iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Andrew Roff @roffwrites.bsky.social · 2h

Adelaide pals: seldom do we celebrate a Victorian, but we have to make an exception for Wayne Marshall's debut novel, Henry Goes Bush. Launching next Wed at Ern Malley. Free entry, just rock up, and don't worry: LOCALLY-sourced readings from yours truly, Alex Cothren & @jake-dean.bsky.social.

Invite to an event at Ern Malley on 14 October: Launch of Henry Goes Bush

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Robert @robertd1.bsky.social · 16h

Iain Sinclair on Jeffrey Archer's thrillers.

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Book Haven @bookhavennz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

At BookHaven we continue to get requests from companies to buy our secondhand books for LLM training & we continue to refuse those orders. It’s frustrating! & that’s why we thought it’d be great to have pip adam chatting about ai & technocracy & community & bookshops! #aotearoareads #bookshopday

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Book Haven @bookhavennz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It’s BookShop Day on Sat 10 Oct & @pipadam.bsky.social will be in BookHaven at 12.30 for a wee kōrero on ‘ai & technocracy & community & bookshops’. pip knows lots about the evils of AI companies & the joys of books written by real people & available in real shops - so come on by on #NZBookShopDay

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Peter Carey's memoir An Unstable Element was announced today. From the synopsis of the UK edition: "...An antic career in advertising. He was still attached to one of the world's great tinned-tuna accounts when writing his first Booker winner..." www.waterstones.com/book/an-unst...

waterstones.com

An Unstable Element by Peter Carey | Waterstones

Buy An Unstable Element by Peter Carey from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A “night of literary mayhem” is being promised in Adelaide on Wednesday week! Includes a SA launch for Wayne Marshall’s debut novel, Henry Goes Bush, and some readings featuring @roffwrites.bsky.social, Alex Cothren & @jake-dean.bsky.social. Ominously I have a “special guest role” too, so: be there!

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"Part of me thinks it would have been simpler just for Andy Burnham to recommend Jilly Cooper and give everyone a straightforward good time". @samjordison.bsky.social on the novelty of a book-reading PM... substack.com/app-link/pos...

substack.com

Big Heart

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says that Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness is the novel he would “press into someone’s hands to get them reading.” Bold move!

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The new @catherinechidgey.bsky.social novel,The Starving Bride, appears this week, here reviewed by @ghostspecies.bsky.social: “it interweaves climate anxiety and the derangements of body culture with deeply disquieting results…” thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/book...

thesaturdaypaper.com.au

The Starving Bride

The Saturday Paper is a quality weekly newspaper, dedicated to narrative long-form journalism.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Didn't know this. Hilary McPhee on signing Tim Winton: "Allen & Unwin discovered Tim first, I must make that clear, and looked after him very well. But the big mistake they made was having a policy that they didn’t publish short stories, which hardly any publishers did in those days. And we said,

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Vale Hilary McPhee - her fabulous memoir of a life in Australian publishing appeared in a new updated edition earlier this year www.mup.com.au/books/other-...

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Heide Franck @heidefranck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

UNS REICHT’S – WEIL ES NICHT REICHT Heute ist internationaler Übersetzertag, und heute protestieren wir öffentlich gegen unsere niedrigen Honorare – weil es nicht reicht. Die prekäre Einkommenssituation von Übersetzenden wollen und können wir nicht länger hinnehmen! #weilesnichtreicht

Pink-weiß-schwarze Grafik mit der Überschrift: Uns reicht's, weil es nicht reicht.
Darunter ein Foto von einer Frau mit der Sprechblase: "Ich übersetze Literatur, bin permanent am Schreibtisch – und trotzdem ständig kurz vor pleite."
Bildunterschrift: Heide Franck, Übersetzerin von "Babel" und "Atlas"

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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

So these were taken on my walk to work, from an inner suburb to the city fringe (Karori to Kelburn, for locals). I grew up in the area, and I absolutely would never have seen these birds in people's front yards 30 years ago. Wellington & its people made a choice to bring them back & we succeeded.

