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Lydia Kwa

@lydiakwa.bsky.social
869 followers 427 following 24 posts

She/Her. Queer, racialized writer of fiction and poetry. Living and working on unceded Coast Salish territories in the county known as Canada.

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Reposted by Lydia Kwa
g @thrillandgrace.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Grateful for these generous words by @lydiakwa.bsky.social, whose work is an inspiration and whose conversation has been a balm for me. Check out her novels and poetry! Preorder Be Water here: www.anvilpress.com/books/be-water #poetrysky #booksky #writingcommunity #writersofbluesky #indieauthors
Black text on a semi-transparent white background box overlaid on blue waves in an acrylic paint style. Text reads: “Grace’s poems flow through memories and family prohibitions like water around rocks in a stream, sometimes rippling with absence, sometimes travelling to places of refuge and hard-won acceptance. Grace weaves a tapestry that is parts wry, parts sardonic while remaining dedicatedly reflective, intertwining human nature with the larger cosmos, listening to the glittering sigh of the earth all around us. Wrestling with the pervasive legacy of colonization and racism, yet the wish to embody peace, protest and dignity persists in these poems. Be Water delights in subversion, and subverts through delight in queer joy. — Lydia Kwa, author of from time to new”
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Lydia Kwa @lydiakwa.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I’ll be doing a webinar tomorrow over Zoom, in case you might be interested. skwriter.com/events-and-w...
skwriter.com
The Web of Interconnectedness with Lydia Kwa « Saskatchewan Writers' Guild
I explore hybridity and outsider experiences through creating characters and narratives that foreground the queer and those who have been othered,…
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Lydia Kwa @lydiakwa.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I’ll be part of this one-day symposium at University of Toronto on May 1st. Hope to see some of you there! www.facebook.com/share/1CkFKf...
facebook.com
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SFU Continuing Studies @cs-sfu.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
How do we write science fiction amidst the growing presence of AI? Join our hands-on @twssfu.bsky.social Community Workshop led by @lydiakwa.bsky.social. www.eventbrite.ca/e/tws-commun...
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The Writer's Studio at SFU @twssfu.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
TWS Community #Writing #Workshop: Writing Science Fiction with Lydia Kwa | Online event | Sunday, Mar 29 from 10 am to 12:30 pm PDT. What draws you to write science fiction? Join us to explore your motivation and vision in this hands-on workshop. Register here - www.eventbrite.ca/e/tws-commun...
eventbrite.ca
TWS Community Workshop: Writing Science Fiction with Lydia Kwa
What draws you to write science fiction? Join us to explore your motivation and vision in this hands-on workshop.
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isabella mori @moritherapy.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Canada’s most unique poetry prize: 4 prize winners & 4 honorable mentions will be published in a chapbook. 2 readings in the fall. Please repost! moritherapy.wixsite.com/murielsjourn... @raoulfernandes.bsky.social‬ @kevinspenst.bsky.social‬ @lydiakwa.bsky.social‬ @inkstainedwreck.bsky.social‬
moritherapy.wixsite.com
2025 Muriel's Journey Poetry Prize
Submit your poetry to the 2025 MURIEL’S JOURNEY POETRY PRIZE. What's Muriel's Journey all about? Find out here PRIZE:First Prize $100 First Prize for a poem by a Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) contributor $100 Second Prize $50 Fortuna's Choice: $35 for a poem selected at random from the longlist of general entry poemsAll winners and honorary mentions will be published in Fire In The Heart, the Muriel’s Journey Chapbook for 2025. CRITERIA: Content: Should meet one or more of these criteria:
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The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 02/02/2025
Americans choose most expensive way possible to discover what goods made in Canada
thebeaverton.com
Americans choose most expensive way possible to discover what goods made in Canada
WASHINGTON, D.C. - With US President Donald Trump declaring 25% tariffs on most Canadian goods, American citizens have officially chosen the most circuitous and economically painful method possible to...
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Jessica Valenti @jessicavalenti.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
The Trump administration is scrubbing the CDC’s website of documents on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more. I'm trying to save them. You can find the deleted docs at cdcguidelines.com - I'll be adding more over the weekend.
cdcguidelines.com
Download CDC Guidelines Removed By The Trump Admin
The Trump administration is scrubbing the CDC’s website of documents on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more.
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Jane Shi | 皮爬高 echolalia echolalia is out now @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
年年有 eSIMs! 🐟 恭喜发 eSIMs! 🧧 万事如 eSims! 🏮 eSims 拿來! 🐍 新年快 free Palestine! 希望 Palestine will be free! #ConnectingGaza #YearoftheSnake
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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
A coalition of close to 600 publishers across 50 countries is calling for an industry-wide boycott of the world’s largest publishing event.
lithub.com
Publishers for Palestine calls for industry-wide boycott of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishers for Palestine, a coalition of nearly 600 publishers across 50 countries, is calling for an industry-wide boycott of the world’s largest publishing event, the Frankfurt Book Fair, o…
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
RIP Hind Rajab. Today is one year on since this little six year old was killed (my daughter's age) - and then so were the two brave medics who came to rescue her, as agreed by the IDF, as she cowered in her family car with her family dead around her. I will never forget this story.
Picture of Hind Rajab
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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
I've donated a hand-watercoloured print of Year of the Wooden Dragon to this art fundraiser for e-Sims for Gaza: www.32auctions.com/ArtforEsimsf... Lots of amazing art in this auction. Buy some art and support keeping Gaza connected! #permanentceasefire #freepalestine #inkdrawing #asiandiasporicart
Fundraising poster with red+green watermelon background. The text reads "Emergency e-Sims for Gaza Fundraising Auction: Online spent auction - prints, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, & more!"

