Reposted by Lucie ElvenBrick, A Literary Journal @brickliterary.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Announcing the lineup for our forthcoming Winter issue! Subscribe today, and come December, we'll send you a copy of stunning Brick 118. brickmag.com/subscribe/ 031
Reposted by Lucie ElvenThe TLS @thetls.bsky.social · 09/09/2025'Schweblin uses successive crises as a means to break open her characters’ mechanical routines and force them to locate raw feelings.' Lucie Elven: Finding the soul beneath the skin the-tls.comCrisis mode 031
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 05/09/2025‘David Lynch had a peculiarly subtractive aesthetic. Just as the more you see, the less comprehensible it becomes, the less you can see (the lower the lighting, the poorer the quality) the more there is to look for.’ Ruby Hamilton on the filmmaker: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukRuby Hamilton · Things go kerflooey: David Lynch’s Gee-WizardryFor years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: ‘Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.’ David Lynch... 13916
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 09/08/2025‘Likely, he won’t come to her anymore, despite the fact that she has avoided any ethical question and thinks there is no need for them to be led into a discussion of the difference between, say, truthfulness and truth.’ Read a new story by Diane Williams: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukDiane Williams · Story: ‘No Heartburn, Flatulence, Nausea or Muscular Cramps Either’ 082
Reposted by Lucie ElvenCreative Writing at NEIU @neiu-cw.bsky.social · 30/04/2025lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 011
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 21/06/2025‘As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, she criss-crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of rare manuscripts to add to his collection, outbidding and outsmarting rivals wherever she went.’ Francesca Wade on Belle da Costa Greene: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukFrancesca Wade · Why waste time hot airing? The Best-Paid Woman in NYCBelle da Costa Greene was a trainee librarian at Princeton University when J.P. Morgan hired her to dust and pack his... 1282
Reposted by Lucie ElvenJen Calleja @jencalleja.bsky.social · 15/05/2025Books have arrived @prototypepubs.bsky.social HQ, out 29 May prototypepublishing.co.uk 2243
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 04/05/2025‘Frame hated noise. She claimed that her street became too loud when, after Macmillan came to power, the residents had the money to buy TVs and record players, though she herself blasted out Schubert to disguise her illicit typing when her landlord was sleeping.’ www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0101
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 14/05/2025‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’ @lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0133
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 14/05/2025‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’ @lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 1229
Reposted by Lucie ElvenJo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎 @jolloyds.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Nathan Dragon's collection The Champ is Here sounds really interesting - in a peak NOON way I'd say :) - if you're not convinced by Lucie Elven's lovely review, there's some samples available at nathandragon.com 141
Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · 13/05/2025I loved making a guest appearance on Rachel’s substack to write about (and recommend) Nathan Dragon’s beautiful short story collection, The Champ Is Here. open.substack.com/pub/rachelco...open.substack.comA seafood freakA guest post by beloved friend of the substack Lucie Elven 020
Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · 13/05/2025I’m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. It’s the London launch. Free tickets! burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...burleyfisherbooks.comLAUNCH: The Passenger Seat By Vijay KhuranaThursday 22nd May 6.30 to 9pm Join us to celebrate the launch of The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana, published by Peninsula Press. Vijay will be discussing his new novel with Lucie Elven; author of... 041
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 12/05/2025‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’ @lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0141
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 12/05/2025‘Janet Frame found herself stuck in a psychiatric system that took her feeling for language as evidence of madness. When she compared herself to Pierre in “War and Peace”, her doctors thought she was describing a schizophrenic delusion.’ @lucieelven.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0238
Reposted by Lucie Elvenfoldedsunset.bsky.social @foldedsunset.bsky.social · 12/05/2025As a gift, she bought him silkworms, which they kept in a shoebox. Frame picked mulberry leaves for the worms to eat and ‘in the silence of the night as I lay in bed I heard a sound like the turning of tiny pages in a tiny library ... the sound of steady chewing and chomping.’lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 011
