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Alex Sawyer

@alexsawyer.bsky.social
114 followers 207 following 193 posts

Complete amateur, real dilettante. My debut novel, Rat Daniels, is coming out in 2026.

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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I don’t believe in the masculinity crisis except specifically in the case of Neil the Seal and We Need To Talk About It
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Honestly I think we need to see if there’s any funding left in the arts, and give it all to the Socceroos
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Going back to Uni to do my PhD in adults who repeatedly hammer the pedestrian crossing button
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Absolute pleasure getting to speak with fellow writers about the authors perspective on getting a debut published. Thanks @emergingwriters.bsky.social and Hachette Australia for having me!
An ad for ‘Inside the Publishing House’ organised by Emerging Writers Festival and Hachette Aus
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 20/01/2026
“Devastated literary figures have been working hard behind the scenes” This community 📚❤️✊🏼 www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...
indailysa.com.au
Read the room: Guerilla Writers’ Week is happening - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia
Organisers of an alternative Writers’ Festival have vowed to push ahead after receiving support at an Adelaide City Council meeting.
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 15/01/2026
…and yet not a waste, because we have drawn a clear line in the sand. We will not accept racism or censorship. Authors have stood firm and we have won. We will bear the losses now, but we have shown our strength and made it easier for others to take a stand.
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Jonathan Green @greenj.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Notes in the aftermath: some thoughts post-Adelaide open.substack.com/pub/greenwor...
open.substack.com
Cohesion And Other Adelaides of the Soul
An act of defiant resistance.
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Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Adelaide Festival is done - and the rest of the board has stepped down
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Adelaide Writers Week is worth saving and hopefully can be saved from the immense damage done to it by its own board. But the ease with which the damage was done says that it’s time for a newer, nimbler, less restricted festival in its wake
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Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I have been sent a copy of Adelaide Festival's response to the letter raising concerns about Thomas Friedman's participating in Adelaide Writers Week. The response says that Friedman could not participate due to "last minute scheduling issues".
Copy of Adelaide Festival's response following the complaint regarding commentary by Thomas Friedman.
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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Richard Flanagan on point: "But with this act of utter folly and appalling weakness, the Adelaide Festival board – and the politicians who direct it – have, by scapegoating a Palestinian writer, now destroyed Adelaide Writers Week for the foreseeable future..." www.smh.com.au/national/if-...
smh.com.au
If Tony Abbott is welcome at Adelaide Writers’ Week, Randa Abdel-Fattah should be too
Australia’s best writers festival could collapse within days as international and local writers boycott it in protest at the removal of Randa Abdel-Fattah.
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 09/01/2026
A guerrilla festival is indeed being discussed 📚❤️ ✊🏼 www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...
indailysa.com.au
Guerilla festival on cards as city councillor moves to pull Writers' Week funding - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia
A guerrilla festival could be on the cards as boycotting writers discuss protest options and city councillors explore cutting funding.
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Australian Society of Authors @asauthors.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
We are delighted to announce that Jennifer Mills has been appointed Chair of the ASA Board of Directors. Outgoing Chair, Sophie Cunningham, will remain on the Board as Deputy Chair, continuing her valued contribution to the ASA. www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-welcomes-new-chair-jennifer-mills/
asauthors.org.au
ASA welcomes new Chair, Jennifer Mills - Australian Society of Authors
We are delighted to announce Jennifer Mills has been appointed Chair of the Australian Society of Authors.
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Big get for the Richell
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Appalling, Unnecessary decision by Melbourne Uni and they need to explain themselves. It’s not a financial decision to shut down a cultural institution that runs on the cost of an executive lunch allowance
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Aboubakr Daqīq @abbkrdqq.ink · 22/08/2025
New from me: On coffee, names and the magic brewed by your local barista.
islandmag.com
Cold coffee – by Aboubakr Daqiq | Australian Literary Arts Magazine | ISLAND
I haven’t always liked coffee. Loved the smell, just not the taste. In recent years, however, I’ve found myself more than impartial towards an occasional morning coffee – especially when paired with a...
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Andrew Roff @roffwrites.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Adelaide friends: we are officially launching Here Are My Demands at Ern Malley bar in Stepney on 27 August. Come hear me tee off about the state of the future! All welcome, (free) tickets essential. Details here: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/book-launc...
eventbrite.com.au
Book Launch: Here Are My Demands, Andrew Roff
Join us for the launch of Andrew Roff's debut novel, HERE ARE MY DEMANDS
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Jake Dean @jake-dean.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Ripper launch of Alex Cothren and Olivia De Zilva's new books from Pink Shorts Press in Adelaide last night (alongside a new edition of Barbara Hanrahan's Annie Magdalene). Buy the books, it's illegal no to! www.pinkshortspress.com.au/books
Alex Cothren reads from his new collection, Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere, during the launch at an old school bowls club.The cover of Alex Cothren's Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere, featuring an illustration of a crushed beer can.
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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
In my hands: agent copies arrive of Alex Cothren’s splendid debut, a story collection, out from Adelaide startup Pink Shorts Press next month! (nb/ this might actually be the one that makes me a millionaire, dear Alex!)
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Andrew Roff @roffwrites.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Hey friends, my debut novel is out *right now* and you can ask your local bookshop to order it, or else grab a copy here: www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/here...
wakefieldpress.com.au
Here Are My Demands - Wakefield Press
It's 2058 and Maggie Garewal's moment has arrived. Daringly speculative and yet all too recognisable, Here Are My Demands is a story about fighting on in the face of resistance, and the unprecedented ...
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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Strewth, finished copies of @roffwrites.bsky.social’s debut novel emerge! Out very soon from Adelaide’s Wakefield Press! #HereAreMyDemands
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
On holiday and reading Salvage. Feels more optimistic than @jennifermills.net.au’s last post-apocalypse, which is good because the last one came true this year and it sucks
Jennifer Mills Salvage posed next to a damp fire pit
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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Women are lagging behind on going bankrupt on DraftKings, drinking themselves to death, and fist-fighting anyone who looks at them funny on the subway but they can catch up.
some dumb shit head writing bullshit
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 06/06/2025
Another incredible review of Salvage. From Rachael Mead in Indaily. “The world building in this novel is a work of art” www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...
indailysa.com.au
Book review: Salvage - InReview | InDaily, Inside South Australia
Jennifer Mills creates a character-driven story of sisterhood and the search for a place to belong within a devastated world where working together holds the key to survival.
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
But I do love the bullshit machine
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
The problem with calling them ‘hallucinations’ is it implies that there are times when LLMs accurately perceive the world. It’s ALL hallucinations it’s just that sometimes the vectors line up on things that happen to be true. The bullshit machine doesn’t know the difference.
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 05/06/2025
Launch #1 begins in half an hour! So grateful to have support from Imprints, Writers SA and the State Library of SA 💙📚🎉
A nice display of copies of Salvage
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I think it would be so devastating to be a student these days, having carefully honed over a decade the ability to bullshit confidently and plausibly over and over again to your teachers, to feign insight based on guesswork and skullduggery… to have that all taken away from you by a machine
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I don’t want the chip in my brain but I do need a solution to the problem of some of the best writing passages occurring to me in the third kilometre of 15K run. I know it won’t last until the next time I’m at a notebook
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I don’t know what it is but max is one of the best doing it
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Ren Wyld @wyld.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Thread: update on the State Library of Queensland & QLD government's unethical rescindment of my Black&Write Fellowship, with references to their letter that I received today; and a call for action:
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 26/05/2025
Beach was covered in dead cuttlefish this morning. An omen I take VERY personally
A deceased cuttlefish on the sand
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marcus @registradus.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
there's a bit of tension in the Judith Lucy pinterest stan world currently
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
abc.net.au
'This could be the beginning of the end': Toxic algal bloom a sign of a changing climate
A mysterious, brown foam appeared on a beach an hour south of Adelaide. It was just the beginning of a toxic algal bloom that has now grown to thousands of square kilometres in size, killing precious ...