https://www.32auctions.com/ArtforEsimsforGaza

https://chuffed.org/project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza5" x 7" ink drawing of a Wood Dragon whose body is made of driftwood, black and white with accents of green leaves and grey lichen.

In Chinese mythology, the Dragon is often considered a Yang symbol, embodying light, activation, and the masculine. The Dragon has historically been the emblem of emperors, and is placed in contrast to Yin symbols of the dark, passive, and feminine. But it is a gross misinterpretation to consider yin-yang to be a binary, and the semantics of the term are far older–and queerer–than the patriarchal structures that have shaped more recent Chinese history.

In this Yang Wood Dragon, dead wood is not passive, but a source of activation. The wood of the dragon’s body bursts with life as the wood breaks down to create new Earth. The dragon’s core element is Earth, so even as the Wood Dragon’s outer body breaks, it nourishes itself. I am thinking about the grief that intergenerational, diasporic peoples carry in our bones, of what we have lost in our efforts to live. I am thinking about present day genocides that we bear witness to in Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo, and how, despite the violence, those faced daily with death are teaching all of us about the stubbornness of life. Staying alive–insisting that one exists–is the essence of resistance.

Dragons are an amalgamation of many animals, and this Wood Dragon carries the head of an elk, the claws of an eagle, and the body of a rattlesnake. Common, immortal, and fearsome. This Wood Dragon is for everyone this year who needs a reminder that a people cannot die as long as community exists for and of them. Resistance is long, enduring, and as patient as trees rooting in and becoming earth, ready for a time when they can blossom and fruit again.
5" x 7" ink drawing of a Wood Dragon whose body is made of driftwood, black and white with accents of green leaves and grey lichen. Photo is of the artwork in a white mat and white frame.

In Chinese mythology, the Dragon is often considered a Yang symbol, embodying light, activation, and the masculine. The Dragon has historically been the emblem of emperors, and is placed in contrast to Yin symbols of the dark, passive, and feminine. But it is a gross misinterpretation to consider yin-yang to be a binary, and the semantics of the term are far older–and queerer–than the patriarchal structures that have shaped more recent Chinese history.

In this Yang Wood Dragon, dead wood is not passive, but a source of activation. The wood of the dragon’s body bursts with life as the wood breaks down to create new Earth. The dragon’s core element is Earth, so even as the Wood Dragon’s outer body breaks, it nourishes itself. I am thinking about the grief that intergenerational, diasporic peoples carry in our bones, of what we have lost in our efforts to live. I am thinking about present day genocides that we bear witness to in Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo, and how, despite the violence, those faced daily with death are teaching all of us about the stubbornness of life. Staying alive–insisting that one exists–is the essence of resistance.