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John Attridge @johnattridge.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I don't know how this happened but a rogue AI swarm has hacked my chapter draft and added a long, theoretically-dense digression on a subject that is tangential to my argument

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Splice @thisissplice.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's been a year in the making, but at last Splice is back with a full slate for 2027! Four novellas and four story collections: one new book every six weeks from February 15. Available individually or as bundles, with a discount on pre-orders before January 31. Full details: www.ThisIsSplice.co.uk

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"In (Puberty Blues), girls who lived for surfing, but didn’t actually surf, fetched Chiko Rolls for their boyfriends. They were essentially Uber Eats before the app, except the delivery girls were paid in male approval." Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan on the Chiko Roll at 75 www.smh.com.au/national/aus...

smh.com.au

We eat 17 million of these a year. No wonder this Aussie snack’s been with us for 75 years

It’s outlasted Fantales and Sunny Boys, and it’s the same age as Daryl Somers. A tempting PhD topic, perhaps.

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David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

A note on the TLS website saying that an essay entiled 'AI and the crisi of the author' by Anchit Sathi has been removed because AI 'was used in its preparation'. TLS editorial guidlines prohibit the use of AI in writing and editing, although the author states that he was unaware of the policy.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“When I was younger, I imagined that one of the things that people in the publishing world would enjoy most was interacting with brilliant writers. I didn’t realize that people went to great lengths to avoid discussing texts with an author.” english.elpais.com/culture/2026...

english.elpais.com

Helen DeWitt: ‘Publishers treat authors like outcasts until it’s time to go out and sell books’

The acclaimed author of ‘The Last Samurai’ recently saw her 2018 short story collection, ‘Some Trick,’ as well as her 2022 novella, ‘The English Understand Wool,’ released in Spanish as part of a sing...

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Eamonn Sweeney @sweeneyagonistes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think we're heading towards the moment when a writer big enough to be commercially indispensable to a major publisher is detected using AI. At which stage there'll be a pivot to explaining how writers have always used different strategies to unlock their creativity, nothing to see here etc.

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Jeff Sparrow @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This passage from Anna Akhmatova during the Great Terror, in which she describes waiting outside a Stalinist prison alongside the desperate people seeking word of their relatives (most of whom were already dead).

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Of course it’s hard! It’s a wheeling, 288 page single sentence. It requires every drop of cerebral juice you have; all your precious, moth-eaten attention. But isn’t that magnificent? Some books should be hard; dare to demand that the reader shows up. www.themonthly.com.au/october-2026...

themonthly.com.au

On our selection: The Monthly Awards 2026

Six critics nominate their cultural highlights of the year, from visual arts, books, theatre, music and computer games

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Toni Jordan, who is working on her 9th book, tells me that it’s “practically impossible” to sustain a career as an artist in OZ. “You have to have such a run of good luck...”. Some glimmers then (Writing OZ's initiatives to date), but still pretty bleak for lit www.themonthly.com.au/october-2026...

themonthly.com.au

Portrait of an arts scene on fire

Ahead of the launch of a new national cultural policy and a Victorian state election, Australian governments are increasingly treating the creative sector as an unaffordable indulgence

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Marina Sofia @marinasofia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Even as a New-Berlinerin, have been laughing my head off at this brilliantly sarcastic thread!

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M.A.Orthofer @maorthofer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Always good to see Nobel Prize silly-season get rolling www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/23/o... [$] (And how can you argue with: "above all, @stephenking.bsky.social should get the top prize because he’s got the chops" ? That's what the Swedish Academy is always looking for: the chops.)

bostonglobe.com

Stephen King, Nobel laureate? - The Boston Globe

It sounds improbable. It shouldn’t.

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John Attridge @johnattridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Woke up in a cold sweat from a dream in which Melvyn Bragg asked me to give a quick definition of modernism

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“The land holds its own archive, and being there lets me actually read the stories stored in the topography.” Delighted for @emmahislop.bsky.social, this year's winner of the Robert Burns Fellowship! www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...

otago.ac.nz

Otago congratulates 2027 Arts Fellows

The University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka will host a full contingent of Arts Fellows in 2027.

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Katy Derbyshire @katyderbyshire.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Are you horrified by the German press’s attempts to get the corrupt CDU back into Berlin’s Rotes Rathaus by flinging accusations at die Linke? I recommend becoming an accomplice to @heistberlin.bsky.social — principled news from Berlin in English plus a very good podcast. Support them for €9 a month

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Please someone write again about Albanese's peerless political instincts

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"As a sector we feel comfortable investing in large scale musicals (often American) or in Shakespearean plays (a dead writer means no writers fees/royalities), but not in our own voices, in our own place, about where we live and who we are" - the ever-inspiring @augustasupple.com on insta just now

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Augusta Supple @augustasupple.com · 22/09/2026

I am absolutely beyond thrilled to have the support of the SBW Foundation for Parramatta's Lit! Play Development Program in 2027! Thank you to the @sbwfoundation for their generosity and vision in supporting new Australian play development in Western Sydney!

