Mike Fox
@polyscribe70.bsky.social
Short story writer, delinquent poetry reader. Fictive Dream, The Lonely Press, Confingo, Fragmented Voices, Structo, Nightjar Press, Salt Publishing, Exacting Clam
polyscribe.co.uk
polyscribe.co.uk
Pinned
Mike Fox
@polyscribe70.bsky.social
· Jun 19
Huge thanks to Joe Darlington and Manchester Review of books for this stunning review of my collection Things Grown Distant, still available from @confingopublishing.bsky.social manchestereviewofbooks.wordpress.com/2024/10/15/t...
'When the highs peaked and I felt the downward pull, I would, depending on the gravity of the descent, prepare myself with homeopathic doses of Philip Larkin.' What a joy to read Dali (aka the brilliant David Rose) musing on health and sharing obsessions.
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
Dali and the Lobster | Exacting Clam
www.exactingclam.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
'When the highs peaked and I felt the downward pull, I would, depending on the gravity of the descent, prepare myself with homeopathic doses of Philip Larkin.' What a joy to read Dali (aka the brilliant David Rose) musing on health and sharing obsessions.
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
Thanks for putting this up, Caroline. David's a superb writer.
David Rose's new story in @exactingclam.bsky.social (you'll need a pen and paper to work out the hidden message, oh yes)
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19...
Dali and the Lobster | Exacting Clam
www.exactingclam.com
November 29, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Thanks for putting this up, Caroline. David's a superb writer.
Reposted by Mike Fox
Thank you to Jonathan Coe (The Proof of My Innocence) for selecting Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle for the Observer’s ‘Writers recommend: the best books of 2025’ feature: observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/writers-recommend-the-best-books-of-2025
November 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Thank you to Jonathan Coe (The Proof of My Innocence) for selecting Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle for the Observer’s ‘Writers recommend: the best books of 2025’ feature: observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/writers-recommend-the-best-books-of-2025
Reposted by Mike Fox
A Personal Anthology, by Ailsa Cox
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
A Personal Anthology, by Ailsa Cox
Each time I’ve prepared a new edition of Writing Short Stories, I’ve referred to some different texts from writers I haven’t mentioned before.
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:16 PM
A Personal Anthology, by Ailsa Cox
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
Becoming aware that a disinclination to submit has crept up on me. Difficult to fully analyse, but restrictive criteria, poor response times, edits I can't submit to and limited reader interest all contribute. Also the sheer repetition involved. Have things changed or is it just me?
November 28, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Becoming aware that a disinclination to submit has crept up on me. Difficult to fully analyse, but restrictive criteria, poor response times, edits I can't submit to and limited reader interest all contribute. Also the sheer repetition involved. Have things changed or is it just me?
Reposted by Mike Fox
Tune in to Sherry's Shorts today at 12 noon UK time on hhr.scot. 4 Uncanny tales by Scottish Highland writers, featuring local ghost stories & read by fab actors including the 5🌟 @churchofben.bsky.social Listen Again link⬇️
November episode of Sherry's Shorts on @highlandhradio.bsky.social is here! Four Uncanny stories from Highland writers: Andrew Gold, Eileen Carney Hulme, Mary Anne Spence & Phil Baarda. Gripping real-life tales of local ghosts & memories that haunt. Listen Again: www.mixcloud.com/invernesshr/...
November 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Tune in to Sherry's Shorts today at 12 noon UK time on hhr.scot. 4 Uncanny tales by Scottish Highland writers, featuring local ghost stories & read by fab actors including the 5🌟 @churchofben.bsky.social Listen Again link⬇️
@vickymackenzie.bsky.social @rosannamcglone.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b... Thought this might be of interest!
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Margery Kempe and English Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe, the medieval English mystic.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:33 AM
@vickymackenzie.bsky.social @rosannamcglone.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b... Thought this might be of interest!
Reposted by Mike Fox
This is awkward - no one has bid for a signed copy of my novel, FOR THY GREAT PAIN... yet. 😬
Go on, you can get a personalised present for someone AND help raise money for such an important cause! 🙏
app.galabid.com/creatives4su...
Go on, you can get a personalised present for someone AND help raise money for such an important cause! 🙏
app.galabid.com/creatives4su...
November 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is awkward - no one has bid for a signed copy of my novel, FOR THY GREAT PAIN... yet. 😬
Go on, you can get a personalised present for someone AND help raise money for such an important cause! 🙏
app.galabid.com/creatives4su...
Go on, you can get a personalised present for someone AND help raise money for such an important cause! 🙏
app.galabid.com/creatives4su...
