Marina Benjamin
@marinabenjamin.bsky.social
740 followers 390 following 340 posts
Writer. Editor at Aeon. Midlife trilogy (Middlepause, Insomnia, A Little Give) &c. Essays in Granta, Aeon, Paris Review. New work cooking. Rep Rebecca Carter
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Reposted by Marina Benjamin
joannapocock.bsky.social
London people interested in memoir, the craft of non-fiction, and how we shape lives into words on a page, this is for you!
I will be in conversation at Daunt Books in Notting Hill with @lilydunn.bsky.social and @marinabenjamin.bsky.social ...
See you there!

#nonfiction #writing #memoir
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Smuggled out of Afghanistan — a chronicle of the last four years of living under Taliban rule as a woman. It was a rare privilege to work on this essay, and I am proud to have had some small part, alongside Untold Narratives and the Bagri Foundation is making it happen.
aeon.co/essays/one-w...
One woman’s eye-witness account of life under Taliban rule | Aeon Essays
When the Taliban captured my city, thousands fled and the rest were severely repressed. But I’ve stayed – and survived
aeon.co
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Morning. Turns out that 3 of my books are eligible for the Anthropic Copyright Settlement class action claim. It's easy to file. See here for more info.
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
ANT Homepage | ANT
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
I'm endlessly fascinated by the subject of women and money, and this first person story I commissioned for Psyche is a classic gaslight swindle. Why are so many women pushovers for money-grabs dressed as courtship?
psyche.co/turning-poin...
When a boyfriend conned me, I gained something priceless | Psyche Turning points
I was a pushover with a habit of picking cheating men as boyfriends; then one of them pushed me too far
psyche.co
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Apart from Richard Holmes &Jeanette Winterson, the non-fiction list is one I'd prefer to take in online essay form. Is it just me, or do others think there's a crisis in contemporary non-fict? There's so much science/nature writing and celeb memoirs and v. little that's truly experimental/original.
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Hard agree. Diversity doesn't just 'happen' you have to seek other voices, and it's hard work.
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
also.... Julia Roberts !!!!
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Why Ai can't write my book. It's sycophantic, can't break with pattern recognition, flat, sad, it can't simulate emotional acuity, personality or experience on the ground.

on.ft.com/47k2y5v
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
In politics, you never get fired for fucking up, you only get recycled.
makenakelly.bsky.social
SCOOP: DOGE ops join Airbnb cofounder + DOGE member Joe Gebbia’s new National Design Studio.

Gebbia was possibly going to join USDS, but now he has his own office and is bringing DOGE folks from the General Services Administration along with him.

www.wired.com/story/doge-o...
DOGE Operatives Are Joining Donald Trump’s New National Design Studio
Many proposed NDS projects were already in the works from federal workers who were let go earlier this year. Now, DOGE is getting involved.
www.wired.com
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
No surprise there. I'm also v suspicious of the way the St Georges flag has is unrolled from windows at every national football game- I always think there as hidden subtext in play. I'm a first gen Brit, so like you hypersensitive to this stuff.
Reposted by Marina Benjamin
washingtonpost.com
Mariam Abu Dagga, a Palestinian journalist whose photos captured the destruction in Gaza, died in an Israeli strike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital, the one she regularly documented.

Here are some of the scenes Dagga captured during the war:
See photos by Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, killed on the job
An Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza killed five journalists, among them an AP freelancer. She died in the hospital she had long documented.
www.washingtonpost.com
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Bit like Ethel Kane in places, no?
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
the far right also claim authority over British identity (whiteness), British symbols (flags), and history (colonialism as civilisation), myth-making around them, and making those symbols and discourses unpalatable to the Left.
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Here's how the real two-tier Britain works:
1. Whatever Nigel Farage says, however stupid, is looped and discussed by the media, while left-wing voices are treated as noises off.
2. Tiny far-right protests get massive airtime, while 10s of 000s gathering for Palestine or green causes are ignored.🧵
Reposted by Marina Benjamin
ketanjoshi.co
What the screaming fuck is it going to take before western governments do more than furrowed eyebrows

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital a 'tragic mishap' as condemnation grows
By Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran, with wires
Unrest, Conflict and War
3h ago
&
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel deeply regrets the strikes on Gaza's Nasser Hospital. (Reuters: Abir Sultan)
In short:
Two strikes on the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza have killed at least 20 people including journalists working for world's largest media organisations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the strikes were a "tragic mishap" and argued Israel "values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians".
European leaders demanded an investigation and renewed calls for a ceasefire.
marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Morning inspo
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
When UK sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was photographed she always insisted to be shown working, so to be taken seriously as a proffesional artist and avoid the patronising assumption of all women as merely dabbling in art #womensart
Monochrome photograph featuring a standing white woman in an artist studio in the act of sculpting a large abstract sculpture