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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · 2d

This is lovely.

“Maybe if life is a series of leavings, love is the longing to return”

Dina L. Relles @dinalrelles.bsky.social · 2d

it’s been a minute since i’ve published anything, so i’m especially grateful that @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social gave this little musing on love + leavings a home.

you can read the full piece here: matchbooklitmag.com/mb/relles/departures

Departures
by Dina L. Relles
handed you the promised coffee with an apology: no sugar, no milk, I’m sorry.

I don’t need those things, you said, and I fell in impossible love with you all over again.

I’d come from my room carrying everything I wanted to happen that didn’t. Now the lobby was too bright and smelled like grapefruits and your face was weary in a way that felt intimate.

You spoke quietly to me in the taxi, then held me twice at the terminal, which I took to mean you loved me too, despite.

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Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · Oct 18

🧵Some real Jilly Cooper quotes from her Rutshire Chronicles, the series of books that Rivals is from.

1) "Her breasts swayed like party balloons when the front door opens"

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Rokhl @rokhl.bsky.social · 3d

Linguists/word nerds: help me out? What is the word/concept for a term that no longer applies to the reality of the thing it references. Like, no one uses rags for menstruation anymore but (some) ppl still say "on the rag." 🥴Or, ppl call television the "boob tube" tho TVs no longer have vacuum tubes

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The Wiener Holocaust Library @wienerlibrary.bsky.social · 4d

At the Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936, at least 100,000 people, including Jewish residents, Irish dock workers, Communists and Labour Party members prevented a march by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) from passing through the East End...

Pamphlet - They did not pass : 300,000 workers say no to Mosley. A souvenir of the East London workers' victory over fascism, produced by the Independent Labour Party. Wiener Holocaust Library collections.

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Alf Dubs @alfdubs.bsky.social · 13d

It fell to the post-war generation to build our human rights protections. Today, it is the responsibility of progressives - especially within my own party - to mount a strong defence of these principles, or risk them being cast aside
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Holocaust survivor and Labour Lord calls for return of compassionate immigration

Lord Dubs has said Labour is giving in to pressure from the right to harden its stance on immigration

www.standard.co.uk

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Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 16d

Imagine you're in a weird romcom where Paul Hollywood is your rival. Do you go "let's have a bread baking competition" or do you emphasise your own relative strengths?

Because that in short has been the central problem with the traditional two's approach to anti-immigration voters and Reform UK.

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · 17d

I’m looking for recommended reading on the subject of repetition. Essays, poems, stories, articles, any/all suggestions gratefully received 🙏

Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · 18d

and it’s also just so clever… that ‘never’… the discomfort of the middle two stanzas that you keep having to come back to, uneasily, again and again…

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · 18d

This is so beautiful, I had share. Anyone want to set up a Bluesky book club for poems?!

Alina Stefanescu @alinaetc.bsky.social · 18d

Running into a poem you loved is like bumping an old friend at a pub. Thus do I find Robert Creeley's "The Rain," six stanzas I copied on the back of my AP econ spiral notebook in high school, and re-read often during that neolib seminar. Ooof the splendid enjambment of that “semi-/lust”

THE RAIN
All night the sound had come back again, and again falls this quiet, persistent rain.
What am I to myself that must be remembered, insisted upon so often? Is it
that never the ease, even the hardness, of rain falling will have for me
something other than this, something not so insistent— am I to be locked in this final uneasiness.
Love, if you love me, lie next to me.
Be for me, like rain, the getting out
of the tiredness, the fatuousness, the semi-lust of intentional indifference.
Be wet
with a decent happiness.

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · 19d

That’s lovely. Which book?

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Alex Christofi @christofi.bsky.social · 20d

I find it so funny that royals give themselves so many badges and buttons to show they are good at kinging, it's like a 5 year old found the teacher's sticker drawer. Bless

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Alona Ferber @aloner.bsky.social · 24d

"Mention Mosley and the fascists of the 1930s, and you realise that we have seen off these characters before. What is ominous today is the absence of committed leadership to rally pro-democracy and anti-racist forces"

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 24d

Who will speak for liberal Britain? Nick Cohen on the acquiescence to the populist right and even the far right, using some of the data familiar to my BlueSky followers
nickcohen.substack.com/p/when-will-...

When will our spineless leaders speak for liberal Britain?

Cowardice enables the radical right

nickcohen.substack.com

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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 24d

Still waiting on the Prime Minister’s statement condemning the huge, violent, Nazi mob that attacked police officers in London…

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · Sep 6

I’m not a fan of writing rules, but I mostly follow the ‘just use said’ one. However, I love the use of ‘announces’, and particularly ‘admit’ here 👌

Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · Sep 6

“Your uterus,” she announces, “is not happy.”
“I know,” I admit. “I have been sensing its unhappiness.”

New @kathyfish.bsky.social is always a delight. I love this one, especially the use of dialogue and humour. SO GOOD AS ALWAYS! A must read.

Kathy Fish @kathyfish.bsky.social · Sep 4

I was thinking recently about how much I missed writing dialogue. This piece I wrote for the "my body, my choice" inaugural issue of Hot Flash Literary uses lots of dialogue and is very short. I'd love for you to read it and the whole amazing debut issue! 💙
hotflashliterary.com/wyoming/

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University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · Sep 4

NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights.

The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system.

🧵 [1/8]

Silhouettes of three people in front of a weathered British flag, with the headline: Misrepresentations around human rights and immigration fuelling calls to quit ECHR, Oxford report finds

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bathflashaward.bsky.social @bathflashaward.bsky.social · Sep 3

Picked your story yet? Just over 4 weeks to go. Closes, Midnight GMT 5 October 2025
Winners: Announced by 1 Nov Judge @kazbarwrites.bsky.social
£1460 prize fund.
50 authors offered anthology publication, with all published authors getting a free print copy.
Bathflashfictionaward.com/enter

a group of smurfs are picking apples in a garden

ALT: a group of smurfs are picking apples in a garden

media.tenor.com

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Andrew Cutting @andrewcutting.coe.int · Sep 3

The European Convention on Human Rights entered into force on this day in 1953.

The convention has improved people’s lives, in many different ways, across the continent.

Here are more than 200 examples: www.coe.int/ECHR

There are thousands more.

#ECHR #OurRightsAndFreedoms

Impact of the European Convention on Human Rights - Impact of the European Convention on Human Rights - www.coe.int

European convention on human rights : How it changed the lives of many people across the continent.

www.coe.int

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · Sep 1

Where has this ludicrous ECHR "debate" even come from.

I've never once met an ordinary member of the public who's said to me, "Do you know what? We REALLY need to leave the ECHR."

It's just a new right wing talking point because every other shit idea they've foisted on us has run out of steam.

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · Aug 31

Just written to Ofcom to complain about Rylan and This Morning. If we don't speak up things will get worse
share.google/sEgiv5VPGkyX...

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · Aug 30

I love these. The sheer confidence in the way he uses so many of his precious words on things like names and places, and the way they beautifully enhance the piece

Jeff Billington @facesofjeff.bsky.social · Aug 30

Obsessed with Félix Fénéon’s NOVELS IN THREE LINES:

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · Aug 29

If you’re hesitating on this, I would definitely go for it. Vicky is a brilliant teacher and the course will be a joy

Vicky MacKenzie @vickymackenzie.bsky.social · Aug 29

My online #histfic course for Moniack Mhor starts *next week* and there are a couple of places left for any last minute decision-makers among you! Workshops on Tuesday evenings for 4 weeks, plus a 30 min 1-to-1 with me, focusing on your historical fiction project (or germ of an idea!). ✒️📚

Vicky MacKenzie @vickymackenzie.bsky.social · Aug 15

Are you writing an historical novel? Want some guidance and support this September? Still places left on my online Historical Fiction course starting Tues 2nd Sep for 4 weeks! ✒️📚
2569 Online: Moniack in a Month – Historical Fiction with Victoria MacKenzie - Moniack Mhor share.google/zvBYzjnZnOJw...

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Keiron Pim @keironpim.bsky.social · Aug 12

This sign hasn’t lost so much as gained something in translation.

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · Aug 27

It should have read Les jeux sont faits

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Joyful Sage @joyfulsage.bsky.social · Aug 26

I stayed in a place like that in Sweden a couple of years ago. It was wonderful. We did spend most of our time chopping wood to make fires to cook on though so I’m not sure how much time there would be for writing 🤔

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Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · Aug 25

My previous summer tweets still hold true

Series of tweets reading:

In my opinion, parents should get a statutory extra 2 days off when the kids go back to school so they can have a haircut, hoover the car, go to the gym and sit peacefully for FIVE DAMN MINUTES. We could call it 'feeling like a real human again leave' or 'FLARHAL'.

"Where's Shiela?"
"Oh she's on FLARHAL. She said something about yoga and then a 4-hour bath."

The key thing is, it cannot just be extra leave. No. Then it would get swallowed up by the holidays - it has to be true FLARHAL.

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