Dragons are an amalgamation of many animals, and this Wood Dragon carries the head of an elk, the claws of an eagle, and the body of a rattlesnake. Common, immortal, and fearsome. This Wood Dragon is for everyone this year who needs a reminder that a people cannot die as long as community exists for and of them. Resistance is long, enduring, and as patient as trees rooting in and becoming earth, ready for a time when they can blossom and fruit again.
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Jane Shi | 皮爬高 echolalia echolalia is out now @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
roommagazine.com/reading-room... Read "The Durian Demon" by @lydiakwa.bsky.social in the Wits End issue of Room Magazine! :) Lead-edited by me hehe.
roommagazine.com
“The Durian Demon” by Lydia Kwa (Sneak peek of Room 48.1 WITS END) - ROOM Magazine
As we consider the role of humour in revealing life’s absurdities and challenging power, we’re sitting with “The Durian Demon,” a new fiction piece by Room 48.1 Wits End‘s commissioned writer, Lydia K...
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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
An incredible photo from Berlin this evening. An estimated 100,000 have been on the streets in the German capital today to protest against the Far Right and fascism in Europe. #Resist (📸 Ricarda Lang)
Thousand stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with lights lit on their phones. 14 people at the front hood lit letters spelling out Hope & Resistance
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🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦 @jvipondmd.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
“The reality is that people are dying from COVID in our hospitals, and we really are doing very little to prevent them getting ill and getting infected. And we wouldn't do the same for any other infectious disease,” Vipond said. www.stalbertgazette.com/local-news/o...
stalbertgazette.com
Over 300 COVID outbreaks hit Alberta acute care facilities last year
Read the full story and comment on stalbertgazette.com
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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 12/12/2024
"Killing is never OK", says ruling class of nation arming and abetting genocidal mass murder for the past 430 days.
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Laila Lalami @lailalalami.com · 13/12/2024
Cerberus, a private equity firm, buys a chain of hospitals, sells the land on which they sit, and charges them rent. The hospitals struggle and start cutting corners. Patients' care worsens, death rates climb. And Cerberus makes $790 million in profit.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
A lot of the rich and powerful are obeying in advance. That doesn't mean the rest of us have to. Or rather that means that it's on us not to, and may we wither some of that wealth and power as we go.
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Lydia Kwa @lydiakwa.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Thoughtful and deeply engaged review by Eunice Lim of A Dream Wants Waking in SUSPECT journal: singaporeunbound.org/suspect
singaporeunbound.org
Suspect — Singapore Unbound
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Da(N95)iella [fka DaniAtomicus] @sharpflower.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Wow every day there is a new reason to tell you we are going to have to do this ourselves so here’s a new podcast called Public Health is Dead full of people who know things giving us more guidance about how to stay alive than the government has or will! Coming Nov 29 www.publichealthisdead.com
publichealthisdead.com
Public Health Is Dead
New podcast in production
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 25/11/2024
Multiple people have become sick and hospitalized on flights landing in Boston. We need to await more information to fully understand what's happening here, but your regular reminder that one of the most important times to wear a mask is when you are traveling.
Multiple sick people on flights landing in Boston prompts officials to alert CDC ‘out of an abundance of caution’
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Manahil @manahil.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
From the other app, the statement from this year’s giller winner claiming morality, solidarity, witness etc etc with empty words that really mean nothing when you can’t even say Palestine
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It’s Just Dionne @itsjustdionne.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Goodreads is owned by Jeff Bezos. A better alternative is StoryGraph, a Black woman-owned platform. And before y’all start, you can transfer all your Goodreads data to Storygraph so you literally have no excuse.
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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 18/11/2024
Call your senators and demand they block his nomination.
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Workshops4Gaza @workshops4gaza.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
@djolder.bsky.social is hosting a workshop for us on narrative fundamentals on December 19th! All proceeds go to Motasim’s family in GZ. Sign up here: www.workshops4gaza.com/calendar/cri...
