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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · 11d

Very much looking forward to launching SEE YOU THROUGH at this Broken Sleep Books online launch event tomorrow 8pm UK time:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/broken-sle...

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · 13d

‘Ground troops have demolished greenhouses; bulldozers have toppled orchards, ploughed out crops and crushed the soil; and planes have sprayed herbicides over the fields.’

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here | George Monbiot

Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Alex Houen

Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

PREORDER:

The Indigo Hours by Maria Sledmere is an immersive, radiant text that moves between autofiction, essay, and poetic prose to document the textures of contemporary longing.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

A series of dark blue archways recede into the distance, forming a tunnel-like corridor filled with fluffy white clouds floating at various depths. The title “The Indigo Hours” appears in light grey serif text at the top left, above the author's name, Maria Sledmere, in smaller matching font. Broken Sleep Books is set subtly at the bottom.

…You said nothing was worth pursuing, in the end, if it wasn’t a case of pleasure. Or did I say that. I said something about growing older. Our conversation looped in ribbons – three shades of green – then stilled around a void. We’d soon enough stop speaking. We were a starlight sugar level. What was in that case? Your mother nurtured white poppies so that every May when the garden darkened all you could see were their pale wee faces, hardening against the dark like eyes. The many-eyed garden of your mother. A space we locked away. I remember kissing you then, close to the edge. The way you tasted milky. That was a pleasure way. How I wanted this bottled. Closer to lilac in the light. Your eyes strained from screens I was kissing you better, kissing them close to sleep. Of course, we hid from your mother, and pretty much everyone else, when we kissed. You poured a glass of milk from the fridge.

There was pleasure, something of the Romantics I read at school: this Wordsworthian thing about pleasure. No one around me

could tolerate this level of daffodil crap. As it was, I was hoarding Dorothy’s journals and obsessing over her drinking tea, with such constancy it put my old scrolling habits to shame. Break for tea, tea at breakfast. Spill the tea. I’ve been trying, casually, to make statements of correlation between tea consumption and weather. There was pleasure there. My blood all rich with caffeine, twirling on a spot to make motion of the light in your eyes and speech at the party. Green light tea. It’s all gossip. What? Other people speak of the narrative lapse of cigarettes. Okay so it’s raining. I’m scrolling. You’re typing. There was a rhythm to our quitting, arrangements of sugary negative space. With words we drew a new foreground…
…When all we wanted in the end was to disappear (in one another). The rain became mist, then milky distance. For drawing one sigh is the sound of the other, whose motion you can hardly class as light. At work, when they talked about it, teased us, all I could think of was your breath. I conducted desire in unruly shifts. There could be no fresh release. Was it me, no, would I ever?

“Who was it Marlene?”

Mostly I drifted towards the one table where a window let in the afternoon, the sheer fact of its atmosphere. I brought over rusted pots of Twinings Breakfast tea, my fingers dusty from arranging the tablet just so on the side. Hospitality is the trading of one thing for the other, a ceaseless admittance of instability. Here you go. Speech acts for self-erasure. Melt in your mouth.

Nobody knows what they really want. Why think five years or even a meal ahead?

I was not always in this line of business; or as a matter of fact in this, the other.

Your mother, like others, would never know enough to ask what I did.

Shift patterns promote idleness. I fall into one loophole only to catch breath on the start of the next, till the hours slack a lariat of absence around my nervous system. So even as I pace, carrying plates, I say it again I miss you. There’s a beat.

Whose? Here I am, still picking at blood flakes in the palm of my hand.

A chef picking chilli flakes from Tesco.

Sometimes, I’m like Emily. It’s like Hi, I’m no one! When I write this, who are you?

I had a friend called Emily
and we were so young: we fell
into our respective wardrobes.

What age are we to receive first self-assurances, like appreciate life’s big thrust, blood in our veins and everything? When very sapling, a babe on the floor must be approximate; just as gold might be an unseen sun, but it’s just the glint of a pound, someone’s earring. Lying on the carpet like that, upside down, is really an athletic feat. Pretend you are looking for something, when all this adds up to a defiance of gravity. I collect the words kidney, alias, shelf, artichoke & stones.

