Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026“I think the writing of fiction involves enormous anxiety and enormous risk. And I want fiction always to situate us in the psychic and literal spot where life is most difficult, most dangerous, most beautiful.” — John Hawkes #writing #fiction 060
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyThe Epilogue @theepilogue.net · 03/09/2026Thanks to @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social for taking time to visit and talk about writing the uncanny, nature, and his fantastic writing craft book, Wonderbook. #writing #podcast #writincommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #scifi #booksky #writers #authors #writesky #writerskytheepilogue.netWriting the Uncanny: Writing Advice from Jeff VanderMeer - The Epilogue...In this episode of our podcast for writers (who take craft too seriously), take a journey into the uncanny with award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer where […] 0289
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyStone Circle Review @stonecirclereview.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I often think of poetry not just as a craft, but as a kind of ritual technology—one that allows me to commune with what's been lost, obscured, or erased. -- Nina C. Peláez 1163
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyReactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Three Ted Chiang stories, very different in structure, but all explore the theme of free will in ways that inspire an intense emotional response. Let's unpack the works that writer @looseleafellie.bsky.social calls Chiang's "Free Will Holy Trinity":reactormag.comThree Ted Chiang Stories That Broke My Brain - ReactorExploring the "Free Will Holy Trinity" — three of the most perfect speculative stories ever written. 0245
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 21/08/2026“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” — James Baldwin #author #quote 021
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 09/08/2026“We now have accepted a brutal, capitalist model of time that represents passing moments as close-packed detonations of panic.” Some great thoughts by Dan Chiasson on AI’s supposed help: www.nybooks.com/articles/202... #booksky #writingnybooks.comThink for Yourself | Dan ChiassonOne of the most dehumanizing effects of AI is the short cuts it offers through the gaps and impasses intrinsic to the act of writing. 0132
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Just a reminder that my chapbook OUR PLACE IS IN BETWEEN is available both in print and as a PDF. You can read about it here: bottlecap.press/products/our... #flashfiction #chapbook 020
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyUrsula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 28/07/2026We all have forests on our minds. Forests unexplored, unending. Each one of us gets lost in the forest, every night, alone. 012332
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 20/07/2026“No, it’s not easy to write. It’s as hard as breaking rocks. But sparks and splinters fly like flashing steel.” — Clarice Lispector #writing #quote 050
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLos Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 15/07/2026"'The Illuminated Man' seeks to trace out the roots of Ballard’s visionary fiction in his life, without reducing the former to the latter." Steven Shaviro on "The Illuminated Man": lareviewofbooks.org/article/jg-ball…lareviewofbooks.orgThe Estranged Worlds of J. G. Ballard | Los Angeles Review of BooksAn incisive and moving new critical biography of one of the nuclear age’s greatest visionaries. 064
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Here are two pieces from my new chapbook--a ghost story and a cat story. I write these whenever I can. #chapbook #booksky 070
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyJo Lloyd but jolly 🌍🐎 @jolloyds.bsky.social · 22/06/2026Refreshing, generous post on POV, with lots of good examples to read or reread 1102
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 11/06/2026“Literature is always trying to show other parts of this immense universe in which we live. It’s endless. I’m sure there will be other writers who will discover new worlds.” — Nathalie Sarraute #reading #writing 050
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyJoseph Dante @josephdante.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Spent some time with words by @stephendelaney.bsky.social. His new chapbook includes a collab between us! A curious collection of defamiliarizing, semi-fabulist flashes and prose poems. You can get a copy here: bottlecap.press/products/our... 172
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 13/05/2026How Primo Levi saw himself in Kafka after Auschwitz.buff.lyA New Language: On Primo Levi’s Translation of KafkaNot only did Kafka create a new language to describe the world, he also invented a new punctuation: he put question marks where there had never been any before. “Why” is the word that k… 0144
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 02/05/2026This might be my favorite Lydia Davis story. #reading #fiction 0122
