Ellen Kirkpatrick
@elkwrites.bsky.social
Emerging Writer. Recovering Cultural Studies scholar. New here...
Words in Dark Mountain, HU, and The Belfast Review, and forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Pop Junctions...
Author of Un/Making Worlds (punctum books, 2023)
ellenkirkpatrick.co.uk
Words in Dark Mountain, HU, and The Belfast Review, and forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Pop Junctions...
Author of Un/Making Worlds (punctum books, 2023)
ellenkirkpatrick.co.uk
Pinned
Solitary Pursuits, or Frankenstein and the Toll of Creation
On ambition, isolation, and why the way we make things matters just as much as what we make.
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com
Turns out you don’t need a lightning storm or a stitched‑together monster to lose yourself in the act of creation.
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
Turns out you don’t need a lightning storm or a stitched‑together monster to lose yourself in the act of creation.
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
Solitary Pursuits, or Frankenstein and the Toll of Creation
On ambition, isolation, and why the way we make things matters just as much as what we make.
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com
January 31, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Turns out you don’t need a lightning storm or a stitched‑together monster to lose yourself in the act of creation.
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
New piece out today.
"What we make carries the imprint of the conditions we make it in – secrecy, fear, connection, care – and the world feels the difference."
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
Woodpig Press is a new micro-press based in Wales. We're a loose collection of publishing freelancers who oppose AI and think books should be more about art than money. We want to publish the unusual fiction and non-fiction that mainstream publishers ignore.
(Thread, 1/2)
#booksky
(Thread, 1/2)
#booksky
https://woodpigpress.com/publi…
January 27, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Woodpig Press is a new micro-press based in Wales. We're a loose collection of publishing freelancers who oppose AI and think books should be more about art than money. We want to publish the unusual fiction and non-fiction that mainstream publishers ignore.
(Thread, 1/2)
#booksky
(Thread, 1/2)
#booksky
A small-town remembrance for David Lynch, or a version of him imagined through memory, myth, and the strange glow someone can leave behind.
New piece up now.
#DavidLynch
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com/p/firebugs-p...
New piece up now.
#DavidLynch
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com/p/firebugs-p...
Firebug's Passin'
A brief, fictional remembrance of David Lynch
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 11:27 AM
A small-town remembrance for David Lynch, or a version of him imagined through memory, myth, and the strange glow someone can leave behind.
New piece up now.
#DavidLynch
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com/p/firebugs-p...
New piece up now.
#DavidLynch
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com/p/firebugs-p...
Loved this! I had no idea about the 1939 NYC guide, and now I’m completely obsessed. Clearly I need to track down a copy… my reading list just got a lot more interesting.
TODAY: @annamerlan.bsky.social on an extraordinary 1939 guide to New York City. “Reading the guidebook now gives the sense, not of a past city, but a parallel one, an unseen but strangely familiar river flowing just over the horizon.” flaminghydra.com/new-york-for...
New York, Forever Lost and Found
When I first moved to New York in 2009, the very first night I lay down to sleep in a coffin-narrow room in Harlem, I had a maddening sense of wonderful things happening just out of my reach: all the ...
flaminghydra.com
January 21, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Loved this! I had no idea about the 1939 NYC guide, and now I’m completely obsessed. Clearly I need to track down a copy… my reading list just got a lot more interesting.
Been thinking about how a single shift in perspective can completely rewrite a story.
My latest piece digs into #StrangerThings and the ending that reframed the entire series for me.
'What’s missing isn’t nostalgia, it’s the nerve to deliver on the story’s own radical promise.'
#TVThoughts
My latest piece digs into #StrangerThings and the ending that reframed the entire series for me.
'What’s missing isn’t nostalgia, it’s the nerve to deliver on the story’s own radical promise.'
#TVThoughts
The Ending That Changed Stranger Things Forever…
Stranger Things wrapped on 31 January 2025, a day that shows how endings and beginnings are only what we choose to see in a moment — New Year’s Eve or Old Year’s Night, depending on the angle.
ellenkirkpatrick.substack.com
January 10, 2026 at 10:46 AM
Been thinking about how a single shift in perspective can completely rewrite a story.
