I’m re-reading Blue Remembered Hills - the memoirs of Rosemary Sutcliff - aptly covered in cornflower cloth and gorgeously published by @slightlyfoxed.bsky.social. A perfect tonic for our times - an utterly compelling autobiography. What should I read next? #booksky
Polly Atkin
@pollyrowena.bsky.social
Writer, Lake-swimmer, Bookseller. FRSL hEDS/Haemochromatosis/all the comorbs she/her rep @PortyLiterary Books incl: Recovering Dorothy Some Of Us Just Fall The Company of Owls Emergency Dream Swimming The Seasons https://linktr.ee/pollyatkin
‘The magazine is rather like that voice you always hope to hear behind you in old bookshops which, when you finger a volume . . . would pipe up and say: “Ah, now that's an interesting one”.’ Independent OUT NOW: Slightly Foxed Issue 91, Autumn 2026 🦊🍂 foxedquarterly.com/shop/slightl...
Festival Nights for #PTBOFestival2026 are now on sale! 🤩 Jackie Kay. Luke Wright. Joelle Taylor. Anthony Joseph. Henry Normal. Aurora Engine. Dean Atta. JL Williams. Nick Makoha. plus special guests! Poetry, performance, music + unforgettable nights in Edinburgh. 🎫 pushtheboatout.org/programme/
4.30am A twit and a twoo, Not one owl, but two, A pair of Tawnies Calling in the dark. #DailyNature #NatureWriting (Made me immediately think of @pollyrowena.bsky.social and her book)
The Company of Owls
* LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2025 LoveReading’s Best Books of the Year 2025 Share in the company of owls in this nocturnal love song… From the author of Some of Us Just Fa...
uk.bookshop.org
Catching the partially eclipsed sun in my hand as the moon moved away this time yesterday.
For no particular reason whatsoever, I've decided to share the text of a lecture I gave last March. TL;DR: only people who have experienced lengthy and painful undiagnosis get to have opinions about whether overdiagnosis is a real social condition or just all in some people’s heads
“Promoting Chronicity”:
On Illness Narratives, Ongoingness, and Unrecovery University of Southern Mississippi Center for Ethics and Health Humanities March 24th 2025 ForewordBelow follows the text of a lecture I wrote and…
pollyatkin.com
Just saw this is over 60k this morning! He needs 75k so can you help push it up up up if you have anything to spare? And if you don't, please do share! #Booksky
I just saw a piece in @thebookseller.com about this fundraiser - to protect and share a collection of over one million Black books in the UK, a labour of love by one collector, Baba Pepukayi, but a vital resource for the nation. www.gofundme.com/f/save-1-mil... Please share, and donate if you can.
There are disability scholars and activists who’ll no doubt give this bullshit the criticisms it deserves, so I will merely ask: Is a requirement for being a terf that you simple *refuse* to recognise others’ embodiment?
Congratulations on this lovely book and thank you @kerriandrewsuk.bsky.social @hjosephinegiles.bsky.social @annamfleming.bsky.social @pollyrowena.bsky.social @anitasethi.bsky.social @helenmort.bsky.social @gailsimmons.bsky.social Beatrice Seattle, Linda Cracknell, Kate Davies 🌱🌱
It’s publication day for this gorgeous beast. Fly my pretty, fly! With work by Josie Giles Anna Fleming Kate Norbury Polly Atkin Linda Cracknell Anita Sethi Helen Mort Kate Davies Gail Simmons Beatrice Searle
And when I was already posting about what a happy morning I am having, I just saw an American badger for the very first time! Ambling along on its badgery business, badger-style, as if I weren’t there all sweaty & panting! Video to follow. Paging @pollyrowena.bsky.social the Grasmere badger queen
Moss as organism and teacher, pioneer, healer, ancestor and future. Discover and create stories and poetry about this ancient, world-building plant. The workshop is recorded, and you’ll be sent copies of the writing prompts, links and references. Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1990041216...
The World of Moss
an online creative writing workshop with authors Anna Chilvers and Clare Shaw
eventbrite.co.uk
And tonight, in a very dark corner of my own garden : HEDGEPIG NEWS (I am beyond thrilled at this Visitation).
