maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu
@maxjliu.bsky.social
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Freelance writer
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 22d
I wrote about Jung Chang's Fly, Wild Swans which succeeds as a memoir sequel and companion to the books that made her name: inews.co.uk/culture/wild...
After reading the Wild Swans sequel, I never want to go to China
I am regularly asked if I would like to go to China – due to my surname, which comes from my Chinese grandfather – but the picture Chang paints of contemporary China is depressing
inews.co.uk
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irishlittimes.bsky.social
Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 14h
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan...The flotilla was illegally intercepted last night and seized by armed Israeli forces in international waters.
irishpen.com/2025/10/08/t...
Thousand Madleens flotilla Statement - Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
8 October 2025 Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan, one of several Irish citizens taking part in the Thousand Madleens f...
irishpen.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16h
Went to a shop, bought a novel on publication day (near enough), came home, started reading. Haven't felt this excitement since err... Bleeding Edge. Or when late Roths were coming out. Cherish greatness while we have it and always be a fan.
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 23h
Helen Garner This House of Grief
Geoff Dyer Another Great Day at Sea
Lamorna Ash Dark, Salt, Clear
Jonathan Raban Hunting Mister Heartbreak
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nikitagill.bsky.social
Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 1d
I am saying once again that the Conservative attack on the Arts is because they are incredibly envious of artists who they perceive as a group that has “too much” cultural power, a type of influence Conservatives crave but will never have because they’re anti-intellectuals with no imagination.
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 3d
The new Geese album, Getting Killed, is making me smile this morning
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chrisdametto.bsky.social
Christian Dametto @chrisdametto.bsky.social · 3d
The ratio of arrests in comparison with the Tommy Robinson protests is absolutely wild. People peacefully holding a sign vs people violently attacking the police and the public.
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 4d
Just when you thought Keir Starmer's Labour Party couldn't get more illiberal, or more like the Tories...
"Change", my left foot.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office
Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday
www.theguardian.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 3d
Wincing the night away
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lobstereo.bsky.social
josh @lobstereo.bsky.social · 4d
terrorism act charges very serious as well. a young person would live the rest of their life uncertain about the consequences on their employment and travel opportunities. really steep potential punishments.
thatdocphoenix.com
Dr Phoenix CS Andrews @thatdocphoenix.com · 4d
Part of why so many genteel pensioners are getting arrested for supporting a proscribed group is because they can afford to be arrested. It’s not just that it’s bad optics to arrest retired vicars or whatever. Lots of those who feel strongest would be at much higher risk and face worse consequences
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jonathancoe.bsky.social
Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 10d
Writing fiction in the third person past tense is starting to feel as stubbornly anachronistic as making studio sitcoms with a laughter track.
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 10d
It feels like autumn so... inews.co.uk/culture/tele...
Why every middle-aged man should watch Gilmore Girls
Watching the show for the first time last autumn, I realised its comforting rituals, perfectly drawn characters and irreverent dialogue were exactly what I needed
inews.co.uk
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 11d
Good appreciation of Tony Harrison the dramatist and translator www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s...
‘The man who came to read the metre’: Yorkshire poet Tony Harrison was the National Theatre bard
Harrison, who has died aged 88, wrote copiously for the stage, both as an ingenious translator and dazzlingly original dramatist
www.theguardian.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 11d
This week I was at a reading where re. accessibility a poet said: "I wouldn't want to write a poem my dad couldn't read." I thought of Tony Harrison's more ambivalent: "I'd like to be the poet my father reads" from School of Eloquence. Some of the best poetry on art, class, England. RIP.
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deborahfriedell.bsky.social
Deborah Friedell @deborahfriedell.bsky.social · 12d
‪Tony Harrison's 'V.' was first published in the London Review of Books in 1985. The front page of the Daily Mail reported on the 'FOUR LETTER TV POEM FURY.'

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...
Tony Harrison · Poem: ‘V.’
www.lrb.co.uk
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jancarsonwrites.bsky.social
Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 13d
A quick reminder that this wee gem goes out this afternoon at 3:45pm. If you miss it you can catch up later on BBC Sounds.
jancarsonwrites.bsky.social
Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 21d
Save the date. I’ve a brand new short story about an exorcism in a nursing home on @bbcradio4 next Friday (26th) at 3:45pm expertly read by Seamus O’Hara and produced by the brilliant Michael Shannon (our 20th collaboration for Radio 4) I really love this wee story #ShadowingGordon
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 13d
One Battle After Another is the only game in town this weekend, obviously. But in the meantime the title makes me think of the character in the History Boys who says history is "one fucking thing after another..."
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brandyjensen.bsky.social
Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 14d
thank fucking god
stereogum.bsky.social
Stereogum @stereogum.bsky.social · 14d
Robyn's first new album in seven years appears imminent
Robyn’s First New Album In Seven Years Appears Imminent
The widely beloved, massively influential cult-pop star Robyn only makes music when she feels like it, and she doesn’t feel like it very often. Robyn’s last album was Honey, which came out in October ...
www.stereogum.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 15d
"Even a seventy-million-trick pony is still a trick pony..." Great Kathryn Schulz review to get Pynchon season underway
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reading the New Pynchon Novel in a Pynchonesque America
“Shadow Ticket,” Pynchon’s first book in a dozen years, unfolds its conspiracies in Depression-era Milwaukee and beyond, but it lands in a moment when reality seems to have caught up with his fictions...
www.newyorker.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 15d
It is and it's one of two I had down as a potential winner at the longlist stage
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 15d
The @thebookerprizes.com shortlist is out! I wrote about three of the six novels - by Markovits, Miller, Szalay - here. Fwiw I am v happy for Markovits... thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...
How the Booker Prize 2025 longlist explores masculinity in all its forms | The Booker Prizes
From teenagers on the brink of adulthood to grown men struggling to process trauma, this year’s longlisted books offer fascinating insights into the male psyche – and bear similarities to other Booker...
thebookerprizes.com
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16d
It was great wasn't it. I think I caught Paul Graham there earlier this year after you posted about it so belated thanks!
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16d
My bad picture of a good picture of Leonora Carrington by Kati Horna that I meant to share from an exhibition that closed a couple of weeks ago
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gitaralleigh.bsky.social
Gita Ralleigh @gitaralleigh.bsky.social · 16d
Details here! amheath.com/hilary-mante...
#emergingwriters
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maxjliu.bsky.social
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 17d
Spent 3 hours of my birthday watching Magnolia in the cinema. As brilliant and monumental as when it first blew my mind open 25 years ago though with different feelings about some characters. I've said before but until I saw Magnolia I didn't know cinema was an artform. Can't wait for new PTA
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lukekennard.bsky.social
Luke Kennard @lukekennard.bsky.social · 24d
Reminder that my new poetry collection (my SEVENTH because I apparently cannot take a hint) is available from Picador www.panmacmillan.com/authors/luke...
A big superimposed copy of Luke’s book, The Book of Jonah, “emerges” from the sea.
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ericawgnr.bsky.social
Erica Wagner @ericawgnr.bsky.social · 20d
Five alarm fire. Goodbye Jimmy Kimmel, @karenattiah.bsky.social — and press freedom. Follow @rbreich.bsky.social if you don’t already to see how all this works. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
Firing Jimmy Kimmel confirms the US media is being silenc...
The first amendment protects freedom of the press. Trump, our great patriot, is trampling all over it
observer.co.uk
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