My latest piece digs into #StrangerThings and the ending that reframed the entire series for me.
'What’s missing isn’t nostalgia, it’s the nerve to deliver on the story’s own radical promise.'
#TVThoughts
My latest piece digs into #StrangerThings and the ending that reframed the entire series for me.
'What’s missing isn’t nostalgia, it’s the nerve to deliver on the story’s own radical promise.'
#TVThoughts
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
LAUNCHING SOON 🌷 THE BULB REGION!
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, prose poetry, hybrid, comics, cultural criticism, personal essays, and everything that falls in-between!
Save the date: January 13, 2026.
bulbregion.com
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, prose poetry, hybrid, comics, cultural criticism, personal essays, and everything that falls in-between!
Save the date: January 13, 2026.
bulbregion.com
The Bulb Region
The Bulb Region is an online literary journal dedicated to short form. Prose, poetry, comics, essays, humor, hybrid, and anything in-between.
bulbregion.com
January 2, 2026 at 4:43 PM
LAUNCHING SOON 🌷 THE BULB REGION!
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, prose poetry, hybrid, comics, cultural criticism, personal essays, and everything that falls in-between!
Save the date: January 13, 2026.
bulbregion.com
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, prose poetry, hybrid, comics, cultural criticism, personal essays, and everything that falls in-between!
Save the date: January 13, 2026.
bulbregion.com
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
𝘊𝘖𝘖𝘗 by Nida Sajid is officially out tomorrow! There is so much buzz around this book — MULTIPLE people who stopped by the Tower Hamlets Book Sale said they’d come specifically for this!!! — and we can’t wait for it to finally hit the shelves 😌
www.hajarpress.com/books/coop
[1/2]
www.hajarpress.com/books/coop
[1/2]
December 17, 2025 at 8:58 AM
𝘊𝘖𝘖𝘗 by Nida Sajid is officially out tomorrow! There is so much buzz around this book — MULTIPLE people who stopped by the Tower Hamlets Book Sale said they’d come specifically for this!!! — and we can’t wait for it to finally hit the shelves 😌
www.hajarpress.com/books/coop
[1/2]
www.hajarpress.com/books/coop
[1/2]
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
Once again: @sirosenbaum.bsky.social with the most poignant and memorable comic you'll read this year. No kidding.
It's all here on @flaminghydra.com, so subscribe today.
It's all here on @flaminghydra.com, so subscribe today.
TODAY: the second installment of @sirosenbaum.bsky.social’s amazing new series TEETH BEACH. flaminghydra.com/teeth-beach-...
TEETH BEACH: The River Gave Me a Bead
a fiery writer-owned cooperative
flaminghydra.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Once again: @sirosenbaum.bsky.social with the most poignant and memorable comic you'll read this year. No kidding.
It's all here on @flaminghydra.com, so subscribe today.
It's all here on @flaminghydra.com, so subscribe today.
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
Libraries are transformative. In fact, Farnham Library saved me. Kept me afloat when I was being bullied at South Farnham Middle School in the 1980s.
This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't is my homage to it...
This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't is my homage to it...
The emotional significance of objects sends ripples through our lives, which is why this is often my final poem when I give a reading.
It's taken from my second full collection, Whatever You Don't, Just Don't. If you fancy a signed copy, drop me a DM and I'll sort one out for you...
It's taken from my second full collection, Whatever You Don't, Just Don't. If you fancy a signed copy, drop me a DM and I'll sort one out for you...
July 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Libraries are transformative. In fact, Farnham Library saved me. Kept me afloat when I was being bullied at South Farnham Middle School in the 1980s.
This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't is my homage to it...
This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't is my homage to it...
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
TODAY: @modernistwitch.myatproto.social on the rights of the child. “The first essay I ever wrote was a plea to adults to take children seriously. Forty or so years down the line, I find I am writing the same essay.” flaminghydra.com/children-des...
