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Liz Johnston

@lizjohnston.bsky.social
557 followers 532 following 250 posts

She/her. Writer, book nerd & editor. liz-johnston.ca. THE FALL-DOWN EFFECT out now from @bookhugpress.bsky.social. Order here: shoplocal.bookmanager.com/isbn/9781…

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Reposted by Liz Johnston
Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 30/09/2026
BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 28/09/2026
The lie that privatization will reduce wait times is already being exposed, but that won’t stop political leaders from continuing to try to destroy our public healthcare system.
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"At what point do we admit that the crisis is growing worse, and nothing we do is working?" The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social is reviewed by Adam McPhee. adamsnotes.substack.com/p/the-fall-d...
adamsnotes.substack.com
The Fall-Down Effect
Adam’s Notes for September 10, 2026
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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 25/09/2026
bizarre to me that so much reporting on housing fails to interrogate the assumptions that homeowners (1) should always get to approve of changes to their neighbourhood (2) should be protected by government from any possible decline in property values www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Toronto needs more homes. These neighbours say they're paying the price | CBC News
An elderly downtown couple says they’re shocked and upset that the city has approved a duplex next door to their three-story Victorian home that they say will tower metres above their chimney and rend...
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm never going to get over the pleasure of seeing another writer engage so deeply with my novel. So grateful to Michelle Sinclair for writing about The Fall-Down Effect (@bookhugpress.bsky.social) for the TEMZ review. www.thetemzreview.com/sinclair-joh...
thetemzreview.com
Sinclair Johnston 36
Reviewed by Michelle Sinclair
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Sarah Jane Cervenak @sjcerv.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Gravity and flight are persistently unspoken twins.” Dr. Tina Campt, “Gravity” from ‘Thinking from Black: A Lexicon”, (book arrived today!!) edited by The Practicing Refusal Collective @hystericalblkns.bsky.social
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Getting excited for Toronto WOTS September 26 & 27! On Sunday, September 27, I'll be at @bookhugpress.bsky.social's booth from 1:30–2:00 p.m., signing copies of The Fall-Down Effect, then, at 2:30, I’ll be on a Debut Novels panel with Tyson Stewart and Jinwoo Park on The Neighbourhood Stage. Woot!
Poster for "Can't Miss Debut Novels" panel with The Word On The Street logo and headshots of Liz Johnston, Tyson Stewart, and Jinwoo Park. Details: "The Neighbourhood Stage, Sept. 27, 2:30 p.m."Poster for Sunday's Book*hug Author Signings lineup, featuring cover and headshot for Liz Johnston's The Fall-Down Effect (1:30–2:00 p.m.) and Gary Barwin's The Comedian's Book of the Dead (2:30–3:00 p.m.)
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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The fact that he views public assets as belonging to the government is the problem. They don't belong to the government. They belong to the public. They belong to us. Not the Liberals, not Parliament, not him. Us. He's a caretaker, not an owner.
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Canadian Dimension @canadiandimension.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Mark Carney is selling his “productivity mega deduction” as a way to boost investment. But decades of corporate tax cuts have instead fuelled record profits, rising dividends, and historic wealth inequality, write Jared A. Walker and @silasxuereb.bsky.social of @c4tf.bsky.social.
canadiandimension.com
Trickle down hasn’t worked for the last 40 years. Why does Carney want to try it again?
Instead of ensuring our sovereignty, the Carney government is auctioning off more and more control over Canada’s economy to whichever foreign oligarch has the deepest pockets. If Canada wants to incre...
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Also, let's be quite clear about this: generative AI is not conscious and cannot become conscious. It is not actual "artificial intelligence." That is bullshit.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If a generative AI CEO is telling you something, take it with a grain of salt the size of an iceberg. So if they want regulation now, it is more likely something to do with finances than an immediate existential threat. These dipshits do not care about existential threats other than going bankrupt.
