Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

@bibliorefuses.bsky.social

840 followers 580 following 610 posts

linktr.ee/dr.susan.maxwell Bibliothèque des Refusés is the imprint of independent author & scholar Susan Maxwell. Fiction: Literary — Fantasy — Mystery (as R.S. Maxwell). Non-fiction: academic themes related to archives & fiction. Reviews.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · Nov 7

Cocktail Time!🍸
-Base of irreal/speculative literary fiction
-Good dash of bureaucratic gothic
-Splash of ecocriticism (optional)
-Garnish with sprig of intertextuality
-Shake well & pour.
(For younger imbibers, replace items 1 & 2 with low fantasy & Irish mythology)
linktr.ee/dr.susan.maxwell

Susan Maxwell is an independent author and scholar who writes literary/slipstream fiction for adults, fantasy literature suitable for younger readers. The novel Good Red Herring was published by Little Island Books; subsequent novels and a short story collection have been published under the Bibliothèque des Refusés imprint. Maxwell holds a PhD for research on archives and the margins, and writes non-fiction related to archives and literature.

3 6

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

Now I can't stop myself hearing this over and over in my head to the tune of Duran Duran's 'Girls on Film'...

Chris Roberts @oneeyegrey.bsky.social · 1d

As featured in my #roadkillthrenodies (free download kids) www.thecityoverthewater.com/roadkillpoems
and lest we forget

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Big Bearded Spookteller @bigbeardybooks.bsky.social · 1d

Let's hear from you writers, tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other

#WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚

alt text please

A sketch of a small pile of books with the words “Meet the Author” superimposed

11 11 24

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

Greetings! I am an independent author & scholar who writes literary/slipstream, fantasy, & mystery fiction, and non-fiction related to archives & literature. Latest book is (the appropriately seasonal) Death at Hallowtide, a cosy mystery/fantasy set in Ireland.
Links linktr.ee/dr.susan.max...

Cover of Death at Hallowtide.
Book description on back cover:
Corrbofinn. A place where things are… different. Where Jessica Quill has inherited a house and land. And where she has just become the number one suspect in the murder of local wide boy Tony Millar.
Jessica's life has entered uncharted waters. A job she hates, a cheating partner, her unexpected inheritance, and the final straw: tripping over a corpse in the rain when she comes to rural Ireland to arrange the sale of her property.
But Herne's Acre is no ordinary place. It’s a key crossing-point on the borderlands between the mortal world and the otherworlds of the sidhe. And now it is to be sold by a stranger unfamiliar with the true nature of Corrbofinn, a source of considerable anxiety for Thornapple, that very civil servant of the Borderlands Commission.
Bewildered, grumpy, and armed only with knowledge of toxic plants and classic detective stories, Jessica pursues her own inquiries to clear her name. Corrbofinn yields some of its mysteries along with new friends—human, canine, and… Well. You know.
Increasingly conflicted, Jessica’s sensible self squares off against her dreams of a different life. But she makes enemies, too, leading to a deadly showdown on Hallowe'en, when the borders between worlds are at their most fluid and uncanny.

3 5

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

kuzhali manickavel/குழலி மாணிக்கவேல் @kuzhalimanickavel.bsky.social · 1d

that one time when someone said they thought my writing was unapologetic and i immediately said i was sorry

1 6

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 1d

"There is something almost modernist about A Pickle’s neologisms, the printed voice of a Revolution-era eccentric, and how they are haltingly joined through his listing cadence."

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 1d

After complaints about Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1797) being entirely devoid of punctuation, in future editions the eccentric businessman supplied a supplemental page so that people “may peper and solt as they please”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dexter-pickle

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 2d

“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀
⠀
From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path — publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1450880306207240194/photo/1...

28 84

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts.bsky.social · 4d

ICYMI I wrote about this unconventional, absurd family saga set in communist Czechoslovakia. @alexzucker.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal roughghosts.com/2025/10/09/i...

If all happy families are alike, each strange family is strange in its own way: Love Letter in Cuneiform by Tomáš Zmeškal

The novel begins with a wedding. Alice and Maximilian exchanged rings and kisses, and signed a document confirming that the state of matrimony was primarily a contractual arrangement, which at the …

roughghosts.com

3 9

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Henry Bartholomew @henrybartholomew.bsky.social · 4d

Something cosmic this way comes... the special issue of Gothic Studies I have been working on - Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic - is now in production ready for its November publication. Thrilled with the depth and breadth of insight and expertise from the contributors. More updates soon!

