iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Two good friends consider the joys of a Sunday morning. # cats #BennytheCat #blackcats #interspeciesfriendship

Guys sits on his comfy IKEA armchair, i-pad on his lap, chin against bearded cheek,feet on footstool. Incredibly adorable black cat Benny, is seated on the same footstool, right front paw stretched out on the stool. Man & cat are looking at each other.

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Anxious Kid Makes Pretty Good: A Neurodivergent Writer on Life and Writing, my new book, comes out on Oct. 15. A memoir, in essays. You can pre-order it online or from your favourite bookstore now. My author copies have just arrived! #memoir #writing #canlit #ADHD #depression #anxiety

Posing on her modest apartment balcony, the happy author holds up her new book. Book cover is black & light blue. Author is dressed in a black and the same shade of blue. Coincidence?

2104

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Hey friends, A Run on Hose, the book that won me the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize for 2006, is now available for purchase wherever you buy your ebooks. Thanks, @thistledownpress.bsky.social! (The physical book is now OP and the publisher has been gracious, so c'est la vie.) #canlit #womensstories

A line of women'ts undergarments hang on a clothesline outside an old, innercity brick apartment building.

000

Reposted by Rona Altrows

University of Alberta Press @ualbertapress.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

July 24 is International Self-Care Day. It's well worth checking out our anthologies: there is so much good material in these wonderful books! bit.ly/4vxwCCY @ronaaltrows.bsky.social @juliesedivy.bsky.social #books #reading #concussion #aging #identity #anxiety #TBI

166

Reposted by Rona Altrows

Great Plains Press @greatplainspress.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Join Katherine Koller and Rona Altrows for the Calgary launch of Earthen, Stories! ☀️ 📍Shelf Life Books (1302 4 St SW #100, Calgary, AB) 🗓️ Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 PM #Calgary #BookLaunch #ShortStories #CanLit @Katherine_Koller

0136

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

From The Benny Chronicles: Here, you see me in a small room where my subjects keep their own litterbox, a complicated mechanical device. The room is named NO! and they like to bellow that name whenever I enter that room. Strange creatures, those humans. #Caturday #Bennythecat #blackcats #cats

Benny, a handsome black cat, admires his own image as he stands on the bathroom counter with his front paws up against the mirror

050

Reposted by Rona Altrows

Joanne Merriam @joannemerriam.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Unboxing video of the coolest box I have ever opened! The book is out 15 September, and you can pre-order from the usual places (partial list here: joannemerriam.com/books/aether...). 💙📚 #BookSky 📚❤️ #PrideAndPrejudice 🪐📚 #unboxingvideo #Austenauts

384

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Joyfully rebelling against Alberta's repressive Bill 28, as part of the #READdom campaign. #thisbookwontburn

010

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Join us at the Edmonton launch of Please Don't Interrupt at @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social on April 9 at 7 pm. Beautiful brief readings by 9 Edmonton writers. Below, my co-editor @uumez.bsky.social Uche Umezurike and I, at different points in the editing process. @bibiukonu.bsky.social

Co-editors Uche and Rona in a Calgary café, looking at a laptop that is perched on a small round white acrylic table. Uche wears a ballcap, Rona a beret.

Uche and Rona in animated conversation on a park bench with a laptop between them. Uche is in the same ballcap as before, while Rona has switched to a bucket hat from the dollar store.

000

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Please Don't Interrupt, a 30-writer anthology on the theme of interruption, is now available. Uche Umezurike and I are co-editors. Here's Uche with our magnum opus. The book will be in bookstores soon. Or you can order from the publisher, Griots Lounge Canada.

001

Reposted by Rona Altrows

University of Alberta Press @ualbertapress.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Congratulations once again to Rona Altrows, winner of this year's Prairie Grindstone Prize. Here she is at a wonderful celebration at Shelf Life in Calgary (L: Rona / R: Lisa Murphy-Lamb). bit.ly/3zoWZAk Photo credit: Carol Gauzer. @ronaaltrows.bsky.social ‪@shelflifebooks.bsky.social‬

152

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

This fine figure of a cat has just turned 3. Thank you for adopting us, Benny. You are the best, in both your MOs, regal & goofball. #cats #catsofbluesky #Bennythecat #KingBenny

Benny, magnificent black shorthair domestic cat, once a stray kitten & now a homebody adult, lies on purple velveteen bedspread, head and tail up, giving a royal wave with his right front paw.