Children Deserve Better
Survivors of child abuse have been having a rough time recently, with the late child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes in the news nearly every day. Even though nearly all are united in denouncing h...
flaminghydra.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
TODAY: @modernistwitch.myatproto.social on the rights of the child. “The first essay I ever wrote was a plea to adults to take children seriously. Forty or so years down the line, I find I am writing the same essay.” flaminghydra.com/children-des...
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
Last week at Broken Frontier..THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH! “Themes Around Human Connection & Loneliness Are a Constant Throughline in All of My Works” – @rein-lee.bsky.social on Exploring Identity & Queerness in Comics, & Finding Your Way in the Small Press Community. www.brokenfrontier.com/rein-lee-int...
"Themes Around Human Connection and Loneliness Are a Constant Throughline in All of My Works" - Rein Lee on Exploring Identity and Queerness in Comics, and Finding Your Way in the Small Press Communit...
Rein Lee is one of Broken Frontier's 2025 'Six Small Press Creators to Watch' and they talk to us about their comics and practice.
www.brokenfrontier.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Last week at Broken Frontier..THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH! “Themes Around Human Connection & Loneliness Are a Constant Throughline in All of My Works” – @rein-lee.bsky.social on Exploring Identity & Queerness in Comics, & Finding Your Way in the Small Press Community. www.brokenfrontier.com/rein-lee-int...
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
Honoured to endorse Francesca Albanese's book, out now with @plutopress.bsky.social
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness: Reports on Israel’s Genocide in Palestine.
Free to download, with the option to donate to @unrwa.org.
.
@franceskalbs.bsky.social
www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness: Reports on Israel’s Genocide in Palestine.
Free to download, with the option to donate to @unrwa.org.
.
@franceskalbs.bsky.social
www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness - Pluto Press
A devastating indictment against international complicity in Israel’s genocide in Palestine
www.plutobooks.com
October 15, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Honoured to endorse Francesca Albanese's book, out now with @plutopress.bsky.social
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness: Reports on Israel’s Genocide in Palestine.
Free to download, with the option to donate to @unrwa.org.
.
@franceskalbs.bsky.social
www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness: Reports on Israel’s Genocide in Palestine.
Free to download, with the option to donate to @unrwa.org.
.
@franceskalbs.bsky.social
www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
A great conversation on @Revolution.social podcast with host @rabble.nz Henshaw-Plath. We discussed the power of network protocols, the dynamics of commoning in digital spaces, and Big Tech failures to understand their dependence on trust and sharing. Refreshing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5nZ...
“Think Like a Commoner" Author David Bollier on the Commons & Why Open Platforms Aren't Enough
YouTube video by revolution.social with @rabble
www.youtube.com
October 14, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A great conversation on @Revolution.social podcast with host @rabble.nz Henshaw-Plath. We discussed the power of network protocols, the dynamics of commoning in digital spaces, and Big Tech failures to understand their dependence on trust and sharing. Refreshing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5nZ...
✨I have a new essay at @popjunctions.bsky.social on swap storytelling, radical imagining, and why swapping approaches often fall short—not just in fiction, but in social and political realms too.
Oh, and Captain Nemo 🦑
Big thanks to the Pop Junctions team for the space and support💖
bit.ly/nemo-swap
Oh, and Captain Nemo 🦑
Big thanks to the Pop Junctions team for the space and support💖
bit.ly/nemo-swap
Captain Nemo: A Swap Story, or Why We Can’t Barter Our Way to a Better World — Pop Junctions
Ellen Kirkpatrick dives into the character of Captain Nemo, particularly Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s gender-swapped version. She argues that story is the beating heart of social action, helpin...
henryjenkins.org
September 23, 2025 at 11:28 AM
✨I have a new essay at @popjunctions.bsky.social on swap storytelling, radical imagining, and why swapping approaches often fall short—not just in fiction, but in social and political realms too.
