.art/bring-me-flo...

Tracker by Alexis Wright; Pig by Matilde Pratesi; Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto A compelling read, one that comes up short and a scholarly, engaging history

‘Alexis Wright’s work is a living, breathing testament to oral storytelling … Storytelling here is resistance – complex, unfiltered, and utterly compelling.’

Adam Wyeth reviews Tracker by Alexis Wright for @irishtimes.com ✨

Poetry book of the month: Mind your language Éireann Lorsung’s vibrant debut delights in the slipperiness of the world and the words we use to capture it

‘From the sprinkle of snow across a sidewalk to the scatter of crumbs on a tablecloth, each metaphor in this collection unfolds like a mural, deliciously rich in colour, texture and tone.’

Jade Cuttle on Éireann Lorsung, for The Observer: httpsobserver.co.uk/culture/books/article/poetry-...

The Many Lives of Joshua Clover (1962–2025) How the militant, poet, political theorist, organizer, and giver of gifts refused to die.

Last week, we lost the poet, activist, and scholar Joshua Clover. Those who want to pay homage might donate to their local bail fund.

@judecook.bsky.social all the best with the venture, but I think it's just wrong to be fighting for a greater representation of men's voices. Period.

Em Hogan · Rolex and Ladurée: Constance Debré’s Bravado Playboy was published in France in 2018 and was seized on by critics, and the public, as a powerful challenge to...

‘The staccato prose, the weird punctuation and Debré’s reliance on endless lists wears you down. The provocation stops being shocking and leads nowhere.’

Em Hogan on Constant Debré’s autofiction: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Homebodiez, by Microfilm 11 track album

Homebodiez, our 11th album, is OUT NOW.

Listen/purchase it here: microfilm.bandcamp.com/album/homebo... and for purchase & streaming everywhere.

Help us spread the word! Repost this post! Thx. Enjoy!

#newmusic #newalbum #electronicmusic #dancemusic #musicsky #synthpop #electropop #synthsky #music

Xiaolu Guo: ‘Write less, in order to write stronger’ The author and film-maker on why she was inspired to reimagine Moby-Dick in her new novel, her love of Coleridge and returning to the ‘addictive power of fiction’

'I’ve returned to the addictive power of fiction… Our fascination with myth-making seems to be a human malady.'

Ahead of the publication of Call Me Ishmaelle on Thursday (20th), Xiaolu Guo talks to Anthony Cummins.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Last call for this: The Republic of Consciousness 2025 shortlist readings at Deptford Lounge 6.45pm tonight. I'll be there with fellow judges Alice Jolly & @houmanbarekat.bsky.social & writers, translators & publishers inc Les Fugitives, Peninsula, CB Editions, Divided & @bullaunpress.bsky.social

One of the novels of the year. Get some tix for this and i'll see you there 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Natasha Brown on her razor-sharp satire: ‘There was absolutely a lot of cringe’ The author, who shot to prominence with her 2021 debut novel ‘Assembly’, speaks to Katie Rosseinsky about writing habits, the future, and her button-pushing new book

‘[Brown] has a sharp, unrelenting eye for the tangled dynamics that simmer underneath the surface of social interactions.’

Natasha Brown speaks to Katie Rosseinsky for the Independent.

independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/natasha-brown-universality-assembly-b2711076.html

Defending pessimism; threats to democracy; reworkings of Moby-Dick; women and the Crusades; Wilde wits – and much more.

This week’s TLS is out now: www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/cu...

Every superlative.
Bought my copy at the Bibliotopia festival at Jan Michalski foundation, Switzerland at the recommendation of the organizer (Tasja Dorkofikis).
The world needs this novel.
@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Kazuo Ishiguro was interviewed in this weekend's Guardian on the twentieth anniversary of his modern classic, Never Let Me Go: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/08/ai-will-become-very-good-at-manipulating-emotions-kazuo-ishiguro-on-the-future-of-fiction-and-truth

Please join us in Deptford on Thursday for readings of this years Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.

Support literary events outside city centres. @bullaunpress.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social @dividedpublishing

“I Can’t Go On, I Must Go On” | Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, Will Simpson Some readers may have been surprised to find a three-page comic in our February 27 issue: a collaboration by Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco titled “Never

“I’ve been trying to find some way to engage and comment on what’s been going on in Israel and Palestine, feeling that I couldn’t really sit back as a noncombatant, ducking and covering while this was happening.” —Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, interviewed by Will Simpson

A proof copy of Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart.

Hot proof alert: Vera, or Faith, the new novel by Gary Shteyngart is out @atlanticbooks.bsky.social in August. Reviewers/booksellers/librarians hmu. Karen Russell says it’s “a novel that you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever.”

My new novel, “My Lover, the Rabbi,” will be published by FSG in 2026. (And I’m signed up there for an essay collection, too.) Thank you to editor Jackson Howard and agent PJ Mark. @fsgbooks.bsky.social

A photo of Torrey Peters looking off to the left of the shot, wearing a pink t-shirt that has been cut at the neck and sleeves to make a tank top. The t-shirt reads, 'JOIN THE STAG DANCE'.

A photo of a pink t-shirt that reads, 'JOIN THE STAG DANCE', a Stag Dance cap and a copy of the hardback book Stag Dance by Torrey Peters.

🦌 STAG DANCE GIVEAWAY 🦌

With one month to go until we publish #StagDance by @torreypeters.bsky.social, we're giving away a copy of the book, and an exclusive cap and t-shirt (seen here modified and modelled by Torrey herself!) 💗

To enter, RT this by midday Thursday 20th Feb. UK only.

Selma Dabbagh | Ransacked On 9 February, two branches of the Muna family’s bookshops in East Jerusalem were ransacked by Israeli police. They...

‘One of the books used by the prosecution at Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court as evidence of “incitement” is a children’s colouring book by a South African illustrator.’

Selma Dabbagh on the arrest of the Jersualem booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/fe...

Lucie Elven · Screaming in the Streets: On Nan Goldin Cyclicality – its rhythms, its humour – is central to Nan Goldin’s work. A title such as The Ballad of Sexual...

‘In 1988, she went into rehab and “discovered the light after years in the dark”. (“Until 1989 I didn’t know what daylight was.”) When she returned to New York, her friends were dying from Aids.’

Lucie Elven on Nan Goldin: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

'What a glorious achievement, to make life instead of merely describing it.'

Megan Nolan on the wonder of Eimear McBride:

www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

MODERN POETRY and FRANK: SONNETS by Diane Seuss and PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, tr. Sophie Hughes, both publish today!
Read excerpts on our website: fitzcarraldoeditions.com

“The idea of children in this country starving seems absurd” When the pandemic hit, Stu Hennigan volunteered to distribute food to the poorest households in Leeds. Here is his raw, honest account of the scandalo...

Probably one of the most important books we've ever published.

Ghost Signs by @stuhennigan.bsky.social

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/3871...

The Gentlest Village | Jesse Ball | Granta ‘You are learning – learning a great deal. It is too much for you, so your body bows out. Then you wake up and you can continue.’

From the archive, 2015: short fiction by Jesse Ball.

‘This is a chair, said the examiner. A person is made in such a way that he can sit where he likes. He can sit on the ground, / she knelt and patted the floor. — ­Or even on the table itself, / she patted the table.’

granta.com/the-gentlest...