'but Claire gathered that his monologue had evolved into being about things he liked. She knew his type.' A wonderful drollery in this vignette of a story by @kieranstories.bsky.social. A tiny slice of life that suggests so much more.
I’m trying to share a new story each month. This story was inspired by two pieces of art: Break Down by Michael Landy and Las Meninas by Velázquez. It’s very short if you want to take a look! Relaxing Sunday all. kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/o...
On new flash fiction: The Ladies-in-Waiting
A new piece of flash fiction titled ‘The Ladies-in-Waiting’.
kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:11 AM
'but Claire gathered that his monologue had evolved into being about things he liked. She knew his type.' A wonderful drollery in this vignette of a story by @kieranstories.bsky.social. A tiny slice of life that suggests so much more.
Reposted by Mike Fox
🎬 I'm delighted to have this piece published in Channel, thank you to Cassia, Simon, and Lauren 🎞️
And there, beyond the range of the live camera's tick-tick-ticking, an infant clings to his young mother, his grip strong enough to secure him.
@niamhmaccabe.bsky.social, 'Pan and the Ironwood', Channel Issue 13
channelmag.org/issue-13/
@niamhmaccabe.bsky.social, 'Pan and the Ironwood', Channel Issue 13
channelmag.org/issue-13/
November 23, 2025 at 7:51 PM
🎬 I'm delighted to have this piece published in Channel, thank you to Cassia, Simon, and Lauren 🎞️
Reposted by Mike Fox
brecon beacons
crystalline light
casting slow moving shadows
over breastful mountaintops
brecon beacon fell
falls to the tramline
my son is a ferryman
he splits mersey lines
with spectacled vision
crystalline light
casting slow moving shadows
over breastful mountaintops
brecon beacon fell
falls to the tramline
my son is a ferryman
he splits mersey lines
with spectacled vision
I wanted to share something I wrote in 2018 about anchoritism. Thanks to Mike Fox for reading this a while ago, and giving me the confidence to look at it again properly. Cheers all. @polyscribe70.bsky.social kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/o...
On three long anchoritic poems: Pelican
A series of poems following an anchorite during the first year of their enclosure. Written in 2018.
kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:20 AM
brecon beacons
crystalline light
casting slow moving shadows
over breastful mountaintops
brecon beacon fell
falls to the tramline
my son is a ferryman
he splits mersey lines
with spectacled vision
crystalline light
casting slow moving shadows
over breastful mountaintops
brecon beacon fell
falls to the tramline
my son is a ferryman
he splits mersey lines
with spectacled vision
Just been to see Theatre Picasso at Tate Modern. Amazing that he found so many models with two noses.
November 21, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Just been to see Theatre Picasso at Tate Modern. Amazing that he found so many models with two noses.
Reposted by Mike Fox
Honoured and thrilled to make the shortlist for The New Irish Writing Best Short Story Award at the 2025 @irishbookawards.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Honoured and thrilled to make the shortlist for The New Irish Writing Best Short Story Award at the 2025 @irishbookawards.bsky.social
'She has been this way since that wintered Tuesday in the long shadow of the war, the one they never talk about.' I could have chosen any sentence to quote from this deeply moving story by @mattkendrick.bsky.social - an element of mastery about the prose and construction.
Thrilled to have a new story out today with the wonderful Milk Candy Review that features eggs, soldiers, silence and absent suns. Hope you'll give it a read:
milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/11/20/n...
milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/11/20/n...
Nothing certain ~ by Matt Kendrick
The day the sun forgets to rise, Mr White sits down for breakfast at precisely twelve minutes past seven. This is in the dining room. It is Tuesday. His Tuesday breakfast is a soft-boiled egg opene…
milkcandyreview.home.blog
November 20, 2025 at 6:03 PM
'She has been this way since that wintered Tuesday in the long shadow of the war, the one they never talk about.' I could have chosen any sentence to quote from this deeply moving story by @mattkendrick.bsky.social - an element of mastery about the prose and construction.
Reposted by Mike Fox
Thrilled with this review in the Australian Book Review of The Making of a Poem which gives strong praise too, to its sibling The Process of Poetry. #Australian #Australia #Poetry #poets
...this makes her, to my mind, perfect for the job of trading out her subjects' insights into their crafts...The interviews are full of the knowledge provided by expertise."
