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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 2d

Ah sorry to miss you Stu!

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 3d

Manchester / Stockport friends - come to this I promise to be entertaining and i also much more easily promise that Nell Osborne and Sam Mills are the absolute business. come down. Have fun. cannot wait

Serenity Booksellers @serenitybookshop.bsky.social · 3d

TOMORROW NIGHT!

Sam Mills, Ben Pester and Nell Osborne join us in Stockport to discuss THE WATERMARK, THE EXPANSION PROJECT and GHOST DRIVER - three wildly exciting and inventive novels that playfully explore our existential fears of love, work and modern life. Hosted by Valerie O’Riordan. 💙📚

🎫👇🏻

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 4d

Thanks Alisa! I know - some great books on there.

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 4d

thank you Guy!

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 5d

Cheers Tom! 🤞

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 5d

Ah thanks Amy! Xx

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 5d

What a list to be on! Very happy about this. @grantabooks.bsky.social
@jasonarthur.bsky.social

Goldsmiths Prize @goldsmithsprize.bsky.social · 6d

We are delighted to announce the #GoldsmithsPrize2025 shortlist.

Congratulations to our six brilliant novelists!

Find out more about the shortlist: www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-p...

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 5d

Rónán! Thank you so much! Always appreciate your support so much

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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 6d

Yes @benpester.bsky.social truly amazing and well deserved news❤️

Goldsmiths Prize @goldsmithsprize.bsky.social · 6d

We are delighted to announce the #GoldsmithsPrize2025 shortlist.

Congratulations to our six brilliant novelists!

Find out more about the shortlist: www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-p...

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Reposted by Ben Pester

Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 9d

The Anakin and Padme meme with alternating pics of Anakin and Padme. Anakin says We pledge a library in every primary school. Padme replies, cheerfully, With a librarian, right? Anakin merely stares at her. Now, with a look of fear, she repeats, With a librarian, right?

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Jason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 16d

‘The Expansion Project has echoes of texts such as Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (for the institutional sci-fi) & the plays of Sarah Kane (for the howling emptiness bumping up against the mundane). But @benpester.bsky.social’s fiction is its own beast.'

The Expansion Project

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19d

‘This is not a cheerful book, but it is a funny one. The corporate attempt to suppress and compartmentalise human feeling is repeatedly shown to be laughable. But pain is non-compliant; its resistance to control is a kind of saving grace.’

Emily Berry on Ben Pester: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Emily Berry · I am entirely made of wood: Ben Pester’s Surreal Scrutiny

One could say that Ben Pester’s Expansion Project is about a man who loses his mind at work, but that’s not really...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 20d

Hahaha! My weirdness is now fully in the LRB my friends.

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 21d

‘Many of his characters experience some version of being en route to work when they find themselves on the cusp of slipping through a portal into an alternate universe.’

Emily Berry on the absurd fictions of Ben Pester:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Emily Berry · I am entirely made of wood: Ben Pester’s Surreal Scrutiny

One could say that Ben Pester’s Expansion Project is about a man who loses his mind at work, but that’s not really...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 26d

Just started on this and it rocks. Brighton friends you should check this out.

Cipher Press @cipherpress.bsky.social · 26d

Brighton tonight! Join us for a fantastic evening discussing all things Bone Horn with Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain and @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social. See you at The Family Store at 6:30pm 📚🕵️

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 28d

I will be at this and if you are there too you will see me having a v good evening

Luke Kennard @lukekennard.bsky.social · 28d

It feels a little passive aggressive to launch the same book twice in the same fortnight, but I’m grateful to be in conversation with the wonderful Jack Underwood at Brick Lane Bookshop tomorrow (Thurs) 7pm-8pm!

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 28d

- you clean up that banksy?
- sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

Adrian+Shane @adrianandshane.bsky.social · 28d

They erased the new Banksy mural in London. But the stain remains.

Side-by-side images of Banksy’s mural on the Royal Courts of Justice in London. On the left, the artwork appears faded and scrubbed, leaving only a ghostly outline of a judge raising a gavel over a protester holding a placard. On the right, the mural is fully visible in sharp black and white stencil, showing a judge in a traditional white wig and robes striking down at a protester who defends himself with a bloodied sign.

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · Sep 7

Great list of books from librarians here.

charlotte @tambourine.bsky.social · Sep 7

ooh look it’s me in here! and @stuhennigan.bsky.social www.thebookseller.com/spotlight/sp...

Librarians’ autumn picks 2025

Five librarians from across the UK pick their most-anticipated autumn reads.

www.thebookseller.com

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David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · Sep 5

Occasional reminder that my book ‘Darker With the Lights On’ is available from @transitbooks.bsky.social. My stories have been praised by Helen Garner, Claire-Louise Bennett, Max Porter, Elizabeth McCracken, Kevin Barry, Wendy Erskine & Eimear McBride, among others. www.transitbooks.org/books/darker

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · Sep 5

Can’t wait for this also www.waterstones.com/events/ben-p...

Ben Pester & Matt Greene in conversation | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones

Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Ben Pester & Matt Greene in conversation today.

www.waterstones.com

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · Sep 5

Ah thanks so much Matt! You’re also spot on about Jen’s 🤩

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · Sep 4

Professor Nick Maynard: "Let me tell you about Zainab, a 7 month old girl.. we had run out of formula feed.. she died whilst I was there.. 4 days before she died a group of US doctors had brought in formula feed.. they had every bottle deliberately removed by the Israeli border guards"

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Sagging Meniscus @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social · Sep 3

The long-awaited second novel by Guillermo Stitch, coming this Bloomsday. Available now for preorder at https://thecoastofeverything.com and https://saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/the_coast_of_everything. "A timeless, extraordinary work.”—Nuala O’Connor

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · Sep 2

Just trying to make sense

The London Magazine @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social · Sep 2

'My writing is always political work. It is a warning about the condition we are in. But I can’t offer answers. I don’t have them.'

Joseph Williams speaks to @benpester.bsky.social about his debut novel, The Expansion Project.

Read here: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-th...

Interview | The Expansion Project: An Interview with Ben Pester - The London Magazine

Ben Pester discusses the move from short fiction to novels, the influence of scriptwriting on his prose and the work culture in the UK.

thelondonmagazine.org

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Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · Sep 2

Picked this up yesterday - it’s a beautiful thing. Can’t wait to read.

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The London Magazine @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social · Aug 21

'I want stories that commit to the idea – no matter how weird things get – like a kind of bird that might not obviously be able to fly, but then it does, and of course, when it lands, we are breathless.' – Ben Pester

Enter here: thelondonmagazine.org/short-story-...

The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025 - The London Magazine

The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025 is now open for submissions. We are looking for unpublished short fiction, no longer than 4000 words.

thelondonmagazine.org

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David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · Aug 29

Dave Tynan’s collection of powerful and compelling short stories, ‘We Used to Dance Here’ has just been published @grantabooks.bsky.social. Essential reading.

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