iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Feats of Strength 💙 Trauma Healing @featsofstrength.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

This post below contextualizes a truly exceptional essay published in the BMJ Medical Humanities. (link therein) The "lyrical essay" combines prose, poetry, memoir & statistics into a powerful vehicle centering two CSA survivors' voices. Its powerful & distressing - its the voices we need to hear.

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Patricia Debney @patriciadebney.com · 21/04/2026

The starting point: how is child sexual abuse represented in the arts, if indeed it is represented at all? Looking for ourselves in books, films, plays, visual arts, and music is a human thing. We look outward as ways of looking inward.We look outward to reflect upon our own lives and experiences.

patriciadebney.com

on representation

In the Land of Peaks and Troughs (see my last post), here's how I (we) climbed to Peak 1. The starting point: how is child sexual abuse represented in the arts, if indeed it is represented at all? Looking for ourselves in books, films, plays, visual arts, and music is a human thing. We look outward as ways of looking inward.

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Joanna Pocock @joannapocock.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Finally made it to the V&A East Storage where I swooned at the Frankfurt Kitchen. These were designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky for German social housing in 1926 and were the forerunner of the ‘fitted kitchen’. Such beautiful simplicity. #V&A #frankfurtkitchen #london #architecture #design

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Andrew Neilson @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

A bump for this guest @northseapoets.bsky.social post. I've always loved this Auden poem and I have always loved the notion of an imaginary friend. So here I am writing about both: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

open.substack.com

Auden's 'Imaginary Friends'

NSP Guest Post! Andrew Neilson on how the literati cope as Rome falls

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Wouldn’t it be something if Royal Lodge, Windsor, could become a retreat / shelter for victim survivors of #sexualabuse and #sexualassault? #survivorsvoices #CSA #rapecrisis #survivor #SA #DV #MeToo

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Finished Creatures Poetry Magazine @finishedpoetry.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Submissions are now open for issue nine. The theme is Trespass: rights and wrongs; encroachment and colonisation; faults and forgiveness. Please see the website (link in bio) for information and guidelines. Window closes August 31st. 🕊 xx

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Gorgeous miniature binding by Gabrielle Fox of my poem ‘The bookbinder’ - what a gift! #finebookbinding #miniaturebooks

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North Sea Poets @northseapoets.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

New post on #Substack from @johnglenday.bsky.social Robert Frost's Eyebrows – John Glenday on words, syllables and cadence. #NorthSeaPoets #PoetryCommunity

A description of John Glenday's latest North Sea Poets Substack against a green background.

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

little brushes of larch 💚

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Scottish Poetry Library @byleaveswelive.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

North Sea Poets is shaping up to be a vital new collaborative poetry project. Writing on their #Substack at northseapoets.substack.com is superb. How could it not be when NSP is written/run by Kathleen Jamie, Niall Campbell, Don Paterson, Karen Solie, John Glenday, Lisa Brockwell, Lesley Harrison.

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Lily Dunn @lilydunn.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

My next book, INTO BEING: will be published by MUP in October and I can now share the cover - it is part memoir, part teaching manual for those of you who love writing. It is one of the only books in the UK to focus on the craft of #memoir. Pre-order manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179258/

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Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Special offer from Longbarrow Press: any 3 hardbacks for £32. Includes collections by Steve Ely, Angelina D'Roza, Rob Hindle, Peter Riley, Nancy Gaffield, Mark Goodwin, Matthew Clegg, Fay Musselwhite, 'The Footing' anthology, and more longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

Ten Longbarrow hardbacks, arranged diagonally, spines facing outwards.

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Yesterday made a ⚡️ trip to Lewes to hear Neil Gower talk for LewesLitSoc about a life’s work with graphic art, books, maps, + his own writing. So moving to see Neil’s art for ‘The Missing List’ among the images projected. I love what he created & I’m so happy to have his painting on my study wall.

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

My review of Robert Hamberger’s latest collection – for The Friday Poem open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...

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Clare Shaw @clareshawpoet.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Wishing you a happy mid February, with the help of the five-year-olds of Keswick. kimmoore30.substack.com/p/love-and-o...

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John McCullough @mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Love continues. Poem by Robert Hershon (1936-2021) originally published in Poetry Northwest, Autumn 2000.

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

A single word can be a lie. For example, journalists are still calling what Musk and his child army have been doing an operation in pursuit of government efficiency.... www.meditationsinanemergency.com/to-use-their...

meditationsinanemergency.com

To Use Their Language Is to Endorse Their Lies

Every crisis is in part a storytelling crisis, and the current one here in the US is also a language crisis. How we use the language and how we listen for lies that are in single words and phrases as ...