190

Reposted by Rona Altrows

Hannah @hannahr.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

please meet Alex the Great, a therapy bunny who works at the San Fran airport and now Giants games to help people who are overwhelmed LOOK AT HIS TINY BALLCAP. LOOK AT IT.

A very large roly-poly light brown bunny rabbit wearing a tiny SF Giants ballcap is cuddled by a man wearing a Giants jersey.

307203943044

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Lately I've been asked a lot, what's your main feeling about winning The Prairie Grindstone Prize for 2025? My answer: deep gratitude. Judges cited my "body of work and commitment to supporting emerging & established writers." Honoured. #writers #writing #gratitude www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca

prairiegrindstoneprize.ca

The Prairie Grindstone Prize

The Prairie Grindstone Prize is an annual literary award of $50,000 that alternates between the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and is granted to an engaged prairie writer in mid-career.

020

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

A little levity for my Bluesky friends.

A dog and a squirrel are sitting on a tree branch. Holding the squirrel's right paw in both of his paws, the dog says "I'll be honest, I never in a million years thought I'd actually catch one of you guys. But right now I need you to help me get down."

010

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Happy Mother's Day to all Bluesky friends who are mothers, foster mothers, surrogate mothers, mother figures, cis, trans, human, feline, canine, you get the idea. May your day be filled with positives. #Mother'sDay #mothers

010

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

When he was crowned, King Benny opted for a scaled-down coronation ceremony. King Charles did the same. Charles plans to visit Canada later this month to deliver the Speech from the Throne. Benny has not yet announced his plans. #cats #blackcats #catsofbluesky #royalty

Benny, the unbelievably handsome black cat, reclines on his perchthrone with his crown, the outer rim of a preserves lid jar, sitting over his right ear, and his royal robes, a partially folded flag, over his shoulders and upper back.

030

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

On my third reread of Moby Dick a couple years back, I skipped the cetology chapters as my recollection as I had previously found them boring. But on this fourth reread, I am finding the cetology chapters to be the most interesting of all. Go figure. #Melville #writers

010

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

From the comfort of his bunthouse, Benny oversees delivery of new catio furniture. #Caturday #cats #blackcats #BennytheCat #CatsofBluesky

From the top shelf of a kitchen counter, beautiful black cat Benny is lying lies so that we see only his head, which is facing right, and his front right paw, pointing right.

070

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

feeling of lostness after finishing a big project #writing #writers

160

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Heard Islanders convene to discuss what they guano do about those tariffs. #Trumptariffs #tariffs #HeardIsland #penguins

4 toy penguins stand on a white tablecloth with bumps on it to represent a windblown snowy landscape.
Back row, Percy, a large stuffed white penguin wearing glasses; Penny, red and white stuffed penguin with a watch around her neck; Perry, black and white stuffed penguin. Front row, Peggy, large-eyed penguin with tinsel back and head and white front; Paul, rubber penguin with "the Little Penguin" printed on his front and a blue Santa-style toque.

1120

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

So glad to see manifestations of continuing friendship between sane Canadians and sane Americans on border-spanning bridges etc. We can't let ourselves be brought down morally or politically by the actions of a guy behaving like a dictator. Also,well done, Sen. Brooker! #IwillnothatemyUSfriends

150

Reposted by Rona Altrows

Von Hitchofen ™⍼☈♅ 🛩👹😬 @vonhitchofen.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Cats are the inscrutable aliens of the pet world.

073

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Benny has always nurtured his green housemates. Here's a memoryshot of him as a kitten administering heartfelt TLC to his spiderplant friend. #BennytheCat #catsofbluesky #cats #Sundaycats

Beautiful black cat Benny, reclining on second level of his new offwhite climber, extends a friendly right front paw to the spiderplant that is on the floor next to the climber.

