If you feel like donating to the RNLI, here’s a link. I just have. Their minimum donation is £2: I think it might be nice for them to receive a lot of donations this week, even if they’re mostly very modest. Just so they know a lot of people out here appreciate their work. rnli.org/support-us/g...

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

rnli.org

There's still time to sign up for @rachelmalik.bsky.social's Personal Anthology - her pick of and introduction to a dozen favourite short stories. Hitting inboxes at 2pm. All your weekend's reading, sorted! Details here: apersonalanthology.substack.com/about

About - A Personal Anthology

A weekly guest-editor picks and introduces a personal anthology of twelve favourite short stories. Click to read A Personal Anthology, by Jonathan Gibbs, a Substack publication with thousands of subsc...

apersonalanthology.substack.com

There's an in-depth piece about ex-wino turned chessmaster turned bestselling author turned pariah, John Healy, in the Observer today by Sean O'Hagan. Making a documentary about John's life radicalised me & made me viscerally understand the class system & how it can be weaponised. archive.is/7RkZA

New purgatory from The mighty @ccrrll.bsky.social brought to life here - love it.

Ian McMillan@imcmillan.bsky.social · 2w ago

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/.... Shop stroll soundtrack: this fabulous piece. Highly recommended! @bbcsounds.bsky.social

We *cannot* lose the PCC. Where else can you see IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE every week, plus countless other world cinema gems! #FilmSky Please sign this petition, if you haven’t done so already. 👇 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Tony Paley@tpaleyfilm.bsky.social · 3w ago

Just been to @princecharlescinema.com to see FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI (1998) and exit to read that the threat of closure has returned with the cinema heading back to court in its fight to secure its future open.substack.com/pub/londonce...

Ok now I’m ready to send out my story by post. Message me your address if you want one. I bought fun stamps (not pictured). It’s a sweet love story set in the 90s.

Very excited to have a short story ('Portrait Photography') included in this upcoming issue of The Lonely Crowd. Especially excited that the cover makes it look like an early Belle and Sebastian album. Preorder here: thelonelycrowd.org/online-shop-...

The Lonely Crowd / Issue 15 – Online Shop – The Lonely Crowd

Issue 15 will be published on September 7th. UK customers can pre-order now and receive free shipping. A Page of Knots – Vona Groarke / Local Colour – Tim MacGabhann / Three Poems – P. C. Evans / A Qu...

thelonelycrowd.org

The Lonely Crowd@thelonelycrowd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Issue 15 of The Lonely Crowd will be published on September 7th. Featuring new work from @elfodongo.bsky.social @pcevans.bsky.social @eleanorhooker.bsky.social @jonathangibbs.bsky.social @katefeld.bsky.social @tomvowler.bsky.social @bentufnell.bsky.social & more thelonelycrowd.org/online-shop-...

CALLING LONDONERS 📣 My friend has spent FIVE YEARS developing her play—a queer horror story—and she's hardly sold any tickets. She's travelling down from Leeds and I'm devastated 🥺 The Haunting of Verity Evans, The Hope Theatre, 25th–26th August. I hope you'll join me! Please share if you can't!

A launch thread for my new book WHAT LIES AHEAD AND OTHER ESSAYS out with @blackheraldpress.bsky.social 1/

An article in praise of booksellers. (Features some high-register prose for an article that is also about cash-registers... and business rates. But, you know what? I really mean it.) samj.substack.com/p/in-praise-...

In praise of booksellers

Why the UK government (and everyone else) should support bookshops.

samj.substack.com

Renormalise ending stories in ALL CAPS. Extra credit if the final word is also the name of the story

TW: Suicide If you tell people you have SI, many are likely to suggest you call 988 or text the suicide lifeline. These are good resources *if you need to be kept physically safe;* they are not as helpful if your ideations are passive. Allow me to share some things that have helped me. /1

Great to see Open Pen doing its thing again. If you’ve never tried it, it’s a brilliant little (FREE!) lit mag. You can pick one up for nowt in bookshops across the UK. (List of stockists here: www.openpen.uk/magazine-stockists )

This is worth the time. Jo is one of the greats

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · last mo.

What an unbelievably lovely thing - I had no idea this was happening - the wonderful Adrian Duncan talking about The Earth Thy Great Exchequer Ready Lies on the Library of Lazy Thinking - blown away lazythinking.substack.com/p/adrian-dun...

London! I will be reading in you. This Sunday, 3.30pm, Ellie's Bar on Kingsland Road. (As part of the Soho Reading Series.)

