Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Escape into the thing you are escaping from and then escape into the thing you are escaping from 050
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 29/08/2026New purgatory from The mighty @ccrrll.bsky.social brought to life here - love it. 031
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Short but so sweet - absolutely love this little review of Sail Away Land. 021
Reposted by Ben PesterJo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎 @jolloyds.bsky.social · 05/08/2026What an unbelievably lovely thing - I had no idea this was happening - the wonderful Adrian Duncan talking about The Earth Thy Great Exchequer Ready Lies on the Library of Lazy Thinking - blown away lazythinking.substack.com/p/adrian-dun...lazythinking.substack.comAdrian Duncan on The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies by Jo LloydWriter and artist Adrian Duncan shares his thoughts on The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies by Jo Lloyd 36013
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Hey guys - what’s up? just think you should know that this novel will blow your mind. Anticipate it like you’ve never anticipated something before. 031
Reposted by Ben PesterJL Bogenschneider @bourgnetstogner.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Listened to the podcast yesterday and it was great. Enjoyed alongside @benpester.bsky.social's latest collection 'Sail Away Land' which was everything I wanted and more 131
Reposted by Ben PesterLRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 08/07/2026NEW PODCAST 🎧: In an audacious new take on the campus novel Luke Kennard’s protagonist, a penniless out-of-work actor, takes on a job unlike any other. He is hired to sit silently at the back of a lecture hall, concealed within a black bag. Listen here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...londonreviewbookshop.co.ukLuke Kennard and Will Eaves: Black Bag | London Review BookshopLuke Kennard talks about his novel, Black Bag, with Will Eaves for the London Review Bookshop Podcast 0155
Reposted by Ben PesterLRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 04/07/2026NEW PODCAST: In MAGIC AND MECHANICS, the latest in @scratchbooks.bsky.social ‘Reverse Engineering’ series, six writers present and disassemble one of their recent short stories. To celebrate its launch, Claire-Louise Bennett was in conversation with Ben Pester. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c... 063
Reposted by Ben PesterOrla Owen @orlaowenwriting.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Another wonderful ‘book instead of a birthday card’ delivered to a friend by the superb @bertsbooks.bsky.social 💜💜 #TheExpansionProject by @benpester.bsky.social 👏📚👏 #books #booksky 131
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 12/06/2026I love @nickharkaway.com ’s Smiley - incredibly happy to see this one coming soon. 220
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 11/06/2026This is a special book - I’m really looking forward to talking to the man himself at Blackwells in Oxford on Monday 15th June www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/m-john-har... (With apologies to booksellers for crossing streams here but honestly The End of Everything rightly transcends all that)eventbrite.co.ukM. John Harrison THE END OF EVERYTHING with Ben PesterCult author M. John Harrison will join us for an exclusive event at Blackwell's as he discusses his latest novel, 'The End of Everything' 032
Reposted by Ben PesterJason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 09/06/2026'What differentiates @benpester.bsky.social from other satirical, postmodernist writers…is his interest in the mechanics of these strange situations. Even as he conjures increasingly outlandish scenes, Pester remains rooted in the patterns of our everyday lives' Financial Times Sail Away Land 021
Reposted by Ben PesterTony White @tonywhite.bsky.social · 06/06/2026The new season of Literature Live continues on #resonancefm this Monday 8 June broadcasting live at 8:00pm for readings and chat with my brilliant author guests this time: Susan Finlay and Ben Pester — don’t miss! pieceofpaperpress.com/literature-l... 061
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Cannot wait for this event with Keith Ridgway - who has written multiple books that have given me new ways to think about writing and what fiction is basically for. Dooneen is one of the best books I’m a year of incredible books. I think about it a lot. 181
Reposted by Ben PesterJason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 01/06/2026First reviews for @benpester.bsky.social's Sail Away Land (published this week). ‘Weirdness and wonder jostle his protagonists…These unsettling stories...vibrate with the low hum of an anxiety dream’ Daily Mail ‘Strange, funny and disorientating’ i-news 064
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Cannot wait - come along. As a huge fan of Keith Ridgway I will definitely be there 040
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 09/05/2026So happy to have these two in my house. Both out on 4th June New stories - Sail Away Land new paperback - The Expansion Project. Thank you @grantabooks.bsky.social @jasonarthur.bsky.social 1189
Reposted by Ben PesterDr Jo Edge 🏴 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 05/05/2026‘We’re slashing your courses and sacking lecturers and support staff’ 29921
Reposted by Ben PesterTramp Press @tramppress.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Tonight! Join Juliano Zaffino in conversation with Ben Pester to launch The Steps at Burley Fischer! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/juliano-za...eventbrite.co.ukJuliano Zaffino: The Steps (London Launch)Join Juliano Zaffino, in conversation with Ben Pester, to launch his debut novel at Burley Fisher Books. 042
Reposted by Ben PesterDrew Gummerson @drewgum.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Enjoyed @benpester.bsky.social The Expansion Project - it starts out as a father taking his daughter to work, daughter going missing novel and then becomes something much stranger; a workplace Unconsoled & in its fractured narrative, pieced together, it reminded me also of Olga Ravn’s Employees. 0142
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 01/04/2026This was a great night thanks so much @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk 141
Reposted by Ben PesterDavid Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 29/03/2026The strangeness of the ordinary and the ordinariness of the strange is the world of Ben Pester’s forthcoming collection ’Sail Away Land’. Told with a singular, uncanny apprehension and density of feeling these stories are superbly unsettling and compelling. Published June @grantabooks.bsky.social. 0152