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Huge thanks to Lola Opatayo for having me on Journey of the Art Podcast to discuss The Fall-Down Effect (@bookhugpress.bsky.social). What a privilege to be asked such deep, thoughtful questions that I came away new insights into my own writing! youtu.be/i36erZ2xG1o
youtu.be
Ep 47 | The fall-down effect of climate change | Liz Johnston
YouTube video by Journey of the Art
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Big thanks to all the readers who’ve borrowed The Fall-Down Effect!
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Thank you to all the library users who borrowed and read Canadian independently published books in August, including The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social and Olga Ravn's The Employees and The Wax Child!
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A.Ghost Pasquella 👻🎃 @agpasquella.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The Word On The Street is right around the corner! toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca
toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca
The Word On The Street Toronto – Canada's Largest Literary Festival
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andrea bennett (they/them) @akkabah.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
so much of the time what's meant disparagingly by "woke" is accepting broadly established historical facts & asserting that some measure of justice or change should now take place
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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
“I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth. The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie. Psychologically defined, a symbol. Aesthetically defined, a metaphor.” ―Ursula K. Le Guin
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Defector @defector.com · 27/08/2026
Our editor-in-chief Tom Ley remembers Soraya Roberts: defector.com/soraya-rober...
defector.com
Soraya Roberts Was A Great Critic And A Great Hang | Defector
A not-insignificant part of my job is fielding phone calls from freelance writers who have questions. The questions can vary—Have you heard of any job openings? Are you interested in this pitch? An…
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The Fall-Down Effect is "constructed like a piece of Shaker furniture. The point-of-view shifts throughout the book dovetail so smoothly that readers wouldn’t feel a joint if they could touch them.” Julia Lichtblau on @lizjohnston.bsky.social debut for The Common. thecommononline.org/what-it-take...
thecommononline.org
What It Takes To Save the Trees and the Birds: Review of The Fall-Down Effect and Field Notes from an Extinction
JULIA LICHTBLAU <br> The story is told through several narrative devices, primarily Green’s notebook entries, interspersed with newspaper clippings, which feed the mystery at the center of the book. T...
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The Narwhal @thenarwhal.ca · 20/08/2026
“We really have to get off fossil fuels.” Wildfires this summer have displaced many in Canada — and even burned down entire communities. Fire scientist Mike Flannigan spoke with us on data he’s collected about wildfires in B.C. — and what we can do in both the short- and long-term.
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Observing The City @observingthecity.ca · 20/08/2026
I will keep posting these videos on bike lanes that Ford is threatening to remove daily until morale improves. Today we are on Bloor at Brunswick, during afternoon rush hour on a Wednesday. No congestion to be found. 38 bikes and 25 cars over 2 light cycles.
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
if avoiding an AI future constitutes a ‘generational L’ then christ just let me take the L www.patreon.com/raxkingisdea...
If an Al future is what I'm getting left behind from, then Christ, just leave me behind.
A girl can only pivot so much, hoss, and I hung up my pivotin' boots some time ago. I don't make videos even though that was supposedly the future of writing ten years ago — I mean, I guess I do, but they're little banjo practice videos for my friends, not expressions of a desperate careerist impulse. I use social media with the attention-crazed dopesickness of an addict, not the care and forethought of a professional, as any cursory read of my posts will confirm. I'm a writer by trade — a creative, as you might say — and here you are, running a business you don't even understand into the ground, deskilling my trade and expecting a thank you when you explain how you're doing it. If I don't devalue myself the way you continually devalue me, you warn, l'll be left behind. Okay, says I! Quit making it my problem and go! The dust you leave me in will settle, and in the meantime, I will keep doing my work in much the way I've done it since | first became literate.
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
So grateful to Julia Lichtblau for this brilliant reading of The Fall-Down Effect alongside Eoghan Walls's Field Notes from an Extinction. (cc @bookhugpress.bsky.social, @riverstreetwriting.bsky.social)
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Thanks to Kerry Clare for this review!
