Laurence Lumsden
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laurencewrites.com
Laurence Lumsden
@laurencewrites.com
Dubliner in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Writer. https://www.LaurenceWrites.com/. 2025 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize. Posts in English/Français/Svenska. (He/Him/YerMan)
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Gobsmacked and grateful to have won the 2025 Cúirt New Writing Prize. Thanks to @cuirtfestival.bsky.social (see you in Galway!) and to the brilliant @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social (whose comments on my story left me floating on air). www.cuirt.ie/new-writing-...
New Writing Prize Winners 2025 - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
Cúirt International Festival of Literature – Galway City
www.cuirt.ie
Surreal and unacceptable.
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life.
My interview with Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, who was sanctioned by the US for ruling to authorise an investigation into war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life
Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary
www.irishtimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
I've written a novel, Experts in a Dying Field. It's out on Penguin Sandycove in June. It's about about a band and a tragedy & art for art's sake & aging & loss & community & Dublin. There's a fox in it. & sheet music. The beautiful cover's by Jack Smyth. You can preorder: linktr.ee/expertsinady...
November 27, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
are we still on about em dashes and ai. imo human writers should just use the em dashes even harder. we should be out here pummeling out those em dashes like we're emily dickinson
December 10, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Very much enjoyed talking to the poet and critic, Jack Gutorow, for this issue of Explorations, and at a moment in Europe's history when Poland seems exactly the place to begin talking about Hannah Arendt's legacy.

explorations.uni.opole.pl/wp-content/u...
explorations.uni.opole.pl
December 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
This is so disgusting.
December 7, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Aujourd'hui, nous nous rappelons les quatorze jeunes femmes dont les vies ont été volées à Polytechnique Montréal il y a 36 ans.

Leurs noms nous rappellent les conséquences dévastatrices de la violence fondée sur le sexe et la responsabilité qui accompagne notre souvenir.
December 6, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
The memory of the mass femicide at Polytechnique is still painful.

Today marks the 36th anniversary of the Montreal massacre, where 14 women — students at Université de Montréal’s École Polytechnique — lost their lives in a mass shooting motivated by misogyny.

#December6
December 6, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
“Nearly all of our modern gun control legislation came about as a consequence of the tragedy and subsequent lobbying by the gun control advocates born at Polytechnique that night.

“We must fight like hell to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

An editorial by @taylornoakes.com.

#December6
Never forget Polytechnique
The Polytechnique massacre on Dec. 6, 1989 was a mass femicide that left an indelible imprint on all Montrealers.
cultmtl.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
I wrote my book on Hannah Arendt during Covid, watching the world contract. Delighted to be joining this discussion on Arendt now. Has political violence finally undone any hope of natality? Are we, for better or worse, firmly in a post-Arendtian time?
December 1, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
sometimes you can find me writing short stories

unaminhkavanagh.com/short-stories/
Short Stories - Úna-Minh Kavanagh
'I figured she wouldn’t be that much missed. At least not for a little while'.
unaminhkavanagh.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
I really wish we'd stop calling them climate "skeptics" or "vaccine skeptics", if you jump off a cliff we don't call you a "gravity skeptic"
November 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Marcus lived inside my head for a few years, but I finally wrote him into the world.
Featured this week in The New Quarterly is Laurence Lumsden's "Marcus of Montreal", from Issue 175! Click here to read the full story: tnq.ca/story/marcus-of-montreal/
November 17, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Featured this week in The New Quarterly is Laurence Lumsden's "Marcus of Montreal", from Issue 175! Click here to read the full story: tnq.ca/story/marcus-of-montreal/
November 17, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
My essay about the joy of the night train is up on The Winding Trail, a long read for a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning, dreaming about adventures past and journeys to come…

the-winding-trail.com/2025/07/25/t...
November 15, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Super article. Added Leon Diop’s memoir to my “must read” list.
November 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
And brilliant it is too.
Yup it is.
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine is Waterstones Irish Book of the Year
November 15, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
happy no novel november to all who celebrate in which we will continue to write new short stories instead of our novels
November 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
This is how you blurb
October 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
My short story "The Leftovers of Sugaring Season", just published in the Canadian literary journal Agnes and True. www.agnesandtrue.com/the-leftover...
October 22, 2025 at 8:43 PM
You love The Smiths, but you hate Morrissey. You need Adam Barrett. youtu.be/TbCYqkmBdcE?...
The Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes (cover)
YouTube video by Adam Barrett
youtu.be
October 17, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
L’innu-aimun s’apprend aussi en jouant

ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-auto...
L’innu-aimun s’apprend aussi en jouant
Ce projet sera « libre » pour que d'autres nations puissent l'adapter à leur propre langue.
ici.radio-canada.ca
October 14, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Dans @lapresse.ca du jour (plus.lapresse.ca/screens/bdba...), Régis Labeaume frappe juste et fort : «Je me répète, cette campagne sera sale, et ça pue déjà.»
Non, nous ne haïrons pas les immigrants et les musulmans !
Je ne dénoncerai jamais assez les cardinaux conservateurs de Rome, les leaders juifs orthodoxes, les imams radicaux, Trump et les politiciens américains évangéliques, Nétanyahou et ses ministres ultra...
plus.lapresse.ca
October 13, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Good news for fans of poems about hedges, frogs and long-handled spades: The Poems of Seamus Heaney is out now. Here's a great review by Philip Terry:
The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement
The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time
www.theguardian.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military.

If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:
Help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership
Current status: Open from October 1 to October 31, 2025 Canada helped invent modern AI. To stay a leader—and protect our digital sovereignty—we're running a 30-day national sprint to shape a renewed...
ised-isde.canada.ca
October 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM