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Laurence Lumsden

@laurencewrites.com
1.1K followers 1.3K following 158 posts

Dubliner in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Writer. www.LaurenceWrites.com. 2025 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize. Posts in English/Français/Svenska. (He/Him/YerMan)

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Reposted by Laurence Lumsden
Cult MTL @cultmtl.com · 30/09/2026
The Every Child Matters rally and march is taking place in Montreal today at 1 p.m. “Join us as we march to honour the children who never returned home and to remember those who continue to carry the impacts of residential schools.” #NDTR
cultmtl.com
The Every Child Matters rally and march is taking place in Montreal on Sept. 30
Sept. 30 is being observed in Montreal with a rally and march titled Every Child Matters: A Day of Action for Truth and Reconciliation.
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 30/09/2026
Get your orange shirt on! #OrangeShirtDay www.canada.ca/en/canadian-...
September 30th is Canada's national day for truth and reconciliation, recognising the harm and the loss of culture, freedom, and self-esteem that many Indigenous children experienced in the Residential Schools system.
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Jenny Lee Shee @jennyleeshee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we acknowledge and reflect on the deep intergenerational harm residential schools have caused to Indigenous families and communities. Art by Elaine Landry #OrangeShirtDay #EveryChildMatters #TruthAndReconciliation
A handprint on an orange background. The handprint is broken into segments, inside of which are different symbols representing elements of Indigenous culture, including animal paw prints, landscapes with trees, and other images drawn from nature. There is a large black eagle feather on the left side of the handprint, and bird silhouettes appear in the upper left hand corner of the image. The words EVERY CHILD MATTERS appear at the bottom of the piece.
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Chronic Illness Humor @chronicillness.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Vintage-style Gothic artwork featuring a woman in a long white nightgown fleeing past a gnarled, leafless tree under a dark, dramatic sky. White serif text centered at the top of the image reads: "Ask your doctor if running screaming into the savage night might be right for you." A small copyright watermark reading "©ephemera.com" is visible in the bottom right corner.
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Sinéad Gleeson @sineadgleeson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Rounding out a writing residency in beautiful Birr with an event at the town’s library this evening (a former church, with stunning stained glass). 7pm, all welcome, if you know anyone in Offaly…
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Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Nous sommes amis grâce à notre histoire, alliés grâce à nos valeurs, et voisins grâce à Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. 🇨🇦🇫🇷
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 20/09/2026
For folks in Canada: a petition to the House of Commons to block a MAGA-supporting US company from taking ownership of vital Canadian payment infrastructure i.e. Moneris: www.ourcommons.ca/Petitions/en...
ourcommons.ca
Petition e-7712 - Petitions
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Anna Vangala Jones @anniejowrites.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
spending my one wild & precious life on my silly phone while looking longingly at my beloved stack of books beside me waiting to be read
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Ola Majekodunmi @olamajekodunmi.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Ag súil go mór, mór le físdánta nua de mo chuid a roinnt aige seo d'Oíche Chultúir 🗣✏️ antaibhdhearc.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
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Leslie Pietrzyk @lesliepwriter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Only sensible approach.
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Jenny Mitchell @jennymitchellgo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Delighted to be facilitating a short online session for the Society of Authors on Sept 18th. We'll free-up positive energy for our work, and find ways to love it even more in the face of set backs. Hope to see you there. 🦋 societyofauthors.org/event/feel-g...
societyofauthors.org
Feel Good Friday - Transforming doubt into creativity - The Society of Authors
This session led by writer, Jenny Mitchell is for any writer who has felt their work isn’t good enough or who has moments of self-doubt, especially after facing rejection.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026
Sometimes I feel old for remembering when the tech industry’s primary product wasn’t death threats
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Cult MTL @cultmtl.com · 09/09/2026
“Climate change isn’t some abstract, future threat. It’s here.” A feature by @mtltoula.bsky.social. Montréal Climate Week aims to empower communities and inspire action in the face of an existential crisis
cultmtl.com
Montréal Climate Week aims to empower communities and inspire action in the face of an existential crisis
The inaugural edition of Montréal Climate Week runs from Sept. 8 to 13, and the festival’s main guiding principle is “radical hope.”