0190

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Please Don't Interrupt an anthology coming this fall 30 diverse writers on the theme of interruption co-edited by @uumez.bsky.social & me Preorder now: griotslounge.ca/product/plea...

Book cover. Purple background.Top left, the title "Please Don't Interrupt" Bottom left, "Edited by Rona Altrows & Unchechukwu Peter Umezurike."
Right side: an image of multicolourede straight threads, then entangled, then straight again.

140

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

March 22 Benny says this is no time for bullshit. #caturday #cats #BennytheCat

Beautiful black cat Benny sits like a sphinx on his blue and white blanket. His eyes say, "High time for honesty."

0120

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

As preoccupied as he is with critical matters of state, Benny nonetheless takes the time, sceptre by paw, to wish you, his followers a happy Saint Gertrude's Day. #cats #cats #catsofbluesky #blackcats #BennytheCat

Incredibly handsome black cat Benny lies on a luxurious (though cheap, shh) royal purple bedspread, looking seriously devoted to his serious fanbase. Beside him is his sceptre, a long pink plastic playing stick attached to a short pink and white cord with a pink and white fabric ball at the end.

1341

Reposted by Rona Altrows

Uche Peter Umez @uumez.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Join us next Thursday, noon. Register here: events.ucalgary.ca/arts/english... @wordsweaver.bsky.social

031

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Dear progressive friends in the US, Be assured, I have heard you and I know you don't want this tariff war any more than we in Canada do. You are not personally responsible for this destructive move by 47 or for that matter for any of his destructive moves. #tariffs #tariffwar

130

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Happy to have my short fiction in Beyond Touch Sites, new anthology published by Laberinto Press. Narrator of my story, mere hours after her death, undergoes the tahara ritual while communicating, somehow, with her living sister. #writingcommunity #amwriting #shortstoryreaders

Picture of green book cover with this excerpt from "So We Shall Return" by Rona Altrows: "The first step of the tahara ritual has begun. I feel the gentle pressure of a woman's hand as she swabs a moist washcloth over my skin. I can make out, from her touch, the shape of her hand."

130

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

"Do you wanna do it the easy way or the hard way?" -Benny when he was a kitten. #cats #BennytheCat #catsofbluesky #blackcats

0110

Reposted by Rona Altrows

PEIPolitical 🇨🇦 @peipolitical.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Mark Carney 🇨🇦 "In America, diversity is now an insult and it soon will be a crime to promote it. That's not a lie. That's a reality. That's what's happening in America." #cdnpoli #peipoli

311179404

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Dear friends, Am I the only person who identifies as female and is a fan of the book Moby Dick? #MobyDick

010

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Dear #19thcAmericanLit Scholars, especially #Melville ones, I've read Moby Dick (or Moby-Dick, yr choice) 5x. The analyses, commentaries, etc., that I see are all by men. Is this b/c almost every character in the bk is a guy, or what? Am I the only fan who identifies as female?

020

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

And as writers sometimes it's good to remind ourselves that doing the work has innate value, as does the work itself. #writingcommunity #writers #amwriting

030

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

And Benny also says that to be loved, you don't need to do anything specific. You can just be. #BennytheCat #cats #catsofbluesky #philosophercats

041

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

And Benny also says that to be loved, you don't need to do anything specific. You can just be.

000

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Benny, unaccustomed to playing with catnip-filled toys, is now stoned out of his gourd. #BennytheCat #CatsofBluesky #cats

On top of a deep blue blanket lies the incomparable Benny, a very high-on-catnip black cat.

050

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Dear progressive American friends, I am Canadian, but not a nationalist of any kind. Never, even if 47 hadn't in his imperial munificence delivered us an 11th hour reprieve (sort of), would I hold his actions against you. Booing of the US anthem at sports events is descending to his level.

120

Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

And on #Caturday, Benny chills in his benthouse, solo, leaving the fanbase to take care of themselves. #cats #BennytheCat #CatsofBlueSky

Only the top right corner of black cat Benny's head, including the ear, can be seen protruding from the top of the kitchen cabinet, which he calls his benthouse.

080