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 07/04/2026@rabihalameddine.bsky.social and John Freeman consider their new anthology and the appeal of the international short story.buff.lyThe International Short Story is BoomingIn 2002, a friend asked if I would join him for a San Francisco Symphony concert with David Robinson as guest conductor. They were to play Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie. I was a bit ambi… 0166
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyStephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 01/04/2026Apologies to the authors, who put a lot of thought into their order. 001
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 01/04/2026When I read story collections, I always read the shortest ones first, leaving the longer ones for later. Does anyone else do this? #booksky 280
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 27/03/2026My chapbook OUR PLACE IS IN BETWEEN is now available from Bottlecap Press. The pieces explore marginal life and have magical or fantastical elements. They're sad but I hope you enjoy them. #booksky #fiction #bottlecappress bottlecap.press/products/ourpsd 13614
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyThe Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 26/02/2026The right book can “make a subject that’s never crossed my mind, or that strikes me as aggressively boring, into something incantatory,” Deb Olin Unferth writes:bit.lyNine Books to Reset Your View of the WorldEach of these titles will widen your perspective, offering you original insight and vision. 1184
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyBrevity / Dinty W. Moore @dintywmoore.bsky.social · 03/03/2026“You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.” ~ Margaret Atwood 0206
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 23/02/2026“We have been taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing.' But a writer's job is ingoing.” — Ursula K. Le Guin #writing #quote 0144
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyDaunt Books Publishing @dauntbookspub.bsky.social · 28/11/2025Thrilled to announce that in July 2026, we are publishing the magical EARTH 7 by Deb Olin Unferth. A love story set against both a love letter to planet Earth, and a portrait of its slow demise, EARTH 7 is a novel for our times, and for all times dauntbookspublishing.co.uk/book/earth-7/ 171
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 16/01/2026“Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.” — Anne Enright #writing #fiction 031
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyJacqueline Doyle @jacqdoyle.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Love this New Year's poem by Naomi Shihab Nye (recommended on the @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social Substack): www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/...poetryfoundation.orgBurning the Old YearNotes friends tied to the doorknob, transparent scarlet paper, sizzle like moth wings, marry the air. 021
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyJoseph Dante @josephdante.bsky.social · 31/12/2025“Whether we are happy or unhappy leads us to write one way or another. When we are happy our imagination is stronger; when we are unhappy our memory works with greater vitality.” —Natalia Ginzburg 074
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 28/12/2025My favorite books this year: INTO THE WEEDS - Lydia Davis THE PELICAN CHILD - Joy Williams MAN IN THE HOLOCENE - Max Frisch SHORT: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY MOON SONGS - Carol Emshwiller CATASTROPHE - Dino Buzzati #booksky 070
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Hwang Bo-Reum recommends little ways to cultivate your reading (and writing) life.buff.ly3 Ways to Become a Better ReaderAlways Have a Book With You I read somewhere that authors are voracious readers. I would imagine so. When I read, I also feel the urge to create something of my own. Likewise, I don’t think I’ve ev… 0217
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 30/11/2025“A story happens when two equally appealing forces, or characters, or ideas try to occupy the same place at the same time, and they’re both right.” — Amy Hempel #amwriting #fiction 061
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyBook Post @bookpostusa.bsky.social · 19/11/2025Happy pub day to The Pelican Child by Joy Williams! To celebrate, we’ve unlocked her Book Post Diary: Hemingway and His Houses. Read here → books.substack.com/p/diary-joy-... @aaknopf.bsky.social #EduSky #Books 041
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 17/10/2025“The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.” — James Baldwin #writing #fiction 121
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyNew Door Books @newdoorbooks.bsky.social · 07/10/2025In @literaryhub.bsky.social, @devintoshea.bsky.social describes how movies are popularizing the classic #Pynchon theme: "The war between the powerful and the powerless." lithub.com/thomas-pynch...lithub.comThomas Pynchon Has Been Warning Us About American Fascism the Whole TimePaul Thomas Anderson’s adaptations of Thomas Pynchon’s novels—first Inherent Vice in 2014, and now One Battle After Another in 2025—may be tipping the scales, with more first-time Pynchon readers f… 06116
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLapham’s Quarterly @laphamsquarterly.bsky.social · 29/09/2025Read Charles Baxter on the literature and politics of charisma. www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/f...laphamsquarterly.orgThe Flag of Ahab | Charles BaxterOn the literature and politics of charisma. 051
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 27/09/2025“Always, where there is darkness, there must be a hint of light, and where there is brightness, some shadow play. Without this tonal range of mood orchestration, tension and artistic effect are lost.” — Aimee Parkison #writing #fiction 010
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyPublic Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 18/09/2025In a new review, Caterina Domeneghini studies a surge in translation to English of the work of Dino Buzzati. “This new translation project doesn’t just revive Buzzati,” she argues, “it reframes him.”publicbooks.orgBetwixt or Bewitched? Rethinking the “Middlebrow” with Dino BuzzatiReframed as a “bewitched middlebrow,” Buzzati’s fiction re-enters literary history not as a comforting escape, but as a sharp tool for existential inquiry. 042
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyKathy Fish @kathyfish.bsky.social · 15/09/2025My free September newsletter... open.substack.com/pub/artoffla...open.substack.comthe weight of stillness, the power of white spacePhoto by Filip Kominik on Unsplash 0123
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 30/08/2025This probably can't be bottled, but some books definitely lower blood pressure and help one breathe. #booksky 0574
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 19/08/2025“She became fascinated with how human beings—especially those who didn’t have much power—could empower themselves and others and change the world.” What Octavia Butler’s early writings reveal about her trajectory as a literary icon.buff.lyExploring Octavia Butler’s Beginnings as a Sci-Fi TrailblazerIt was Octavia Margaret who gave her daughter the spark to even consider a writing career. She saw her quiet, bookish ten-year-old daughter writing, saw the delight on her face as she created, and … 11911
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 17/08/2025“We sleep in language, if language doesn’t come to wake us with its strangeness.” — Robert Kelly #reading #writing 010
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 01/08/2025“I hate judgments that only crush and don’t transform.” — Elias Canetti #booksky 020
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyNicole Tallman @natallman.bsky.social · 27/07/2025How to respond to disgruntled readers. 063
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyThe Authors Guild @authorsguild.org · 10/07/2025Heavy Feather Review's Where to Submit resource (updated for July 2025) is invaluable and full of presses, journals, and sites open for submissions. heavyfeatherreview.org/calls/heavyfeatherreview.orgWhere to SubmitPresses | Chapbooks | Journals + Anthologies | Fellowships + Other Opportunities Last updated July 3, 2025 If you are an editor or publisher and would like your journal, press, or literary organiza… 1189
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 13/07/2025“Habitualization devours objects, clothes, furniture, one’s wife, and the fear of war … Art exists to help us recover the sensation of life; it exists to make us feel things, to make the stone stony.” ― Victor Shklovsky #writing #art 040
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyJacob Wren @jacobwren.bsky.social · 22/06/2025“One of the strangest things about writing well is that it requires two different zones in the brain - rigor and recklessness - simultaneously.” - Carole Maso 0289
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyCanongate @canongate.co.uk · 19/06/2025Thrilled to announce Canongate will be publishing WORDS ARE MY MATTER by Pulitzer Prize winner by Ursula K. Le Guin. A manual investigating the depth, breadth and importance of contemporary fiction. canongate.co.uk/news/canonga...canongate.co.ukCANONGATE TO PUBLISH URSULA K. LE GUIN’S SELECTED WRITING ON LITERATURECANONGATE TO PUBLISH URSULA K. LE GUIN’S SELECTED WRITING ON LITERATURE 0306
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Lydia Davis's INTO THE WEEDS (on how and why she writes) is due out September 16! #booksky #writing 063
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 30/05/2025I like to keep an open book by my sink every morning. (Poetry and flash fiction work best.) It puts me in a better mood and keeps the world at bay. #booksky 040
Stephen Delaney @stephendelaney.bsky.social · 18/05/2025“The mysterious does not spell itself out in capital letters, as many writers believe, but is always between, an interstice.” — Julio Cortázar #writing #fiction 020
Reposted by Stephen DelaneyLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 05/05/2025After 20 years, Kazuo Ishiguro reflects on the decades-long process behind Never Let Me Go.buff.lyKazuo Ishiguro Reflects on Never Let Me Go, 20 Years LaterWhile I’d been busy writing my fourth and fifth novels, my study had mysteriously transformed itself around me into a kind of miniature indoor jungle. Everywhere were dusty mountains of scribbled-o… 1248