Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · 11h

The Canada Post strike held it up but it was definitely worth the wait. I'm chuffed to have a little poem in the Love Loves Our Loving chapbook edited by @radiasilencia and published by @canadianpoets.bsky.social. What fine company I'm in. Oh, and the pages are all soft and creamy.

@TurnstonePress

Weight by Joanna Lilley. The leaded weight / hanging from my sternum / keeps me perpendicular // It's comforting, / the pendulum of you / thudding against my breastbone, / knowing I'm the replica / and you're the original

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Stephen Horowitz @gtlegalenglish.bsky.social · Oct 20

Happy International Plain Language Day! Still waiting for Hallmark to get on board with it. But in the meantime, here's an interview I did with WordRake (which would likely not fit on a greeting card.) Special thanks to Ivy Grey and KateCallahan
www.wordrake.com/blog/an-inte...

An Interview with Professor Stephen Horowitz

Professor of Legal English Stephen Horowitz talks about ESL and clear communication as part of our series for International Plain Language Day

www.wordrake.com

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 3d

‘I wanted to write more than I wanted to have children’: author Sarah Perry on rejecting motherhood

When the novelist was faced with the decision of whether to pursue fertility treatment or focus on her career, her literary ambitions kicked in

www.theguardian.com

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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 1d

Iris and the Dead author Miranda Schreiber, & Joana Mosi, author of The Mongoose from Pow Pow Press, chat about writing grief, the blurry line between reality & fiction, & more for #ALUWomenAskingWomen from @alllitupcanada.bsky.social
alllitup.ca/women-asking-women-joana-mosi-miranda-schreiber/

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · 3d

'Imagine a world where textiles aren’t manufactured from fossil fuels, animal skins, or even plants – but grown from microbes, mycelium, algae, and engineered proteins.'

– Elizabeth Novogratz

@speciesunite.bsky.social

#animalwelfare #animalrights

www.speciesunite.com/podcast/suza...

S13. E8: Suzanne Lee: Grown, Not Extracted — Species Unite

Suzanne Lee is the founder of Biofabricate and for more than two decades she’s been uniting scientists, designers, artists, and dreamers to prove that biology isn’t just inspiration — it’s the next ...

www.speciesunite.com

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Orion Magazine @orionmagazine.bsky.social · 3d

What would motivate you more to change your behaviors to save wildlife: a book about elephants, a book about the wild fauna in your own backyard, or a book about your pet? Would any? Rebecca van Laer sifts through the noise.

Animal Memoirs Gone Wild - Orion Magazine

What we can learn from more domestic forms of intimacy with nature

orionmagazine.org

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · 7d

Definitely recommended! @anderson-dargatz.bsky.social helped me so much with my novel in progress. #writingtips

Gail Anderson-Dargatz @anderson-dargatz.bsky.social · 7d

Hey writers! Need help with that novel or memoir? We're now booking developmental edits and manuscript evaluations for fall and winter. For more, go to: www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca/cms/index.ph...

#writersky #writingcommunity #editing

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The Poetry Business @poetrybusiness.bsky.social · 16d

✨WORKSHOPS NEXT WEEK✨

✨Personal Words with Jacob Polley
Mon 6 Oct, 7pm

✨Leading by Example with Kathryn Simmonds
Tues 7 Oct, 11am

Sign up here: buytickets.at/thepoetrybus...

@picadorbooks.bsky.social @

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University of Alberta Press @ualbertapress.bsky.social · 14d

On September 30, we share links to resources for National Truth and Reconciliation Day.

The Prairie Indigenous eBook Collection: https://bit.ly/3PPLIRI ##UAlberta Press books: https://bit.ly/4e7NHMb
Department of Canadian Heritage: https://bit.ly/3o5GDZa
##TRC #NTRD @abbookpub.bsky.social

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Vegan FTA @veganftaofficial.bsky.social · 21d

Don't eat body parts - go vegan. 🌱💚🐥

👉 Help us grow the vegan movement – join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/veganfta 🙏

#chicken #chickenwings #veganshare #veganmeme #birds

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · 29d

Oh, do read these stunning poems by @jamellahagen.bsky.social.

periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics @periodicities.bsky.social · Aug 4

newly posted: Jamella Hagen : Four poems / @nightwoodeditions.bsky.social @gaspereaupress.bsky.social ;
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/08/jame...

Jamella Hagen : Four poems

Taxonomies of Hop e Vulpes vulpes This morning, a red fox ran past the window, brushing her cinnamon tail against the glass— too...

periodicityjournal.blogspot.com

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Vegan Horizon @veganhorizon.substack.com · Aug 26

Too simple, too powerful, too important to ignore ⚡

Plant-Based Diets Could Save 129 Million Years of Human Life — Every Single Year

Science reveals a low-hanging fruit for health and the planet — simple, powerful, and too important to ignore

veganhorizon.substack.com

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Aug 17

'Now Play for Today is being revived on Channel 5, to give young writers, actors and producers from lower-income backgrounds a way into TV, helped by established talent.'

– @taraconlan.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...

Channel 5 revives BBC’s Play for Today to ‘help shape future of British drama’

Series aims to follow original in tackling ‘thornier issues’, and to support talent from lower-income backgrounds

www.theguardian.com

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Aug 9

Yukon fireweed on the morning dog walk. August leaf tips pointing to autumn.

Long narrow green leaves with red tips and orange-yellow patches. The leaves are close to the ground which is covered in brown spruce needles and there are tree trunks and blue sky in the distance.

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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · Aug 7

You can now 'look inside' my new #history book on the Penguin website! Read the introduction and first chapters, see the list of poems and moments in history I explore, and discover the wormhole which inspired this particular kind of time travel...
www.penguin.co.uk/books/461263...