‘Görli is our garden’: Berliners fight to stop mayor locking their park at night
‘Görli is our garden’: Berliners fight to stop mayor locking their park at night
Kreuzberg campaigners win court ruling against €2m fence aimed at shutting out drug dealers
theguardian.com
The UK banning trans women from breast cancer screening gives the game away, they want trans people dead. It's social murder.
"Women's health clinics offering breast screenings would be unable to provide this service to trans women. This is despite the fact that trans women who have had more than five years of Gender-Affirming Hormons Therapy (GHAT) are forty-seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than men"
Member of the Society of Authors? Thinking about practical ways to make a difference to other members, prospective members, and help ensure a more equitable literary ecosystem for all? How about considering joining the board? Come along Tues 9th to learn more. societyofauthors.org/event/luncht...
Lunchtime learning - Why you should stand for the Board - The Society of Authors
With four seats available, this is your opportunity to add to the diversity of perspectives and influence the strategic direction of the Society of Authors over the next few years.
societyofauthors.org
Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis and acclaimed French-Iranian artist, dies aged 56 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis and acclaimed French-Iranian artist, dies aged 56
Family members said the author of the landmark comic book memoir ‘died of sadness’ after the death of her husband last year
theguardian.com
Deadline Monday so tell me now or never!
Once again somehow @likewinterblue.bsky.social is doing the Northern Preview for @thebookseller.com on top of his usual monthly paperback one, and I'm doing the Disability Preview, both for books out July 2026 to June 2027. If your book fits the bill or you're publishing one, please send AIs!
If my math is right, the crime rate for pardoned insurrectionists is roughly three times higher than that of immigrants.
NEWS: A @lawfaremedia.org report finds that *97* Jan. 6ers who received clemency for their role in the attack were arrested, charged, or convicted of subsequent crimes—a number much higher than previously reported. Incredible work by @katherinepomps.bsky.social www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
Tonight! online! BSL interpreted and recorded! Join us if you can. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wild-women...
Wild Women Writers Salon 24: Wonderfully Other (BSL Supported)
On disability, visibility & the right to a rich & radiant life -- with Grace Quantock, Rachel Charlton-Dailey & Polly Atkin
eventbrite.co.uk
Once again somehow @likewinterblue.bsky.social is doing the Northern Preview for @thebookseller.com on top of his usual monthly paperback one, and I'm doing the Disability Preview, both for books out July 2026 to June 2027. If your book fits the bill or you're publishing one, please send AIs!
So great to see this review of The Company Of Owls up at @adroitjournal.bsky.social by B. Anne Kalicki - theadroitjournal.org/2026/05/25/a...
A Review of Polly Atkin’s The Company of Owls: A Memoir
Connection to the natural world and its capacity for solace permeate Atkin’s lyrical memoir, The Company of Owls, where in her state of chronic illness, she feels “more kinship with owls than oth…
theadroitjournal.org
‘A Meditation of Small Frogs’ by Charlotte Eichler, from Swimming Between Islands (@carcanet.bsky.social). @pollyrowena.bsky.social read this and thought of you!
The UK is currently using 66.4% renewables to power the national grid!
Watching Black men dying in their 50s again has been painful...and it turns out there might be something we can do about it. This is big.
heart health PSA (especially for folks of African and/or South Asian ancestry): - there's a type of "bad" cholesterol called Lipoprotein A - it raises the risk of heart disease - it's hereditary, & not modified by "eating well and exercise" - new treatments are being developed #NEISvoid
Hasn't even been a year and Zohran's governance is having a massive impact on my family. Our daycare was able to open a 15-seat 3K program because of the 2,000 extra seats the admin funded. Everyone we know got in somewhere they wanted. This is gonna save us almost 50 grand.
British Columbia’s provincial health officer says one of the four Canadians isolating in the province who had been on board a cruise ship where there was a hantavirus outbreak has received a “presumptive positive” test.
Canadian isolating in B.C. tests "presumptive positive" for hantavirus
British Columbia’s provincial health officer says one of the four Canadians isolating in the province who had been on board a cruise ship where there was a hantavirus outbreak has received a “presumptive positive” test.
winnipegfreepress.com