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Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎

@jolloyds.bsky.social

Writer The Earth Thy Great Exchequer Ready Lies (UK) Something Wonderful (US) Winner BBC National Short Story Award #bbcnssa O Henry Stories in Zoetrope, Southern Review, Ploughshares, BBSS, && She/her Ally

1735 Posts1637 Follower1058 Folgt
Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 4h ago

"Each statement in a thrush’s soliloquy is enunciated with both precision and a sense of great novelty, as though every whinny, crackle, whistle or tic were a brand new invention, minted in the syrinx at that very moment for the first time" Excellent review - Christmas list getting longer

gwallter@gwallter.bsky.social · 5h ago

'At one point he uses his phone to replay the song of a dunnock, keen to entice it out of hiding; when it emerges, he feels shame in having deceived the bird.' Francis Gooding in Gower. gwallter.com/books/like-a...

Tolka@tolkajournal.bsky.social · 4d ago

After a long, hot summer, the Tolka Podcast is back with the lovely Sara Baume. In this episode, we discuss Sara's piece 'On Handkerchiefs', published in Tolka Issue Eleven, and her latest book 'Opening Night' 📚 You can also catch Sara at our upcoming Issue 12 launch on November 5th!

Chen Chen@chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 2d ago

Everyone (including me) always highlights the lines, "Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. / Just keep going. No feeling is final." But today I keep going back to the later lines, "Nearby is the country they call life. / You will know it by its seriousness."

Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rainer Maria Rilke tr. Joanna Macy & Anita Barrows God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.
Stanchion@stanchion.bsky.social · 2d ago

I literally just remembered this is Stanchion's last book. 😭 Going out with a cover I made by writing the title in a pound of salt I poured onto a baking sheet about a hundred times to get it right. Not handmade like @thirtywestph.com chapbooks but also kinda handmade ya know.

Stanchion@stanchion.bsky.social · 2d ago

LOOK AT WHAT'S HERE A MONTH EARLY! The test copies of Pantry are beautiful. Get yours for just $11. www.stanchionzine.com/product-page... @hildiebook.bsky.social

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 2d ago

Don't know which is cuter today - this wee dragon wanting tummy scritches for the flag it stole out of the laundry or the white porcupine (bsky.app/profile/wokk... if you haven't seen it )

H S Purtymun@hspurtymun.bsky.social · 3d ago

This illuminated manuscript page comes from a Book of Hours held in the Morgan Library. The manuscript was created in c. 1450 in Bruges, Belgium. This folio features an image of a knight battling a dragon that has the flag of England in its mouth. #medievalsky Ms. Morgan Library & Museum. M.421

Vajra Chandrasekera@vajra.me · 2d ago

Simba Kundizeza's statement on his Caine Prize-winning story "The Blue Fighter" is also worth reading—keep in mind, the evidence-free article slandering him was published in The Atlantic to a mass readership and his defense is a tweet to his eight hundred followers

Simba Kundizeza @S_S_Kundizeza Statement on The Atlantic article concerning “The Blue Fighter” I would like to say at the outset that this statement is not in any way a proffer of an explanation or a defense against the allegations levelled against me in the article published by The Atlantic, because I don’t believe the article warrants either. I am however writing because of the level of public interest generated in its aftermath, and out of respect for the people who have supported and championed my writing, as well as my fellow shortlisted writers for the Caine Prize. I want to set the record straight. For the avoidance of doubt, I wrote "The Blue Fighter." I did not use generative AI to write it. It is entirely my own work. This story did not appear out of nowhere; it has a concrete, documented history. Its genesis was during my LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency in Ghana. While there‚ I read a poem by vangile gantsho titled “my father's hands․” I was inspired by this poem to write a story about my family's experiences in Zimbabwe‚ including my father leaving his accounting profession and the hardships my family faced as a result․ Other aspects of the story‚ including characters and the setting‚ are drawn from events in my own life․There is also a clear chronology to the story's development. I sent the completed first draft of the story to vangile for feedback on May 15‚ 2025․ I then submitted the story to The Shallow Tales Review on May 27‚ 2025․ Fiction editor Nzube Nlebedim accepted the story on June 10‚ 2025‚ and it went through the standard editorial process. vangile then provided her feedback to me on June 25‚ 2025․ On the same day Nzube also provided editorial feedback to me․ In an email dated June 27‚ 2025‚ I sent the final draft and requested that the editor preserve the formatting of an epigraph in the story as originally submitted by vangile as a courtesy to her․ The story was published on June 30‚ 2025․ The Atlantic article seems to question the story's authorship by comparing its style to my other writing. As writers we develop recurring interests, but we don’t produce work from a single fixed template. My debut novel, “Freelance”, and the story titled "The Whistleblower" published in Transition Magazine in 2021 which is referenced by Ms. Vara, are thrillers dealing with political intrigue. "The Blue Fighter," however, is a deeply personal story about economic collapse and familial relationships. The voice shifts because the subject matter demands it. To suggest that a writer cannot write in different styles or genres, or improve his writing substantially after five or more years fundamentally misunderstands the craft of writing.The motive for my supposedly using AI to generate the story is equally difficult to understand. I was under no obligation to write “The Blue Fighter”. I was not commissioned to produce it, nor was I paid a fee for its publication. The decision to submit the piece for consideration for the Caine Prize was made by the editor of The Shallow Tales Review months after its publication. I therefore didn’t write the story with any guarantee that it would be submitted, let alone win anything. The idea that I would have somehow written the story with the express intention of entering and winning the Caine Prize, despite the inherently competitive and uncertain nature of the prize, conjures up a motive that simply did not exist. "The Blue Fighter" is my work, and I stand by it completely. I'm grateful to vangile for her inspiration, to The Shallow Tales Review for giving the story a home, and to the Caine Prize judges for recognizing the work on its merits. I’m also heartened by the numerous messages of solidarity from fellow writers and readers, and to Adrienne Ingrum and Regina Brooks at Serendipity Literary Agency for their support throughout. I look forward to continuing to work with the Caine Prize team, and to celebrating this recognition with the people who helped bring this story into the world. Most importantly, I will continue to write.
Vajra Chandrasekera@vajra.me · 4d ago

Yeah. And if you don't care what Pangram says—it's just another AI company, and I don't care how good they are at hyping themselves—I also don't see what's so "AI" about this story at all. I don't think "trust me, it's bad" is meaningful (and that is quite literally what the article says.)

