Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rekha Valliappan @silicasun.bsky.social · 7h

#Gothtober 🐾 Wearing disguises to hide from wandering souls, carving demonic faces on pumpkins to frighten away evil spirits & lighting up carved pumpkins with candles like lanterns similar to will-o'-the-wisps ghost lights are #legends retold thousands years old #31DaysofHalloween 🎃 #silicasun 🎃📙❤️

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Lothlorien Poetry Journal @lothlorienpoetryj.bsky.social · 15d

lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2025/09/five...

Five Poems by Arvilla Fee

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Edited by Strider Marcus Jones Poet - Publishes poetry and fiction online and in print periodically. https://lothlorienp

lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com

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June Caldwell @junec.bsky.social · 9d

KEEPER OF STONES by Ger Moane, a gorgeous novel inspired by the magical Tuatha de Danaan and mystical monuments of Newgrange. It draws on myths and legends to imagine ancient Ireland as a land of abundance where people lived in harmony with nature & #FluidSexuality www.buythebook.ie/product/keep...

Keeper of Stones | Buythebook.ie

Keeper of Stones, published by Tribes Press, is inspired by the magical Tuatha de Danaan and the mystical monuments of Newgrange. It draws on myths and legends to imagine the world of ancient Ireland ...

www.buythebook.ie

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Medievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · 5d

Curious about magic in the Middle Ages? Dive into the fascinating world of medieval sorcery with us! medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/magic #Magic

The Magical World of the Early and High Middle Ages

Explore the fascinating world of magic, its practices, practitioners, and cultural impact. From court astrologers to village healers, we investigate the complex interplay between magic, religion, and…

medievalstudies.thinkific.com

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Old English Wordhord @oewordhord.bsky.social · Sep 8

wull, f.n: wool. (WULL / ˈwʌl)
Image: Sheep in a bestiary; England, c. 1225-1250; @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Bodley 764, f. 34r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript image of a wooly white sheep standing among some plants with a placid expression on its face.

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Art History Animalia @arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social · May 10

For #WorldMigratoryBirdDay :
Andre Minaux (France, 1923-1986)
Migration, 1960s
Editions Braun et Cie., Paris (15/200)
Tapestry wallhanging printed on linen
49 x 64 in. (124.5 x 162.6 cm)
www.abell.com/auction-lot/...
#BirdsInArt

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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 2d

VAMPIRE POETRY Les Metamorphosis du Vampire is from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal, 1857. The #vampire, boasting of his seductive powers, claims 'Impotent angels damn themselves for me' #31DaysOfHalloween

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 2d

Goodnight.
A bat and three fully dressed birds flying by moonlight, Wellcome Collection. 🦇 #Gothtober #31daysofhalloween

Illustration as described, three birds are dressed in suits, one has a top hat.

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Rekha Valliappan @silicasun.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you, Hope, Stuart, you're both right. I for one am not 'indie.' Never have been. I'm traditionally published. Always have been! But we're all #authors just the same. Thanks #writingcommunity 4 your kindness many times over 4 #writerslifts reciprocated likewise in full by me 📚 #silicasun 🍂📙❤️

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Pigeon Pages @pigeonpagesnyc.bsky.social · 9d

“Who ever said, that my paintings are not in the traditional Indian style, has poor knowledge of Indian art indeed.”

Oscar Howe’s art accompanies poetry by @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social and Sean Glatch this week: pigeonpagesnyc.com/poetry

(🎨: Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art)

Oscar Howe’s Retreat (1968). Casein on paper.

Oscar Howe’s Eagle Dance (1960). Casein and graphite pencil on paper.

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Exact Editions @exacteditions.bsky.social · 4d

The Sphere was created to rival the ILN and The Graphic during the Boer war.

Explore the issues published in 1925, from images of the world's highest waterfalls to the discovery of a 1350 B.C. bust of the Egyptian king Akhnaton in Karnak:

👉 http://exacteditions.com/historic/sphere 👈

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Kate Hopper @mnkatehopper.bsky.social · 18d

Love this piece by @sarifordham.bsky.social in @short-reads.org today! www.short-reads.org/in-grover-cl...

In Grover Cleveland’s Childhood Home

by Sari Fordham | We’ll be us, but more fascinating.

www.short-reads.org

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Brevity / Dinty W. Moore @dintywmoore.bsky.social · 18d

Someone once told me that every writer has a subject that underlies everything they write. It can be love or death, betrayal or belonging, home or hope or exile. I choose to think my subject is love, and most specifically love for the glittering world of non-human life around us ~ Helen Macdonald

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Roz Morris @rozmorris.bsky.social · 24d

What does it mean to read like a writer? A library of posts to help you find your own way. @andreafirth.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/09/17/r... #writingcommunity #authorcommunity #writinglife #creativewriting #writingtips #skywriters

On Reading as a Writer: A Brevity Blog Round Up

By Andrea A. Firth One of the gifts I gained from grad school* was learning how to read as a writer. I was immediately captivated and inspired by the iconic creative nonfiction writers we read: Bre…

brevity.wordpress.com

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Keith Roysdon @keithroysdon.bsky.social · Aug 19

