Carl Shuker
@rcshuker.bsky.social
Author of The Royal Free. Also: A Mistake, Anti Lebanon, Three Novellas for a Novel, The Lazy Boys, and The Method Actors.
Official Memorial Device Alternative National Treasure.
Official Memorial Device Alternative National Treasure.
My review of the new @tricialockwood.bsky.social novel is up in the latest Listener:
(Paywall after tantalising opening mafraid)
www.magzter.com/stories/news...
(Paywall after tantalising opening mafraid)
www.magzter.com/stories/news...
High on her own supply? | New Zealand Listener - news - Read this story on Magzter.com
Read this exciting story from New Zealand Listener October 4-10, 2025 issue. Patricia Lockwood's new novel doubles down and tests the patience of her devotees.
www.magzter.com
October 2, 2025 at 5:25 AM
My review of the new @tricialockwood.bsky.social novel is up in the latest Listener:
(Paywall after tantalising opening mafraid)
www.magzter.com/stories/news...
(Paywall after tantalising opening mafraid)
www.magzter.com/stories/news...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Huge news! Today we're launching our biggest sale ever, to celebrate the move to a shiny new website.
✨ Smooth website experience
📚 50% off ALL books from 2022 & earlier
🗓️ For all of August, while stocks last
The sale is live now at www.teherengawakapress.co.nz.
✨ Smooth website experience
📚 50% off ALL books from 2022 & earlier
🗓️ For all of August, while stocks last
The sale is live now at www.teherengawakapress.co.nz.
July 31, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Huge news! Today we're launching our biggest sale ever, to celebrate the move to a shiny new website.
✨ Smooth website experience
📚 50% off ALL books from 2022 & earlier
🗓️ For all of August, while stocks last
The sale is live now at www.teherengawakapress.co.nz.
✨ Smooth website experience
📚 50% off ALL books from 2022 & earlier
🗓️ For all of August, while stocks last
The sale is live now at www.teherengawakapress.co.nz.
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Catherine Robertston reviews Carl Shuker's The Royal Free on RNZ Afternoons:. 'It's the best thing I've read in years... Can't recommend it more highly... It's a tremendous piece of writing.' 💙
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
Books: Author Catherine Robertson with her latest picks
We're going to talk about books, specifically what our critic Catherine Robertson calls her "to be read pile of shame" books, also known as those books you've bought and haven't yet got around to…
www.rnz.co.nz
July 29, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Catherine Robertston reviews Carl Shuker's The Royal Free on RNZ Afternoons:. 'It's the best thing I've read in years... Can't recommend it more highly... It's a tremendous piece of writing.' 💙
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Wow ok unfollowing now. Loved his refusal of servitude in heaven, did not know he was responsible for the fall of man
July 19, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Wow ok unfollowing now. Loved his refusal of servitude in heaven, did not know he was responsible for the fall of man
Reposted by Carl Shuker
My book got the sweetest medal! www.thesapling.co.nz/nzcya-2025-n...
July 18, 2025 at 1:25 AM
My book got the sweetest medal! www.thesapling.co.nz/nzcya-2025-n...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
If you were forced to bet on which university courses of study still will be relevant in 50 years, languages, literature, history, philosophy, and arts are all pretty good wagers.
They have an excellent track record over the past thousand years or so.
They have an excellent track record over the past thousand years or so.
Not the point of this fascinating article, but it remains darkly ironic to me that the Humanities have fallen backwards into being the safe financial bet of degrees
July 17, 2025 at 10:21 PM
If you were forced to bet on which university courses of study still will be relevant in 50 years, languages, literature, history, philosophy, and arts are all pretty good wagers.
They have an excellent track record over the past thousand years or so.
They have an excellent track record over the past thousand years or so.
Yeah, I was asked to recommend good writing about sex, and yeah, I went there
thespinoff.co.nz/books/03-07-...
thespinoff.co.nz/books/03-07-...