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
When you read a book only a fraction of what you get from the experience is the information in the book. The vast majority of what comes from reading is a new experience of yourself that comes to exist in relation to the book’s unique patterns.
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Kawai 加鬼 Shen 👻 @kawaishen.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
FeelsZine is now open for submissions on the theme BELONGING, CA$25 honorarium feelszine.com/pages/submis...
feelszine.com
Submissions
Interested in being a Feels contributor? Fantastic! We are currently accepting submissions for Issue 27: Belonging. When we have the space to truly be ourselves so much can change. How does it feel to...
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Hurray! Just received the new issue of @thenewquarterly.bsky.social, which includes my swimming essay, “Individual Medley,” alongside work by pals and so many writers I admire. What an incredible lineup of contributors! Excited to dive in this weekend, preferably by a lake.
Cover of The New Quarterly, blue on top third, bottom two thirds a black-and-white photo of a person dressed in black, their head stuck in the sand or in a hold or crevice in a rocky landscape.Table of Contents of the latest issue of TNQ, "Inside This Issue" with my essay listed under "Writer At Large". Title page of my essay "Individual Medley" in The New Quarterly
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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Like all Canadian government surveys on AI, this is hilariously pro-AI. But it only takes like 5 minutes to fill out, and at the end you can make it clear that the only focus of the government when it comes to AI and culture is that Canadian artists need copyright protections from AI scraping.
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
"Whatever grew back would not equal what had been lost.” The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social is reviewed by Grace Henkel for the Literary Review of Canada. reviewcanada.substack.com/p/bookworm-n...
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Heather J. Witchy🧙 Wood @rollwithheather.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Apparently biting, snarky comments on rigged surveys can sometimes sway the powers that be.
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Every letter. Every post. Every sign. Every call. It all counted.
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💀 Cromortuary 💀 @lapanique.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Guys holy shit we're two for two here. Friday night collective action results getting kiiiiiiind of addictive.
ctvnews.ca
Billy Bishop Airport expansion plans halted by federal government
Plans to extend Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport have been halted by the federal government, according to Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon.
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Denise Balkissoon @balkissoon.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Yesterday it felt like 40+ C in Toronto. Today it's cooler... because smoke from the wildfire that has obliterated Collins First Nation in northern Ontario is blocking the sun. Seems like time to re-up my column from last year on the summertime blues. thenarwhal.ca/seasonal-dep...
thenarwhal.ca
I have seasonal depression in the summer now | The Narwhal
Extreme heat, wildfires and pests — fuelled by climate change — threaten to make summer the worst season in Canada. It’s time to talk about it
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Brick, A Literary Journal @brickliterary.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Zadie Smith's obsessions. Read more in Brick's Summer issue! brickmag.com/obsessions/
On a pale pink background with large white lettering in the background (snippets of the letter O and N, part of the word "obsessions"), a quote from Smith.
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Shut down Canada's plans to lead and host the global headquarters of the newly announced DSRB war bank. We must oppose this new institution designed to fund and accelerate a global arms race and funnel public money directly to arms manufacturers. actionnetwork.org/letters/stop...
actionnetwork.org
Stop the Global War Bank: Not in Toronto, Not in Canada, Not on this Planet
Shut down Canada's plans to lead and host the global headquarters of the newly announced DSRB war bank. Take action now to oppose this new financial institution, the first of its kind, designed to fun...
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
With the 2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription Package, you’ll receive every envelope-pushing, formally inventive, and utterly original work in these two categories that we’ll publish throughout the year, all at a 25% discount. bookhugpress.ca/shop/books/s...
bookhugpress.ca
2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription | Book*hug Press
If there are two areas of publishing we particularly love here at Book*hug, it's creative nonfiction and translations. With the 2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription Package,...
