iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Barbara Waxer 🌈 @barbara-waxer.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 15h

I'm using a Kobo Clara BW and pretty happy with it.

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 14/10/2026

Simba Kundizeza's statement on his Caine Prize-winning story "The Blue Fighter" is also worth reading—keep in mind, the evidence-free article slandering him was published in The Atlantic to a mass readership and his defense is a tweet to his eight hundred followers

Simba Kundizeza
@S_S_Kundizeza
Statement on The Atlantic article concerning “The Blue Fighter”

I would like to say at the outset that this statement is not in any way a proffer of an explanation or a defense against the allegations levelled against me in the article published by The Atlantic, because I don’t believe the article warrants either. I am however writing because of the level of public interest generated in its aftermath, and out of respect for the people who have supported and championed my writing, as well as my fellow shortlisted writers for the Caine Prize. I want to set the record straight.

For the avoidance of doubt, I wrote "The Blue Fighter." I did not use generative AI to write it. It is entirely my own work.

This story did not appear out of nowhere; it has a concrete, documented history. Its genesis was during my LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency in Ghana. While there‚ I read a poem by vangile gantsho titled “my father's hands․” I was inspired by this poem to write a story about my family's experiences in Zimbabwe‚ including my father leaving his accounting profession and the hardships my family faced as a result․ Other aspects of the story‚ including characters and the setting‚ are drawn from events in my own life․

There is also a clear chronology to the story's development. I sent the completed first draft of the story to vangile for feedback on May 15‚ 2025․ I then submitted the story to The Shallow Tales Review on May 27‚ 2025․ Fiction editor Nzube Nlebedim accepted the story on June 10‚ 2025‚ and it went through the standard editorial process. vangile then provided her feedback to me on June 25‚ 2025․ On the same day Nzube also provided editorial feedback to me․ In an email dated June 27‚ 2025‚ I sent the final draft and requested that the editor preserve the formatting of an epigraph in the story as originally submitted by vangile as a courtesy to her․ The story was published on June 30‚ 2025․

The Atlantic article seems to question the story's authorship by comparing its style to my other writing. As writers we develop recurring interests, but we don’t produce work from a single fixed template. My debut novel, “Freelance”, and the story titled "The Whistleblower" published in Transition Magazine in 2021 which is referenced by Ms. Vara, are thrillers dealing with political intrigue. "The Blue Fighter," however, is a deeply personal story about economic collapse and familial relationships. The voice shifts because the subject matter demands it. To suggest that a writer cannot write in different styles or genres, or improve his writing substantially after five or more years fundamentally misunderstands the craft of writing.

The motive for my supposedly using AI to generate the story is equally difficult to understand. I was under no obligation to write “The Blue Fighter”. I was not commissioned to produce it, nor was I paid a fee for its publication. The decision to submit the piece for consideration for the Caine Prize was made by the editor of The Shallow Tales Review months after its publication. I therefore didn’t write the story with any guarantee that it would be submitted, let alone win anything. The idea that I would have somehow written the story with the express intention of entering and winning the Caine Prize, despite the inherently competitive and uncertain nature of the prize, conjures up a motive that simply did not exist.

"The Blue Fighter" is my work, and I stand by it completely. I'm grateful to vangile for her inspiration, to The Shallow Tales Review for giving the story a home, and to the Caine Prize judges for recognizing the work on its merits. I’m also heartened by the numerous messages of solidarity from fellow writers and readers, and to Adrienne Ingrum and Regina Brooks at Serendipity Literary Agency for their support throughout.
I look forward to continuing to work with the Caine Prize team, and to celebrating this recognition with the people who helped bring this story into the world.

Most importantly, I will continue to write.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I think that is a very hopeful outlook that is not borne out anecdotally by teenage girls' experiences in high school or statistically by the number of school shootings now compared to the 80s.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm not being rhetorical! Every characteristic I can think of for Carrie still exists. Most notably the bullying, religious abuse, and limited or misinformation about sex.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Can you elaborate on "teenagers like [Carrie] don't exist anymore"?