workshops4gaza.com
Crisis Creates Us: Fire at the Crossroads of Art and Activism — Workshops 4 Gaza
Register for “Crisis Creates Us” here . Donate to Motasim here (suggested donation $60USD). The poet Martín Espada wrote that every rebellion begins with the idea that conquerors on hors...
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Kerry C. Byrne @kercoby.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
✨ I have started a broad #CanSpec starter pack! This isn’t JUST writers, authors, editors… It’s also stores, booksellers, community organizers. ANYONE in CanSpec (Canlit + Specfic) ! Reply for an add ✨ It’s very much only a rough beginning right now ! go.bsky.app/Q7MUTiT
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 15/11/2024
Vaccines are one of the most important inventions humans have ever made. Period.
Chart: Number of lives saved by vaccination from 1974 to 2004
Data source: Shattock et al. (2024). Contribution of vaccination to improved child survival: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization.
Credit: Gavi Alliance
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p.e. neloms 🤎 @theauthorpen.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Goodreads is owned by Jeff Bezos. A better alternative is StoryGraph, a Black woman-owned platform. And before y’all start, you can transfer all your Goodreads data to Storygraph so you literally have no excuse.
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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Move over, blue whale. This 300+ year old 34m coral is now the largest animal* known. Hopefully its depth, as described, can keep it going 🦑🧪 *colony of animals
nationalgeographic.com
Scientists discover world’s largest coral—so big it can be seen from space
Exclusive photos reveal a sprawling, 300-year-old coral near Solomon Islands, recently discovered by the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas expedition team.
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The Sick Times @thesicktimes.org · 03/08/2024
Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Long Covid Research Moonshot Act of 2024. The bill allocates $1 billion dollars of mandatory funding per year for the next 10 years for research, treatments, public health education, and expanded healthcare.
ID: A graphic reads, “The SICK TIMES: BREAKING: Sen. Bernie Sanders introduces $10 billion Moonshot legislation for Long Covid Crisis”. It features a photo of Sen. Sanders in a blue suit at the HELP Committee hearing on Long Covid in January.
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Lydia Kwa @lydiakwa.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
I will one of the readers at this November 18th event. Come out to support if you’re in Vancouver!
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Terese Mason Pierre @teresempierre.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Here is a Canadian Poets Starter Pack! 🪶💐🩷 If you're a Canadian poet and I've missed you, comment below, and I'll add. (Also, if I made a mistake in adding you to the list, let me know, and I'll remove you!) Please share so folks coming to Bluesky can find their people! go.bsky.app/JbjXoTN
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Long COVID Justice @longcovidjustice.org · 16/09/2024
We are so excited to announce Long COVID Essentials, a new collaboration with The Sick Times. Over the next several months, we’ll be publishing 30+ Long COVID resource sheets that provide foundational information about navigating #LongCOVID. longcovidjustice.org/long-covid-essentials
bit.ly
Introducing Long COVID Essentials, a new resource series - The Sick Times
We are excited to announce Long COVID Essentials, a new collaboration between The Sick Times and Long COVID Justice. Over the next several months, we’ll be publishing over 30 resource sheets that prov...
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Lydia Kwa @lydiakwa.bsky.social · 07/11/2024
New book of poetry “from time to new” out with The Porcupine’s Quill Press theporcupinesquill.com/products/lyd...
theporcupinesquill.com
Lydia Kwa
Lydia Kwa was born in Singapore but moved to Toronto to begin studies in Psychology at U of Toronto in 1980. After finishing her graduate studies in Clinical Psychology at Queen's University in Kingst...
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 22/07/2024
COVID has now played a role in ending the terms of two consecutive Presidents, who both tried to prematurely claim that COVID was no longer a problem.
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Karla Monterroso @karlaliliana.bsky.social · 25/06/2024
Karen Bass just announced that LA is looking into a mask ban and it is a move that would essentially ban me from public life. I am humbly asking, if you are an LA resident, please call the mayors office and tell them about what it would do to those of us who have no choice but to mask for health.
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 16/06/2024
Some advice after 25 years of work in Egypt/living in AL: 1) Liquid IV is best electrolyte/salt hydration drink (or Pedialyte) 2)If overheated, cool shower, then colder bath (slow temp decrease) 3) Freeze bottles of water. Put between legs (crotch)+ under armpits+ at neck. Will cool blood rapidly
