Amal El-Mohtar
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amalelmohtar.com
Amal El-Mohtar
@amalelmohtar.com
21K followers 400 following 4.4K posts
Wrote half of This Is How You Lose the Time War & all of The River Has Roots. Next book: Seasons of Glass & Iron, March 24, 2026. I have a newsletter you can sign up for at amalelmohtar.com
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amalelmohtar.com
The absolute preponderance of amazing faces in this film
A Frenchman disguised as a Nazi making the most incredible sturgeon faced frown ever committed to celluloid
November 21, 2025 at 12:44 AM
amalelmohtar.com
God I want this poster so bad
On a black door, a poster featuring a death’s head clad in black and pointing at the viewer. Above it is the word SABOTAGE and below it, in French “Attention à Toi, Cheminot,” meaning “Watch Yourself, Railwayman.”
November 21, 2025 at 12:37 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Got a haircut & I’m really pleased with it! If you’re in Ottawa & looking for someone who’ll cut curly hair queerly I can highly recommend Tatiana at Bleach & Soda, she’s amazing.
A Before picture: mirror selfie while sitting in the hairdresser’s chair, my long dark hair reaching about as far as the edge of my ribs, messy and unkempt, the hairdresser behind me. An After picture, in a cafe, with a background of various foodstuffs and vintage light fixtures: I’m facing the camera and smiling close-mouthed, with my hair about 2-3 inches shorter, looking much healthier and bouncier and curlier. A selfie in which I’m lifting my curls up with one hand and clasping them behind my head, revealing shaved sides and the beginning of an undercut. The full undercut revealed in profile as I’ve pinned my hair into a bun at roughly the line of the cut.
November 18, 2025 at 9:35 PM
amalelmohtar.com
I’m reading THE SHINING for the first time & it’s extraordinary but some things simply strain credulity
Photo of a page from Stephen King’s THE SHINING that reads as follows: Halfway to Miami International, comfortably away from the switchboard where Queems or Queems's toadies were known to listen in, Hallorann stopped at a shopping center Laundromat and called United Air Lines. Flights to Denver? There was one due out at 6:36 P.M. Could the gentleman make that? Hallorann looked at his watch, which showed 6:02, and said he could.
November 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM
amalelmohtar.com
You ever just look at a cat
Possibly the best photo I’ve ever taken of Devon, a black and white cat with a pink nose and yellow-green eyes. Here he’s resting against my reclined body while my hand rests on his head, obscuring his ears and making him look more baffled and put upon than usual. A selfie in which Devon and I are looking at each other, me with fondness and him with a cat’s tender inscrutability, while he leans against me on the couch. The same pose as previous photo except now we’re both looking at the camera.
November 13, 2025 at 12:47 AM
amalelmohtar.com
If @kevinhearne.bsky.social suddenly & unexpectedly invites you out to Mexican food, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.

(Ay Wey is amazing & if you’re in Ottawa you should absolutely check it out)
Plates of tacos on a table. In the foreground are five open cochinita pibils on corn tortillas surrounding a tiny plastic cup full of pickled onion slices; in the background at top left is a plate full of all pastor, and at top right a plate of several different varieties, partially obscured by skull-shaped drinking glasses full of tepache and agua fresca. Selfie in which I’m holding up a skull-shaped glass of bright red agua fresca jamaica, wearing a fuzzy black beanie and a black hoodie that reads “Sci-Fi Fantasy” outlined in small silver studs. An awkwardly angled selfie featuring myself, my husband to the left, and Kevin Hearne to the right around a table with our food and drinks. A sunny photo of Kevin enthusiastically attacking a quesadilla with knife and fork.
November 11, 2025 at 11:28 PM
amalelmohtar.com
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
when toque & tank my body’s heat uphold
Gym changing room mirror selfie in which I’m wearing a black tank top, black fuzzy toque (how we say beanie in Canada). The tank top features an Emerald Barkley print combining California poppies and snakes in a palette of pale yellow and dark teal.
November 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Barcelona is so beautiful & everyone is so nice & the food is so good 😭
Three small plates on a black table top. Clockwise from top left: patatas bravas (fried potatoes served with garlic and tomato sauces) esqueixada de bacalao (a salad of salted cod, onions, olives, bell peppers) and Pa amb tomàquet (bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, sprinkled with salt and drizzled with olive oil) A seafood paella for two Gildas, skewers of olive, anchovy, pickled cucumber and hot pepper. A round flan on a plate with a smear of dulce de leche alongside it, next to a cafe con leche.
November 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Hello from Rouen
Photo of the front page of a newspaper called Libération showing a smiling Zohran Mamdani with the headline “ELECTION A NEW YORK ZOHRAN MAMDANI, ANTIDOTE ANTITRUMP”
November 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Anyway boats are great I love them
A selfie in profile. I’m on the deck of a ferry, looking to the right; my hair’s pulled into a dark and messy windswept top-knot. I’m wearing an olive-green corduroy jacket, a light green and black keffiyeh, glasses, and silver stud earrings imprinted with the kind of star that’s also a compass rose. Behind me a grey sky meets a pale green sea at the level of my eyes.
November 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM
amalelmohtar.com
I have never been as Canadian as I was at 1:00AM in a hotel bar in Brighton
A photo of the manic top half of my face in the foreground while in the background a TV screen shows the last game in the world series, between the LA Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays are up 3-0 at the bottom of the third.