⁂

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

PREORDER: @laurablomvall.bsky.social

Enter Moon by Laura Blomvall is a debut pamphlet of lyrical precision and imaginative reach, charting celestial and earthly landscapes with equal intensity.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

A dark green background is decorated with a grid of stylised golden-yellow botanical and abstract shapes. The title “Enter Moon” appears in bold serif font at the top left in matching yellow, with the author's name, Laura Blomvall, just below in a lighter golden shade. The publisher's name is at the bottom in pale yellow.

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Adam Burbage @burbagea.bsky.social · 23d

This is fantastic issue. Really great stuff in here. Working backwards from the end (alphabetically!) these are all wonderful

GC Waldrep sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Corey Wakeling sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

And these by Jess Smith are 👌
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 27d

McCarthyism is here, and gender scholars and equality activists and even basic human/legal rights proponents are in its sights. I have learnt so much from Judith Butler and now this: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move

Prominent professor Judith Butler among students and faculty investigated for ‘alleged antisemitic incidents’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · Sep 1

PREORDER (@alexhouen.bsky.social):

Geoff Gilbert and Alex Houen’s See You Through: A Novel is a formally restless, genre-collapsing hybrid that inhabits the threshold between poetry and fiction.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

A grainy gradient background shifts from red-orange in the top right to deep blue in the bottom left. The names “Geoff Gilbert & Alex Houen” appear in pixelated orange text near the top. Centered large white glitch-style text reads “SEE YOU THROUGH.” At the bottom, “Broken Sleep Books” is subtly printed in light blue.

1. Mimo has work to do, the worst work: checking
live feed that doesn’t nourish him
from facial recognition software tied to cameras
around the country. He checks
that the software is working – verifies
tags in Mall CCTV, security in nightclubs,
faces framed for scrutiny. It was from the point
that the voice of his Director began bleeding
into his own inner voice that he found himself
finding the prospect of windows and of memories
irresistible. He needs to get things clear
or get well clear of them – through glass
and plexiglas he sees things differently.
When he moves up to the window and eyes
out, however muffled and uncommon the state he is in,
it is clear where the feelings should be: down there
on the street, sandwiched between other glass panes.
He’s watching the arm move
in a shop, stress and compression and stretch,
it rakes what is drifting away (robot blood, fine river sand).
A second arm takes a bottle. With glass you can get away
with a lot of things; but airplane pilots whose eyes
are damaged by plexiglas shards
fare better than those injured by standard glass –
better compatibility between plexiglas and human tissue.

Mimo is intensely interested in how he will look,
in what he will keep.
Your nose is too close to the screen.
There’s the Director again, voicing:
A face at a window
for no apparent reason should have a thumb
in its mouth. Or, if the face is not childish it is free-
floating, blotted white by the darkness of the room.
Rub out the formal relations, look through the glass
at the slides we prepared, be ready for chapters
to come in the form of spacing out.
Mimo keeps watching
the arm get confused about the room it is in.
Loss of your own making.
In the majority of applications
plexiglas will not shatter but break
into large dull pieces. Squint through it, glance at it;
what matter? what kind of keep?
what hold? It looked like a sack,
or maybe a deformed animal,
visible behind the middle column, mostly to the right.
It expanded and contracted, pulsing
like some kind of smear.

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · Mar 7

Wake up everything you can think of.
Language for instance. Any language.
Swedish. Du som har mitt hela hjärte.
Work it out, until it smiles on you
and breaks your heart.

From ‘Nine Poems’, in 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls', Peter Riley
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

Five copies of Peter Riley's poetry collection 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls' arranged against a dark red background.

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Aug 15

Tentacular Magazine is open again for poetry submissions

www.tentacularmag.com/submit

Submit | Tentacular Magazine — Tentacular

Submit your work for Tentacular online poetry, reviews and arts magazine.

www.tentacularmag.com

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · Aug 10

Because I am angry I will share this again. One of the reasons that Israel is able to target individuals so precisely is that it collects every phone call in Gaza and stores the recordings in Microsoft Azure, then uses AI to analyze and pick targets.