Three large stacks of first edition copies of Algernon Blackwood books

3 13

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 5d

I feel like the title of my book - Theology in the Early British and Irish Gothic - isn't very sexy or puts people off thinking 'well, I'm not interested in theology so... meh'.

But my books offers well researched challenges on key Gothic issues 1/

2 7 25

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 6d

😆

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 6d

Dublin small press fair on 28 & 29 November at Pearse St library. Free and open to the public.

dublinsmallpressfair.com

dublinsmallpressfair.com

2 34 47

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 6d

That is definitely a date for the diary. Thanks for sharing it, Rónán.

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 6d

Nice tractor! What make is it?

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝 @jacqbetula.bsky.social · 7d

I felt a lump in my throat when it was announced that László Krasznahorkai had won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. I love his books and have reviewed four of his novels for The Irish Times.
Many thanks to @martindoyle.bsky.social for allowing me to do so.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai: A paean to depth and meaning amid violence and death

The novel’s protagonist, Florian Herscht, writes and rewrites a letter to Angela Merkel about what he believes to be an existential threat to the world

www.irishtimes.com

8 31 190

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 8d

Clotilde Graves/"Richard Dehan"'s story "The Great Beast of Kafue" (1917) tells of a perilous journey to southern Africa to find the last surviving brontosaurus. #WyrdWednesday

Color illustration by Charles R. Knight of a brontosaurus submerged in water in the foreground. Another lighter-colored brontosaurus is approaching the water in the background.

4 12

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 8d

👍📚

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 8d

An always-timely reminder! Thanks, @rebelalliance77.bsky.social.

There is also a list and map of independent bookshops in Ireland is available from @bigbeardybooks.bsky.social -
bigbeardedbookseller.uk/bookshops-ir...
Now I feel a trip to the excellent @sheelaghnagig.bsky.social coming on...

🎃👻David 👻🎃 @rebelalliance77.bsky.social · 8d

Some independent Irish bookshops you can support rather than Amazon. And most offer free postage in 🇮🇪too.
@kennysbookshop.bsky.social @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social
@booksupstairs.bsky.social
winding-stair-bookshop.myshopify.com
www.marrowbone.ie/shop
@gutterbookshop.bsky.social
#Spéirghorm

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 8d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

1 1 2

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 10d

That is horrible - I am very glad that the damage is not extensive, but it is still a very distressing thing to have happened.

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

kuzhali manickavel/குழலி மாணிக்கவேல் @kuzhalimanickavel.bsky.social · 13d

to those writers who don't have access to books, workshops, mentors, degrees and whatever else, my humble suggestion is to just write. you will learn and get better. it's not the easy way and you'll make all those extra mistakes self-taught people make. but it's possible and you can do it.

2 11 37

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Swan River Press @swanriverpress.bsky.social · 14d

7 23

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 14d

Bluesky! When, in the fabulous opening credits of 'The Prisoner' www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3LT... Patrick McGoohan packs his suitcase, he adds this presumably significant photograph. Is it ever mentioned again, ever explained?

4 2 5

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 14d

Congratulations! 🍾👏

1 1

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

Swan River Press @swanriverpress.bsky.social · 15d

Those who are curious about SUPERNATURAL TALES by IRISH WOMEN need to look no further than our ongoing work.

We have repopularised writers such as Dorothy Macardle, L. T. Meade, Rosa Mulholland, Katharine Tynan, B. M. Croker, Clotilde Graves, and others.

swanriverpress.ie/titles/?wpv-...

3 38 130

Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés @bibliorefuses.bsky.social · 16d

"Age yourself with a movie you saw in theatres as a kid"

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ci...

The poster advertising the Lumière brothers cinematographe, showing a famous comedy (L'Arroseur Arrosé, 1895). Shows members of a typical theatre show audience of the era delightedly watching a film screen flanked by pulled-back curtains.

Reposted by Susan Maxwell @ Bibliothèque des Refusés

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝 @jacqbetula.bsky.social · 16d

Today is International Translation Day.

Create connections through literature instead of division through ignorance!

1 12 29