Because it is the tiny acts of love that will get us through all this.

Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social · 2d ago

Okay, I am going to tell a little story. It's one I have saved for the last couple years, almost nobody knows about it. But it lives in my heart. I don't know how others will feel about it, maybe something, maybe nothing. It's about the Uncanny X-Men. 1/

Today:

The Carterhaugh School | Folklore, Fairy Tales, Everyday Magic@carterhaughschool.bsky.social · yesterday

Join us TOMORROW, Wednesday, August 5 at 6:45 PM ET for an online talk with Smithsonian Associates on Bluebeard! We explore what some of the oldest versions look like and how the story has been retold in contemporary times. Art by Edmund Dulac.⁠ smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr... #fairytales

"The stork they rode flew high and fast over swift-unfolding brown and gray November landscapes, but still perhaps Somehow within other borders, for Lilac naked on her back felt neither warm nor cold."

"I don't understand why you, a fantasy writer, don't appreciate the value of making bargains with the fae."

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 3d ago

Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude

I hadn't heard of Library Dads before Connie Willis mentioned them in a post. Just knowing they exist makes me so damn happy. Well done, gentlemen. www.thelibrarydads.org

Inuk artist Peggy Ekagina, Fox shaman transformation (c. 1960), stone carving #WomensArt

A couple of weeks ago I rode to Newburyport MA and saw this COVID memorial and realized this is the only one I have ever seen anywhere. And the fact that I nearly broke down seeing it is something I still think about.

Ann Sotheran, contemporary UK Stained Glass artist #WomensArt

"There’s a lot of talk about the tame world versus the wild world. It is not only a wild nature that we need as human beings; it is the untamed open space of our imaginations. "Reading is where the wild things are." - Jeanette Winterson

I'm enormously sad to hear this news. He was a wonderful writer and a wonderful man.

Children's Bookshelf@pwkidsbookshelf.bsky.social · 6d ago

“He unflinchingly showed us his heart, in person and in his writing, and we understood our own humanity all the better for it.” Remembering acclaimed YA author Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Please read the 🧵 below and consider joining me in supporting this vital organisation. Even a small monthly pledge will help young people from working class and marginalized backgrounds access arts education, networking opportunities and careers. You can change a young artist's life.

Arts Emergency@artsemergency.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Privilege doesn't trickle down on its own. Someone has to actively share it. That's why Arts Emergency exists.

A fifth Friday of the month means bonus content from Speculative Insight , and so we present: Garth Nix and France Hardinge in conversation! www.speculativeinsight.com/extras @franceshardinge.bsky.social @garthnix.bsky.social

Wildfires. A poem in the Observer. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

In the Cairngorms by Kathleen Jamie

A new poem about the wildfires in the Highlands by Scotland’s makar

observer.co.uk

From Nature Abounding, edited by E.L. Grant Watson. Illustrated by C.F. Tunnicliffe.

Enchantment.

Lottie and I are finding cool, shady spots to weather the heat, but the rivers and streams here on Dartmoor are getting lower and lower.... Have a good weekend, everyone. Stay safe.

Kyle's photographs of healthcare workers during the Covid pandemic are beautiful, painful, and haunting. We must never forget how it was or let the history of those years be falsified. As a culture, we have still not dealt with the trauma of the pandemic, or the Covid-related problems we still face.

Kyle Cassidy@kylecassidy.bsky.social · 7d ago

I spent the entire pandemic talking to front line workers who were watching people die of COVID every day. None of these healthcare workers are ever going to be OK again. The thought that some people-who know better-are pretending it didn’t happen is horrifying www.betweenusandcatastrophe.com

I have so many personal art-world heroes, the majority (but not all of them) women. Joni Mitchell is one of them. I don't know how I would have made it through my teens without her music.

womensartbluesky.bsky.social@womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 7d ago

Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, painter, poet, genius #WomensArt

A thoughtful and thought-provoking NYT book column by Amal:

Amal El-Mohtar@amalelmohtar.com · 2w ago

I wrote about language, lying & world-building for the NYTBR as expressed in 3 extraordinary & very different books: THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION by qntm, THE MISHEARD WORLD by Aliya Whiteley, & THE LANGUAGE OF LIARS by SL Huang.

That day when I was looking through a 14th-century romance. First impression: That's not a very good stag, is it... Closer look: OMG LOOOOOL #medievalmanuscripts

Lottie lounging on the sofa in my studio as I work at my desk nearby and rain taps on the cabin's tin roof. The rain doesn't last, and it isn't enough, but every drop is a blessing. May the drought end soon.

There's a new post at The City of Lost Books: Mervyn Peake, Letters from a Lost Uncle (from Polar Regions) (1948). An oblique look at post-war post-imperialism, invoking the doomed explorers of the British Empire! thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/letters-from...

Mervyn Peake, Letters from a Lost Uncle (from Polar Regions) (1948)

The art of Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake, married writer-artists who moved from house to house many times in the course of their lives together, had a tendency to burst out of formal spaces (studi…

thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk

A long post on the landscape and mythology of the Berkshire Downs and its intersections with the work of Tolkien. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/tolkiens-e...

Tolkien's England: walking the Berkshire Downs

Where English landscape and myth intersect with Tolkien's writing and thought

mathewlyons.substack.com

Cuban artist Belkis Ayon Manso (1967-1999) known for her work based on Afro-Cuban spirituality and myth #womensart

I'm really looking forward to 'William Morris & His Gardens' by Gavin Stoneystreet, out in October. #WilliamMorris #PreRaphaelites #naturewriting

Gavin Stoneystreet@drgavin.bsky.social · last wk.

Some notes on my book cover design... open.substack.com/pub/gavinfs/... #williammorris @yalepress.bsky.social @williammorrissocuk.bsky.social @morrissocietyus.bsky.social

On my Reading List:

Amber Elizabeth@amberelizabeth.bsky.social · last wk.

Been absolutely pinned to this for the past few days. THIS is the book to introduce anyone to my Muriel Spark, the author I have so long adored. Complex, compelling, challenging, and an utter joy - impossible to pin down to a single definition. @drjamesbailey.bsky.social understands her implicitly.

We had a few days of cloud over Dartmoor, but still no rain. Now we're back to heatwave weather again. The land is dry and brittle and so are we. Even Lottie, our little goddess of joy, is wilting. The Drought by Gary Soto: www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

As a man with a dog, I approve of it. Please sign my petition to add a dog to every book

Louise@selkies.bsky.social · last wk.

Is this a good time to mention that in college my History of Translation lecturer (Michael Cronin) told us that one of the first vernacular translations of The Illiad was into Irish, and the translator had to give the main characters dogs because in Gaelic society a free man had a dog

I'm so sorry to learn of the death of Ronnie Le Drew, a kind and lovely man, dedicated to the art of puppetry. My husband worked with Ronny on his very first puppet show at the Little Angel Theatre in 1990s, and on other projects since. He will be deeply missed. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

Ronnie Le Drew, puppeteer behind Zippy and David Bowie’s goblins, dies aged 78

Canadian-born British operator, president of the British Puppet Guild, died after a ‘short illness’

theguardian.com

For local #Dartmoor, #Devon, #WestCountry friends: Celebrating the Earth's autumn 2026 schedule for art / folklore /nature events in Chagford has just been released....