Marina Benjamin
@marinabenjamin.bsky.social
Writer. Editor at Aeon. Midlife trilogy (Middlepause, Insomnia, A Little Give) &c. Essays in Granta, Aeon, Paris Review. New work cooking. Rep Rebecca Carter
So, if no one stops Trump 'running' Venezuela, why would't he just walk into Greenland.
Trouble is that Greenland is Denmark, which is NATO. And if NATO does nothing to stop a Trump takeover then NATO is dead. And if NATO is dead, who will stop Russian walking into Europe.
Just saying.
Trouble is that Greenland is Denmark, which is NATO. And if NATO does nothing to stop a Trump takeover then NATO is dead. And if NATO is dead, who will stop Russian walking into Europe.
Just saying.
January 5, 2026 at 4:37 PM
So, if no one stops Trump 'running' Venezuela, why would't he just walk into Greenland.
Trouble is that Greenland is Denmark, which is NATO. And if NATO does nothing to stop a Trump takeover then NATO is dead. And if NATO is dead, who will stop Russian walking into Europe.
Just saying.
Trouble is that Greenland is Denmark, which is NATO. And if NATO does nothing to stop a Trump takeover then NATO is dead. And if NATO is dead, who will stop Russian walking into Europe.
Just saying.
Post-Brexit UK is America's whore, unable to call out #regimechange as an international crime. Labour now spouting hokey US cover up - 'evil dictator' gone / smooth change to democracy! - while Tump anoints current deputy PM & refuses to recognise already elected democratic leaders. One word: Oil.
January 5, 2026 at 8:40 AM
Post-Brexit UK is America's whore, unable to call out #regimechange as an international crime. Labour now spouting hokey US cover up - 'evil dictator' gone / smooth change to democracy! - while Tump anoints current deputy PM & refuses to recognise already elected democratic leaders. One word: Oil.
Amen to critiques like this one. On the banality, intrusiveness, and unreliability of AI: the everywhere technology whose use is far from obvious or clear, and yet power-driven by mad over-investment on the say-so of socially deficient libertarian man-children.
In what's now become an annual tradition, I've written another piece for The Gist about how and why I hate A.I.
On a bubble about to burst, a future rotted to its core, and the limits of the Mrs Doyle Theory of artificial intelligence.
www.thegist.ie/guest-gist-2...
On a bubble about to burst, a future rotted to its core, and the limits of the Mrs Doyle Theory of artificial intelligence.
www.thegist.ie/guest-gist-2...
Guest Gist: 2026, Our Already Rotting Future
Seamus O'Reilly warns of AI maximum bubbledrive this year.
www.thegist.ie
January 4, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Amen to critiques like this one. On the banality, intrusiveness, and unreliability of AI: the everywhere technology whose use is far from obvious or clear, and yet power-driven by mad over-investment on the say-so of socially deficient libertarian man-children.
What a brilliant start to 2026. One in the eye for Trump.
Zohran Mamdani was officially sworn in as mayor of New York City early on Thursday, just after the New Year’s Eve ball dropped in Times Square. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...
January 1, 2026 at 9:36 AM
What a brilliant start to 2026. One in the eye for Trump.
Wonderful organisation with first rate platform and resources. I've had a great experience teaching and mentoring upcoming writers with them.
Happy New Year! As PWA turns 15, we’re proud to have taught 17,643 writers worldwide. In 2026, we’ll fuel your writing with expert teachers, deadlines, community, and inspiration to achieve your goals! Join us at the Professional Writing Academy: zurl.co/Ng5Ny
The Professional Writing Academy
Discover world-class online creative writing courses and workshops to develop your writing skills with the Professional Writing Academy today.
www.profwritingacademy.com
January 1, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Wonderful organisation with first rate platform and resources. I've had a great experience teaching and mentoring upcoming writers with them.
This handsome volume arrived by post today. Congratulations @juliahbell.bsky.social - I think this may be destined to become a classic.