What a lineup of great authors including friends @libbycudmore.bsky.social @magonzales.bsky.social @kmwriter01.bsky.social @mikemchone.bsky.social and more greats in the new @rhppress.bsky.social

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Catapult Book Group @catapultbooks.bsky.social · 5d

Happy pub to @kaychronister.bsky.social's THIN PLACES and THE BOG WIFE in paperback! Just in time to add to your spooky season TBR...🎃

✨ “Chronister’s writing is beautiful . . . But there is a clinging dread and mystery in these stories that will stay with you.” — @literaryhub.bsky.social

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Cynthia Yoder @cynthiayoderauthor.bsky.social · 23d

It’s such a great story! 🐞🛌

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Rekha Valliappan @silicasun.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you, Hope, Stuart, you're both right. I for one am not 'indie.' Never have been. I'm traditionally published. Always have been! But we're all #authors just the same. Thanks #writingcommunity 4 your kindness many times over 4 #writerslifts reciprocated likewise in full by me 📚 #silicasun 🍂📙❤️

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Rekha Valliappan @silicasun.bsky.social · 11d

#WyrdWednesday scarecrows long considered mock humans blowing in cornfields invoking terror by their undead demonic monster look. From ancient Egypt to ancient Greece, England to Kansas, Defoe to Hawthorne scarecrows have perpetuated #horror of menacing entities of death and decay 👻 #silicasun ☠️🎃📙❤️

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 11d

“It all started in the playground – the word was there was a vampire and everyone was going to head out there after school”

For three nights in September 1954, over 200 children hunted a 7-foot-tall vampire through Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis
#WyrdWednesday
dangerousminds.net/comments/the...

The Gorbals Vampire: The child-eating monster that terrorized Glasgow in the 1950s

For three nights the children came to the "City of the Dead." They carried knives, clubs and stakes--even a crucifix. Two hundred or more children came to the Gorbals Necropolis--a large cemetery situ...

dangerousminds.net

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👻🎃 Dr Evilyn Koch 🎃👻 @evelynkoch.bsky.social · 11d

On this week's undead theme for #WyrdWednesday: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (14thC) mentions a story of a monster begotten by the dead that comes to haunt a vile rapist. (The full story's quote is in the Alt-Text.)
The undead monster as depicted in a 1582-edition.

Woodcut from The Voyages and Trauailes of Sir John Maundeuile Knight (1582), fol. Cii.v, depicting a horned and beaked monster with an additional face on its back rising from a tomb and attacking a man standing next to the tomb who seems unfussed by it all.
The accompanying story is:
"[...] and as men passe that way by a place where was wont to be a great cittie that men call Sathalay, for all that country was lost through the folly of a young man, who had a faire Damsell that hée loued well, and shée dyed sodainely, and was buryed in a graue of Marble, and for the great loue hée had to her, hée went in a night to her tombe and opened it, and went and lay by her, and a while afterward returned home againe, and when it came to the end of ix. monethes, a voice came to him and said in this manner, as in the next Chapter followeth. [...] GOE vnto the tombe of the same woman that thou hast lyen by, and open it, béehold well that which thou hast béegotten on her, and if thou let it goe, thou shalt haue a great harme, and hée went and opened the Tombe, and there flew out a monster right hidious for to sée, the whiche monster flew about the cittie and country, and soone after the cittie and the country sanck downe, and there are many perillous passages." (Cii.v-Ciii.r)

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 11d

E. Nesbit’s “From the Dead” features a reanimated body that is both terrifying and incredibly tragic. The story appears in her collection Grim Tales (1893). #wyrdwednesday

www.gutenberg.org/files/40321/...

Cover to E. Nesbit’s Grim Tales. It features a disembodied hand over the title. Both the title and hand are red against a tan background.

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Rekha Valliappan @silicasun.bsky.social · 20d

#MythologyMonday #autumnequinox 🍁 #HappyNavratri First day of #autumnfall 🍂 Legend has it today marks the start of the nine day battle by the powerful deity in one of her many manifestations over the demon accompanied nightly by vigorous dance moves claps sticks #DandiyaRaas #Garba 💃 #silicasun 🪔📗❤️

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Dave Tait @davetait.bsky.social · May 22

Came across this NYT story about what looks like a fascinating exhibit of travel books from between 1200 and 1550 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York…where I'm not.

The article is a bit like an NYT story about a museum exhibit, so don't fret if you can't get past the paywall, because… /1

‘Book of Marvels’ at the Morgan, Oddities From Cannibals to Giant Snails

www.nytimes.com

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Art History Animalia @arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social · Dec 10

For #ManuscriptMonday and #MedievalMonday :
a hill full of #rabbits from The Lutterell Psalter, 1325-40, British Library Add. MS 42130, folio 176v.
www.bl.uk/manuscripts/...

"Several rabbits on a hill riddled with their tunnels. A white hunting animal, perhaps a dog, enters one of the tunnels. The two rabbits on top of the hill appear to be having a conversation.
Marginal illustration from a psalter." (description via https://bestiary.ca/ beasts/beastgallery4483.htm)

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