Rishi Dastidar

A reminder that Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak will be published by @ninearchespress.bsky.social on 19 March 2026, and is available for pre-ordering now. ninearchespress.com/publications...

I'm always very aware of barely beginning to do justice to many of the collections I receive. So I am always in awe when someone reads my work, and really gets what I was trying to do. Been seen like this is fab: worldliteraturetoday.org/2026/novembe...

How many votes does Paddington have?

I'm reading a debut novel which has been (justifiably) lauded for what it tells us about 'contemporary life'. Its protagonists are of course all young people. Made me wonder what hot new novelists are writing great books about 'contemporary life' that also feature middle-aged & older people?

OK so apparently I do want to spend all morning watching Harry Kane be shy and humble and sweet picking up the Ballon d'Or.

And lo it came to, well, pass.

@eaterofsun.bsky.social *waves* long time no speak!

160. The way music speaks. Do not forget that a poem, even though it is composed in the language of information, is not used in the language-game of giving information. -Ludwig Wittgenstein, from Zettle (tr. G. E. M. Anscombe) one of those ‘endless’ books — a Borgesian ‘book of sand’

Normalise a colleague who you've not heard from for 11 years sending you a message saying they enjoyed your most recent poetry collection.

Normalise a colleague who you've not heard from for 11 years sending you a message saying they enjoyed your most recent poetry collection.

I would be thrilled, honoured and delighted if you were free on 22 November to come and see Kayfabe Memories, a piece of immersive theatre I've had a hand in bringing to life. Wresting FTW: tickets.pearlyqueentheatre.co.uk/events/thepe...

Morning

PERVERSE 10E is out today! This week features five poems by Daniel Naawenkangua Abukuri, Mary Mulholland, Satya Dash, James Goodman and Oz Hardwick, on Icarus, Icarus, pigeons and Icarus. Read all five poems from this section here: perverse.substack.com/p/perverse-10e

Did somebody say… don’t use a raw technology to generate imagery and destroy brand value?

I know this wasn’t the author intended but hear me out: Cyrano but he’s also a carrier pigeon.

It might be the UK’s number one, but whoever these strangulated crooners are on #Strictly are making me yearn for a new punk uprising.

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

I know this wasn’t the author intended but hear me out: Cyrano but he’s also a carrier pigeon.

Tree down on the jubilee line between Canons Park and Queensbury, so getting out of northwest London is going to be an odyssey.

I’ll tolerate the non-headphone wearers on public transport if the trade off is for people to take off their fucking rucksacks.

Chris Riddell obviously! Bloody autocorrect.

This rabbit’s expression in Chris Russell’s Observer cartoon today; wonderful.

Thanks to Jade Cuttle for a very thoughtful review of my new book in The Observer.

Prep ahead of tonight’s show.

For those of you at a loose end / not going to the Forwards tonight, I'll be accompanying the mighty Dee Sada with some poems at this event at Raleigh Chapel in Stoke Newington in north London. Come through: gel.now/events/1134

For those of you at a loose end / not going to the Forwards tonight, I'll be accompanying the mighty Dee Sada with some poems at this event at Raleigh Chapel in Stoke Newington in north London. Come through: gel.now/events/1134

www.theguardian.com/football/202... << I am pretty sure that, in the not too distant future, football manager as a job is gonna have to become a collective responsibility. Too long a season and too much pressure means people working through illness.

It’s nearly here! Just 24 hours to go until the @forwardprizes.bsky.social ceremony 2026 😮 The ceremony will be live streamed, so if you can’t make it to London, you can still watch from the comfort of your own home. Please let me know if you’re going to be watching! (Link to watch in comments 👇)

AlastAIr Heath OMFG

All videos from our new series, Common Interests, are now available to watch on our YouTube channel! Our first interviewee is Lola Olufemi. A writer, researcher, and organiser, Lola speaks to @yararf.bsky.social about power dynamics within the publishing industry and so much more. buff.ly/ytEqnaY

This week's Web Curios has landed: webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-23...

OUT NOW: Issue twenty-five: 'The Erratics' badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-five

It worked to the extent that I clicked, even though I am not a landlord. If this is the way to build brands in a contemporary landscape I might be done.

Next month we are celebrating Kathryn Bevis and her wonderful work with the launch of 'wild devotions' a pamphlet of new work published posthumously by Candlestick Press and then a workshop and close reading of poems in this pamphlet led by Carrie Etter. To book please go to thewritingschool.co.uk

“His face is redder than a fox’s ass at gooseberry time.” Oh my. #celebtraitors

Preparing for Storm Austen by arguing my way all the way from a C+ to an A-, and please don’t be clueless about this.

So if we hold on for long enough, we could revive the high street as we find agents can’t do the shopping for us once we all have one…

The brilliant @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social is looking for your help to publish more poetry next year. If you can donate, that's more wonderful words out in the world: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-broke...

Is the United hair guy gonna stick his head in Lake Como for content / Bantz?