Reviewer David McCooey gave lots of love, too, to The Process of Poetry! www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page... #books
Reviewer David McCooey gave lots of love, too, to The Process of Poetry! www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page... #books
November 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Thrilled with this review in the Australian Book Review of The Making of a Poem which gives strong praise too, to its sibling The Process of Poetry. #Australian #Australia #Poetry #poets
Reposted by Mike Fox
I wanted to share something I wrote in 2018 about anchoritism. Thanks to Mike Fox for reading this a while ago, and giving me the confidence to look at it again properly. Cheers all. @polyscribe70.bsky.social kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/o...
On three long anchoritic poems: Pelican
A series of poems following an anchorite during the first year of their enclosure. Written in 2018.
kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I wanted to share something I wrote in 2018 about anchoritism. Thanks to Mike Fox for reading this a while ago, and giving me the confidence to look at it again properly. Cheers all. @polyscribe70.bsky.social kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/o...
Reposted by Mike Fox
We need your help.
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
Anger as Waterstones snaps up prime site on doorstep of independent bookshop
UK's biggest bookselling chain under fire over plans for new store beside Edinburgh tram line.
www.heraldscotland.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:28 AM
We need your help.
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
Reposted by Mike Fox
'He was usually the first to wake, watching her surface from sleep with that look of faint dismay. As if she really wanted to be unconscious, to be in a world of dreams.' I've learned to look out for stories by @grahammort.bsky.social - their scope, their insight, their language. Breathtaking.
ICYMI today we're featuring Celia by Graham Mort @grahammort.bsky.social #shortstory #readingcommunity #writingcommunity. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/16/c...
November 16, 2025 at 6:31 PM
'He was usually the first to wake, watching her surface from sleep with that look of faint dismay. As if she really wanted to be unconscious, to be in a world of dreams.' I've learned to look out for stories by @grahammort.bsky.social - their scope, their insight, their language. Breathtaking.
Reposted by Mike Fox
November episode of Sherry's Shorts on @highlandhradio.bsky.social is here! Four Uncanny stories from Highland writers: Andrew Gold, Eileen Carney Hulme, Mary Anne Spence & Phil Baarda. Gripping real-life tales of local ghosts & memories that haunt. Listen Again: www.mixcloud.com/invernesshr/...
November 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM
November episode of Sherry's Shorts on @highlandhradio.bsky.social is here! Four Uncanny stories from Highland writers: Andrew Gold, Eileen Carney Hulme, Mary Anne Spence & Phil Baarda. Gripping real-life tales of local ghosts & memories that haunt. Listen Again: www.mixcloud.com/invernesshr/...
I wonder if anyone else has that sense of being outside of it all writing-wise, without being able to say what 'it all' consists of?
November 14, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I wonder if anyone else has that sense of being outside of it all writing-wise, without being able to say what 'it all' consists of?
Reposted by Mike Fox
Here's my Personal Anthology of 12 brilliant short stories. No doubt some familiar names here, but also perhaps one or two surprises
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
A Personal Anthology, by Ian Critchley
I recently stopped reviewing books.
open.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Here's my Personal Anthology of 12 brilliant short stories. No doubt some familiar names here, but also perhaps one or two surprises
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
Reposted by Mike Fox
@lmbayley.bsky.social I thought you might be interested in reading other stories by Gitanjali Kolanad. Here are the links of her FD fiction. Seeing the Other fictivedream.com/2024/02/28/s... Darshan fictivedream.com/2021/03/14/d... Instrumental Rationality fictivedream.com/2018/06/01/i... Enjoy!
Seeing the Other
by Gitanjali Kolanad MY GRANDMOTHER WORE a mundu in the manner of Kerala Syrian Christian widows, plain white cloth without even a border, wrapped and tucked with a little fan of pleats that fell b…
fictivedream.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:23 PM
@lmbayley.bsky.social I thought you might be interested in reading other stories by Gitanjali Kolanad. Here are the links of her FD fiction. Seeing the Other fictivedream.com/2024/02/28/s... Darshan fictivedream.com/2021/03/14/d... Instrumental Rationality fictivedream.com/2018/06/01/i... Enjoy!
'She didn’t believe in this god, or any god for that matter, but her teacher had trained her in the efficacy of gestures, in their beauty even when empty.' Always a joy to read a new story by Gitanjali Kolanad - the voice, the sentences, everything...
"Vidya didn’t like Indian crowds—the heat, the disorder, the pushing and shoving, everyone asserting their own needs at once..." Eight Kinds of Embrace: 4. Piditakam by Gitanjali Kolanad #flashfiction #writingcommunity. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/14/e...
November 14, 2025 at 2:10 PM
'She didn’t believe in this god, or any god for that matter, but her teacher had trained her in the efficacy of gestures, in their beauty even when empty.' Always a joy to read a new story by Gitanjali Kolanad - the voice, the sentences, everything...