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Max Liu

@maxjliu.bsky.social

300 followers 400 following 230 posts

Freelance writer

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 23d

I wrote about Jung Chang's Fly, Wild Swans which succeeds as a memoir sequel and companion to the books that made her name: inews.co.uk/culture/wild...

After reading the Wild Swans sequel, I never want to go to China

I am regularly asked if I would like to go to China – due to my surname, which comes from my Chinese grandfather – but the picture Chang paints of contemporary China is depressing

inews.co.uk

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 14h

www.newstatesman.com/culture/2025...

Why László Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize for Literature

The Hungarian author’s work displays a huge and haunting vision

www.newstatesman.com

Reposted by Max Liu

Alexander Wells @ajbwells.bsky.social · 21h

quick everyone repost your Krasznahorkai essays!!!!

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Alexander Wells, Fight or Flight — Sidecar

On László Krasznahorkai.

newleftreview.org

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Reposted by Max Liu

Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 1d

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan...The flotilla was illegally intercepted last night and seized by armed Israeli forces in international waters.
irishpen.com/2025/10/08/t...

Thousand Madleens flotilla Statement - Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann

8 October 2025 Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan, one of several Irish citizens taking part in the Thousand Madleens f...

irishpen.com

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 1d

Went to a shop, bought a novel on publication day (near enough), came home, started reading. Haven't felt this excitement since err... Bleeding Edge. Or when late Roths were coming out. Cherish greatness while we have it and always be a fan.

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 1d

Helen Garner This House of Grief
Geoff Dyer Another Great Day at Sea
Lamorna Ash Dark, Salt, Clear
Jonathan Raban Hunting Mister Heartbreak

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Reposted by Max Liu

Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 1d

I am saying once again that the Conservative attack on the Arts is because they are incredibly envious of artists who they perceive as a group that has “too much” cultural power, a type of influence Conservatives crave but will never have because they’re anti-intellectuals with no imagination.

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 4d

The new Geese album, Getting Killed, is making me smile this morning

Reposted by Max Liu

Christian Dametto @chrisdametto.bsky.social · 4d

The ratio of arrests in comparison with the Tommy Robinson protests is absolutely wild. People peacefully holding a sign vs people violently attacking the police and the public.

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 5d

Just when you thought Keir Starmer's Labour Party couldn't get more illiberal, or more like the Tories...
"Change", my left foot.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office

Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

www.theguardian.com

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 4d

Wincing the night away

Reposted by Max Liu

josh @lobstereo.bsky.social · 5d

terrorism act charges very serious as well. a young person would live the rest of their life uncertain about the consequences on their employment and travel opportunities. really steep potential punishments.

Dr Phoenix CS Andrews @thatdocphoenix.com · 5d

Part of why so many genteel pensioners are getting arrested for supporting a proscribed group is because they can afford to be arrested. It’s not just that it’s bad optics to arrest retired vicars or whatever. Lots of those who feel strongest would be at much higher risk and face worse consequences

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Reposted by Max Liu

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 11d

Writing fiction in the third person past tense is starting to feel as stubbornly anachronistic as making studio sitcoms with a laughter track.

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 11d

It feels like autumn so... inews.co.uk/culture/tele...

Why every middle-aged man should watch Gilmore Girls

Watching the show for the first time last autumn, I realised its comforting rituals, perfectly drawn characters and irreverent dialogue were exactly what I needed

inews.co.uk

Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 12d

Good appreciation of Tony Harrison the dramatist and translator www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s...

‘The man who came to read the metre’: Yorkshire poet Tony Harrison was the National Theatre bard

Harrison, who has died aged 88, wrote copiously for the stage, both as an ingenious translator and dazzlingly original dramatist

www.theguardian.com

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 12d

This week I was at a reading where re. accessibility a poet said: "I wouldn't want to write a poem my dad couldn't read." I thought of Tony Harrison's more ambivalent: "I'd like to be the poet my father reads" from School of Eloquence. Some of the best poetry on art, class, England. RIP.

Reposted by Max Liu

Deborah Friedell @deborahfriedell.bsky.social · 12d

‪Tony Harrison's 'V.' was first published in the London Review of Books in 1985. The front page of the Daily Mail reported on the 'FOUR LETTER TV POEM FURY.'

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...

Tony Harrison · Poem: ‘V.’

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Max Liu

Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 13d

A quick reminder that this wee gem goes out this afternoon at 3:45pm. If you miss it you can catch up later on BBC Sounds.

Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 22d

Save the date. I’ve a brand new short story about an exorcism in a nursing home on @bbcradio4 next Friday (26th) at 3:45pm expertly read by Seamus O’Hara and produced by the brilliant Michael Shannon (our 20th collaboration for Radio 4) I really love this wee story #ShadowingGordon

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 14d

One Battle After Another is the only game in town this weekend, obviously. But in the meantime the title makes me think of the character in the History Boys who says history is "one fucking thing after another..."

Reposted by Max Liu

Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 15d

thank fucking god

Stereogum @stereogum.bsky.social · 15d

Robyn's first new album in seven years appears imminent

Robyn’s First New Album In Seven Years Appears Imminent

The widely beloved, massively influential cult-pop star Robyn only makes music when she feels like it, and she doesn’t feel like it very often. Robyn’s last album was Honey, which came out in October ...

www.stereogum.com

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16d

"Even a seventy-million-trick pony is still a trick pony..." Great Kathryn Schulz review to get Pynchon season underway
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Reading the New Pynchon Novel in a Pynchonesque America

“Shadow Ticket,” Pynchon’s first book in a dozen years, unfolds its conspiracies in Depression-era Milwaukee and beyond, but it lands in a moment when reality seems to have caught up with his fictions...

www.newyorker.com

Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16d

It is and it's one of two I had down as a potential winner at the longlist stage

Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16d

The @thebookerprizes.com shortlist is out! I wrote about three of the six novels - by Markovits, Miller, Szalay - here. Fwiw I am v happy for Markovits... thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

How the Booker Prize 2025 longlist explores masculinity in all its forms | The Booker Prizes

From teenagers on the brink of adulthood to grown men struggling to process trauma, this year’s longlisted books offer fascinating insights into the male psyche – and bear similarities to other Booker...

thebookerprizes.com

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 17d

It was great wasn't it. I think I caught Paul Graham there earlier this year after you posted about it so belated thanks!

Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 17d

My bad picture of a good picture of Leonora Carrington by Kati Horna that I meant to share from an exhibition that closed a couple of weeks ago

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Reposted by Max Liu

Gita Ralleigh @gitaralleigh.bsky.social · 17d

Details here! amheath.com/hilary-mante...
#emergingwriters

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Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 18d

Spent 3 hours of my birthday watching Magnolia in the cinema. As brilliant and monumental as when it first blew my mind open 25 years ago though with different feelings about some characters. I've said before but until I saw Magnolia I didn't know cinema was an artform. Can't wait for new PTA