November 2, 2025 at 1:14 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Friday: worked out, had a lovely lunch & writing session & dinner in excellent company before the mass signing situation where I met many new people & caught up with friends before venturing into a gorgeous cocktail bar called The Black Dove with @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social & @seraph76.bsky.social
Selfie including me, Sarah Rees Brennan and Chris Caldwell, in a lush and eclectically decorated basement bar space empty but for us: mirrors, haphazardly laid out framed art, and an oriental rug on the wall in the background.
November 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Charis was generous enough to let me take video of their explanation of the different elements of the image.
November 1, 2025 at 12:41 PM
amalelmohtar.com
WFC Thursday: a perfect meet-the-author group where one of the attendees (Charis Loke!) surprised me with an illustration of our wide-ranging discussion.
Pencil drawing by Charis Loke. 12 figures representing the group gather in a circle under a weeping willow by the edge of a star-strewn lake stretching into the foreground, its edge a wispy feather. At bottom right is a stack of books topped with the Twitter icon of a bird, while other elements of the fantastic landscape are made of pastries: a jam ring in the sun, croissants making little root mounds around the base of the tree.
November 1, 2025 at 12:38 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Can highly recommend The Salt Room in Brighton for delicious food & drink!
Selfie in which I’m wearing my hair down, glasses, and holding up a half drunk smoked old fashioned cocktail while smiling close-mouthed.
October 30, 2025 at 8:29 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Cramming in a tremendous amount of feeling into the 30-odd hours I’ve had in London this visit: today we caught the @ursulakleguin.com Word for World exhibit, & had lovely impromptu whirlwind stock signings at Foyles & the Waterstones on Tottenham Court Road.
A dark blue wall on which the words THE WORD FOR WORLD are spotlit in white, subtitled “The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin.” Beneath them is a shelf on which are maps for navigating the exhibit as well as maps illustrating its contents: to the right is a pile of stones inscribed with designs or covered in knotwork, to show how maps are talismans in Le Guin’s novel ALWAYS COMING HOME. A full length photo of me in a bookstore, wearing brown trousers, black boots, glasses, a green corduroy jacket and a light green keffiyeh. I’m smiling and wearing my long dark hair down while holding a stack of 19 signed copies of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Selfie in front of Foyles bookstore. Selfie taken with two lovely staff members at Foyles. I’m beaming in the foreground while in the background the staff members hold up copies of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Between us on a countertop are two stacks of the book topped with a single one standing up.
October 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Rarely have I been more excited to rip the arms off a shirt & wear it to the gym
A black t-shirt spread out on a bed. On it are the words “does my flesh dazzle you?” in acidic yellow. This is merch from Liz Duffy Adams’ play BORN WITH TEETH, about Shakespeare and Marlowe; the line is spoken by Marlowe.
October 30, 2025 at 2:16 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Saw @lizduffyadams.bsky.social’s BORN WITH TEETH & it was absolutely smashingly brilliant. Excruciatingly hot. Gorgeously written. Beautifully staged. Getting to see it with @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social & chat with @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social (not pictured) afterwards was utterly wonderful.
Helena and I stand to either side of a large poster for BORN WITH TEETH, gazing appreciatively at the hotness with which Ncuti Gatwa & Edward Bluemel depict Marlowe and Shakespeare. The poster shows Gatwa standing behind Bluemel, looking directly at camera while he holds Bluemel possessively against him, his fingers in Bluemel’s mouth, while Bluemel’s eyes are ecstatically closed and he covers Gatwa’s hand with his.
October 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Dishooooom
Selfie in which my husband and I hold up small glasses of chai while waiting to be seated at Dishoom.
October 29, 2025 at 7:08 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Have since learned from replies to this that there are raspberry varietals that do a second fruiting in the autumn! This is probably still the last fruit I’ll be collecting this year, though, what with frosts & travel.
A bunch of raspberries in varying stages of ripeness dangling from a green cane against a white wall. Bright red raspberries in a small blue bowl.
October 27, 2025 at 8:27 PM
amalelmohtar.com
This lives in my phone now
Screenshot of a tile from a logic puzzle game called Clues by Sam, in which a farmer emoji named Noah declares “There are more innocents among witches than any other profession”
October 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
amalelmohtar.com
oh my GOD
Screenshot from Marc Carig, senior managing editor for the NYT’s MLB coverage, that I pulled off someone else’s screenshot on a different platform. It reads as follows: “On the bright side for the Dodgers, that grand slam was hit in Canada, so with the exchange rate it worth only like 3.1 runs. So there's that.”
October 25, 2025 at 3:14 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Season of mists & mellow fruitfulness yes good however raspberries are a JULY FRUIT
My hand holding up a cluster of raspberries on the vine in varying stages of ripeness against a background of green leaves. My hand holding a small plastic container about a third full of raspberries against a background of green leaves.
October 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Performing my genre identity
Selfie in which I’m wearing glasses, a soft black beanie over my long dark hair which has escaped a side braid, and a black hoodie with the words SCI-FI FANTASY outlined on it in small silver studs shaping two contrasting fonts. In the background are yellow and orange autumn leaves against a cloud-dappled blue sky.
October 22, 2025 at 1:59 AM
amalelmohtar.com
@premeemohamed.com & I simply love a @banffcentre.bsky.social reunion & it is extra good when it ends with plotting the wildly unlikely location of the next one
Bookstore selfie with Premee Mohamed, in which we’re both smiling, wearing glasses, & looking hella cute
October 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM