And the arts organizations and publishers who will stand out for us, who will maintain their credibility, will be the ones we feel have our backs. We will pay attention to who they are. We'll spread the word. We need partners that we can respect, that we can count on. 23/

Halfway through this, won a lifetime ago in a twitter book word game (bring it back, @foylesforbooks.bsky.social!), languishing on the shelf since. How impossibly charming is this book?? And did Wes Anderson's nanny read it to him as a baby? Completely 'seeing' it in his style in my mind as I read.

The Birthday Boys

Love this @aniking.bsky.social! The way it races right up to that last line and then knocks your teeth out.

It has been a good reading year so far though (despite everything else). Highlights so far - The Topeka School, Ben Lerner, Another Country, James Baldwin, Human Acts, Han Kang (tr. Deborah Smith), Pity, Andrew McMillan, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning, Keiran Goddard. Ok, book karma rebalanced.

Finally picked up a well reviewed, prize winning novel I'd put down two years ago out of frustration and finally finished it. Nope. Nope. Nopity nope. Did not care for it. Not one little bit. Ahh. That's better. Carry on.

I've just signed this petition protesting Meta's mass theft of Irish writing, which they've used to build their large language model ‘AI’. Their trawl includes fourteen of my titles. If you live in Ireland and care about the arts, please sign.

my.uplift.ie/petitions/pr...

Idea for a novel that's been percolating for the last while is becoming evermore interesting and evermore difficult and beyond my current skills and capacity and I'm getting more excited about it and oh damn I'm going to waste years on that once I finish the one I've just wasted years on, aren't I?

This was a lovely surprise.

Happy delivery day. My first time in a print mag, and what a lovely way to begin. Looking forward to digging into the other pieces.