Oh, and Captain Nemo 🦑
Big thanks to the Pop Junctions team for the space and support💖
bit.ly/nemo-swap
Oh, and Captain Nemo 🦑
Big thanks to the Pop Junctions team for the space and support💖
bit.ly/nemo-swap
Thrilled to share that my review of Sad Tiger is now live at Barrelhouse✨
Neige Sinno’s genre-defying memoir—trans. by Natasha Lehrer, out from Seven Stories Press—left me breathless. Grateful to @barrelhouse.bsky.social for the space & support💖
tinyurl.com/sadtiger-rev...
@sevenstories.bsky.social
Neige Sinno’s genre-defying memoir—trans. by Natasha Lehrer, out from Seven Stories Press—left me breathless. Grateful to @barrelhouse.bsky.social for the space & support💖
tinyurl.com/sadtiger-rev...
@sevenstories.bsky.social
Ellen Kirkpatrick Reviews Neige Sinno — Barrelhouse
Can literature bear witness without aestheticizing pain? Can story save us? Make us stronger? And what even counts as story?
www.barrelhousemag.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Thrilled to share that my review of Sad Tiger is now live at Barrelhouse✨
Neige Sinno’s genre-defying memoir—trans. by Natasha Lehrer, out from Seven Stories Press—left me breathless. Grateful to @barrelhouse.bsky.social for the space & support💖
tinyurl.com/sadtiger-rev...
@sevenstories.bsky.social
Neige Sinno’s genre-defying memoir—trans. by Natasha Lehrer, out from Seven Stories Press—left me breathless. Grateful to @barrelhouse.bsky.social for the space & support💖
tinyurl.com/sadtiger-rev...
@sevenstories.bsky.social
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
one of my fave things about theme calls is when they inspire and turn into work that I'd maybe never expected but that totally knocks me out. today's story from Matti Ben-Lev is such a perfect example of that.
"When I got my second DUI..."
https://www.havehashad.com/ylr2s
"When I got my second DUI..."
https://www.havehashad.com/ylr2s
Five Times I’ve Seen My Father Cry by Matti Ben-Lev
When my sister was born. I was seven. That swollen creature, face plum and puffy. I’ve never seen my father’s eyes shiver quite like that, not even when Mom left, ten years later. After their divorce,…
www.havehashad.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:14 PM
one of my fave things about theme calls is when they inspire and turn into work that I'd maybe never expected but that totally knocks me out. today's story from Matti Ben-Lev is such a perfect example of that.
"When I got my second DUI..."
https://www.havehashad.com/ylr2s
"When I got my second DUI..."
https://www.havehashad.com/ylr2s
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
One of the year's highlights this 👇
September 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
One of the year's highlights this 👇
Just caught this episode – so good! Marc Garrett’s reflections on being a working-class artist hit hard. Great conversation exploring class, creativity, and resistance.🔥A proper shout from the margins. #FeralClass #RadicalArt #MustRead
Minor Compositions Podcast Episode 36 Feral Class
Untamed. Unheard. Unstoppable.
For this episode with have a chat with Marc Garrett about his forthcoming book Feral Class.
Untamed. Unheard. Unstoppable.
For this episode with have a chat with Marc Garrett about his forthcoming book Feral Class.
Feral Class
YouTube video by Minor Compositions
youtu.be
September 17, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Just caught this episode – so good! Marc Garrett’s reflections on being a working-class artist hit hard. Great conversation exploring class, creativity, and resistance.🔥A proper shout from the margins. #FeralClass #RadicalArt #MustRead
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
"Cartoonists for Palestine" is a beautiful 250-page book featuring over 60 comic stories. I'm honored to be part of it with Issa, a story written by Francesca Mannocchi. The book was published by the American publisher Crucial Comix @mirkdrop.bsky.social
📖 Order the book here: tinyurl.com/26exa9wf
📖 Order the book here: tinyurl.com/26exa9wf
February 7, 2025 at 9:00 AM
"Cartoonists for Palestine" is a beautiful 250-page book featuring over 60 comic stories. I'm honored to be part of it with Issa, a story written by Francesca Mannocchi. The book was published by the American publisher Crucial Comix @mirkdrop.bsky.social
📖 Order the book here: tinyurl.com/26exa9wf
📖 Order the book here: tinyurl.com/26exa9wf
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
You want free comics? I got free comics...!
