my entire summer has been taken over by the fever of a new project which is great but unexpected. shoving aside all other projects. anyway, here’s a sonnet:

my latest poetry collection p a u s e. is 20% off in the epic @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social sale this weekend www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

J. R. Carpenter - p a u s e. | Broken Sleep Books

In p a u s e. J. R. Carpenter turns the simple act of going for a walk into a radical practice of attention. Written out of a year of daily encounters with kisiskâciwanisîpiy, the North Saskatchewan R...

brokensleepbooks.com

half of England is officially in ‘exceptionally serious’ drought for the second summer in a row, but sure, build more water-guzzling data centres, it’s fine www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Half of England officially in ‘exceptionally serious’ drought

Environment Agency names seven regions affected by unusually hot and dry weather and shortage of water

theguardian.com

strong smell of smoke in Leeds this afternoon, from a moorland fire on the outskirts of Huddersfield www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fire breaks out on Marsden Moor near Wessenden Reservoir

Firefighters are tackling the blaze near Marsden, which broke out on Thursday evening.

bbc.co.uk

new research on a short story written by Alan Turing in the year after his arrest in Manchester for gross indecency reveals a man who loved literature, who was enjoying life, who was “playful, funny, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex” www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

the UK government can stop it already with the we’ll just use AI for everything rhetoric. three heatwaves into this summer, we’re at the edge of drought for a second summer running. hosepipe bans, etc. there’s not anywhere near enough water for data centres www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Not enough water for UK’s datacentre plans, trade body says

Industry says government’s failure to address cooling demands means AI growth plans are ‘fatally flawed’

theguardian.com

come be my colleague! lecturer creative writing, University of Leeds, apply by 31 July, details here: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

fossilised skull bone of a 320 million year old fish discovered in Roundhay Park, Leeds! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Prehistoric fish fossil found in Leeds' Roundhay Park

It is believed the creature had lain undiscovered for more than 320,000,000 years.

bbc.co.uk

come be my colleague! lecturer creative writing, University of Leeds, apply by 31 July, details here: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

a woman is murdered in 9 of the 10 bestselling fiction paperbacks in the UK this week. The Correspondant, a novel about the art of letter writing, breaks the pattern. let’s all write more letters shall we www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Nine out of ten bestselling novels in UK have one thing in common: a woman is murdered

Author Wendy Jones highlighted the trend in an Instagram post: ‘What is going on here?’

theguardian.com

a test pilot takes off from Liverpool and spends 20 minutes skywriting the phrase “I’m bored” - it was captured on flight-tracking website www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

bits of unburnt tobacco were preserved by the anaerobic London Clay for over 225 years in the bowl of this clay pipe. tobacco is indigenous to Great Turtle Island. it quickly became central to settler colonialism. it’s likely that this tobacco was grown and harvested by enslaved African people.

the umbrella was invented in Mesopotamia over 4000 years ago. synonymous with rain in England, the world umbrella comes to English from Latin, umbra, shade. in French there are parasols and parapluies — protection from sun and rain. 32 in the shade today. bring back parasols.

found a dog’s paw print in a late medieval roof tile on the Thames foreshore and then found more, rather more recent, in the pavement on the walk home #mudlarking

extremely excited about this mesolithic flint flake core, found on the Thames foreshore this morning. the Mesolithic ( 'Middle-Stone Age') ran from about 9000-4300 years ago in Britain. #mudlarking #mesolithic #flintknapping #archaeology #riverthames

Innu still tell the story of Kautuasukuaniskuanast, a little boy who brought back the summer and became the white-crowned sparrow, which aligns with the ice receding in the last ice age theindependent.ca/news/inside-...

Inside the Provincial Archaeology Office's theory that Europeans inhabited Labrador before Innu – The Independent

Archaeologist Stephen Loring, whose work is being disputed by the provincial government, says archaeology is “wildly political” and can be misinterpreted “to promote a political agenda like land claim...

theindependent.ca

The University of Manchester is hiring a full time fixed-term (11 month) Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies (Teaching & Scholarship) to cover for colleagues on Research Leave. The application deadline is 14 July. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies:Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Canadian Poets Series : Peripety and/or Tronies / @ryanfitzpublic.bsky.social @reneesarojini.bsky.social @beautifuloutlaw.bsky.social @whatisapoem.bsky.social @jrcarpenter.bsky.social @conyerclayton.bsky.social @farahghafoor.bsky.social ; robmclennan.blogspot.com/2026/07/cana...

Canadian Poets Series : Peripety and/or Tronies

A while back, American writer Olivia Cronk invited me to participate in her Peripety and/or Tronies blog, a site that includes, as she off...

robmclennan.blogspot.com

found a modern penny. left it for the river. a few minutes later. found a George IV farthing, 1826. George IV led an extravagant lifestyle, was vile to his wife, had a gazillion affairs, wore high collars to hide his double chin, and abandoned the powdered wig in favour of natural hair. #mudlarking

growing a sedum in a hole in my garden wall that was formerly occupied by a Victorian cast iron fence post, since 2024

stealing I mean pruning a local area feral hydrangea, since 2024

it’s only june

long dreams on the shortest night, of all the mudlarking finds that eluded me during the day suddenly maddeningly turning up. plainly visible, if only I could reach them.

walking the Thames estuary from Shoeburyness towards Southend yesterday, I found a fossilised megafauna bone fragment from the later Pleistocene. it could be mammoth, rhino, hippo, deer… lots of possibilities. too small to pin down exactly. but still. EXCITING

I’ve been a writer in residence at Metal Southend this week, in conjunction with Essex Book Festival. Metal is a wonderful community arts organisation, run by great people. get involved: metalculture.com/about-us/our...

my digital poetry gets mentioned in a @lrb.co.uk podcast! around 10:30 podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...

Poetry and the Turning World: Technology

Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · June 14 · 1h 31m

podcasts.apple.com

a few photos from the intertidal walking and writing workshop I led near Two Tree Island in the Thames Estuary today, supported by the wonderful team at Metal Southend

intertidal writing workshop in Essex tomorrow metalculture.com/whats-on/ewh...

EWH: Intertidal Walking and Writing Workshop with JR Carpenter and Sylak Ravenspire - Metal Culture

Join artist, writer, fossil hunter, and Port of London Authority (PLA) licensed mudlark J. R. Carpenter with local Essex based artist Sylak Ravenspine for an intertidal walking and writing workshop in...

metalculture.com

gearing up for the Poetry’s Environments conference at University of Leeds, starting this evening with the announcement of the next Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Poetry. Full conference programme here: conferences.leeds.ac.uk/poetryenviro...

Essex folks, join us in the Thames Estuary in June: Intertidal Walking and Writing with J.R. Carpenter & Sylak Ravenspine www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intertidal...

Intertidal Walking and Writing with J.R. Carpenter & Sylak Ravenspine

Join artist, writer, fossil hunter & Mudlarker J.R. Carpenter + eco artist Sylak Ravenspine for an intertidal walking and writing workshop.

eventbrite.co.uk