iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Ah how lovely to hear! Thank you so much Jonathan

000

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Escape into the thing you are escaping from and then escape into the thing you are escaping from

050

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

New purgatory from The mighty @ccrrll.bsky.social brought to life here - love it.

031

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A special one this. 💙💙💙

010

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Short but so sweet - absolutely love this little review of Sail Away Land.

021

Reposted by Ben Pester

Jo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎 @jolloyds.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

What 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.com

Adrian Duncan on The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies by Jo Lloyd

Writer and artist Adrian Duncan shares his thoughts on The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies by Jo Lloyd

36013

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Hey 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

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Ah mate - thank you so much!

010

Reposted by Ben Pester

JL Bogenschneider @bourgnetstogner.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Listened 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

Book: 'Sail Away Land' by Ben Pester. Shows a blue sky with a white cloud and lamppost with a number of birds perched stop.

131

Reposted by Ben Pester

LRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 08/07/2026

NEW 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.uk

Luke Kennard and Will Eaves: Black Bag | London Review Bookshop

Luke Kennard talks about his novel, Black Bag, with Will Eaves for the London Review Bookshop Podcast

0155

Reposted by Ben Pester

LRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 04/07/2026

NEW 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

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Jo Lloyd on the radio. This is a great thing

183

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Toy Story 6 rejected sub-villain

010

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

He’s Been offered high command of a new imperial vessel. The guys at the helmet shop told home everyone does their hair like that. Otherwise it itches.

120

Reposted by Ben Pester

Orla Owen @orlaowenwriting.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Another wonderful ‘book instead of a birthday card’ delivered to a friend by the superb @bertsbooks.bsky.social 💜💜 #TheExpansionProject by @benpester.bsky.social 👏📚👏 #books #booksky

Paperback copy of The Expansion Project by Ben Pester.

131

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Aha! Well I hope they like it too! thanks again

000

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

ah this is great! Hope you like it Orla!

110

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I love @nickharkaway.com ’s Smiley - incredibly happy to see this one coming soon.

220

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

This 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.uk

M. John Harrison THE END OF EVERYTHING with Ben Pester

Cult 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

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Love this little review from Marie Claire!

010

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

love this zone - Thanks Dan

000

Reposted by Ben Pester

Jason 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 Pester

Tony White @tonywhite.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The 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 · 07/06/2026

Ah love being on the radio - this will be great!

011

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Ah Jo - this means so much to me! thank you so much. 💙

110

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I think that’s so true - and it always feels so alive; we’re not being given a puzzle to solve or a test of intelligence but just an absolute warmth and sort of joy of collectively doing this to ourselves. Hooray for Keith!

010

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Cannot 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

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Ah that’s the publisher’s call. The two covers have a subtle connection though (paperback and new stories) and are published on the same day. You can see the line of glitchiness runs down roughly the same path in the centre of the page. I really love them both!

010

Reposted by Ben Pester

Jason Arthur @jasonarthur.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

First 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 · 26/05/2026

Cannot wait - come along. As a huge fan of Keith Ridgway I will definitely be there

040

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

So 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

Two paperback books: Sail Away Land and The Expansion Project - both by Ben Pester, photographed on nice dark wooden floorboards.

1189

Reposted by Ben Pester

Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

‘We’re slashing your courses and sacking lecturers and support staff’

29921

Reposted by Ben Pester

Tramp Press @tramppress.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Tonight! Join Juliano Zaffino in conversation with Ben Pester to launch The Steps at Burley Fischer! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/juliano-za...

eventbrite.co.uk

Juliano 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 Pester

Drew Gummerson @drewgum.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Enjoyed @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.

Cover of book. A perfectly circular yellow sun rises behind a pair of connected office buildings.

0142

Reposted by Ben Pester

David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

The 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.

Sail Away Land by Ben Pester.
I sat there, in the office, the easiest job I had ever had. I looked at the plant in the corner of the room. I looked at the sad little kettle on the work surface.
I looked at the jar of biscuits that was smeared with crumbs and fat on the inside. I could not speak. My mouth was filled, at that moment, with the flavour of the ink on the postcards that I sent you. And then there was an actual postcard in my mouth, it had somehow been lodged in my stomach somewhere.
June 2026

0152

Reposted by Ben Pester

So Mayer @suchmayer.northsky.social · 20/03/2026

I 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 Pester

Dr Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou @hannahhg.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Last 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 Pester

Jason 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.com

Saba 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 Pester

Dr Alice Violett @alicemcalicepants.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026

Behold! The February reading round-up I was trying to publish for most of Sunday 😁 www.draliceviolett.com/what-i-read-… #bookstodon #BookMastodon

Book covers of: The Expansion Project by Ben Pester; The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune; Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone; The Silver Wind by Nina Allan; A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett

033

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

You won’t be disappointed June - absolutely phenomenal

010

Ben Pester @benpester.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The amazing Jo Lloyd here with quality radio broadcasting

1102

Reposted by Ben Pester

Malcolm Dixon @malcolmdixon59.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

This 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 · 18/02/2026

Had such an amazing time talking to @hannahhg.bsky.social - I really hope you get a chance to listen

143