Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · 12h

Thanks Deborah. Kit was there. Hope you're well and see you at an event soonest

Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · 13h

Stoked that my short story set in the Cevennes, 'Épisodes', was highly commended in this year's Bridport Prize, reaching the top 13 from 5,000 entries.

Looking forward to devouring the other winners in the anthology.

#shortstories #bridportprize

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BDS movement @bdsmovement.bsky.social · 12d

Palestinians called on the world to #DisruptComplicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide between 18-21 September. The world answered.

Keep up the momentum: we call for escalating disruptive BDS actions against complicit states, corporations and institutions.

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Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · Sep 11

A curated list of some of the most scintillating short stories I've read. You're welcome.

Tom Vowler – A Personal Anthology

Tom Vowler is an award-winning author and editor living in the UK. An Arvon tutor with a PhD in creative writing, his work has featured on BBC radio and been translated into multiple languages. Hi…

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Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · Jul 6

Have you ever tried to read it? The prose is excruciatingly vacuous; I assumed a child had written it.

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John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @thinkorswim.bsky.social · May 31

Watched this Louis Theroux documentary the other night; brilliant exposé of colonial settler “state” of Israel & its vicious campaign to steal the land of Palestine.
Highly recommended.

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Katie Ward @katiewardwriter.bsky.social · May 29

Submissions are open until midnight on 30 June:

Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · May 29

Call out for writers with lived experience of homelessness or poverty to submit monologues for a new anthology to highlight the complexity of the experiences of homelessness and poverty – struggles, resilience, hope, humour.

Please share :)

mtos.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/anthology/

Photo of five people, black and white, young and older, looking happy

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BDS movement @bdsmovement.bsky.social · May 28

"No arms shipments should be allowed to Israel. Full stop."

Speaking before the UN, Saleh Hijazi, from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), applauded global civil society efforts for a military embargo on Israel — and pressured states to meet their legal obligations by imposing one.

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Horatio Clare @horatioclare.bsky.social · May 28

We did this. Proud of everyone who signed
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan among 380 writers and groups to call Gaza war ‘genocide’

Letter also signed by Hanif Kureishi and Russell T Davies urges ceasefire and unrestricted distribution of aid

www.theguardian.com

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Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · May 27

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Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · May 20

People's Strike.

Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · May 15

I knew it: there aren't any.

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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · May 3

WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, sounds the alarm on Israel’s ongoing genocide operation in Gaza. Netanyahu has turned the strip into an open air concentration camp and is deliberately starving civilians.

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Tom Vowler @tomvowler.bsky.social · May 1

This feckin' book 💛

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Amnesty International UK @amnestyuk.bsky.social · Apr 26

In a movement that swept the world, communities mobilised and protested against apartheid, including people in Britain.

We’re seeing the same resistance rise across cities in the UK today.

Apartheid is, was and will always be a crime against humanity.

Image shows protesters walking the streets of London holding a banner reading "No British Arms for South Africa", text below reads "we need to carry the momentum of the South African anti-apartheid movement to Palestinians and other communities still living under apartheid today"

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BDS movement @bdsmovement.bsky.social · Apr 24

Let's hold the enablers of Israel's genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, apartheid and illegal occupation accountable - in the courts and through popular mobilization.

#MilitaryEmbargo Now!

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English PEN @englishpen.bsky.social · Apr 17

We’re delighted to announce that award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie will deliver the 2025 #PENLecture in partnership with @newwritingnorth.bsky.social & @nclanews.bsky.social.

Join us at 6pm on 19 June, at Culture Lab, Newcastle University.

Book now ⤵️

www.englishpen.org/posts/events...

Kamila Shamsie to deliver the 2025 PEN Lecture - News & Events - English PEN

www.englishpen.org

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · Apr 26

If you do just one thing to push back against Amazon, make it buying your books elsewhere.

Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · Apr 25

“It feels like an intentional kick in the face to local bookstores [...] Independent bookstores generally have to charge full price because those margins are what help them survive. Amazon engages in predatory pricing.”

Amazon's book sale crashes Independent Bookstore Day—and readers are pushing back

Indie bookstores planned a national celebration. Amazon planned a book sale. Now, the battle for readers' attention is on.

www.fastcompany.com

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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · Apr 22

“I did not yet know the difference between English and Arabic, or how some words might become—borders, weapons, traps.” Sarah Aziza on what it means to be a Palestinian writer today.

Words as Borders, Weapons, Traps: Sarah Aziza on Being a Palestinian Writer Today

Q: What is it like to be a Palestinian writer at this time? A: Once, I had no name. I rose each day as if it were the first morning on earth. I moved sturdy and permeable, translucent with a wonder…

buff.ly

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European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · Apr 26

It's back! 🎤 📣🎤

Bookings now open for our next online salon hosted by @kiklodge.bsky.social

🎙 Excellent readings
❓️ Highly serious quiz
🤝 Friendly community

Get in touch quickly if you want to read. Spots v limited.
Theme = Road Signs.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/european-w...

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badru @sonofbadru.bsky.social · Apr 22

We have removed Tenderfoot Tactics from sale on @xbox.com in solidarity with @bdsmovement.bsky.social . We call on others in our community to do whatever they can to fight this historic injustice. Free Palestine 🍉

The Tenderfoot Tactics team has decided to remove our game from sale on Xbox in solidarity with the Palestinian-lead Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which added Xbox to their priority boycott list earlier this month.

We hope that Microsoft will listen to the voices of their workers and customers and stop all business with the criminal Israeli military, which we have all watched conduct an open genocide in Gaza over the last 18 months.

We hope that the broader community will join in the pressure campaign and fight for an end to occupation and apartheid in Palestine and across the world.

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Out-Spoken Press @outspokenpress.bsky.social · Apr 20

‘On the 354th day of this genocide, we are still nowhere near an “after” that allows for material speculation’

Gaza: Indigenous Urbanism Amid Elimination Nour Joudah
Native American and Indigenous Studies, Volume 12, Issue 1, Spring 2025

DOI: doi.org/10.1353/nai....

Project MUSE - Gaza: Indigenous Urbanism Amid Elimination

doi.org

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Out-Spoken Press @outspokenpress.bsky.social · Apr 20

‘The Gaza Strip…is a periphery filled with a people refusing the margins, and defying the colonial delusion that they can be rendered peripheral, disposable collateral.’

Nour Joudah
www.academia.edu/128883092/Gaza_Indigenous_Urbanism_Amid_Elimination

Gaza: Indigenous Urbanism Amid Elimination

The structure of the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is a model that will be duplicated across Indigenous urban centers in Palestine. In navigating my own grief, I reexamine how Gaza ...

www.academia.edu

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Sophia Argyris @sophiaargyris.bsky.social · Apr 18

If you ever ask yourself can poetry help people, or help the world, here is your chance to make some difference by buying a book of poems written in Gaza during genocide. All profits go directly to the poet and her family. Order from @outspokenpress.bsky.social

Out-Spoken Press @outspokenpress.bsky.social · Apr 18

🟢 NEW PAMPHLET 🟢

Haia Mohammed, The Age of Olive Trees

Pre-order now / All proceeds to author

www.outspokenldn.com/shop/haia

In 2023, Joelle Taylor read the work of Haia, a young poet in Gaza, at the fundraiser we did. We stayed in contact

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Cover of The Age of Olive Trees by Haia Mohammed
Off-white background with title text in serif font, green and black block-print style outline of olive leaves

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European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · Apr 19

Only ONE place left for this online Prose poetry workshop with fantastic tutor @julieirigaray.bsky.social

After that, we'll hold a waitlist and maybe re-run if demand so do sign up to write and learn with writers from across Europe.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introdu...

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