Reposted by Ben PesterSo Mayer @suchmayer.northsky.social · 20/03/2026I am an author. My moral issue with AI is that it's destroying the planet. My specific moral issue with the extraction of my works by Anthropic is that LLMs trained on my words are being used in so-called autonomous weapons. 1258
Reposted by Ben PesterDr Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou @hannahhg.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Last few days to stream this talk for FREE with the brilliant Ben Pester via Fane's website. Book via the link below: www.fane.co.uk/ben-pester 041
Reposted by Ben PesterJason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 07/03/2026'THE BOOK I'M CURRENTLY READING: Sail Away Land by @benpester.bsky.social. It’s weird and soulful. I love ending my days with it.' Come June, you too can end your days with these fabulous stories! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...theguardian.comSaba Sams: ‘I’ve no interest in reading Wuthering Heights again’The Send Nudes author on rereading Lorrie Moore, finding Dodie Smith at the right time, and the enduring brilliance of Muriel Spark 051
Reposted by Ben PesterDr Alice Violett @alicemcalicepants.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026Behold! The February reading round-up I was trying to publish for most of Sunday 😁 www.draliceviolett.com/what-i-read-… #bookstodon #BookMastodon 033
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 23/02/2026The amazing Jo Lloyd here with quality radio broadcasting 1102
Reposted by Ben PesterMalcolm Dixon @malcolmdixon59.bsky.social · 22/02/2026This is (literally) a fabulous story—a wry, sweet, comic tale of an Arthurian quest where the quarry proves elusive, time passes and life happens elsewhere. Also your socks get wet (spoiler, sorry). Tone & word perfect. Find it on BBC Sounds. Recommended. 152
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 18/02/2026Had such an amazing time talking to @hannahhg.bsky.social - I really hope you get a chance to listen 143
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 29/01/2026This was so great! Absolutely loved talking to and writing with this thoughtful and welcoming group of writers. it was a privilege 140
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 27/01/2026my Book has a considerably better wardrobe than I do. So happy with the paperback cover! 0111
Reposted by Ben PesterDr Emma K Pey @ekpey.bsky.social · 19/01/2026@benpester.bsky.social is visiting Colchester WriteNight for The Big Interview about writing, short fiction and his surreal novel, The Expansion Project, shortlisted for The Goldsmith’s Prize and the Nero Prize for Debut Fiction. We’ll all be interviewing/writing together, you’re welcome to join us 063
Reposted by Ben PesterRebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 08/01/2026Violence is too often sloppy; it spills over. Misogynists kill a lot of men, racists kill white people, ICE in its attacks on immigrants and anyone who looks like them just killed a white US citizen. When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when you're a gun everyone is a target. 141008228
Reposted by Ben PesterZack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 14/12/2025I'm on my way to a Chanukah event. It should be a celebration but instead our community is once again mourning. I will be thinking of everyone in Australia and those around the world in the Jewish Community who know this fear and loss. We stand with you. 423042511
Reposted by Ben PesterSagging Meniscus @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Thanks to @benpester.bsky.social , author of THE EXPANSION PROJECT (Granta 2025), for this reading from @guillermostitch.bsky.social's THE COAST OF EVERYTHING. youtube.comBen Pester Reads From Guillermo Stitch's THE COAST OF EVERYTHINGThanks to Ben Pester, author of THE EXPANSION PROJECT and AM I IN THE RIGHT PLACE, for reading this excerpt from Guillermo Stitch's THE COAST OF EVERYTHING. ... 072
Reposted by Ben PesterThe Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 03/12/2025We're watching the wholesale burning of every scrap of dignity afforded to trans people in the UK, their rights, their medical services, their employment, their place within society, their bodily functions. It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country. 122594811
Reposted by Ben PesterJason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 20/11/2025So pleased to see @benpester.bsky.social's The Expansion Project has been shortlisted for the Nero Debut Novel Award. Richly deserved. 092
Reposted by Ben PesterThe London Magazine @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social · 18/11/2025After selecting a shortlist of six stories from thousands of entries, we are thrilled to announce Renesha Dhanraj as the winner of The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025, for her story, ‘Black Cake’. Read more here: thelondonmagazine.org/renesha-dhan...thelondonmagazine.orgRenesha Dhanraj wins The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025 - The London MagazineThe judges of The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025 award first place to Renesha Dhanraj for her story, 'Black Cake'. 086
Reposted by Ben PesterRónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 18/11/2025In honour of the eighteenth of November, here's my recent @irishtimes.com interview with Solvej Balle about seven books on the subject of being stuck in today's date. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...irishtimes.comSolvej Balle: ‘I thought that if I started to write this, I would spoil it’Solvej Balle’s near-40-year project, On the Calculation of Volume, seems both outside time and yet immediately relevant 2277
Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 17/11/2025Ah wow - really loved reading this review of The Expansion Project. I know these things are not for the author really but you have to say thanks when someone is writing at this level about your work. Incredible. So grateful. 262
Reposted by Ben PesterThe London Magazine @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social · 14/11/2025We are delighted to share the shortlist of six stories for The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2025! Congratulations to all shortlisted writers, and a huge thank you to our judges Gurnaik Johal, Ben Pester and CAA’s Erika Price. Winners will be announced next week. 023
Reposted by Ben PesterJason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 15/11/2025So pleased to see Nicola Barker's TonyInterruptor ('Strange & clever'), @benpester.bsky.social's The Expansion Project ('That rare thing, unique') & @catherinelacey.bsky.social's The Möbius Book ('Thrilling') included in this 'Greatest Books of 2025' list. www.telegraph.co.uk/books/author...telegraph.co.ukThe greatest books of 2025Our critics review hundreds of books a year. Here are their favourites, from fiction and crime to memoir and history 042