Una McCormack
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unamccormack.bsky.social
Una McCormack
@unamccormack.bsky.social
12K followers 1.5K following 11K posts
NYT bestselling and BSFA & Scribe award-winning writer. Intersectional feminist science fiction with Gold SF. Fighting the long defeat since December 1981.

https://linktr.ee/unamccormack
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Una McCormack
drfernriddell.bsky.social
One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Jewelled golden hare that sparked national treasure hunt set for auction
Artist and author Kit Williams hid a golden hare with clues to its precise location given in his 1979 book
www.independent.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:18 AM
unamccormack.bsky.social
I most certainly do celebrate! 🐳 🐳
ludibriumventis.bsky.social Ludibriumventis @ludibriumventis.bsky.social · 18h
Happy Whale-iversary to all who celebrate! 🖖
A parody of the title screen for Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home - to: Star Trek IV The One with the Whales
November 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
unamccormack.bsky.social
The plan was not to move house again before Christmas but it’s been done anyway.
November 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
craigmranapia.bsky.social
Over the years, I have tried and utterly failed to elevator pitch Olaf Stapleton austerely fantastic novels of ideas without coming across as an acid-fried space cadet. This is an acceptable alternative - another @backlisted.bsky.social banger and not just for Cosmic Woolybacks! #BookSky
thechesilbeach.bsky.social Claire @thechesilbeach.bsky.social · 3d
Listened to the new @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Patreon this morning and it’s another excellent, interesting discussion. I went into the bookshop to order the book and H asked me what it was about. I tried to remember Una’s blurb and failed miserably. Advised him to just listen to Backlisted!
November 25, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
harehunterfield.bsky.social
This edition begins with a note from the author which may be of some interest.
@unamccormack.bsky.social
@iammilliam.bsky.social
@backlisted.bsky.social
@mdeabaitua.bsky.social
Foreword TO THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN EDITION MAN seems to be entering one of the major crises of his career. His whole future, nay the possibility of his having any future at all, depends on the turn which events may take in the next half-century. It is a commonplace that he is coming into possession of new and dangerous instruments for controlling his environment and his own nature. Perhaps it is less obvious that he is also groping toward a new view of his office in the scheme of things, and toward a new and racial purpose. Unfortunately he may possibly take too long to learn what it is that he really wants to do with him-self. Before he can gain clear insight, he may lose himself in a vast desert of spiritual aridity, or even blunder into physical self-destruction. Nothing can save him but a new vision, and a consequent new order of sanity, or common sense. America may play an important part in creating the new vision. But visions, if they are to be permanently helpful, must embody the whole breadth and depth of experience. They must not be crude, extravagant, lop-sided. They must be conceived not only with originality but with sanity, even if sanity has to take up a new orientation in consequence of the new vision. In early chapters of this book America is given a not very attractive part. I have imagined the triumph of the cruder sort of Americanism over all that is best and most promising in American culture. May this not occur in the real world! But since the possibility of such an issue is admitted even by many Americans themselves, I shall, I hope be forgiven for emphasizing it, and using it as an early turning point in the long drama of Man.
November 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
unamccormack.bsky.social
Sure, jury trials, why not
November 26, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
iammilliam.bsky.social
This is a very funny piece of writing by Peter Lonsdale in which I appear as the character of Andy Miller. It's based on an interview we did eight years ago. Thanks to @irishtimes.com for having the foresight and hindsight to run it. @backlisted.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
Lessons for the would-be writer: An aborted interview with Andy Miller
Peter Lonsdale reflects on his encounter with the co-host of the Backlisted Podcast
www.irishtimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:50 AM
unamccormack.bsky.social
Bluey pyjamas
November 26, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
bitterscriptreader.bsky.social
You guys interested in more stuff I pulled from Ron Moore’s ‘90s AOL chats with DS9 fans?

This was in reaction to a Season 5 ep retconning Dr. Bashir’s history. OH NO! The sacred CANON was violated!