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Wole Talabi | Preorder THE FIST OF MEMORY @wtalabi.com · 09/10/2026

Africanfuturism is an anchor point for science fiction that is not just by Africans, or set in Africa, but about Africa. This is an excellent sampler from my brilliant publisher @dawbooks.bsky.social Its a great deal! www.humblebundle.com/books/africa...

humblebundle.com

African Futurism: Nnedi Okorafor, Wole Talabi, and Adam Oyebanji by DAW Books

Read daring, imaginative science fiction stories in this African Futurism ebook bundle! Pay what you want and support BINC!

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I've been wondering about China + 100!

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Jed Hartman @elysdir.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I knew that Must Read Magazines (new owners of Asimov’s, F&SF, and Analog) had been insisting on bad contract terms with authors, but I didn’t know that their contract terms for cover artists are even worse. 1/3

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I rejoice whenever I see ads for cars or diapers. You have targeted me incorrectly, and I rejoice.

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Granta @grantamag.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

We congratulate Anne Carson, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. Carson is a contributing editor at Granta and a regular writer for the magazine. In celebration, we have lifted the paywall on all her contributions to our pages. granta.com/contributor/...

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Of course the US founders were fascinated by ancient Athens. It was another slave state that called itself a democracy.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

tbf, I have been reading 3 books I am pretty sure will end up on the faves list of whatever month I finish them.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Very different from August! But in August I read more than usual, and more books than usual were great; September was the opposite in both aspects.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Disappointing: Scarlet Song by Mariama Ba, trans. Dorothy S. Blair, which starts off with the psychological complexity of So Long a Letter, but devolves into caricature & melodrama. The new ebook version is so rife with OCR errors that I suspect it didn't get any human review.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Also of note: N.H. Reeve's monograph on Elizabeth Taylor, which usefully contextualizes her work in WII & post-WWII UK history and in the stylistic trends of the British novel.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Not quite a fave but I'm still thinking about it: Living Things by Munir Hachemi, trans. Julia Sanches -- recommended to everyone who liked Hachemi's superb sf novella, The Mulai; Living Things gives me new thoughts about The Mulai's treatment of labor.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Favorite read of September: Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott (useful supplemental information provided by Marsha Gordon's Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott)

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Definitely go and have a poke around and see if anything takes your fancy here. All the Bora Chungs are great; from this year, The Formosa Exchange is my pick so far.

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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 06/10/2026

Anti-Prime Day starts…NOW! 🥳 Today through midnight on 10/7, enjoy free shipping site-wide, all while supporting local, independent bookstores.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It's been a Watchmen vid song to me ever since you mentioned it!

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It is only a 6-month contract, but it is nice to have some money coming in!

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Jed Hartman @elysdir.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

FluMist: “a vaccine that is sprayed into the nose to help protect against influenza in people ages 2 through 49 years.” You can order it online and administer it to yourself at home. (Available in “all 48 mainland [US] states and the District of Columbia.”) www.flumist.com

flumist.com

FluMist® (Influenza Vaccine Live, Intranasal) | Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine

Discover FluMist® (Influenza Vaccine Live, Intranasal) – a needle-free nasal spray flu vaccine that helps protect against seasonal influenza. Learn how it works and who it's for.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I dressed up for my first day at a new job and am relieved to know that tomorrow I can sort to my usual custom, dressing like a slob.

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Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It says 38 books. But since reading any Wolfe book is going to be like reading 3 books in 1 at a minimum, this is really like 100+ books. www.humblebundle.com/books/ultima...

humblebundle.com

Humble Book Bundle: The Ultimate Gene Wolfe Library by Tor Books

Get a massive library of the best of sci-fi and fantasy master Gene Wolfe! Choose what you pay, and support Alzheimer’s Research UK with your purchase!

