Ursula K. LeGuin's Always Coming Home Joanna Russ's The Female Man (with warnings) Brigit Pegeen Kelly's Song Amal El-Mohtar's Seasons of Glass and Iron Susanna Clarke's Piranesi Theodora Goss's Letters from an Imaginary Country Kristina Ten's You Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine

John Wiswell@wiswell.bsky.social · 7h ago

Hey guy readers! Quote this with some books by women and nonbinary authors that you recommend. A few from me: Meg Elison's Book of the Unnamed Midwife R.F. Kuang's Poppy War Caitlin Rozakis's Dreadful Fonda Lee's Jade City Sarah Gailey's Echo Wife Premee Mohamed's Annual Migration of Clouds

I read this to my Brando Sando fan husband and he screamed WHAT!? WHAT!? yes, when I think of endangered male literature that is dissapearing, i definitely think of books by notoriously prolific author Brandon Sanderson.

Adrian 'buy HAIR SHIRT' Sobol@yoadrianididit.bsky.social · yesterday

EXCUSE ME?

People have been saying that men are getting abandoned by literature since probably the dawn of literature, and absolutely constantly since abt 20-25 yrs ago when I first started paying attention to literary discourse. And yet, somehow, white dudes still publish the most highly paid & lauded books.

Adrian 'buy HAIR SHIRT' Sobol@yoadrianididit.bsky.social · yesterday

Excuse me?

I'm looking for recommendations on fantasy (not science fiction!) and queerness/queer theory/as a source of queer potential! I'm still in the early stages of my research, but I'm getting lots on SF and lots on "fantasy" in a non-genre sense and very little (especially theoretical work) on fantasy

Most of Delany's work, including his notorious DHALGREN. A lot of Alan Moore's work, including the novel of his I've read (VOICE OF THE FIRE). Olga Tokarczuk's (alas) THE BOOKS OF JACOB (trans. Jennifer Croft), DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS by Milorad Pavić (trans. Christina Pribićević-Zorić).

aaron boothby @ellipticalnight.bsky.social · 4d ago

this is about gene wolfe and I am hijacking it to suggest sharing your own favourite texts that are so thick, so viscous

Really great thread about how to vote in the poem category for the Hugo Awards, and below is the essential part. The Hugos are fan awards, so read the poems and vote for the one you liked the most - everyone is qualified! Poetry is for *you*, and you can like what you like, no questions asked.

Kyle Aisteach@badwriter.bsky.social · last wk.

Step 1: Read the nominated works. Step 2: Ask yourself, "Did I like this poem?" Step 3: Rank the poems on the ballot in order of how much you liked them. That's it. You don't need any special magick or training. Which did YOU like best?

Seeing complaints online that authors 'gatekeep' information…! Absolute nonsense. There is no industry or craft in the world which is so comprehensively written about, studied, and discussed as fiction writing, and every author I know welcomes new writers who are serious about giving it a go.

How to Vote for the Poetry Hugo: A Thread 🧵

sometimes a story choice is rooted in experience or a research rabbit hole, for sure. sometimes a writer gets a thrill sharing something that intrigues them, dope. but sometimes choices are a gut move. a dream. the subconscious. that still happens. ability to rationalize isn't proof I'd rely on.

i think people advising that authors are going to be ok because they can explain their creative choices better than a slopper are coming from a good place (and prob mostly right!). but boy do i hate the presumption that writers have to rationally talk through the minutiae of their creative choices.

underlining my point about how way too many straight men actually hate and are disgusted by women's bodies and/or disgusted by their desire for women's bodies, especially those they perceive as "not-deserving" of their desire

Playboy@playboy.com · last wk.

What are the incel men up to over on X? Focussing on a quirk of women’s bodies most of us have never even thought about before now. Our take? "Making women mad and getting likes from fellow incels is all they have going for them." Read now: www.playboy.com/read/sex/the...

Concerns over fake phenomena cannot be held in good faith. There's no such thing as "good faith" concern over razorblades in Halloween apples or vaccines causing autism. If you still have 'concerns' about these issues you are uninformed, a bigot or being manipulated. No other option.

what do your poems contain? what do they not contain? what can their stomachs digest? where must they swim? how do they cry?

“Grains of grit in a tall sky sewing.” A poem by John Ashbery.

I’m wheezing smittenkitchen.com/2026/07/spag...

theres this one tumblr post ive seen talking about that phenomenon but w fiction writing that I think about often

kind of a half-baked thought here but it's a shame criticism as a paid professional discipline has been sidelined by social media because it could point the way forward out of the internet madness-induced problem of writing that's crouched in what the author anticipates a comments section will say

We should do it all the time bringing our most comprehensive insights to bear on the works of art that define our era.

It is right and good for people to have divergent critical opinions and perspectives concerning art and media.

It’s nice to see everyone’s textual analysis of The Odyssey It’s almost like the humanities give you entertainment, feelings, pleasure, and fun/interesting stuff to talk about, as well as lenses into both past and current society

Begging y’all to post somewhere besides substack. On my KNEES.

And the vote passes! We now have a #specpo Hugo through 2029 at least, at which point it will go through a re-ratification process. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this effort & to my dear community of poets. Here's hoping translation is next.

Lynne Sargent@lynnesargent.bsky.social · 2w ago

Today is the day! (Probably, we can't know 100%) but the vote on a Poetry Hugo is scheduled at today's WSFS meeting, 12EDT/9PDT. If you're attending #LAConV you can come and vote! Please do. More info at the link about the business meeting: www.lacon.org/businessmeet...

I am overjoyed that the Poetry Hugo Award has once again PASSED. It will need to be re-ratified in 2029 to be officially officially permanent. Complicated rules aside, thank you to everyone who voted or supported this goal. Us poets truly love y'all! To read more about this see poetryhugo.com

Speculative Poetry Initiative

What Works Are Available for Nomination in the 2026 Awards?

poetryhugo.com

The poetry Hugo is a go! At least until 2029, as there's a policy of re-ratifying new categories three years later. Thank you to @hollylynwalrath.bsky.social, @bugthewriter.bsky.social, @therisingtithes.bsky.social, and everybody else who made this happen!

it hasn't saved academic publishing or done anything to safeguard the institutional bases and archival sources of the research, analysis and interpretation that goes into public-facing work, nor has it raised much awareness of those processes themselves. if anything, it's been quite the reverse

but it is not obvious that the proliferation of works making academic research available to the public has made a dent in public perceptions of academia or of the value of various kinds of research; indeed, it hasn't even changed how high-profile academics talk about these things in public venues

it's notable that such a palpably false claim remains reliable clickbait; it's also notable that the real "problem" it points to, to the extent that it points to anything specific, is not neglect of the public but rather the persistence of specialized work (especially work on "divisive" topics)

typically, evidence for the claim consists in pointing to the existence of obscure academic articles meanwhile podcasts, magazine pieces, documentaries wherein academics address publics are everywhere. the history shelves at any bookstore are full of academic *authors* yet empty of academic *books*

on one hand, it's important (but also basic, and so presumably forgotten on purpose) that scholarship is specialized as any professional expertise is specialized on the other, the empirical claim that academics don't produce work for public consumption is palpably, observably, demonstrably false

This is the ONLY way.

Tim Newman@tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 2w ago

Her mind! This from @karenhao.bsky.social should be one of those inspirational quotes that a crafter does in needlepoint. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...