Kevin MacDonell (he/him)
@kevinmacdonell.bsky.social
Writer and lifelong diarist. Nova Scotia, Canada. Creative nonfiction, personal essays. Recent/forthcoming: Malahat Review, Queen’s Quarterly, Grain, Dalhousie Review, Camel, Riddle Fence, Emerging Writing Reading Series. Site: kevinmacdonell.com
Instapaper, one of my favourite apps, has been updated after many years, and OF COURSE I can no longer save PDFs the way I used to. Unless there’s something I’m not seeing, looks like another of my go-to tools has been rendered useless.
9to5Mac@9to5mac.com · last wk.Instapaper update adds Liquid Glass, Home Screen widgets, new fonts, more
The “not x, but y” pattern which is a supposed AI tell does make a certain kind of sense. Marking distinctions via splitting, i.e., binaries, is deeply attractive to the fascist mind.
The Sobeys in Mill Cove, Bedford, Nova Scotia is selling a fascinating new product: onions from “Canada/USA.” The onions are grown in single file all along the border, half of each onion in Canadian soil and the other half in American soil. What will they think of next!
A treat in the mail from poetry micropress Opaat Press! Pamphlet poems by Jessica Joy Hiemstra, Drew Lavigne, Geordie Miller, Freddy Hyun Smith, and Arielle Twist.
What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours—that is what you must be able to attain. Rilke
Next time you're in beautiful Lunenburg, stop by @blockshopbooks.bsky.social for some great CanLit, including by Nova Scotian authors. Glad to have #Shoebox with such great company!
Transatlantic is delighted to welcome Annick MacAskill! Read more: transatlanticagency.com/2026/01/29/t...
Transatlantic is delighted to welcome Annick MacAskill!
Annick MacAskill is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including Shadow Blight (Gaspereau Press, 2022), winner of the Governor General's Award and a best Canadian poetry of 2022 pick b...
transatlanticagency.com
“Content is the ‘world’s worst word,’ he adds, because it dehumanises writing and suggests ‘it has no real value inherently, and it doesn’t matter if humans made it or not’.”
Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · last mo.Thank you Dave Eggers and journalist @sophiemcbain.bsky.social: "Once you have a machine think for you and write for you, you’re cooked as a species. That’s it. That’s the worse dystopian outcome there could ever be." #writer #writing #writingcommunity #AI #NoAI #Humanmadeart #creativity
My uncle John racing at the Inverness Raceway, which celebrates its 100th year this year. By the way, this little magazine published by the municipality of the County of Inverness is the coolest. participaperonline.ca/local-famili...
this seems an absolutely ridiculous thing to be feeding much-needed resources into, doesnt it?
Frances Meh@francesmeh.reviews · last mo.friend at a big tech co just told me that her company's chatbot and their client's chatbot have been caught in a mutual support loop for several days that has generated nearly 20k emails
I say, if an extrovert can hire a ghost writer to write their book for them, it ought to be perfectly ordinary for an introvert to hire a ghost talker to do their public speaking. Bit of an oxymoron, ghost talker, but a fine thing to put on a business card.
Some works from Issue 57 of Riddle Fence magazine are online now, including my creative nonfiction piece, “At the Same Time."
Issue 57 Feature: Creative Nonfiction - Riddle Fence
riddlefence.com
One thing I know for sure is that no matter how rich or famous or popular or regal you may be, someday you will be brought low by diarrhea.
“Drain the swamp,” he said. How it’s going, ten years later:
The_Lady_Red@theladyred.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis summer’s hottest color! PANTONE 8647 Radical Left Pond Scum
The beautiful new issue of Camel (number 5!), placed into my hands by Clarissa Hurley and Mark Anthony Jarman themselves on this sunny-rainy day in Halifax. Gorgeous illustration by Chris Tompkins to accompany my personal essay, “When the Hay Was Green.” Gratitude!
Time for Canadian schools to expand their smartphone bans to include generative AI now too.
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2mo agoBut I was told it was inevitable.
So proud that Nimbus is publisher for my novel, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, and my upcoming memoir, A Good Girl's Guide to Lying. AI is incredibly damaging to the writing and publishing industries. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
The AI book wave and how a Halifax publisher is resisting it | CBC News
The publishing house hasn't been immune to the many AI controversies impacting the world of books.
cbc.ca
Three cheers for Nimbus Publishing, King’s Co-op Bookstore, and all other Nova Scotia publishers and bookstores holding the line against generative AI.
The AI book wave and how a Halifax publisher is resisting it | CBC News
The publishing house hasn't been immune to the many AI controversies impacting the world of books.
cbc.ca
Just received the first print run of this new sticker design! Can't wait to plaster these up everywhere. Fuck AI.
My First Person column for tomorrow’s print issue is up on the Globe & Mail site. Wherein I make a fool of myself in front of 300 people in line at the airport. Etc. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/first-p...
‘Friction-maxxing’ my vacation opened my eyes to the beauty of inconvenience
The rigours of travel have primed me to be receptive to the idea
theglobeandmail.com
My First Person column for tomorrow’s print issue is up on the Globe & Mail site. Wherein I make a fool of myself in front of 300 people in line at the airport. Etc. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/first-p...
‘Friction-maxxing’ my vacation opened my eyes to the beauty of inconvenience
The rigours of travel have primed me to be receptive to the idea
theglobeandmail.com
Met with an old friend. Being off social allows the joy of catching-up. Speaking news still new. Not digital, but with the digits of the hand giving shape to language - emote! Shared, with breath, with air, with the throat, not broadcast not remote. News shared over a beer, into an ear - HERE!
1/ The Liberal government might as well have called its AI strategy “All in for AI”. This is a document that's heavy on hype, but light on the right guardrails that we need to protect people – and to ensure that the benefits of the technology don’t just flow to a handful of tech giants & investors.
I voted Liberal in the last federal election, and I don’t regret it, but I won’t be doing so next time. Carney was a stopgap, an emergency measure. He’s not what Canada needs now.
Phrases from my published essays sometimes come to mind spontaneously. This morning, a sudden thought drove me to snatch up a mag with one of my pieces in it. How had I spelled “wringer washer”? There it was, as I feared: “ringer” washer. So many drafts, rounds of editing, and a copy edit. Gah.
I found this neat tool that lets you generate text and images just from your ideas. It's really good!
Hey, I support AI literacy training. Teach the kids “Just Say No."