Ron has the correct perspective (and more patience than I would have.)
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
alas-not-me.bsky.social
Somehow this just doesn't hit like "gather ye rose-buds while ye may."
November 26, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
juliebenson.bsky.social
🚨New post is up on my (free to read) website writingandwhatnot.com - check it out!
November 25, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
0tralala.bsky.social
What a brilliant fact - I had no idea. (For anyone else impressed by this, the letter is here: digitalheritagelab.liverpool.ac.uk/Documents/De...)
Letter from Virginia Woolf - University of Liverpool Digital Heritage Lab
Letter from Virginia Woolf, OS/H2/A32, A thank you after Stapledon sent her a copy of one of his books. She admits to not understanding its full meaning but finding it interesting anyway., We grateful...
digitalheritagelab.liverpool.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
suchmayer.bsky.social
I love this book, and love also that it was a major inspiration to Virginia Woolf for her thinking about time and structure in her later novels (& she wrote a fan letter to Stapledon to tell him so!)
November 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
mungo2434.bsky.social
This is what @backlisted.bsky.social do so well. A fascinating discussion (to which I have now listened twice) of a book I have never heard of and still may never read.
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
sleepship.bsky.social
this was so out of control I listened to it again straight away (join the cult of book).
November 25, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
andrewmale.bsky.social
This was brilliant and made my head spin in the best way.

Why not follow it up by immersing yourself in the film and soundtrack by Jóhann Jóhannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman?

Backlisted favourite @andrewmale.bsky.social
wrote the liner notes which contain one of JJ’s last ever interviews. #RIP
LAST AND FIRST MEN JÓHANN JOHANNSSON & YAIR ELAZAR GLOTMAN Deutsche Grammophon, 2020. LAST AND FIRST MEN JOHANN JÓHANNSSON & YAIR ELAZAR GLOTMAN LINER NOTES BY ANDREW MALE
November 25, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
iammilliam.bsky.social
We are on fire at the moment. But somehow, we’ve made another brilliant episode of @backlisted.bsky.social.
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
danmud.bsky.social
Skyyy rockets in flight, afternoon delight...Another fantastic episode discussing a thing I had never heard of.
unamccormack.bsky.social Una McCormack @unamccormack.bsky.social · 2d
Reach for the stars... New @backlisted.bsky.social, LAST AND FIRST MEN by Olaf Stapledon, with @mdeabaitua.bsky.social!
backlisted.bsky.social Backlisted Podcast @backlisted.bsky.social · 2d
New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
unamccormack.bsky.social
Reach for the stars... New @backlisted.bsky.social, LAST AND FIRST MEN by Olaf Stapledon, with @mdeabaitua.bsky.social!
November 25, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
jonnymorris.bsky.social
"Do a vulgar roast. Use forbidden words."
Lunkwill and Fook with Deep Thought.
November 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
divinetailor.bsky.social
hey @goldsf.bsky.social & @unamccormack.bsky.social see how MAYBE THE BIRDS is centered here in this photo!
November 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
unamccormack.bsky.social
If ever a day required an afternoon nap, it’s today.
November 24, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
uoyborthwick.bsky.social
It’s a very happy #DoctorWhoDay from us - we’re delighted to announce we’ve successfully acquired the archive of Whoniverse legend Terrance Dicks 😲 Read more at the link:
www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/ne...
Page of the script of An Unearthly Child, written by Anthony Coburn and C.E. Webber and later novelised by Terrance Dicks.
November 23, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Una McCormack
tashanmehta.bsky.social
MAD SISTERS OF ESI is one of The Washington Post’s 10 best SFF novels of 2025. In the sheer amount of what gets published each year and what gets lost, this feels like a small, precious miracle ❤️
The cover of MAD SISTERS OF ESI with "The Washington Post" written above it and "Best SFF Novel of 2025" written below it. A picture of The Washington Post article. Title reads "10 best sci-fi and fantasy novels of 2025" and the subtitle reads "From an indigenous vampire story to the tale of two sisters living in a cosmic whale, this year's books kept us guessing." The Washington Post review of MAD SISTERS OF ESI. It reads: "Two sisters live inside a cosmic whale, visiting the innumerable worlds within its body, until one of them escapes into the universe outside. There, she uncovers the whale's origin story, which lies with another pair of sisters who lived on a shape-shifting island where everyone goes mad once a century. A poetic, metaphysical epic, "Mad Sisters" feels like it's in conversation with other recent books about people in surreal, liminal spaces questioning what everything means - and it's my absolute favorite book of the year. (Book World review.)"
November 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Una McCormack
uilliammac.bsky.social
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

#Gaeilge
The growth of Gaeilge in Britain
Tommy Meskill, London Correspondent, reports on the surge of interest in learning the Irish language in Britain.
www.rte.ie
November 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM