iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Finally reached this bit reading Earthsea to the wee one at bedtime over the past many months...

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minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Berlin weekender ... 16th & 17th October ... details here: minorliteratures.com/minor-incide...

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Alexander Wells @ajbwells.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Berlin people involved in writing, reading, living, laughing, and/or loving: Tomorrow we celebrate six months of our new online literature magazine. It's free and there'll be readings plus some chats. Come along and say g'tag!!! www.lettretage.de/programm/6-m...

lettretage.de

6 Months AUFLAUF – Lettrétage

Sep 19, 2026 19:00 Uhr | Eintritt: frei | Ort: Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin | Sprache: Englisch

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

ovoids, llamas. unexpected items on the Isle of Coll last month.

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minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

meanwhile, check these out ...

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

If you'd like an idea of current stress levels, these have all featured in my dreams in the past few nights: - eaten by a bear - mauled by a tiger with one eye - received a letter from Adobe demanding payment of $1,324,741 for downloading fonts without a license (?!)

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

turns out that karma is a chameleon, eh? the irony. #fuckboygeorge

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Really looks like they‘re deciding the fate of the Malvinas tonight

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Even Borges is playing for Cabo Verde 💚

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Cory Oldweiler @coryoldweiler.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This novel’s a masterpiece. If you want to read about Elena Garro in the meantime, I wrote about her career, short stories (tr. Megan McDowell), & Jazmina Barrera’s bio of her (tr. Christina MacSweeney) @southwestreview.bsky.social (Sadly they misspelled her name in the url so I look like an idiot)

southwestreview.com

Of Things to Come | The Legacy of Elana Garro

By Cory Oldweiler

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Some timely editing this evening in Berlin, where it is still 27 degrees at 10.30 pm. From a new translation of Memories of Future Times by Elena Garro, forthcoming from Charco Press.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

great to see Sawe is a Parmenides fan on top of everything else 🫡

newspaper caption quoting London marathon record-breaker Sawe saying 'I have shown that nothing is not possible'

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minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

P.S. save the date ...

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Obviously we all knew Farage is a grifter but this is just insane. The bare facts of this should be forced down the throat of anyone dreaming of voting Reform. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

‘Nigel is mad to accept his money’: who is Christopher Harborne, the mystery billionaire bankrolling Reform?

A crypto tycoon is giving record-breaking amounts to Farage’s party. But little is known about his motives

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Dave C @duckpondsreview.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

2021 #69 An early find for me from @charcopress.com and what a wonderful find it is. Sagasti pulls together a heap of apparently unrelated characters from modern history and weaves a tale that connects them. There's more in the alt text, it's still a big favourite in this household ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🖋️📚 #booksky

Fireflies, by Luis Sagasti, tr by Fionn Petch

A lyrical and philosophical exploration of seemingly unrelated people and events in modern history, drawing them together to form a whole.
How do we even begin to narrate the history of the world? Where do we start, and where do we end? Fireflies is Sagasti's bold and original attempt to answer these questions. Roaming across time and geography, he lights on an eclectic array of characters and events that at first glance seem unrelated, and teases out their stories to reveal unexpected points of contact between them. Stanley Kubrick, Joseph Beuys, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Neil Armstrong, Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Beatles, Japanese poets, Brazilian priests, Russian cosmonauts and many more cross these pages, and Sagasti finds common threads that weave them together into a single narrative.
The fireflies themselves perhaps provide the key to understanding this book. They become a metaphor for the resistance of certain luminous moments, certain twinkling fragments of history, to the passing of time. They remind us that events do not always simply disappear neatly into the darkness, but rather remain, floating in the air, lighting up the night sky indefinitely. Sagasti shows us that the present moment, like this novel, is a tapestry woven of a multiplicity of times.
Using his unique, poetic and keenly observant style, Sagasti transforms the accidents of history into a single, lyrical constellation, and for the reader it is an extraordinary sight.

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Alina Stefanescu @alinaetc.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Loved this book all the way to the 812th unidentified moon of a distant galaxy. Splendid and unforgettable. Thank you @elusiveword.bsky.social for bringing it into English.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Unexpectedly met the avatars of the AI translation apocalypse at a dinner tonight. Reassured them that we literary translators will fight to the death 🫡

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

On second thoughts maybe it was overly optimistic of me to renew my annual Berlin museums pass today?