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
In my latest newsletter, I give thanks for a whirlwind two months since launching my debut novel—and for things slowing down as summer begins for real. open.substack.com/pub/lizdsjoh...
open.substack.com
Settling Back into Regular Life
Reflections two months after launching The Fall-Down Effect
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Jana H-S (she, like a knife) @jana-aych-ess.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
if you love this world. they will use it to kill you but you must love this world. because it is ours if you love this world. they will despise you because you remind them. how little they have the power to end a life is nothing. all things die the love to keep things living. is what will save us
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JUNCTION READS @junctionreads.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Wanna hang out in London on July 16th? 7:00pm at Little Wren Books 502 Adelaide Street N., London, ON @lizjohnston.bsky.social Aga Maksimowksa, Jennifer LoveGrove and Alison Gadsby chat about their recent books.
An image with an orange backdrop, includes photos of four books and four female authors. BECALMING (blue cover with clouds) by Aga Maksimowska; THE TINDER SONNETS (white cover, beige-grey centre, collage of female body) by Jennifer LoveGrove; THE FALL-DOWN EFFECT (forest of trees with orange lettering) by Liz Johnston; BREATHING IS HOW SOME PEOPLE STAY ALIVE (black cover with woman underwater, white and yellow lettering) by Alison Gadsby.
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
“A representative of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute says it looks like the expansion might be a done deal, and any further consultation is just ‘window dressing’”
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
#bookreview: “There is so much hope in this satisfying novel, yet it’s balanced with realism, both environmental and in its view of family relationships.” The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social is reviewed by Trish Bowering for @thebcreview.bsky.social thebcreview.ca/2026/04/21/2...
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@bookhugpress @bookhugpress.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Reading Habits: @lizjohnston.bsky.social, author of The Fall-Down Effect, on her Thomas Pynchon obsession and why Ken Follett made her angry, for @thestar.com. tinyurl.com/357te2z2
tinyurl.com
Reading Habits: Liz Johnston on her Thomas Pynchon obsession and why Ken Follett made her angry
The writer of "The Fall-Down Effect" answers our author questionnaire
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Huge thanks to Jean Marc Ah-Sen for inviting me to be in his Reading Habits column. Check out the piece for some books I’ve been thinking about lately, and ones I’ve loved forever: www.thestar.com/entertainmen...
thestar.com
Reading Habits: Liz Johnston on her Thomas Pynchon obsession and why Ken Follett made her angry
The writer of "The Fall-Down Effect" answers our author questionnaire
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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Getting close now! Please come join me and @catebush.bsky.social this Friday at the Toronto Reference Library as we discuss The Fall-Down Effect.
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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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Liz Johnston @lizjohnston.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
On Friday, June 12, I'll be talking to the brilliant @catebush.bsky.social about my novel, The Fall-Down Effect, at the Toronto Reference Library, in the Jack Rabinovitch Reading Room. Please save the date! tpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/events/6a...
tpl.bibliocommons.com
Author Talk: Liz Johnston’s The Fall-Down Effect — Toronto Public Library
\nAuthor Catherine Bush speaks with authornbsp;and Brick editor Liz Johnston on her debut novel,nbsp;The Fall-down Effect, which looks atnbsp;climate change, activism, and fractured family relationshi...
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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Ted Chiang on AI: www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2...
Being open to the possibility that LLMs are conscious is the same as being open to the possibility that Microsoft Word is conscious, or, more precisely, that multiple distinct consciousnesses are dormant in every Word document containing a conversational transcript, and that they are awakened every time the document is loaded. Should you consider the possibility that every time you open a Word document you are bringing multiple conscious interlocutors into existence, and every time you close one you snuff their existence out? No. Contemplating that scenario is not a good use of your time. Even if the Microsoft Office team employed a philosopher who said you shouldn’t be so certain, because consciousness is not well understood, that would not be sufficient reason for you to take this idea seriously. We don’t need to fully understand the nature of consciousness to definitively say that certain things are not conscious, and conversational transcripts fall in that category.
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