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Nisi Shawl @nisishawl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is so exciting! A whole new book line for Writing the Other! Here's a link to the post on the Aqueduct Press blog: aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2026/09/aque... And @ktempestbradford.com really and truly did say those very words, right @timmi.bsky.social?

aqueductpress.blogspot.com

Aqueduct's Creating Inclusive Narrative series will launch in 2027

For immediate release Aqueduct Press, in association with Writing the Other, is excited to announce a new book series launching in 2027...

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

in this election season, I would like to once more inform the world I would donate MORE for a guarantee of not being added to mailing lists and text banks for the candidate and all their friends

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I was going to say "Hey!" but apparently I do have more than 75 followers.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

hey, they actually updated the headline. Nice.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

stop treating "religion" as a synonym for "Christianity" challenge for reporters

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

* but INVISIBLE within the narrative.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's not a syllepsis, but it has a similar sly extradiegetic humor, that oddness that is funny to the reader but within the narrative.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

From "Green" by Ian R. McLeod

There are many kinds of pest in a garden. Thrips and greenfly. Flea beetles, fairies, and fungi. Manslugs that nibble leaf-heraldry to mark the territory of their bearded king. Leatherjackets. Mealybugs. An unmarshalled army bickering to bore a ripening fruit or wither a well-formed stem.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

From Wickhills by Premee Mohamed:

It was still a bit too warm for the snow to pile up, not that it would have in most of the city anyway. Towers were capped with spires as narrow as hat-pins; temples, banks, and museums swelled at the top into slippery hemispheres. Ordinary structures, like blocks of flats or cab shelters, did the best they could with roofs at precarious angles, so that in some cases the slate shingles had begun to dangle by their nails. The overall effect was sharp, glittering, and hostile as a drawerful of knives. But it shed snow very efficiently, and did not impede the city’s aerial wildlife one whit; there was not a roof without its cluster of house swallows, pigeons, angels, or streetlights. The streets crawled and shivered like an animal twitching in its sleep.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I think we should coin a name for the speculative world-building practice of sliding an unmarked speculative element into a mundane list. There is an example in Wickhills that delights me, not least because it reminds me of another favorite example from Ian McLeod's "Green".

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Do you think Revolutionary Girl Utena was directly influenced by Der Rosenkavalier, or do you think it was indirect influence by Takarazuka? People who know more than I do about opera: discuss.

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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 24/09/2026

This is really interesting and informative! I appreciate this really rigorous look complicating things that have been generally accepted as fact in popular culture e.g. the mechanics of spillover. I hope it gets the coverage and care it deserves (and wish we had more actual science journos).

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Jeannelle @jeannellewrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

October 6 WHEEEEEEE!

The back cover of a forthcoming book, 'Ochre, Quartz, or Ivy,; dark blue with summary text and an author photo.

The cover of a forthcoming book, 'Ochre, Quartz, or Ivy,', with a gray sky, a mountain, a raptor fossil and a deep lake.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

will someone please save this popular, critically successful show

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

❤️ new Shaun Tan ❤️

A small humanoid creature with a round belly and broomstick hair poses on a human palm, one hand on hip, one in the air, as if lecturing. Captioned "My little sister, who knows everything. Or so she keeps telling me."

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It reminded me of @nkjemisin.bsky.social's Broken Earth books, where people may be driven to abusive parenting as an attempt for their kids to survive a racist system--but it's still abusive parenting. I haven't seen the JL cartoon I do think Aaron Pierre is great.

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Mely @coffeeandink.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Can't tell if Lanterns 1×05 is as bad as I think it is, or if it just suffered from being watched in close proximity to Furious.

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Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.com · 10/09/2026

A lovely launch for Gale Wilhelm's We Too Are Drifting, the newest of the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social, at the Vespiary, a cozy queer-owned bookstore and bindery in Missoula. Talie Wilkinson, who wrote the afterword, reflected on the mystery of why Wilhelm stopped writing.

Talie Wilkinson reads her reflections on why Gale Wilhelm stopped writing in the early 1950s and the absence of evidence in her papers at the UC Bancroft Library.

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