July 3, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Yeah, I was asked to recommend good writing about sex, and yeah, I went there
thespinoff.co.nz/books/03-07-...
thespinoff.co.nz/books/03-07-...
Landfall comes for THE ROYAL FREE. A long close read that almost gets it….
landfallreview.com/what-we-fear...
landfallreview.com/what-we-fear...
What We Fear Is Being Reviewed Maliciously
John Gibb on The Royal Free by Carl Shuke
landfallreview.com
July 2, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Landfall comes for THE ROYAL FREE. A long close read that almost gets it….
landfallreview.com/what-we-fear...
landfallreview.com/what-we-fear...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
A week and a half until the international premiere of my post-apocalyptic found footage instructional film on acid GUT INSTINCT in Oakland, CA at Shapeshifters Cinema, complete w/ a circuit-bending audio set by Kyle Bruckmann (@issimo-sempre.bsky.social) and Q&A by me. Limited seats, don't miss out!
Gut Instinct - a Film by Doug Dillaman + Live Music Performance by Kyle Bruckmann | Shapeshifters Cinema
A post-apocalyptic found footage instructional film on acid, Gut Instinct blends plausible science fiction, outrageous science fact, black comedy and intense visual freakouts in service of a singular ...
shapeshifterscinema.square.site
June 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
A week and a half until the international premiere of my post-apocalyptic found footage instructional film on acid GUT INSTINCT in Oakland, CA at Shapeshifters Cinema, complete w/ a circuit-bending audio set by Kyle Bruckmann (@issimo-sempre.bsky.social) and Q&A by me. Limited seats, don't miss out!
Reposted by Carl Shuker
How is AI affecting New Zealand creatives?
How is AI affecting New Zealand creatives?
Four New Zealand creatives speak about the impact of AI on their work....
thespinoff.co.nz
June 25, 2025 at 12:18 AM
How is AI affecting New Zealand creatives?
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Three of the best fictioneers feature on the latest Writers on Mondays episode!
ANNA SMAILL and CARL SHUKER
Literary power couple Anna Smaill (Bird Life) and Carl Shuker (The Royal Free) talked with novelist Emily Perkins at Te Papa on 2 September 2024. They discussed their work, their life together, and…
modernlettuce.blog
June 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Three of the best fictioneers feature on the latest Writers on Mondays episode!
VERY useful briefing on broader implications of US strike on Iran from @warinthefuture.bsky.social
mickryan.substack.com/p/america-bo...
mickryan.substack.com/p/america-bo...
America Bombs Iran
A quick assessment of how America's offensive operations against Iran changes the character of the war in the Middle East.
mickryan.substack.com
June 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM
VERY useful briefing on broader implications of US strike on Iran from @warinthefuture.bsky.social
mickryan.substack.com/p/america-bo...
mickryan.substack.com/p/america-bo...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
I wrote about billionaire space dreams, interstellar inequality, and Pip Adam's extraordinary new novel, for @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
A Novel That Reimagines the Meaning of Outer Space
In Pip Adam’s extraordinary, humane book Audition, the stars are both a dystopian place and a site of uncharted possibility.
www.theatlantic.com
June 21, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I wrote about billionaire space dreams, interstellar inequality, and Pip Adam's extraordinary new novel, for @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
So excited to see the ever-perceptive @robrubsam.bsky.social writing in @theatlantic.com today on @pipadam.bsky.social's "extraordinary" Audition, out in North America this month www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
A Novel That Reimagines the Meaning of Outer Space
In Pip Adam’s extraordinary, humane book Audition, the stars are both a dystopian place and a site of uncharted possibility.
www.theatlantic.com
June 22, 2025 at 12:53 AM
So excited to see the ever-perceptive @robrubsam.bsky.social writing in @theatlantic.com today on @pipadam.bsky.social's "extraordinary" Audition, out in North America this month www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
Sample (just a sample) of the Smiths collection with period pricing
June 21, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Sample (just a sample) of the Smiths collection with period pricing
A present from my old friend to celebrate completion of the first draft of my new project. 39 for this and so much else over so long @ryskel.bsky.social
June 21, 2025 at 2:20 AM
A present from my old friend to celebrate completion of the first draft of my new project. 39 for this and so much else over so long @ryskel.bsky.social
Ouch.
