Claire Kotecki

Claire Kotecki

@klarusu.bsky.social

Writer, Scientist, Educator. History postgraduate student. You can always win me over with a cat. 🐈‍⬛ Here be dragons 🐉 www.clairekotecki.com

968 followers3.2K following90 posts

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

I was just reading AI ‘tells’ advice and, with the best will in the world, if you come for me because I refuse to give up the Oxford comma until it’s torn from me, we will have words. Ditto em dashes. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Oh my … this is going to be a fantastic anthology in all categories 😍

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

Thread. It is a great honour to announce the shortlist for the 2025 #Curae prize for unpaid carers POETRY CATEGORY Mistletoe. Sam Garvan Diagnosis. Elizabeth Loudon Sinkhole. Charlotte Ansell I Love Him (like salt and water). Emma Wilson The Shop at the End of a Wave. Ia Kozoboli. thecuraeprize.uk

Claire Kotecki reposted

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught
@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

#Curae prize results announced at 12. The bursary fund will close at the end of the day. If you can help, please do. The prize - an unique initiative for unpaid #carers - receives no industry funding at all. www.gofundme.com/f/curae-2025...

gofundme.comDonate to Dr Anna Vaught: Curae Writing Bursaries for unpaid carers, organized by Anna VaughtHello everyone, I am Anna (aka Dr Anna Vaught - and you may kno… Anna Vaught needs your support for Dr Anna Vaught: Curae Writing Bursaries for unpaid carers
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Owning the impact of caring on our lives enables us to own the depth it brings to our creative perspective, and more, it enables us to own who we are in a relationship with a status that can become one-sided and all consuming. #Curae is the only opportunity out there that does this so explicitly.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

I think that’s the most valuable thing about Curae. It is a point where we can inhale deeply and click ‘submit’ on something that doesn’t just send a piece of ourselves into the electronic ether for judgement …

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Until we can’t. Until we realise, suddenly or gradually, that trying to carry on as normal in the torrent is like walking into the waves of the 100 Year Storm with a laptop and a saucepan and expecting to float.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

In that moment, we have a choice as carers. We can lose ourselves entirely to the all-consuming, daunting cascade of responsibility that becomes our day-to-day, or we can find some path to owning our creativity in a new form, a different incarnation.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

For a long time, many people ‘just keep swimming’. We minimise the impact on us personally and creatively. We think the only way to keep our previous sense of self is to embrace the ‘doing it all’ mentality.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Yes, I have to do more around my previous life … but that’s just life, right? We all pick up a bit extra here and there. I can do this. I can spin all the plates. I can care and create and work and not lose myself in the torrent.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

There is something more valuable than the physical prizes #Curae provides. It means that everyone who submits to the Curae Prize wins. My experience is that becoming a carer isn’t an event that happens to you. It’s a mindset change that creeps up on you slowly.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

No matter how slowly or suddenly the condition of those we care for changes, our sense of self and understanding of our new identity, one that immeasurably changes us and entwines us with the responsibility and care of another, isn’t guaranteed to arrive on schedule with the responsibilities.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

🧵 I want to tell you why I think this is one of the most important prizes running and I’m sorry that the book press and mainstream publishing hasn’t dived on it with bells on and support …

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

I confirmed the 2025 #Curae prize shortlist just now. Emotional? Me? Shortlist announced at 12 on 1st of May across socials and I will have let winners know just before. We can be in touch throughout the day. Life can be so hard; so sad, but community, love, creativity - those are golden.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Creating a US government registry to track autistic people using private medical records is like a ‘How to Nazi in Easy Steps’ manual. It’s not science. Science has an ethical foundation based on consent. Science already studies autism, and many other neurotypes ethically.

View full thread
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

When does ‘eradicating autism by September’ become eradicating autistic people? Then what? Are they coming for all the neurodiverse people? Then are they going to chase down anyone with an SLD? Can we expect those with dyslexia to be up next for the curative cull?

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

This isn’t politics. This is a regime modelling itself on an ideology we have already had to deal with the consequence of in Europe. I bloody love my vibrant and neurodiverse people. I see you. You do not deserve this

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Creating a US government registry to track autistic people using private medical records is like a ‘How to Nazi in Easy Steps’ manual. It’s not science. Science has an ethical foundation based on consent. Science already studies autism, and many other neurotypes ethically.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

What’s next? I mean, we know there can be a genetic element so when can we expect the forced sterilisations and reproductive restrictions that the next ‘Nazism for Dummies’ chapter deals with?