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

the wee yin and I are all set for Artemis lift-off tonight

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Charco Press @charcopress.com · 31/03/2026

We are honoured to announce that ON EARTH AS IT IS BENEATH has been shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize! Our huge congratulations to author Ana Paula Maia and translator Padma Viswanathan, and to all the other shortlistees. Available here: charcopress.com/bookstore/on...

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

"Israel has killed dozens of paramedics in this war. Its a pattern we've seen them carry out in Gaza, its a pattern we saw them carry out here 2 years ago, now its happening again" Secunder Kermani reporting from Lebanon.

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Charco Press @charcopress.com · 10/03/2026

Peruvian author Cisneros (The Distance Between Us, You Shall Leave Your Land and The World We Saw Burning) reflects on inheritance, silence and identity within a family marked by power and conflict. 🎫 www.hayfestival.com/p-25260-rena...

hayfestival.com

Renato Cisneros and Philippe Sands talk to Sophie Hughes - Hay Festival

The writers and the translator discuss the question — how much are our private lives shaped by political and historical forces?

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

that is quite the statement from former head of US counterterrorism

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Swapped all the fun of the London book fair for Highland fastnesses, but at least these two babies were waiting for me.

Two books in a log basket: Cartarescu’s Blinding (vol 1) and Knockan by Scottish poet Jim Carruth

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Setting off from Berlin for LBF. Hope to see some of you tomorrow at the translators’ gathering. (New side gig: art courier services.)

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The essence of my philosophy PhD thesis, reduced to a fruity portmanteau. Could have saved myself a lot of work…

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Phil Harrison @mrpmharrison.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I've rarely seen anyone more desperately in need of a good kicking than this cunt.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Hegseth is a maniac. Psychopathic bloodlust.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

(gentle reminder for translator friends: if you‘re using a machine to ‘help‘, remember to cover your tracks by converting those pesky 'straight' apostrophes to ‘smart’ ones... 😎)

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Charco Press @charcopress.com · 03/03/2026

Out today! One young woman’s fractious, hopeful, attempt to give in to love. X IS WHERE I AM by Sara Torres (tr. Maureen Shaughnessy). Get your copy at your lovely bookstore, or direct from us. Or better yet, get our 2026 Bundle and get all our books for the year! charcopress.com/bookstore/x-...

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Another blow for Glasgow, on top of the loss of the CCA. No longer recognise the city that was such a cultural lighthouse when I was growing up.

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

@reedbrody.bsky.social : "Whatever you think of the dictatorship in Iran these strikes are a clear violation of the foundational principle of the post war legal order"

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Diorama at #frannz club at the KulturBrauerei last night

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Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول @faredalmahlool.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

BREAKING — 51 Iranian children are dead after a strike hits Minab girls elementary school in Iran.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Ending the week on a high not only because warmth has finally returned to Berlin (& rare good news from the UK), but above all because I've finally got hold of a very limited copy of @wordkunst.bsky.social's beautifully crafted new offering.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Gotta be some clues in there somewhere... 🔍

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Swa leng, swa wyrse... this is fabulous

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

My translation of A People's History of Football has received the graphic novel treatment! Radical football stories, retold with outstanding illustrations. Such fun to translate. Pre-order now for 25% off. @plutopress.bsky.social @mickacorreia.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/book/a-peopl...

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Palestine Action poem-anagrammed

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

These strange interstices… I look up a Paz poem because it is cited in the novel I’m editing, and minutes later the same location appears in the novel I’m reading (Claire-Louise Bennett, Checkout 19). Trowbridge.

First stanza of a poem by Octavio Paz entitled Trowbridge Street, translated by Ciaran Cosgrove.

Fragment of Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett with the word ‘Trowbridge’.

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

We came to see Covenant #columbia-theater but now intrigued to know I have a namesake band…

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Fionn Petch @elusiveword.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

this is very much not the Globe, nor the Thames, Condé Nast. I am full of other travel-related insights if you need me... www.cntraveller.com/article/wher...

a picture of the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with the caption 'The Globe overlooking the Thames'

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Cory Oldweiler @coryoldweiler.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Yes it is! Read everything Falco writes (and everything Croft translates and Charco publishes for that matter).

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Charco Press @charcopress.com · 20/01/2026

ON EARTH AS IT IS BENEATH is LONGLISTED for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (US & Canada) @usrofc.bsky.social! Read about the longlist here: www.republicofconsciousnessprize-usa.com/news/republi...

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StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

French judge explains how Trump sent people from the US Embassy to try to intimidate her during Marine Le Pen's trial for embezzlement — and details how he has used similar fascistic tactics to intimidate other judges around the world who rule against his alt-right friends.

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