Had to take a big long break from here for book stuff but am happy to be back. And while I was away I spawned a newsletter, which is apparently the thing to do?? It's called Serious Ladies, in tribute to Jane Bowles, though we are not always ladies and not always serious laurenelkin.substack.com

Serious Ladies | Lauren Elkin | Substack

"I try to imagine someone saying to Shakespeare, 'Relax!'". Click to read Serious Ladies, by Lauren Elkin, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

laurenelkin.substack.com

'But I also wanted to underscore, visually and practically, the idea that singing is a citational practice' I've seen lots of publicity for @laurenelkin.bsky.social's new book, but this interview with @monalisavitti.bsky.social is what made me buy it. Citational practice 4 ever.

minor literature[s]@minorliteratures.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"I wanted to think ... about dreaming correspondences between the aural and the visual that would open up into new zones of thinking about embodiment and voice ..." An Interview with @laurenelkin.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2026/06/02/s...

I am so tired of SEN professionals claiming to have experience with PDA who say things like “you should really implement a schedule” or “Mum and I are in charge, you need to let us talk” and then when J freaks out tell us he is “abnormally demand avoidant”

Still some tickets left to come to my event with the French writer Lola Lafon at Bard Books on the 24th - we'll be talking about her brilliant book about spending a night in the Anne Frank Museum, WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THIS SONG, which I translated www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

MEET THE BÀRD: Lola Lafon + Lauren Elkin | Bard Books

Join Lola Lafon and translator Lauren Elkin to discuss this quietly powerful exploration of memory and forgetting, from one of France's leading feminist public intellectuals.

wearebardbooks.co.uk

LONDON FOLKS INTERESTED IN TOP DRAWER FICTION THAT WILL RIP YOU APART, AND BOOK EVENTS THAT WILL STEP OUTSIDE SAFE 'INDUSTRY' SOUNDBITES, SHOULD BE GOING TO THIS. TOMORROW. #GetKeshed www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

MEET THE BÀRD: Stu Hennigan | Bard Books

We are delighted to be hosting the first London event for Stu Hennigan's hotly tipped debut novel 'Keshed', a brutally poetic examination of class, belonging, masculinity, addiction and fatherhood. St...

wearebardbooks.co.uk

Very excited to talk to Marion Coutts about her new book, WHAT DID THE DEEP SEA SAY?, next Tuesday the 17th at Goldsmiths - pretty sure it's free, come one come all! goldsmithscca.art/event/what-d...

« Archives d’une enfance », la bouleversante exposition sur la famille de Georges Perec, exterminée parce que juive

« Archives d’une enfance », la bouleversante exposition sur la famille de Georges Perec, exterminée parce que juive

Notre chroniqueuse à visité aux Archives de Paris, boulevard Sérurier, une exposition consacré à l’auteur de « « W ou le souvenir d’enfance ». Une expérience émouvante.

nouvelobs.com

Thank you for your reporting on the SEND overhaul, @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social -- I'm wondering how all of this is going to affect children who can't attend any setting, who are currently on (or fighting to be on) EOTAS?

You absolutely fucking will be transporting my child by the end of the decade if he ever gets over how badly he was failed by the state school system to want to attend one again

Lauren Elkin@laurenelkin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

…maybe if there were more provisions closer to home these kids wouldn’t need to be taxied to the school that ::can:: support their needs, I dunno?

…maybe if there were more provisions closer to home these kids wouldn’t need to be taxied to the school that ::can:: support their needs, I dunno?

Um i have a substack now don’t hate me it’s called Serious Ladies open.substack.com/pub/laurenel...

Welcome to Serious Ladies

On seriousness, Gwen John, and blood oranges

open.substack.com

Among the weirder parts of that Megyn Kelly freak-out is her assertion that no non-Latinos in the US speak “a lick of Spanish” : literally every kid in my high school took Spanish (except for the snobs who took French, the masochists who took German, and the Italians who took Italian)

Does anyone else have autistic/ADHD/AuDHD kids who pick fights with you? Like do destructive stuff they know will drive you crazy on purpose? We are being absolutely terrorised in our own house. (NB I am not looking for comments from neurotypical parents telling me all kids get up to shenanigans)

Still not over all the Bad Bunny feels I don’t know about you

When you see a biographer write that "someone said xyz" about your subject, do you think: a/ they're doing some anti-academic glossing by not writing out the someone's name or b/ they don't know who said it, it's just something they've come across c/ ?

I’m in this a bit walking and chatting in Montparnasse! Looking forward to watching the whole thing 👩‍🎨

Fiona McLees@mclees-fiona.bsky.social · 6mo ago

BBC Two Wales screened a new documentary about Gwen John last night, now on iPlayer. It features contributions from curator of our new exhibition Lucy Wood, as well as from my amazing paintings conservation colleague Rachel Beard and also a tiny bit from me! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

So I was given a notebook & it sat unused for years bc I only use graph paper Moleskines & I felt bad with it just sitting there so I decided to use it to take notes for this really challenging research-heavy book I have to write & I’m remembering all over again why I only use graph paper Moleskines

6 vital lessons from Minnesota’s general strike

6 vital lessons from Minnesota’s general strike

Minneapolis organizers weigh in on how to make the movement go national.

motherjones.com

As if we needed more evidence that Bezos doesn’t give a fuck about books

I think it's best for everyone to understand that the unified class project of billionaires right now is to do to white collar workers what globalization and neoliberalism did to blue collar workers.

Video shows ICE leaving behind an infant and broken glass after arresting a man with no criminal history. “There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.” My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...

ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest

Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.

pressherald.com

Someone recommended we buy a SAD light for our son; I looked at it online & thought “that looks like my worst nightmare” but I bought it anyway thinking theres no way it would actually be that bright in reality & it just came& honestly who are these people who like to stare at bright lights all day

Do we think I can write about the Stein siblings’ raging neurodiversity y/n

There is already something derisive about books that give references this way to avoid using footnotes - but not even to include page numbers?? You’re telling me to just go look in the 1000 page long Making of Americans to find a quote? Get fucked!

My reading glasses came! Now I can decipher the minuscule print in this Folio paperback! Fuck ICE!

Urgent 🚨🚨 We are dying in Gaza😭😭 Please do not ignore our request for help. My children have been infected with a serious virus, and I urgently need $200 to complete their treatment. Support link 🙏 chuffed.org/project/ahme... @mommunism.bsky.social

N.b., Londinium

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates.bsky.social · 7mo ago

If you are going to be out and about in London between now and Wednesday, and you want to hunt down kindness, beauty and wonder would you please consider joining me in a tiny experiment? More detail in the image below, survey link is here: form.jotform.com/260223076797...

Meanwhile, can anyone in London recommend a good EMDR clinic?

I just ordered my first pair of reading glasses and after a lifetime as someone who had to wear glasses 24/7 I'm excited to be the kind of person who can now put them on to read something then take them off in a suggestive manner to underscore the seriousness of what I'm about to say

For what it's worth, I didn't get to pick the title! But very happy to see this lovely review in the TLS.

Russell Williams@rwilliamsparis.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Henriette Korthals Altes reviews @laurenelkin.bsky.social's recent translation of Simone De Beauvoir's The Image of Her in the latest issue of @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/literature-b...