If you subscribe to my patreon.com/pauljholden you can read this in full colour (so far!)
Terran Omega Page 2-3
If you subscribe to my patreon.com/pauljholden you can read this in full colour (so far!)
Terran Omega Page 2-3
September 8, 2025 at 3:16 PM
You want free comics? I got free comics...!
If you subscribe to my patreon.com/pauljholden you can read this in full colour (so far!)
Terran Omega Page 2-3
If you subscribe to my patreon.com/pauljholden you can read this in full colour (so far!)
Terran Omega Page 2-3
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
To kick off #EMMYSWATCH2025, Pop Junctions shares a 2-part interview on the @peabodyawards.bsky.social/Centre for Media and Social Impact podcast, We Disrupt this Broadcast. In Part 1, Lauren Alexandra Sowa interviews Jeffrey P. Jones about "Television that Changes Us".
EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Television that Changes Us (Part 1): An Interview with the Peabody Award’s Jeffrey Jones on We Disrupt This Broadcast — Pop Junctions
‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to t...
henryjenkins.org
September 8, 2025 at 11:40 AM
To kick off #EMMYSWATCH2025, Pop Junctions shares a 2-part interview on the @peabodyawards.bsky.social/Centre for Media and Social Impact podcast, We Disrupt this Broadcast. In Part 1, Lauren Alexandra Sowa interviews Jeffrey P. Jones about "Television that Changes Us".
Reposted by Ellen Kirkpatrick
the streak of banger new list poems continues today with Tyler Tea Friend!
"...Trans Day of Horror
Trans Day of Honor
Trans Day of Dishonoring
Trans Day of Dishing..."
https://www.havehashad.com/7ho8l
"...Trans Day of Horror
Trans Day of Honor
Trans Day of Dishonoring
Trans Day of Dishing..."
https://www.havehashad.com/7ho8l
365 Days of Trans (January) by Tyler Tea Friend
Trans Day of Being Hungover Trans Day of Rebirth Trans Day of Forgetting to Take the Estradiol Trans Day of Getting a Papercut Trans Day of Getting It Trans Day of Getting Over It Trans Day of Yes,…
www.havehashad.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:49 PM
the streak of banger new list poems continues today with Tyler Tea Friend!
"...Trans Day of Horror
Trans Day of Honor
Trans Day of Dishonoring
Trans Day of Dishing..."
https://www.havehashad.com/7ho8l
"...Trans Day of Horror
Trans Day of Honor
Trans Day of Dishonoring
Trans Day of Dishing..."
https://www.havehashad.com/7ho8l
Delighted to see my essay on Generational Warfare in activism featured in the always awesome @thebelfastreview.bsky.social and to be in such excellent company! I know what I'll be settling down to read this weekend, maybe you too...?
thebelfastreview.wixsite.com/home/issues
#WeekendReading #Activism
thebelfastreview.wixsite.com/home/issues
#WeekendReading #Activism
January 31, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Delighted to see my essay on Generational Warfare in activism featured in the always awesome @thebelfastreview.bsky.social and to be in such excellent company! I know what I'll be settling down to read this weekend, maybe you too...?
thebelfastreview.wixsite.com/home/issues
#WeekendReading #Activism
thebelfastreview.wixsite.com/home/issues
#WeekendReading #Activism
Excited to dive into this beautiful issue!! #MustRead
At long last, 𝑀𝑈𝑅𝐴𝐿𝑆 is live!🎨📸🖋
The most unique issue we have produced yet.
thehooghlyreview.com/issues/murals/
@fbereaud.bsky.social invites you all to wander with him through these pages—free to download or flip through, featuring Roberto R. Pozos & 60 contributors from across the globe.🌏
The most unique issue we have produced yet.
thehooghlyreview.com/issues/murals/
@fbereaud.bsky.social invites you all to wander with him through these pages—free to download or flip through, featuring Roberto R. Pozos & 60 contributors from across the globe.🌏
January 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Excited to dive into this beautiful issue!! #MustRead