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 23/05/2025
Grateful for this. stella.org.au/2025/05/mich...
stella.org.au
Michelle de Kretser’s 2025 acceptance speech
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Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
"Unlike the women and girls of Gaza, I’m not brave. Fear is a formidable and insidious opponent. It convinces us to censor ourselves, to obey in advance, to down the Kool-Aid before it’s been offered. I’m still afraid. But I’ve just accepted a prize that is not about obedience."
stella.org.au
Michelle de Kretser’s 2025 acceptance speech
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Osman Faruqi @osmanfaruqi.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Great speech by Stella winner Michelle de Kretser discussing the censorship around Gaza. Deeply strange its contents were only reported by The Age. Neither ABC nor Guardian write ups of the event mention her powerful comments at all. stella.org.au/2025/05/mich...
stella.org.au
Michelle de Kretser’s 2025 acceptance speech
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 22/05/2025
A statement from @asauthors.bsky.social on the appalling rescindment of the black&write! fellowship this week. "This represents yet another alarming instance of the undermining of freedom of expression and arms-length arts funding from a major institution." www.asauthors.org.au/news/state-l...
asauthors.org.au
State Library of Queensland fellowship decision - Australian Society of Authors
The ASA is disturbed by the decision of the State Library of Queensland to rescind author KA Ren Wyld’s 2025 black&write! Fellowship.
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The day author Ren Wyld was due to receive the Black & Write $15k Indigenous fellowship she was told it had been rescinded. A journo from the Oz seemed to know before she did. Appalling to see QLD govt cave to Murdoch press to punish a First Nations writer for speaking out in support of Palestine.
Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded, including an email from a journo at The Australian sent 20 minutes before she was told. Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
The Oz is going after a UQP publisher who is a member of the Jewish Council of Australia for wearing a t-shirt that says: READERS AND WRITERS AGAINST THE GENOCIDE.
Article with the headline: University of Queensland has distanced itself from pro-Palestine book publisher.
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Jake Dean @jake-dean.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Solid gold from Alex Cothren in today’s @thesaturdaypaper.com.au. His forthcoming collection is going to be a DOOZY
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Solid rump
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
History is written by the terminally online
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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Immortal Joe speaking
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Michael Pryor @michaeljpryor.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
What you may not know about the publishing industry: 1 Cardboard boxes all around the offices 2 So many post-it notes 3 Every two years, publishers, editors and marketers meet on a secret island to learn the Next Big Publishing Trend, which has been chosen by a blindfolded duck.
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
No exaggeration to say that entering this prize two years ago changed my life. Hachette will be publishing my book, Rat Daniels next year. Can’t recommend it enough (both entering the prize and buying my book)
hachette.com.au
Applications Open for The Richell Prize 2025
Hachette Australia and EWF's annual publishing prize.
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Esther Anatolitis @anatolitis.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Great to see a sensible classification for Maia Kobabe’s memoir ‘Gender Queer’. An important outcome that helps displace disingenuous objections by transphobes with ethical, evidence-based submissions by professionals. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Gender Queer graphic novel reapproved for sale in Australia after federal court fight to ban book
Complaints about the book focus on cartoon sex scenes, one of which has been described by critics as ‘pornographic’ and ‘paedophilic’
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Alex Sawyer @alexsawyer.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Have finally got around to reading that famous Roland Barthes essay, I didn’t realise that he’d literally meant that he wanted to kill all authors, that makes a lot more sense now
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
This is a wild story about one of Australia’s biggest radio networks inventing their only non-white host (it has since been confirmed this ‘broadcaster’ is AI).
thecarpet.com.au
Meet Thy – the radio host I don’t think exists
Have AI personalities already infiltrated the Australian media?
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