Reposted by Lucie ElvenPeter Scott Reid @peterscottreid.eurosky.social · 01/04/2025I love this essay from Rachel Connolly about her friendship with the painter Felix Highamopen.substack.comFelix's StudioSome paintings I love 021
Reposted by Lucie ElvenGregory P. Marchildon @gmarchildon.bsky.social · 10/05/2025Wouldn’t you like to be normal? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 031
Reposted by Lucie Elvenbobbygw @bobbygw.bsky.social · 10/05/2025#booksky for #womenwriters 📚💙 A beautiful, wondrous & deeply thoughtful essay about Janet Frame, her key works and life; she was one of the most remarkable, accomplished memoirists (Angel at My Table), novelists, & story writers of the 20th century. By Lucie Elven, novelist. archive.is/W65Zp 392
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 10/05/2025‘Janet Frame’s writing is often compared to Faulkner’s, and her family history reads like a Southern Gothic novel. Yet Frame can be an extraordinarily cheerful, funny writer. Language was a source of continual revelation.’ @lucieelven.bsky.social on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0346
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 02/05/2025‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’ Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 093
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 09/05/2025‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘ Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0175
Reposted by Lucie Elvenj alfred postrock @seriouslyreadmore.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Janet Frame was just days away from a scheduled lobotomy when her first story collection won a New Zealand national literary award, convincing her doctors to cancel the procedure. 021
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 03/05/2025‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘ Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 1141
Reposted by Lucie ElvenClare Archibald @archieislander.bsky.social · 06/05/2025www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 151
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 30/04/2025Issue 47.08 is now online, featuring: Alan Hollinghurst on 1950s gay London Anne Enright @thewrengirl.bsky.social on Helen Garner Julian Barnes on the collector Albert Barnes Andrew O’Hagan on hologram concerts Lucie Elven on Janet Frame and a cover by Naomi Frears. Read online at www.lrb.co.uk 1143
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 06/05/2025‘Before the second volume of her autobiography was even published, Janet Frame was being called a neglected genius, recommended for the Nobel Prize, awarded a CBE (she would have preferred to be styled Dame Frame, but “that’s my wack”).’ Lucie Elven on the novelist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 1205
Lucie Elven @lucieelven.bsky.social · 06/05/2025Given the republication of The Edge of the Alphabet (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social), I wrote about the brilliant Janet Frame for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0145
Reposted by Lucie ElvenCarly Razzell @carlyrazzellauthor.bsky.social · 04/05/2025I started reading this yesterday it's a long read but a good one. So often women's quirks and creativity have been pathologised. A fascinating read about writer Janet Frame below ⬇️ 031
Reposted by Lucie ElvenSophie Moullin @sophiemoullin.bsky.social · 03/05/2025Good to Janet Frame discussed in LRB today. She should be required reading, in conversation Foucault, on any sociology of mental health class. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 321
Reposted by Lucie ElvenJess McAllen @jessmcallen.bsky.social · 30/04/2025🙏🙏 www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 042
Reposted by Lucie ElvenJazmine Bell @jazzybellx.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Wonderful non-paywalled piece on New Zealand writer Janet Frame #lrb #writing #janetframe www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0104
Reposted by Lucie ElvenRichard Hull @richardhull54.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Astonishingly beautiful tribute and paean to the life, work, pain and euphoria of the #photographer and #filmmaker Nan Goldin, by Lucie Elven in @londonreview.bsky.social Goldin's current retrospective is titled 'This Will Not End Well' www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Screaming in the Streets: On Nan GoldinCyclicality – its rhythms, its humour – is central to Nan Goldin’s work. A title such as The Ballad of Sexual... 1113
Reposted by Lucie ElvenLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 30/04/2025‘Frame’s letters were opened by the doctors, who deemed them “foolish”. A line about gorse smelling of peanut butter was singled out as a sign of her disordered mind and reason enough to prevent contact with the outside world for a time.‘ Lucie Elven on Janet Frame: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukLucie Elven · Wouldn’t you like to be normal? Janet Frame’s PlaceThere were her nicknames: Nini with the nits at home as a child, Miss Educated in Seacliff psychiatric hospital, Waldo... 0215