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

In the true spirit of nature writers, I talk to the red kites that fly low over our garden every day. I love the proximity-but-distance. I wish it was something poignantly profound, but most often, I just say “Please don’t poo on my head.” 😂🤦‍♀️

Claire Kotecki reposted

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught
@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

Oooh it’s only a few weeks until we announce the #Curae 2025 shortlist I AM EXCITED ARE YOU EXCITED. Fundraiser for writers’ bursaries is still running, below. Do please help me if you can. This is the only opportunity of this kind for unpaid #carers 💙📚

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

Today I launch a fundraiser to support the 2025 #Curae prize for unpaid carers who are also writers or would like to be. Anything you can add to the pot will go directly towards bursary funds for our three winners (announced 1st June). gofund.me/1d8c6564 All in, we can transform lives here x

gofund.meDonate to Dr Anna Vaught: Curae Writing Bursaries for unpaid carers, organised by Anna VaughtHello everyone, I am Anna (aka Dr Anna Vaught - and you may kno… Anna Vaught needs your support for Dr Anna Vaught: Curae Writing Bursaries for unpaid carers

Claire Kotecki reposted

Library Innovation Lab
@harvardlil.bsky.social

We just launched a 16TB archive of every dataset that has been available on data.gov since November. This will be updated day by day as new datasets appear. It can be freely copied, and we're sharing the code behind it to help others make their own archives of data they depend on.

lil.law.harvard.eduAnnouncing the Data.gov Archive | Library Innovation LabToday we released our archive of data.gov on Source Cooperative. The 16TB collection includes over 311,000 datasets harvested during 2024 and 2025, a complet...

Claire Kotecki reposted

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.
@sarahmackattack.bsky.social

Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.

Claire Kotecki reposted

Ruth Ann Crystal
@drruth.bsky.social

Replying to @drruth.bsky.social

CDC DATASETS on 1.28.2025 According to @altcdc.bsky.social The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. archive.org/details/2025... You need to know which data set you would like. Use CTRL+F to find a keyword from the list. 🧪🛟 #Episky #Statsky

archive.orgCDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025 : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveAn archive of all CDC datasets uploaded to https://data.cdc.gov/browse before January 28th, 2025. Excludes corrupt datasets and data not publicly accessible.
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

A day ahead of finalising exam papers. However much students dislike sitting them, it is equal in magnitude to how much I dislike the weeks that go into setting them … especially when our staffing has been cut to the bone and I’ve lost half my subject specialists. Sigh.

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

It’s bad enough the OU has banned children and young people from campus (we are clearly not an #OUFamily as we always used to be), but according to the latest email “Following some recent reports …” children have been seen. Can we all agree that none of us have or will ever ‘see’ children on site?

Claire Kotecki reposted

BookwormVaught - Dr Anna Vaught
@bookwormvaught.bsky.social

Thread on resources for #publishing for #writers. First of all, if you are thinking about broader freelance work, then you need the best newsletter about. Sian Meades Williams's Freelance Writing Jobs, www.sianmeadeswilliams.com/freelance-wr... Weekly or monthly round-ups. Comps, opps, jobs & more

sianmeadeswilliams.comFreelance Writing Jobs — Sian Meades-WilliamsFreelance Writing Jobs is the UK's leading media industry newsletter for freelance calls for pitches and paying freelance writing jobs. Subscribe here.
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

A Sunday full of writing today. I have a piece for our upcoming zine edition that needs a serious final edit, I need to start putting in a daily word count on my WIP to get a full first draft and I have a history MA assignment to finish. Onwards! But first coffee … #writingcommunity #writing

Claire Kotecki reposted

Ilan Schwartz
@germhuntermd.bsky.social

Cementing the professional legitimacy of 🦋 We now have the journals on #MedSky & #IDSky @jamacurrent.bsky.social @bmj.com @cmicomms.bsky.social (first one?) @eurosurveillance.bsky.social @cidjournal.bsky.social @ofidjournal.bsky.social @thejhi.bsky.social @jclinical-invest.bsky.social

Ilan Schwartz@germhuntermd.bsky.social

📢 IDSky 📢 @cidjournal.bsky.social @ofidjournal.bsky.social @jidjournal.bsky.social are here!!!

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

I’ve written about this before but science is inherently political. There is no choice in this. It absolutely shouldn’t be ideologically partisan but there is nothing about science, from the funding that shapes the landscape to the choices of which areas are ‘valuable’, that isn’t a political act.

Maitreyi Das@daslabpombe.com

Not a fan of this. Science can't be apolitical if we want to keep doing science. What happens when politicians stop the science because our findings affect their politics? How can we educate people about our science when they are bombarded with rampant misinformation?1

Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

Emma’s photos are a genuine bright point in so many gloomy days. I would recommend following if you feel that a small corner of the interwebs with natural beauty and calming things would make your days happier.

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Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

I love the concept and the language of ‘daylighting’.

Robert Macfarlane@robgmacfarlane.bsky.social

1st post here: a note of hope? “Daylighting" is the work of bringing buried rivers back to the surface & sun, in cities where they've been entombed. Here’s @emilyraboteau.bsky.social on a $133m daylighting project in the Bronx. Here’s to doing things differently. pioneerworks.org/broadcast/da...

pioneerworks.orgDaylighting a Brook in the Bronx | BroadcastAn ode to an underground waterway and the restorative effort to unbury it.
Claire Kotecki
@klarusu.bsky.social

I love StoryGraph - I use it for my on-the-go tracking alongside my LibraryThing main catalogue. The graph stats are great!

p.e. neloms 🤎@theauthorpen.bsky.social

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.