This International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting stories of women who helped shape movements for rights and equality, from early feminist writings to oral histories of activism.
Read the blog post here: link.bl.uk/15n
#TheBritishLibrary #InternationalWomensDay
The Clarendon Building at twilight featuring its coloumns and a muse figure on the roof. The statute appears to be holding up the full moon, creating an optical illusion.
The perfect spot at the perfect time!
Thank you for this fantastic picture of the Clarendon Building, Kshitij Mohan 👏
📸 | kshitijmohan.oxford (Instagram)
Deadline alert! Got a killer first chapter? Enter the Annual Gutsy Great Novelist Chapter One Prize by tomorrow, March 3. $1,000 first prize for an unpublished novel's opening chapter. Open internationally, all genres, 18+. $20 fee.
#NovelistLife #WritingContest #AmWriting @joandempsey.bsky.social
Poets, time to submit your chapbooks! The Headlight Review's 2026 Poetry Chapbook Prize awards $500 + publication + 25 copies. First-round finalists judged by Alafia Nichole Sessions & featured in the journal. Deadline: March 31, 2026.
#Poetry #ChapbookPrize #PoetrySubmissions
The morning calm before the readers arrive. 📚
Duke Humfrey's Library, 8.30am
The Prime Number Magazine Awards are open! $1,000 + publication for one poem & one short story. Two runners-up in each category receive $250 + publication. $15 entry. Deadline: March 31.
#writers #litmag #writingcontest
The text of the full poem: The Car and the Philosophers It was a long hot day and three philosophers emerged from the workshop for a cool beer in the shade. Three moral philosophers: the deontologist, the consequentialist and the modern virtue ethicist. They'd been at it since eight but they could not agree and their overalls told of the long hours of debate. (The driverless car was raised and gripped like a patient undergoing surgery, its electronic nervous system comprehensively stripped. There were questions one should not duck: the baby in the stroller or the elderly group on the curb, or straight in the path of the oncoming truck?) We’ve done all we promised said the first, but so much unresolved said the second, while the third considered at least they had earned their thirst. The owner could be back at six; the police might return in the morning. They could do no more; the car remained unfixed.
There’s something about driverless cars that really bothers me. Who decides what they should do in an emergency?
This thought took form in a poem.
“It was a long hot day
And three philosophers emerged from the workshop
For a cool beer in the shade.”
Here’s the full poem:
#poem #AI
“If I could write all my work again, I am convinced that I’d do it better, which is the healthiest condition for an artist. That’s why he keeps on working, trying again; he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off.” —William Faulkner buff.ly/3P8LBBu
White snowdrops growing through a bed of brown beech leaves.
It’s that time of year again, thank heavens:
Suddenly, snowdrops.
They bring news, intelligence,
of plans being made.
#poems #haiku #photos #snowdrops
There's still time to enter poems & short stories into the Prime Number Magazine Awards. $15 fee. Winner in each genre receives $1k & publication. Two runners-up in each category receive $250 and publication. Deadline: March 31.
#writers #writingcontest
The title page of a 1971 book by Karen DeCrow. The book is called The Young Woman’s Guide to Liberation — Alternatives to a Half-Life While the Choice is Still Yours. The publisher’s name appears at the bottom of the page: Pegasus, a division of the Bobbs-Merrill Company Incorporated Publishers.
From my vintage advice book collection: a 1971 book for young women. (I can’t get over the subtitle.)
We’re currently accepting applications to four different free opportunities for under-represented writers as part of our Breakthrough Writers’ Programme!
Details below 🧵
Have an unpublished novel? The Gutsy Great Novelist Chapter One Prize is open to submissions of outstanding first chapters. $20 fee. Grand prize is $1,000! Deadline: March 3.
#writers #writingcontest @joandempsey.bsky.social
As you might expect, there’s a wealth of variety in this anthology: sentiment, pathos, humour, the lot.
Well, the Egyptians knew a thing or two about cats so I suppose we should not be surprised.
#poetry #cats
I’m an Ambassador for this brilliant charity, Bookbanks, giving away books with food parcels at food banks. There are two part-time jobs going for Regional Leads in London and East Anglia.
Link below.
Please share far and wide :)
To my surprise I wrote a poem about a cat (well, not only about a cat). And to my even greater surprise it was accepted for an anthology.
“We do good, we do ill,
but O.F.B. — as I recall — just lived.
Until we, we took that fatal step …”
#poetry #cats
johnlooker.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/o...
@johnlooker.bsky.social is too modest to say he is included in this new anthology. A wonderful collection for lovers of cats and poetry.
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Jhumpa Lahiri's short story A Temporary Matter is a masterclass in the form. Brilliantly written and deeply moving. (From her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Interpreter of Maladies.)
I found these podcasts recently and immediately discovered a couple of wholly absorbing conversations about poetry’s richer seams.
Start your day with a dose of literature and sign up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every morning.
buff.ly/SLF5dgT
My mother liked to use the word frantumaglia – bits and pieces of uncertain origin which rattle around in your head, not always comfortably. ~ Elena Ferrante
(Here in Britain the birds are singing again; they must have caught a distant glimpse of Spring. Time for a bit of verse)
Small birds in the tree,
To us you sing for pure joy.
What are we to you?
Could our chatter and our squabble
Sound mellifluous to you?
#poetry #tanka
Black-and-white photograph of Ursula K. Le Guin in her later years, seated comfortably in a wicker chair in front of a bookshelf filled with books. The acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author has short white hair, warm eyes, and a gentle smile as she gazes directly at the camera. She wears a dark long-sleeved shirt, her arms crossed and resting on her lap, with a bracelet on one wrist and a ring on her finger. To the right of the portrait is the vibrant cover of the 50th Anniversary Edition of her novel The Left Hand of Darkness, featuring a bold blue starry gradient background with the title in white text and her name prominently displayed.
Ursula K. Le Guin died #OTD in 2018.
First female author to win both the Nebula & Hugo awards for Best Novel for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 (1970). In total, she won 8 Hugo & 6 Nebula awards. Second woman Grand Master of the #ScienceFiction & Fantasy Writers of America. #scifi #literature #booksky
To be eligible for the National Indie Excellence Prize, you must have indie or self-published a book in English in the last 2 calendar years. Open to books in a wide variety of genres. $75 fee. Cash prizes & sponsorship prizes.
#writers #bookawards
Add literature to your life by signing up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every weekday morning.
buff.ly/DE3MOeP
Edgar Allan Poe was born on this date, 19 January, in 1809. His poem 'The Raven' published in 1845 made him a household name. He died in 1849 and there are at least 26 published theories trying to account for the cause of his death.
A graphic image in pinks and purples urging writers, performers, etc to submit an event idea to Leeds Lit Fest 2026.
Are you a writer, performer, publisher or event promoter? If you’d like to be part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026, we’d love to hear from you. The submission window is now open for event ideas and closes on 1st Feb.
Follow the link to apply: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#LLF26
Congratulations to @johnlooker.bsky.social for being highly commended in the prestigious Edward Thomas 2026 Poetry Prize. Bennison Books is proud to have published several volumes of John's poetry.
Well worth listening to.