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

this is my mother’s cloth tape measure, and the embroidered felt case (complete with tiny button and button loop!) that she made as a schoolgirl in the mid-1930s… a wonderful small reminder of an age of handmade detail in everyday objects – bringing so much pleasure still 😌

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

This is what should be on every front page right now. What's happening in the US right now is an illegal power grab by a private citizen. IT'S A COUP. It's a digital coup. It's Musk who's leading it. The consequences are terrifying. And it's coming for us next. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

open.substack.com

IT IS A COUP

This is what should be on every front page in 150 point banner headlines. All I have is this Substack but I lay it beneath your feet and pray to a higher power that I'm wrong.

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Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · 09/02/2025

The Bridport Prize is offering two fully funded writer residencies in Dorset for writers from The Midlands and/or The North West of the UK who are working class and/or 60+ From Sunday 22 to Friday 27 June 2025. Writers must be available for the whole period. Details in link. Please share :)

bridportprize.org.uk

New! Fully funded writer residencies Working class and/or 60+ - Bridport Prize

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Bad Lilies @badlilies.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Things feel quite grim in the world. Poetry, as with much else, is battered by the elements: the doers struggle against the odds, while our thinkers are befuddled. But you know what? Bad Lilies returns later this month and we start typesetting TOMORROW. 😎

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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Since everybody seems to be talking about blurb culture in publishing this week, I wrote about a few memorable poetry blurbs someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/pinks-27-a...

someflowerssoon.substack.com

Pinks #27: A Noise Like a Publisher

When poets write blurbs

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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I had the sweetest dream last night. I was driving on the LIE and there was Donald Trump in a red jumpsuit, picking up trash beside the highway.

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Rishi Dastidar @betarish.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Delighted to be one of the judges for The London Library's Emerging Writers Programme; masterclasses, networking peer support and year's membership to the library. Give it a go. More deets: www.londonlibrary.co.uk/about-us/ll-...

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Delicious variety & new collaborations celebrating poetry. If you haven’t already, join our newsletter via our website for details on featured events, workshops and poets. It’s the best way to keep up to date on what’s when who and why.

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Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The meanings of the word for a wren, from eight different languages... 8. Little walnut (Bulgarian) 7. Little bird in the ditch (Japanese) 6. Thumbling (Finnish) 5. Fence-skedaddler (Danish) 4. Fence-master (Hebrew) 3. Druid bird (Irish) 2. Mouse-brother (Faroese) 1. Little king of winter (Dutch)

Photo of a tubby little wren (what I like to call a "little dumpling birb") perched on an icy branch, taken by Jeff Cohen

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

15 years since HappenStance published ‘Treasure Ground’ - my first poetry pamphlet. On 11 Dec it’ll be 18 years since my risk-reducing bilateral mastectomies, wh inspired ‘Excisions’ (Waterloo Press 2011) & ‘Breastless’ (Pighog 2011). Gratitude: a powerful emotion. I declare it here, today. 🙏🏻

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Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Today’s poem is called ‘How to Avoid Mixing Your Metaphors’.

How to Avoid Mixing Your Metaphors

It’s not rocket surgery.
First, get all your ducks on the same page.
After all, you can’t make an omelette
without breaking stride.

Be sure to watch what you write
with a fine-tuned comb.
Check and re-check until the cows turn blue.
It’s as easy as falling off a piece of cake.

Don’t worry about opening up
a whole hill of beans:
you can always burn that bridge when you come to it,
if you follow where I’m coming from.

Concentrate! Keep your door closed
and your enemies closer.
Finally, don’t take the moral high horse:
if the metaphor fits, walk a mile in it.

Brian Bilston

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Robin Houghton @robinhoughton.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Currently updating my quarterly spreadsheet of poetry journals and their submissions windows, to be sent out later in the week. If you're a poet looking to submit work, and are not already on my list, sign up here - tinyurl.com/robinsubslist

tinyurl.com

Poetry Magazines Submissions Spreadsheet

Poets! Take the hard work out of submitting to poetry magazines What poetry magazines are there? What are their web addresses? How many poems can I send? Are they open for submissions now? You&#821…

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

starry seedheads of Alexanders / Wild celery / Black lovage / Megweed / Hell root / Horse parsley 💚

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Clare Best @clarebest.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

hello blue sky - here’s a mackerel sky with silver birch #tunstallforest

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