A History of England in 25 Poems by Catherine Clarke - cover image

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Jul 23

Thanks so much, that's so kind of you. I just couldn't resist sharing it when I saw the article.

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Writers’ HQ @writershq.bsky.social · Jul 18

What they think I want AI to do:

👉 Research my plot
👉 Give me ideas
👉 Write my story

What I actually want AI to do:

✅ Sort my accounts
✅ Make my inbox go away
✅ Clean my house

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Jul 19

A marvellous article about what the dodo was really like. A few years ago, I wrote a poem to try to redress the balance a little after 'meeting' a dodo who was behind the glass at
‪@amnh.org‬.

#Endlings #extinction #poetry #TurnstonePress

The Flightless Bird of Mauritius

No no,
I have nothing
to say. No need.
Everyone knows me.
There is no requirement
to register, remark
on what is already recorded.
By all means, stare instead
at the over-middened moa,
my antipodean protector, or
the ivory-billed woodpecker,
full-feathered forest dweller –
What? Did you say there was a tree
named after me?

I would point out,
perhaps,
as you are looking –
this is not all actually me.
I am bits
of others.
A borrowed carpal, vertebral rib,
an ersatz ulna.
My maxilla and mandible are mine,
my patellas, left and right.
I wouldn’t be myself without my kneecaps.
There’s no mention of the size
of my kneecaps?
How I ran over rocks and roots,
across the palm savannah,
into ebony shade?
Such injustice, necrotic silence.
You like your lie
that I was clumsy, plump
and bumbled into nullity.

If I were asked, thank you,
I would only say
there is no air here,
just dust, this itching skullcap
proving familiarity’s neglect.
And I cannot digest.
I cannot form flesh to cover
this ghastly cage.
I need my gizzard stones.
No one thought to pick those
out of the mud
on my hot island
when they dug up my bones.
You are not the only ones
who need tools, who,
without them, would be
as obliterated as me.

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · Jul 18

WRITERS!
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.
#writers #writing
Pls RT 👇
asls.org.uk/new-writing-...

NEW WRITING SCOTLAND

ASL is seeking applications to be a co-editor of New Writing Scotland, from writers currently based in Scotland. Applicants should have a strong publishing record of their own, with a focus on prose; previous editorial experience would be an advantage. The post will run for up to three years from 2026, for volumes 44, 45, and 46, publishing in 2026, 2027, and 2028 (dependent on funding).

Our editors jointly select approximately 50 pieces – poetry and prose – from the English- and Scots-language submissions we receive each year. The submissions are anonymised, and we provide editors with paper copies to read. As an editor, we’d ask you to attend launches in Edinburgh and Glasgow (travelling expenses would be paid). Editors receive an annual £1500 stipend and full editorial credit.

We encourage applications from all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from people who are under-represented within the sector, including from BPOC applicants (Black people and People of Colour), disabled people, LGBTQIA+ applicants and those from a low socioeconomic background.

Please send a CV and a one-page application letter, outlining your qualifications for the position, to admin@asls.org.uk by midnight on Monday 4 August 2025.

Submission to New Writing Scotland is free and open to all. You can find our submission instructions here.

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · Jul 15

“I was born in 1962. There’s been an environmental crisis for as long as I’ve lived. To step outside that constant culpability was one of the many delights of RING OF BRIGHT WATER.”

—Kathleen Jamie in the @lrb.co.uk on Gavin Maxwell (1914–1969) – born #OTD, 15 July
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www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

Kathleen Jamie · Diary: In the West Highlands

www.lrb.co.uk

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Jul 12

Thank you for posting this. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this marvellous book by @edyong209.bsky.social. Need to adjust my online engagement parameters!

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Ed Yong @edyong209.bsky.social · May 13

AN IMMENSE WORLD: YOUNG READERS EDITION is out today! 🥳

I’m really grateful to AnnMarie Anderson for adapting it, Rebecca Mills for illustrating, Tom Russell for shepherding, and Rose Eveleth for reading the audiobook.

(And it’s dedicated to Typo.)

bookshop.org/p/books/an-i...

An Immense World (Young Readers Edition): How Animals Sense Earth's Amazing Secrets

How Animals Sense Earth's Amazing Secrets

bookshop.org

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Jul 1

It's Canada Day.

'A testament to the impacts of colonization and a record of adaptation and resourcefulness, Worlds on Paper presents never-before-published drawings from artists in Kinngait (Cape Dorset) made between 1957 and 1990.'

– Flying Books

Figure 1 Publishing @figure1publishing.bsky.social · Apr 8

Today's the day! Worlds on Paper by Emily Laurent Henderson is out now📚

This groundbreaking publication presents never-before-published drawings from artists in Kinngait, and we're proud to have co-published with @mcmichaelgallery.bsky.social

www.figure1publishing.com/book/worlds-...

Reposted by Joanna Lilley

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · Jun 24

Here lies our land: every airt
Beneath swift clouds, glad glints of sun,
Belonging to none but itself…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Here lies our land”

A poem commissioned in 2014 to mark the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn – fought #OTD, 24 June, 1314 – & inscribed on the Bannockburn monument

Here lies our land
Kathleen Jamie

Here lies our land: every airt
Beneath swift clouds, glad glints of sun,
Belonging to none but itself.

We are mere transients, who sing
Its westlin’ winds and fernie braes,
Northern lights and siller tides,

Small folk playing our part.
‘Come all ye’, the country says,
You win me, who take me most to heart.

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Joanna Lilley @joannalilley.bsky.social · Jun 23

The submission deadline for The Arctic Circle residency on a tall ship in Svalbard is coming up on 15 July. A marvellous, complicated, submersive, transformational experience.

thearcticcircle.org

Rounded shapes of white ice floating on turquoise sea.

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