Anoushka

Paperback edition of The Curae, an anthology of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, by writers who are carers

First page of a story called 'Much Loved Pet, Late Of This World, Returns In Hologrammic Form' by JL Bogenschneider

Received my contributor copies of The Curae II, collecting the shortlisted and prize-winning entries for this year’s Curae Prize, for writers who are also carers.

Many thanks to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social for establishing the prize and @renardpress.com for publishing the anthology...

City Arts & Lectures presents Disability Visibility: Alice Wong in conversation with W. Kamau Bell YouTube video by City Arts & Lectures

I don't have words for how grateful I am for Alice Wong having been here. Fortunately, she left plenty of words and friends among us.

Upon the release of Disability Visibility 5 years ago, she had a very good conversation with W. Kamau Bell.

Immediate add to my TBL, or whatever we’re calling our queued podcast episodes.

I hope the Police and Crime Committee give disability and sexual orientation/identity as aggravating factors as much air time as race and religion, in the context of hate crimes. The current legislative approach creates a hierarchy of hate.

Every Sunday I’ll be contributing a paperback column to the Observer’s New Review. Kicking things off is Driver by Mattia Filice (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social), who’s poured his experience of 2 decades working on the French rail network into an extraordinary verse novel. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Please direct me to your favourite braided essays. Cheers. #WritingCommunity

Join us for the online launch of the #CuraePrize anthology from @renardpress.com!

The Curae Prize is a literary award for unpaid carers. Expect fresh, vibrant fiction, nonfiction & poetry.

📆 12 November 2025, 6pm

🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-curae-... (free)

#writingcommunity #writersky #carers

Thanks to all those who joined us yesterday evening for the relaunch of The Barbellion Prize, a book prize for chronically ill and disabled authors founded by @jgoldsmith.bsky.social. Our generous audience raised more than £400 on the night! You can donate here: barbellionprize.org/donate/

The Curae II available for pre-order from @renardpress.com!

💚 Intro by @bookwormvaught.bsky.social.

💚 And a piece about dead butterfly epiphanies and metamorphosis by me.

🛒 renardpress.com/books/the-cu...

💚 All proceeds to Carers Trust & Carers UK.

The cover has landed for the 2nd #CuraePrize anthology. A selection of fiction, nonfiction & poetry written by unpaid carers, a strangely marginalised group. It’s rare that our voices are amplified, but we’re here holding up our loved ones & growing in unexpected ways. Out 15/11. @renardpress.com

Day 1 of #NottingHillCarnival ✅

I have a vague memory of hearing about those pranks. Thanks for the recommendation.

Interesting. I am reading The Art of Cruelty by Maggie Nelson at the moment and recently read Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty. Sounds like you’ll be wading into the swamp!

Would love a serious book programme on the BBC. One that centres authors and critics.

Thought this was well-articulated, on the appeal of Trump to the unconscious - from Maggie Nelson’s “Like Love”.

#CrispWall update. Note heart cut outs.

My youngest and I do quite a lot of escape rooms together as a duo and I have been trying to understand the appeal. For me, I think it’s just looking through other people’s drawers.

Today I saw the bus that is my mental image of a bus when I think the word “bus”. Looks like a seven year old’s drawing. I love it.

Is the queue still very enormous?

Thanks, Kerry. Just saw your success with the Bristol Short Story Prize! Amazing! Congratulations right back at you. Team Birkbeck ftw.💪

A picture of 5 red double-decker buses, two on the left showing just their rear, two on the right showing their fronts and one in the background side on. The sky above is sunny, blue and filled with fluffy white clouds.

Took my transport enthusiast autistic son to Battersea bus garage to contemplate some of his favourite units through the fence. Had a lovely chat with a driver who has an 8yo autistic son. I love that sense of “game recognises game” when parent/carers meet. A shortcut from stranger to friend.

Pictured is last year’s anthology which comes with a full recommend and includes fantastic work by @jessmoxham.bsky.social, @kerrymead.bsky.social, @kateblincoe.bsky.social and other fantastic writers.

Please buy, boost, bless and believe in The Curae anthology when the prescription (book) is filled (published).

The #Curae prize does not require submissions to be about care, although mine is, but I am looking forward to reading work forged in care’s crucible - work that has been shaped, tempered, and deepened by our shared experience.
Thanks for creating something for us, @bookwormvaught.bsky.social

My piece,
"Metamorphosis" is about my son’s deep phobia of fluttery things, but it also about love, caring and attention. It is about realising that growth and change is possible for both of us, and making space for that as we construct our futures.

Excitingly, the winning & shortlisted (🙋‍♀️) entries for the #Curae Prize will be published in an anthology by lovely @renardpress.com later in the year. For an emerging (but wizened) writer, this feels like getting off the mark. And doing it with a cohort of fellow carer-writers is really meaningful.

Heartfelt thanks to the whole team.💕

Congratulations to the #Curae Prize winners 2025! What a joy it has been to be a part of all this. Can’t wait to read all the winning and shortlisted entries.📚📚📚

I gasped.

I’ve had a lot of correspondence today about the #Curae I had mentioned that it might not run again and had noted, first and foremost, that demands on me are high. It’s really worth explaining. I have done as much as it possibly can but I don’t think my position is clear so I thought I’d state it ❤️