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Katie Slivensky @kslivensky.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Everyone rightfully excited about the #Elephant "name" news, but the elephant news that really got me this week was over at Sheldrick. Recent orphan Toto was brought to them by PREVIOUSLY RESCUED ELEPHANTS who found him and knew just where to take him. ❤️ www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans/toto
sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
Toto
With half a century of elephant conservation to our name, it can sometimes feel like we have seen it all. But even among the hundreds of orphan rescues that have unfolded over the years, Toto’s story ...
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JUNCTION READS @junctionreads.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Did you miss the reading and conversation with @lydiakwa.bsky.social on Sunday? Here is our conversation about A DREAM WANTS WAKING from Wolsak & Wynn. youtu.be/K3YrOulIrVE?...
youtu.be
Junction Reads with Lydia Kwa
Enjoy a this discussion and reading from Lydia Kwa, author of A DREAM WANTS WAKING from @wandwynn Publishers. "In 2219 CE Luoyang, a city patched together after the great cataclysm, the half-human, half-fox spirit Yinhe moves through their most recent incarnation. The city is watched over by No. 1, an artificial intelligence housed in a giant brain created by the scientists of Central Government, which entertains and monitors all the inhabitants of the city, both human and chimerical. But No. 1 is starting to behave erratically and the power of the Spirit Supreme Assembly, with its demand for pure bloodlines, is growing. Yinhe is summoned to the Dream Zone, where the chimerical creatures formed by the scientists are contained to do the most dangerous jobs of the city. There Yinhe is given information that will give them the chance to create great change in the city, to stave off an ancient enemy and, perhaps, to reunite with their soulmate, lost many lives before."
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Michael Bazaco @mcbazacophd.bsky.social · 08/06/2024
(clears throat) Let me be very clear and direct here: FUCK every single ghoul who has spread #vaccine misinformation over the past few years. Watch a child suffering from pertussis just once and it will change you. This is fucking preventable and these babies have no choice. They rely on us.
apple.news
UK whooping cough death toll rises to 8, people urged to get vaccines
Since January there have been 4,793 confirmed cases of whooping cough, compared with 858 in the whole of 2023, with one academic describing the size of the current outbreak as 'alarming'.
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JUNCTION READS @junctionreads.bsky.social · 08/06/2024
TOMORROW!!! 6:00pm EDT Reading and chat with @lydiakwa.bsky.social , author of A DREAM WANTS WAKING from Wolsak & Wynn. Hope you can join us. PWYC. All proceeds to the author. www.eventbrite.ca/e/9153149406...
eventbrite.ca
Junction Reads with Lydia Kwa
Join us for an online conversation and reading with Lydia Kwa, author of A DREAM WANTS WAKING
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Paul Vermeersch @paulvermeersch.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
A great review of @lydiakwa.bsky.social 's novel A Dream Wants Waking. Thanks to Manahil Bandukwala and The Fiddlehead A Dream Wants Waking is published by Wolsak and Wynn. thefiddlehead.ca/content/mana...
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Ariel Marken Jack @arielmarkenjack.bsky.social · 08/11/2023
The @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social Palestine Solidarity Issue is available to read for free on the FIYAH website. It's a really good issue. Also: My understanding is that if you do buy this issue the proceeds will go to support medical aid in Gaza. I'm buying it (and a FIYAH subscription to treat myself).
fiyahlitmag.com
The Palestine Solidarity Issue
Visit the post for more.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 17/10/2023
A man who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 16 years before being released in 2020 was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop on Monday, the authorities said. An official said he was pulled over for speeding.
nytimes.com
Man, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 16 Years, Is Fatally Shot During Traffic Stop
Leonard Allan Cure, who was exonerated in 2020 after being convicted of armed robbery, was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia after being pulled over for speeding.
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 12/10/2023
Doctors Without Borders in Gaza says 100% of the patients it has treated in the past 24 hours have been children
businessinsider.com
Doctors Without Borders in Gaza says 100% of the patients it has treated in the past 24 hours have b...
Medical-aid groups in the Gaza Strip told Insider they were running out of supplies due to Israel's counterattack and blockade.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 14/10/2023
With several recent advances and funding, Covid nasal vaccines now have momentum. Really needed and exciting to see! erictopol.substack.com/p/covid-nasa...
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