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

It escaped my notice that the great @tom-drury.bsky.social has a piece to read in Harper's right now It's an excerpt from his new Grouse County novel, West of Loveland - coming soon and I CANNOT WAIT

Harper’s Magazine@harpers.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Later in his room, Rocky prayed that someone would come and take the gun away from the house. He liked to think that the gods of all the religions met regularly and worked together like the Justice League.” buff.ly/3QZG0Ou

The New York Review of Books@nybooks.com · 3d ago

“Reading [Jonathan Buckley’s] fiction can make you wonder why anyone would bother fiddling with the creaking machinery of a premeditated plot…when you can simply go where your imagination and curiosity take you.” —Lola Seaton

Small Is Beautiful | Lola Seaton

Jonathan Buckley's books embody the idea of writing as self-effacing transmission; their attentiveness to minor characters may be what the novel was built to do, but today it can feel radical.

nybooks.com

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

It escaped my notice that the great @tom-drury.bsky.social has a piece to read in Harper's right now It's an excerpt from his new Grouse County novel, West of Loveland - coming soon and I CANNOT WAIT

Harper’s Magazine@harpers.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Later in his room, Rocky prayed that someone would come and take the gun away from the house. He liked to think that the gods of all the religions met regularly and worked together like the Justice League.” buff.ly/3QZG0Ou

Deb Olin Unferth@debolinunferth.bsky.social · 3d ago

I reveal my apocalypse dreamscape as the one created by Hal Hartley, in this column i wrote for The Believer.

The Believer@thebeliever.net · 2w ago

“I always assume we are the ones who will kill ourselves. I forget how new that story is. In the ancient stories, it’s a god who comes along, logs in, and clicks us off.” From Issue 155, @debolinunferth.bsky.social on Hal Hartley’s 1998 film “The Book of Life”: www.thebeliever.net/resurrector-...

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 4d ago

Lovely to see this - the story of butterfly collectors Fountaine & Neimy is extraordinary He was her guide for a 1901 Syrian expedition - they then travelled the world together for 28 years See the Fountaine-Neimy collection www.museumscollections.norfolk.gov.uk/article/3024...

Ron McIntyre@ronmac11.bsky.social · 6d ago

Detail from one of the twelve journals written by Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (1862-1940). The inscription reads; These were the first flowers given to me by Khalil Neimy, after we were engaged. Baalbek, Syria, June 1901. Margaret was collector of butterflies. #museums #butterflies

A photo of a handwritten journal showing a posy of flowers pressed onto the page.
Stan J Wild@stanjwild.bsky.social · 4d ago

...he believed that the asylum staff were trying to feed him the flesh of his children... @nickholdstock.bsky.social's Porcupine sound fascinating, particularly Kreuzlingen, Warburg & Cassirer Great interview by Curtis Smith in @jmwwjournal.bsky.social jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/s...

Suspicious Minds: An Interview with Nick Holdstock by Curtis Smith

I learnt that you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble later if you actually know what you’re trying to achieve before you start.

jmwwblog.wordpress.com

David Hayden@seventydys.bsky.social · 4d ago

Nearing the 33rd anniversary of staying in a Best Western in Anchorage, Alaska, eating grilled cheese sandwiches & reading Salammbô while listening to Steely Dan on the radio. At 3am in the airport bookstore I was helping to open I placed a copy of Fear & Trembling on the shelf. It sold immediately.

Vajra Chandrasekera@vajra.me · 4d ago

I disliked "Serpent" as much as the next guy but I'm not happy about this burgeoning genre of "Let's publish articles in major American glossy magazines taking a huge shit on every new award winner from a third world country based on nothing but vibes and What AI Said"

Mike Parker@mikeparker.bsky.social · 7d ago

As You Like It at the RSC in Stratford…utterly delicious. Funny, beautiful, moving, impish and such inspired characterisation. Loved Arden as Welsh - such an historically intriguing take. Queer and Welsh in the English Midlands - what an irresistible combo! Lost my heart by the Afon Afon.

The set of the Forest of Arden in As You Like It in the RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎@jolloyds.bsky.social · 7d ago

Delighted to be included in @scturnerfiction.bsky.social 's Personal Anthology - thank you Sarah! Some lovely choices here - with great notes on first encounters and longer term relationships - do have a read

Sarah Turner@scturnerfiction.bsky.social · 7d ago

I loved thinking and writing about some of the short stories that have interested me most, or stayed with me most insistently over the years. Thanks so much to Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social for the opportunity to do this! #shortstories #BookSky

Joseph Schreiber@roughghosts.bsky.social · last wk.

ICYMI, I wrote about this gently surreal collection of stories by an unjustly almost-forgotten writer from Argentina. @transitbooks.bsky.social Of dreams, memories, and the imagination: Slow Elephants of Milan by Ángel Bonomini roughghosts.com/2026/10/06/o...

Of dreams, memories, and the imagination: Slow Elephants of Milan by Ángel Bonomini

Imagine the sight: on a foggy February morning in Milan, the modest and apologetic narrator of the title story of this long overdue translation of short fiction by the enigmatic Argentinian writer&…

roughghosts.com