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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/09/2026
I'll be reading a short story as part of the Doors Into The Dark event dedicated to weird & wonderful fiction on 26th September at The Seamus Heaney Centre (Queen's University Belfast). Organised by @theactualemma.bsky.social and Niall McKenna. Tickets: www.seamusheaneycentre.com/Events/Doors...
A green poster with an illustration of a crow which reads "The Seamus Heaney Centre, Doors Onto The Dark: A Day of Weird Fiction, Saturday 26th September 2026".
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Niamh Mac Cabe @niamhmaccabe.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🤠 Looking forward to this event at the Dublin Book Festival, where I'll be chatting with John O'Donnell and Niall McMonagle about the Short Story form #dbf26 @lilliputpress.bsky.social dublinbookfestival.com/event/the-ar...
dublinbookfestival.com
The Art of the Short Story - Dublin Book Festival
Hear authors Niamh Mac Cabe and John O'Donnell discussing their short story collections at Dublin Book Festival 2026
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 02/09/2026
I'd planned to buy a new MacBook this fall, but won't be spending money on American tech until the US govt ends its trade war (and infantile mouthing off) against my country. Might take a while. I can wait.
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 02/09/2026
I'd planned to buy a new MacBook this fall, but won't be spending money on American tech until the US govt ends its trade war (and infantile mouthing off) against my country. Might take a while. I can wait.
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Kieran Hurley @kieranhurley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Seriously what is the point of being rich and famous if you're not going to be Dolly Parton about it
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Text: Treat your body like a data centre. Consume as much water and literature as possible. Upset local city councils with your existence. 
Background image: a bearded man putting up the frame of aparge tent in a muddy field with trees in the background.
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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Please come join us for the Belfast launch of #NoVacancy at No Alibis on Tuesday 29th September with an intro from the lovely and very talented @bebeashley.bsky.social free tickets via No Alibis website
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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Good grief, this hits home.
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Deirdre O'Shaughnessy @deshocks.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
If you were confused about what happened in Ceuta last week read this piece by @lizcarolan.com who's looking at how it blew up online and who's behind it... www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
irishexaminer.com
Liz Carolan: Migrants pay a deadly price in Ceuta disinformation disaster
All the layers of neglected dysfunction in our information environment have come together into one deadly, toxic mess for Moroccans in Ceuta, writes Liz Carolan
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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
London loves, won’t you join us please to discuss this extraordinary book, finally being republished to the admiration it so richly deserves
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Emma Devlin @theactualemma.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Very excited to present UNDERTOW. This will be a showcase of new and emerging writers of weird and wonderful fiction. If you'd like to take part, please click here: www.seamusheaneycentre.com/news/Callfor...
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Jonathan Edward Durham @thisone0verhere.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Turns out the most punk rock things you can do are support your local library, be brave enough to make bad human art, and love the bees
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 24/07/2026
Stories from Mavis Gallant, bagels from Fairmount Bagel - a happy Friday from Montreal! #shortstory #Montreal #bagel #TGIF
Two golden sesame bagels from Fairmount Bagel, next to a well thumbed  copy of the short story collection "Montreal Stories" by Mavis Gallant.
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 23/07/2026
A wonderful man, a brilliant musician, I saw him several times at the Montreal Jazz Festival where he was a regular. RIP Mr. Jones. #OliverJones
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 19/07/2026
#OtD 19 Jul 1984 the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strike began in Dublin, Ireland when Mary Manning was suspended for refusing to check out South African fruit. She and 11 others went on strike for three years until the govt banned SA goods stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9108...
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Bob Fry @bobfry.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Louis Macneice anyone?
Star-Gazer
Forty-two years ago (to me if to no one else
The number is of some interest) it was a brilliant starry night And the westward train was empty and had no corridors
So darting from side to side I could catch the unwonted sight
 Of those almost intolerably bright
Holes, punched in the sky, which excited me partly because 
Of their Latin names and partly because I had read in the textbooks 
How very far off they were, it seemed their light
Had left them (some at least long years before I was.

