I'm looking forward to participating in the Natl Assoc of Writers in Education online conference (Sat 8th) I'll be running a writing workshop and as dep chair of the Higher Ed committee I'll be co-hosting a members session - all welcome! Early Bird tix on now : )

Delegation and Destruction
www.persuasion.community/p/delegation...

One result of cuts to funding "“The macaques. It’s such a heavy responsibility to work with them & to just be asked to kill them halfway thru the study...”
“Anybody who has animal studies ... is looking at killing the animals” if funding is cut, Fortune said."

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/15/m...

Watched this French film today - really recommend it. Its not like other French films you've seen, not just because the director used locals (including the lead who is a poultry worker) she really shows rural working life...and drama youtu.be/cy0WeGJow9E

how do a get rid of the bad/creepy AI art that isn't far off child exploitation - is it punishment for rarely stepping onto this platform?

Writers, as usual, Matt Kendrick is onto something here: What Am I Actually Saying? open.substack.com/pub/prattlef...

The Big Five Publishers Have Killed Literary Fiction
open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

17 years after my poetry chapbook ("Borrowed') won first stage of @poetrybusiness.bsky.social contest/was published, I've entered again. This is a big thing; I avoid sending work out as the process feels overwhelming & demoralising. For someone w/ ADHD no immediate gratification is a challenge!

My 19 year old and I watched 'Trainspotting' - he for the first time, me for the first time in twenty-something years. Both loved it and had a long talk after about how few films are made now about working class British people and how dishonest & glossy films have become. I miss Mike Leigh!

MILF = Manuscript I’d Like to Finish

Well said John Bothwell from Durham. Well said indeed! 😆

I got to read my New York poems at Beckett's Chapel at the weekend and at beautiful Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare (here) in September; so it appears this Autumn I'm mostly juxtapositioning

After The Party - bloody hell its good

Clipping remain next level youtu.be/20OY9Clvhw4?...

About my 3rd day here and its all space pics and ppl congratulating each other on X-iting. Fun starts when? I'll happily take clever and even controversial. Let's be 'avin ya!

Controversial first post! Should give you an idea of where I stand on some things (and why Manchester feels sort-of fake to me whenever I'm there). Its not the only city, of course, w/ 'an over-cooked version of our history', but its the one people tell me they think is 'cool'. I politely disagree.

How did running universities like a business work out guys