"I groaned my way through The Emperor of Gladness. I writhed. I felt real despair every time I forced myself to open the covers. It was one of the worst ordeals of my reading life."
Tom Crewe shines his hatchet in the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
"I groaned my way through The Emperor of Gladness. I writhed. I felt real despair every time I forced myself to open the covers. It was one of the worst ordeals of my reading life."
Tom Crewe shines his hatchet in the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Tom Crewe · My Hands in My Face: Ocean Vuong’s Failure
This language is not poetic, but ridiculous, sententious, blinded by self-love and pirouetting over a chasm. Vuong...
www.lrb.co.uk
June 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Ouch.
"I groaned my way through The Emperor of Gladness. I writhed. I felt real despair every time I forced myself to open the covers. It was one of the worst ordeals of my reading life."
Tom Crewe shines his hatchet in the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
"I groaned my way through The Emperor of Gladness. I writhed. I felt real despair every time I forced myself to open the covers. It was one of the worst ordeals of my reading life."
Tom Crewe shines his hatchet in the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Two of my favourite NZ books of recent vintage - this and AUDITION by @pipadam.bsky.social - have been published in the States this month. Both urgent, challenging and rewarding. Check them out, Ameri-friends.
It’s publication day in the US for The Royal Free. I’m so proud of this book and grateful to be with Counterpoint Press who published geniuses like Ballard and Janet Frame in the US, and Evan Connell and David Markson. Thank you. I’m a lucky man.
June 18, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Two of my favourite NZ books of recent vintage - this and AUDITION by @pipadam.bsky.social - have been published in the States this month. Both urgent, challenging and rewarding. Check them out, Ameri-friends.
It’s publication day in the US for The Royal Free. I’m so proud of this book and grateful to be with Counterpoint Press who published geniuses like Ballard and Janet Frame in the US, and Evan Connell and David Markson. Thank you. I’m a lucky man.
June 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
It’s publication day in the US for The Royal Free. I’m so proud of this book and grateful to be with Counterpoint Press who published geniuses like Ballard and Janet Frame in the US, and Evan Connell and David Markson. Thank you. I’m a lucky man.
Reposted by Carl Shuker
"That’s the great thing about writing: the problems that solve the last novel will not help this novel in the slightest."
A knockout interview with the great @pipadam.bsky.social #pukapuka
A knockout interview with the great @pipadam.bsky.social #pukapuka
“The novel is my favorite form because I feel like it’s one of those machines that has to reinvent itself every time.”
Pip Adam Locks Giants in a Spaceship to Talk About Incarceration - Electric Literature
The author of “Audition” on small talk, finding realism in speculative fiction, and writing utopias
buff.ly
June 16, 2025 at 10:16 PM
"That’s the great thing about writing: the problems that solve the last novel will not help this novel in the slightest."
A knockout interview with the great @pipadam.bsky.social #pukapuka
A knockout interview with the great @pipadam.bsky.social #pukapuka
This is the really scary language now. “Republican forces.”
June 14, 2025 at 8:39 PM
This is the really scary language now. “Republican forces.”
Reposted by Carl Shuker
Sad news, the founder of one of the greatest longitudinal studies ever undertaken has passed away.
Over 1300 research papers have been derived from this incredible body or work.
www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...
Over 1300 research papers have been derived from this incredible body or work.
www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...
Study founder dies
Founder of the Dunedin Study, Dr Philip (Phil) Silva, has died, aged 84. Dr Silva founded the study, which followed the lives of 1037 babies born...
www.odt.co.nz
June 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Sad news, the founder of one of the greatest longitudinal studies ever undertaken has passed away.
Over 1300 research papers have been derived from this incredible body or work.
www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...
Over 1300 research papers have been derived from this incredible body or work.
www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...