👇👀👇🤩 The gang at Salty Towers are giving 20% off my short story collection, Forgetting is How We Survive until 31st July! (Other books by some incredible writers also available, so have a browse!)

Salt Books@saltpublishing.com · 2mo ago

🎈BOOK SALE 🎈 20% off everything – simply click the link below or use discount code 5T2JNKFV98VT in our checkout! www.saltpublishing.com/discount/5T2... Offer ends 31 Jul #SaltBooks #Booksky

It's a beautiful day on the riverside and I have coffee and the latest Elizabeth Crane

For @theguardian.com I compiled a list of 20 books to read in a day (whittled down from 70 - goodbye Readers Block, Turn of the Screw, Less Than Zero, Call Me Ishmael, The Stone Book, Autobiography of Red etc). Not a top 20, but all worth your time I guarantee it. www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Pressed for time? 20 brilliant books you can read in a day

From novels by James Baldwin and Han Kang to a guide to quantum physics – a former Booker prize judge recommends immersive one-sitting wonders

theguardian.com

I’m hugely proud to have my short story, ‘Shipping out’, included in issue 50 of Southword. It was shortlisted for the Sean O’ Faolain Short Story Comp. Southword, pub'd by @munsterlitcentre.bsky.social , is a brilliant journal and they pack a lot in! Get a copy here: munsterlit.ie/bookshop/sou...

I’ll be handling the publicity for this one myself so please get in touch if you’d like a PDF copy for review or would like to book an event or interview

Jan Carson@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Could not be more pleased to reveal my 10th book, a microfiction collection about staying in hotels by myself. It'll be published in late September by the mighty No Alibis Press complete with gorgeous illustrations by Rory Jeffers. Pre-order #NoVacancy now on the No Alibis website.

Listened to the podcast yesterday and it was great. Enjoyed alongside @benpester.bsky.social's latest collection 'Sail Away Land' which was everything I wanted and more

LRB Bookshop@londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 2mo ago

If you enjoyed our most recent podcast, you can still get a copy of the book in question, MAGIC & MECHANICS: 6 phenomenal stories by 6 of our greatest authors followed by 6 interviews delving into their writing process. www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/magic-...

Top #bookpost just arrived: the latest addition to @scratchbooks.bsky.social's brilliant Reverse Engineering series in which writers discuss their own #shortstories. And what a great roster of contributors!

Hello, I’ve an event for my Muriel Spark biography next Weds (15th) at Waterstones Liverpool. We’ve sold barely any tickets, however, and it might be cancelled as a result. Please get a ticket if you’re nearby - it’ll be a lot of fun, and I’ll bring badges! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/waterstone...

@uncertainstories.com 'Perfect Circle' is out! My story, ‘Swineside’ - is in v. good company, among stories by Eva Carson, @jmgatford.bsky.social , @kathyhoyle.bsky.social , @lynseymay.com and Lauren O’Donoghue, and brilliant illustrations by Lucy Scott. www.uncertainstories.com/books/anthol...

After my parents died, my grief took a very active form. But I have a lot to learn about feeling and expressing my grief from the brilliant Carla Fernandez. Be sure to pick up a copy of her book RENEGADE GRIEF! bookshop.org/a/116176/978... #grief #bookrecommendation #books #deathpositive

Meet some of our CTRL players! 🕹 Editor Dean Fee and contributors Úna-Minh Kavanagh, Anna Loughran and Roisin Kiberd have been lovingly transformed into sprites by the powers of @bluewit.bsky.social (an incredible artist, give her a follow!) - look how happy they all are! 👾

Our second anthology is open for submissions! We're after short stories on the theme of sorcery, from writers living in the North of England. Take a look, send us a tale - and if you could help spread the word, that would be magical 🪄 🔮 carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions/

Excellent recommendation by @jacquiwine.bsky.social about a Scottish bricklayer with no future outside of booze. It reads like a book of short stories, some quite funny, but steadily, subtly grows into something more. Definitely reading more Owens soon. Willy Vlautin fans, it’s worth a look.

Worth every fourteen minutes. Give it a listen before it goes

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I have a story in Radio 4's new Once Upon a Time series - a week of reimagined fairytales in the Book at Bedtime slot Lineup includes Katherine Rundell, Ben Okri, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and David Almond (I KNOW!!!) My story "Kakapos" is on 30 June and then on catchup www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Jo Lloyd on the radio. This is a great thing

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I have a story in Radio 4's new Once Upon a Time series - a week of reimagined fairytales in the Book at Bedtime slot Lineup includes Katherine Rundell, Ben Okri, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and David Almond (I KNOW!!!) My story "Kakapos" is on 30 June and then on catchup www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...