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Robert Sheppard @robertsheppard.bsky.social · Aug 4

A year ago my book of essays and other prose, on the subject of poetics, and examples of poetics, was published by Shearsman: an account with contents some links (to the book and to excerpts) : robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-...

The Necessity of Poetics - out now!

The Necessity of Poetics is now available: https://www.shearsman.com/store/Robert-Sheppard-The-Necessity-of-Poetics-p661888958 The N...

robertsheppard.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · Jul 31

Visionary, urgent… truly extraordinary blendings of environmental & social history. - Mark Wormald
A spirited, astonishing, bewildering collection. - Adam Piette
One of 2024's wildest volumes of poetry. - Christian Bok

'Eely'
Steve Ely
£2 off until Sunday
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

Three copies of Steve Ely's collection 'Eely' arranged against an orange background.

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 29

Yes there are, growing on the Lamington trees! 😋

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 29

Spending a few days in the rainforest of Queensland’s Lamington National Park. There are Antarctic Beech Trees here that are over 2000 years old! Amazing place

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 28

Open letter for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities
👇

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities

More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...

docs.google.com

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 18

I’m in #Sydney / Gadigal country, for the first time in years, staying near where I grew up. It’s wonderful to be back. Been sketching the view from my balcony to take it all in

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 12

SEE YOU THROUGH, the poem-novel I wrote with Geoff Gilbert is now available for pre-order at a price cheaper than the RRP💐🙌👇

It dances on the crack between unlived life & what happens 👻🐙🐠🌋🍸

@brokensleepbooks.bsky.social @godzillakent.bsky.social

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

Geoff Gilbert and Alex Houen - See You Through: A Novel | Broken Sleep Books

Geoff Gilbert and Alex Houen’s See You Through: A Novel is a formally restless, genre-collapsing hybrid that inhabits the threshold between poetry and fiction. Structured around a shifting dialogue of...

www.brokensleepbooks.com

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 11

Thank you, Ian! There’s a page now for it on the Broken Sleep website for pre-orders, will post it up soon

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 11

⚡️BLACKBOX MANIFOLD 34 is now live!⚡️Poems by Kat Addis, Sascha Akhtar, Charlie Baylis, Iain Britton, Imogen Cassels, Kimberly Campanello, Trevor Joyce, Corey Wakeling, G.C. Waldrep, and others.

Reviews by Adam Piette, Olivia Boyle, and David Brazil

blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk

Blackbox Manifold

Kat Addis Sascha Akhtar Annie Baker Charlie Baylis Linda Black Catherine Bither Iain Britton Kimberly Campanello Imogen Cassels Joel Chace Stuart Cooke Ken Evans Adam Flint Alexander Gau...

blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jul 5

Very much looking fwd to seeing Amyl & the Sniffers play live in London this afternoon 🇦🇺🤩 along with Fontaines DC and Kneecap⚡️

m.youtube.com/watch?v=opIx...

Amyl and the Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That (Later... with Jools Holland)

YouTube video by BBC Music

m.youtube.com

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · Jul 4

A really good opportunity here to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia: the Birch Family Scholarship is available to a home fees applicant who has applied for a place on the Poetry MA and identifies as a writer of colour. Deadline 1 August. Please RT! www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

The Birch Family Scholarship

University of East Anglia

www.uea.ac.uk

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Alex Houen @alexhouen.bsky.social · Jun 30

A really impressive story about foxes, including the intrepid fox ‘Romeo’ who lived in The Shard.

Long live the foxes! 🦊✊

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Google battling fox incursion on roof of £1bn London office

Foxes have ‘begun to dig burrows’ in soil of rooftop garden at the as yet unopened King’s Cross headquarters

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Alex Houen

Jen Calleja @jencalleja.bsky.social · Jun 23

Tomorrow in Nottingham @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social !

Thursday in Margate at Fort Road Hotel Bar for The Margate Bookshop!

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Reposted by Alex Houen

Robert Sheppard @robertsheppard.bsky.social · Jun 23

I write about my review of Terry's Dante here (with a nod towards my own version, nearly complete now): robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2025/02/my-t...

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