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Sydneysiders: catch a couple of my authors (Nicole Lenoir-Jourdain and Linda Atkins) tomorrow talking about the "long and winding road to publication" as part of @parramattaslit.bsky.social! events.humanitix.com/the-long-and...

events.humanitix.com

The Long and Winding Road

A candid conversation about persistence, process, creative practice and the road to publication. Celebrating everything that happens before there is a "book"

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"There’s one woman out there, but would a Nobel Prize committee member pair a pizza with a latté?"... – fantastic in-situ reportage here from formidable Nobel-channeller Mathilde!

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The book that stopped a nation over in Wellington...

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Zohran post about filling one pothole: We filled our 2,000th pothole! Wow! New York is the greatest city in the world! Zohran post about meeting with the president: Some guy was here and that is now over.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The memory of reading this! One of JM's greatest, that's for sure...

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"We’d like to honour appropriate remuneration of creatives in Australia. It’s been delightful to say to writers that this is what we’re able to pay you." Establishing editor Ashley Hay on the revived @meanjin.bsky.social over at @kydmagazine.bsky.social www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/what...

killyourdarlings.com.au

What's Next for Meanjin

An interview with establishing editor Ashley Hay

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Augusta Supple @augustasupple.com · 20/09/2026

Positioning myself as agent provocateur in conversation with two literary agents... It's bound to be an interesting conversation! Monday 28 September 2026 6:30pm-7:30pm Active Wellness Studio Level 1, PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square FREE Registration recconended

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Lucy Fishwife 🥐 @lucyfishwife.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A last fond photo of Tokyo Haneda airport, and a brainwave for a possible career change

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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 20/09/2026

"It had been known earlier to women." I love this understated line from the Online Etymology Dictionary, on the clitoris.

The anatomist Mateo Renaldo Colombo (1516-1559), professor at Padua, claimed
to have discovered it ('De re anatomica,"1559, p. 243). He called it amor Veneris, vel dulcedo "the love or sweetness of Venus." It had been known earlier to women.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"When the Tremolo EP arrived at MBV’s record label, the consensus was that the tape was defective, a sentiment shared by buyers who returned it to the shops, convinced the CD was faulty. Surely no one would intend music to sound like To Here Knows When" www.theguardian.com/music/2023/f...

theguardian.com

My Bloody Valentine’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!

Ten years since the release of their last album, mbv, we celebrate the greatest tracks by a band best known for its sonically extreme offerings

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

As part of @parramattaslit.bsky.social festival this month, fellow agent Dan Pilkington and I are having a chat on all things lit agenting, or as fest director @augustasupple.com puts it, "the joys, challenges and mysteries of representing writers". Register now! events.humanitix.com/secret-agent...

events.humanitix.com

Secret Agent's Business

What does a literary agent actually do? What are they looking for in a writer or manuscript? And what makes them want to keep reading? What inspires them?

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Alexander Wells @ajbwells.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Berlin people involved in writing, reading, living, laughing, and/or loving: Tomorrow we celebrate six months of our new online literature magazine. It's free and there'll be readings plus some chats. Come along and say g'tag!!! www.lettretage.de/programm/6-m...

lettretage.de

6 Months AUFLAUF – Lettrétage

Sep 19, 2026 19:00 Uhr | Eintritt: frei | Ort: Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin | Sprache: Englisch

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 06/04/2023

Lovely “translator’s afterword” by Jull Costa #JavierMarías

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Deal news! Always a pleasure to play a little hand in getting a fine early-career author into book form for the first time. @jake-dean.bsky.social's debut story collection Flat Spell will be appearing from Adelaide's Wakefield Press in mid-27! www.wakefieldpress.com.au/blog/2026/09...

wakefieldpress.com.au

ANNOUNCEMENT: Wakefield Press acquires Jake Dean’s debut short story collection

Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of Australian and New Zealand rights to Jake Dean’s debut collection, Flat Spell, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary. Publication of Flat Spel…

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