Zarina Dara

PSA:
The new kind of misinformation in 2026 is AI.

An AI slop page on IG released 52 AI generated ICE videos within hrs after footage of Renee Good's murder surfaced. We need to do better at being able to spot AI from real footage. And they are just getting started.

Via @showtoolsai on IG.
#Pinks

Solidarity with Louise Adler and Randa Abdel-Fattah. We stand against this retrograde decision and with the countless authors withdrawing in support of Randa and her work.

Unbelievable. I told the Sky News guy to fuck off with his questions and now *that* is the story.
This hungry beast is insatiable.
How’s that Royal Commission into Murdoch media going?

Few words.
My @smh @theage cartoon

Adelaide Festival is done - and the rest of the board has stepped down

Randa Abdel-Fattah : Discipline - Tin House Randa Abdel-Fattah’s new novel Discipline is set in Sydney, Australia in 2021 during Ramadan. Discipline follows two Palestinians there, one in media and one in academia, where each has to confront qu...

Excited to share this conversation with Randa Abdel-Fattah about her remarkable new novel DISCIPLINE. A book about language, silence, complicity, solidarity and so much more
Audio: tinhouse.com/podcast/rand...

Antisemitism crisis. What is real and what is not - Michael West Anthony Albanese has announced a Royal Commission into the Bondi Attacks and antisemitism. Is Australia's antisemitism crisis exaggerated?

"Australia is told [of] an unprecedented wave of antisemitism, a crisis requiring extraordinary measures, including a Royal Commission. But police data, court findings, and parliamentary evidence tell a very different story"
#auspol
michaelwest.com.au/antisemitism...

‘And, whatever the Board’s protestations that the two are not linked, how telling, how grim, is the dog whistle connecting Dr Abdel-Fattah’s name with the Bondi massacre.’

Writers' Week under threat of collapse as list of writers leaving nears 100 - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia A multitude of high-profile authors has joined the flood of names demolishing the Writers' Week lineup.

In this article SA Premier is incorrectly referring to a 2024 oped by Thomas Friedman, not Freedman. It was a dehumanising oped titled Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom. He suggested people in Middle East be exterminated like vermin by fire
www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

I have been sent a copy of Adelaide Festival's response to the letter raising concerns about Thomas Friedman's participating in Adelaide Writers Week.

The response says that Friedman could not participate due to "last minute scheduling issues".

Much as Adania Shibli was censored by the Frankfurt Book Fair,
Randa Abdel-Fattah has been removed from the Adelaide Writers Festival. Her book is about silencing. We discuss at length the many ways, small & large, public & behind the scenes, Palestinian voices are silenced

I was chairing two panels, but not any more

Well, I was going to be on a panel at the Adelaide Writers' Festival but I'm not any more.

Grass roots.
My @smh cartoon.

UN report: Israel practising racial segregation and apartheid - Michael West A UN Human Rights Office has found Israel is 'asphyxiating' Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem via its policies, practices and laws

Meanwhile ... UN Human Rights report finds Israel is an apartheid state

michaelwest.com.au/un-report-is...

Statement from the Australia Institute withdrawing from Adelaide festival.

Personal statement withdrawing from the Festival.

Following the decision from the Board of the Adelaide Festival, The Australia Institute is withdrawing its support from this year’s literary festival. Here is our statement, and a personal one from me.

As a former Director of Adelaide Writers' Week I am appalled that the Adelaide Festival Board has rescinded Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah's invitation to the 2026 AWW, explicitly linking its decision to the shattering crimes in Bondi.

A shocking decision that will and should have far-reaching consequences.

ADD YOUR NAME ✍️ We will not be divided after Bondi On Sunday at Bondi we witnessed the appalling consequences of hatred and how it breeds radicalisation and violence. But as the Jewish community and the whole country grieved, some politicians went on ...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: petitions.getup.org.au/petitions/fr... @getup.org.au

The Women's List The Women’s List is a non-profit organization created by a volunteer group of WGA writers, DGA directors, and SAG actors, among others. Our goal is to make The Women’s List the go-to resource for over...

@thewomenslist.bsky.social are opening up their 2025 screenwriting search on Feb 13th. I say search, rather than contest because their mission is different. They are looking to promote production ready scripts written by women. In 2024 they selected 39. #scriptsky #womenwriters www.thewomenslist.org

I ran across this on FB... @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social - true, very true!!

people say “you need to start living in the real world” but they forget that the real world includes lupines and lightning bugs and ginger beer and starlight and sea coasts and Renoir paintings and Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos and fog banks and foxes playing in snow.

I mention this all the time in conversations and no one I speak to seems to have heard about it. theconversation.com/ai-is-a-mult...

the leaves fall and the woods fill with the sound of machines

Mel Nichols

Hundreds of authors have signed an open letter in support of Lisa Ko. Maxine Hong Kingston, Alexander Chee, Alissa Nutting, David Henry Hwang, Eugene Lim, Rachel Khong, Susan Abulhawa, Susan Bernofsky, Laura van den Berg, R. O. Kwon, Bryan Washington, Danzy Senna, an…

Hundreds of authors, including @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social, @alexanderchee.bsky.social and @rokwon.bsky.social, call on NY State Writers Institute and PEN America to "issue a full correction" after vilifying Lisa Ko and Aisha Abdel Gawad for opposing war and genocide

lithub.com/hundreds-of-...

World Central Kitchen workers killed by Israeli airstrike, Gaza health ministry says An Israeli airstrike hit a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing five people, including at least three employees with the food aid charity. World Central Kitchen said that it was "urgently seeking more details."

An Israeli airstrike hit a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing five people, including at least three employees with the food aid charity. World Central Kitchen said that it was "urgently seeking more details."

Image reads Talking to Grief Ah, grief, I should not treat you like a homeless dog who comes to the back door for a crust, for a meatless bone. I should trust you. I should coax you into the house and give you your own corner, a worn mat to lie on, your own water dish.

Image reads You think I don’t know you’ve been living under my porch. You long for your real place to be readied before winter comes. You need your name, your collar and tag. You need the right to warn off intruders, to consider my house your own and me your person and yourself my own dog. — Denise Levertov

I first needed this Denise Levertov poem in the months after my father-in-law died. I've realized I also need it now.

I added a few more people, lovely Palestinians in Gaza.

Looking forward to adding more brilliant voices when they join

Come to Bluesky, please :)
Wizard Bisan, Susan Abulhawa, Mohammed el-Kurd, Yousef Munayyer, Noura Erakat, Makdisi brothers, Ramy Abdu, Mariam Barghouti
bsky.app/starter-pack...

On the VPN question, the department is suggesting that if someone uses a VPN to sign up, then the platforms would be expected to check their posts on social media to see if they're actually based where the VPN says they are.