Toby Litt
@tobylitt.bsky.social
3.4K followers 3.1K following 560 posts
Writer. Activist. Diarist. Head of Creative Writing at Southampton University. https://tobylitt.wordpress.com/shop/
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tobylitt.bsky.social
I'm seriously delighted to have a 14 line poem in Richard Skinner's 14 magazine.

Here's me looking seriously delighted.

Everything else I've read in it has been top.

richardskinner.weebly.com/14-magazine....
tobylitt.bsky.social
The workshop will explore critically and creatively how fictional genre contributes to thinking, imagining, and constructing legal ideas, concepts and characters.

@law-and-humanities.bsky.social
tobylitt.bsky.social
'We invite legal humanities scholars and creative writers to submit abstracts for presentations at an interdisciplinary workshop on the relationship between fictional genre and legal thought.
tobylitt.bsky.social
Are you a writer fascinated by issues of law?

I've got a Call for Papers -

Stories of ‘Separation’ and ‘Gathering’ in Legal and Creative Imaginaries: a Legal Humanities and Creative Writing Workshop
(Spring/Summer 2026 (date tbc), University of Southampton)

Deadline 1 Dec 2025. DM me for more.
Reposted by Toby Litt
philiphoare.bsky.social
a huge honour for me; not half so deserved as @jupiterjonz.bsky.social wonderful writing
big thanks to
@tobylitt.bsky.social
tomkinsdeb.bsky.social
Congratulations to @jupiterjonz.bsky.social !
Looking forward to reading this piece from this brilliant writer.
tobylitt.bsky.social
We have our winning entry and runners up for the @unisouthampton.bsky.social Philip Hoare Prize for Non-Fiction -

Congratulations to Jupiter Jones.

philiphoarecompetition.co.uk/results/
tobylitt.bsky.social
Sounds wonderful.

28 October at 6pm; free, but you have to book.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/f-t-prince...
tobylitt.bsky.social
We'll soon be welcoming Dr Mary Jean Chan to University of Southampton to give our annual FT Prince Memorial Lecture.

In this 2025 F.T. Prince Memorial lecture, Dr Mary Jean Chan will explore the ways in which strict(er) poetic forms enable one's articulation of grief and loss.
In this 2025 F.T. Prince Memorial lecture, Dr Mary Jean Chan will explore the ways in which strict(er) poetic forms such as the sestina, the villanelle, the sonnet, the tanka and the specular poem enable one's articulation of grief and loss.
tobylitt.bsky.social
If you view your writing as work, then you'll be okay with using AI.

If you see it as essentially play, you won't.

Work can be delegated; play can't.

Why would you want something inhuman to have all your fun for you?
Reposted by Toby Litt
tobylitt.bsky.social
If you were to ask me what is the most optimistic, uplifting story I've ever written, it's probably one called 'Grab My Hand'.

Even more optimistic and uplifting when beautifully read by Olivia Williams (The Crown).

You can listen to it here, c/o @wordtheatre.bsky.social -

wordtheatre.org/weekly/
tobylitt.bsky.social
If you were to ask me what is the most optimistic, uplifting story I've ever written, it's probably one called 'Grab My Hand'.

Even more optimistic and uplifting when beautifully read by Olivia Williams (The Crown).

You can listen to it here, c/o @wordtheatre.bsky.social -

wordtheatre.org/weekly/
tobylitt.bsky.social
I'm seriously delighted to have a 14 line poem in Richard Skinner's 14 magazine.

Here's me looking seriously delighted.

Everything else I've read in it has been top.

richardskinner.weebly.com/14-magazine....
tobylitt.bsky.social
Every single one of those guitars has an almost entirely different purpose perceptible only to those wealthy enough to afford that many guitars. So I believe.
Reposted by Toby Litt
tobylitt.bsky.social
The AI summary of a newsletter I just received reads -

'Emotional and spiritual truths are shared; consider paid subscription; support Gaza'

2025 in a single line.
Reposted by Toby Litt
tobylitt.bsky.social
Can you think of good recent exceptions? i.e., Mainly third person non-fiction that doesn't read as dated. (Yes, Annie Ernaux, The Years.)
tobylitt.bsky.social
Exactly! I say this whenever I teach non-fiction. The presenters have to feign greater ignorance, because they were in on the commissioning process. Most of the time, they're discovering nothing - but they can't be seen to be lecturing. (I sometimes say this in lectures.)
tobylitt.bsky.social
Can you think of good recent exceptions? i.e., Mainly third person non-fiction that doesn't read as dated. (Yes, Annie Ernaux, The Years.)
tobylitt.bsky.social
I had a comment from one student on a non-fiction course I taught this year. 'Does it all have to be first person?'

A very good question, as a huge amount of narrative non-fiction has slid toward being highly focalised through a very present first person narrator. Even history.
Cover of Annie Ernaux's The Years showing a moody photo of the author.
tobylitt.bsky.social
Question: Can you name a recent work of art (song, poem, film) that's about people being constantly on their phones?

I'm trying to identify the sub genre.

My small contribution (in collaboration with Vik Sharma) -

open.spotify.com/track/0T9e2F...

#doomscrolling #phone
We All Aglow
Vik Sharma, Toby Litt · SEA CREATURES · Song · 2025
open.spotify.com
tobylitt.bsky.social
It was the most wonderfully impish thing I've ever seen a musician do on stage, yet completely faithful.
Pianist Alfred Brendel going grrr, lifting his hands up as claws.
tobylitt.bsky.social
and was suddenly, seamlessly, standing beside the grand piano and ready to take a bow - just, surely, as Mozart, in a pure piece of performance art, would have done.