And this remembering now I mark that what Light was leaving some of them at least then, 
Forty-two years ago, will never arrive 
In time for me to catch it, which light when 
It does get here may find that there is not Anyone left alive
To run from side to side in a late night train
Admiring it and adding noughts in vain.

Louis Macneice
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Matthew Stewart @roguestrands.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Really sad to hear that Meg Cox has died. She was an fine poet with many different registers. This poem of hers remains a top-notch, acerbic critique of the scene...!
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Bryn Donovan @bryndonovan.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I’m an writer and I don’t use AI because, as you might recall my mentioning earlier, I’m a writer.
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Chapters Bookstore, Parnell St, D1 @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Saturday is W. B. Yeats’s birthday and this year we are not letting him stand sadly in the corner while Joyce gets hats, breakfasts, walking tours, pints and an entire global literary industry. We love Bloomsday. We do. But Yeats' Day is happening - at least online! Bring opinions.
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John Maguire @johnmaguire.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Calling on the Irish government and state agencies to immediately close their X accounts. Continued use of a fascist agitator's social media site is both incompatible with democratic values and immoral.
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Siobhán @shibbi.me · 08/06/2026
books are amazing. a stranger from 200 years ago can ruin your evening emotionally
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 11/04/2026
I don't know how to explain to the people who pop up when creatives complain about "AI" to say there are legit uses for it just how much they sound like someone saying "Well actually fire is used to make bread" when people are talking about an organized arson ring burning down their fucking houses
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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 04/06/2026
Just write down whatever words you want and then you repeat that process forever.
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Laurel Gale @laurelgale.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I found this neat tool that lets you generate text and images just from your ideas. It's really good!
a pencil
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Nuala O'Connor @nualaoconnor.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Please join us to celebrate Dublin-born writer Elizabeth Bowen on her birthday weekend, in Dublin 💗
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
The original cars with their much larger restyling versions issued years later [📹 roma_urraco] Original post
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Sinéad Gleeson @sineadgleeson.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
If you’re in Dublin tomorrow evening, I’ll be in conversation with Mary Costello about her new novel A Beautiful Loan, at 6pm as part of @ilfdublin.bsky.social. Tickets here: ilfdublin.com/whats-on/fes... @canongate.co.uk
ilfdublin.com
Life On Loan Mary Costello
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The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I don’t exactly have scientific data to support this, but I firmly believe that the sound of rain on the roof enhances the reading experience by at least 57%.
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 17/05/2026
Isabelle Picard is right. Colonialism is alive and well amongst those who would consider themselves its victims. it can be hard to see what’s right under your nose. @isabellepicard.bsky.social www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...
lapresse.ca
Mary Simon et le bilinguisme | Le colonialisme, c’est maintenant
Il est 6 h 54. Je suis assise devant mon ordinateur. J’ai mis des gants blancs. Deux paires, même si je sais que ce papier risque de me valoir un lot de reproches et d’incompréhension.
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
I think the best way to enjoy this list, which contains lots of predictable choices (made as it was by committee), is to find a book you like, click to see who voted for it, and then look at the voters' other top 10 choices. You might find something else you like that you haven't read.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 13/05/2026
David Attenborough is not just a national treasure: he is also the most radical person on TV | Jonathan Liew
theguardian.com
David Attenborough is not just a national treasure: he is also the most radical person on TV | Jonathan Liew
The naturalist is venerated as a cuddly Paddington Bear, but he’s more than that. Don’t let the superficial backslaps obscure the political critique he makes, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Massive congratulations to Danielle McLaughlin who is the very best of us, on the launch of another brilliant book tonight @booksupstairs.bsky.social If you haven’t got a copy of #Rituals yet pick one up quick - everyone needs a bit of Joan in their life @stingingfly.bsky.social
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Here is Danielle McLaughlin’s new novel Rituals. Published by Stinging Fly in Ireland and, as far as I can tell, with no UK publisher. I snapped up this signed edition as I liked her debut novel The Art of Falling so much.
Cover with a mosaic of illustrations - flowers, buildings, a woman, a pot - by Siobhán Rea Signed and numbered title page
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 07/05/2026
Bollocks. One, hardcovers are selling great, especially the ones that these days come with sprayed edges and illustrated end pages. Two, ditching hardcovers would absolutely gut author and bookseller incomes. You want to fuck up publishing? Kill the hardcover. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books | Larry Ryan
It’s an annoying choice: either lug around a heavy tome or try to remember when the paperback version is coming out, says freelance writer Larry Ryan
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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Brilliant effort by @france-atmosphe.re: three starter packs listing *all* of the French media present and active on @bsky.app. Bravo les amis!
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Laurence Lumsden @laurencewrites.com · 03/05/2026
Short stories, tall grave - Guy de Maupassant au cimetière du Montparnasse
Graveside monument of Guy de Maupassant.
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