December 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
This handsome volume arrived by post today. Congratulations @juliahbell.bsky.social - I think this may be destined to become a classic.
Today Aeon Magazine publishes the last of 3 essays by Afghan women writers (smuggled out of the country in secret) that we've worked on for the past year in partnership with Untold Narratives. It ends the series on a note of hope.
aeon.co/essays/i-am-...
aeon.co/essays/i-am-...
I am witness to the strength of working women in Afghanistan | Aeon Essays
I am banned from working now, but as I look back on my long, challenging career in Afghanistan I feel hope for the future
aeon.co
December 16, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Today Aeon Magazine publishes the last of 3 essays by Afghan women writers (smuggled out of the country in secret) that we've worked on for the past year in partnership with Untold Narratives. It ends the series on a note of hope.
aeon.co/essays/i-am-...
aeon.co/essays/i-am-...
Green Catholicism is no oxymoron, but an extension of the Church's age-old radical tradition and commitment to environmental justice.
aeon.co/essays/the-c...
aeon.co/essays/the-c...
The Catholic Church can be a force for environmental change | Aeon Essays
Coursing through Catholicism is a radical tradition of environmental justice that will help combat the climate crisis
aeon.co
December 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Green Catholicism is no oxymoron, but an extension of the Church's age-old radical tradition and commitment to environmental justice.
aeon.co/essays/the-c...
aeon.co/essays/the-c...
Now here's a list what is a list.
lithub.com/100-notable-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025
The idea of 100 Notable Small Press Books was born November 2024, after The New York Times’s annual 100 Notable Books list featured eighty-two books from the Big Five publishing houses (Pengu…
lithub.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Now here's a list what is a list.
lithub.com/100-notable-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
Went to Daunts to stock up my shelves for December. Came home with treasures by Katie Kitamura @laurenelkin.bsky.social @alicejolly.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Went to Daunts to stock up my shelves for December. Came home with treasures by Katie Kitamura @laurenelkin.bsky.social @alicejolly.bsky.social
Pioneering first person pieces on Psyche magazine focus on insights that are hard won and, often, hard to swallow. This is a fantastic example of what the form can do. Firefighting on all fronts.
psyche.co/turning-poin...
psyche.co/turning-poin...
A wildfire showed me caring for my husband was burning me out | Psyche Turning Points
My husband was in crisis and our home faced wildfire. When it came, I saw the cost of holding the line
psyche.co
November 12, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Pioneering first person pieces on Psyche magazine focus on insights that are hard won and, often, hard to swallow. This is a fantastic example of what the form can do. Firefighting on all fronts.
psyche.co/turning-poin...
psyche.co/turning-poin...
We anthropomorphise AI all the time. So why haven't we twigged how narcissistic it is?
psyche.co/ideas/why-ai...
psyche.co/ideas/why-ai...
Why AI’s hallucinations are like the illusions of narcissism | Psyche Ideas
Unable to handle uncertainty, AI mimics the narcissistic compulsion to fill voids with plausible but false narratives
psyche.co
November 5, 2025 at 8:26 PM
We anthropomorphise AI all the time. So why haven't we twigged how narcissistic it is?
psyche.co/ideas/why-ai...
psyche.co/ideas/why-ai...
Georgia O'Keeffe claimed New Mexico as her own. And painted it as thought is was empty. It wasn't. Native populations have always lived there. This is a lovely piece of revisionism from an indigenous writer.
aeon.co/essays/some-...
aeon.co/essays/some-...
Some people refer to New Mexico as ‘O’Keeffe Country’. I don’t | Aeon Essays
Through her paintings, Georgia O’Keefe laid claim to New Mexico’s desert landscape. But it was never hers for the taking
aeon.co
October 28, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Georgia O'Keeffe claimed New Mexico as her own. And painted it as thought is was empty. It wasn't. Native populations have always lived there. This is a lovely piece of revisionism from an indigenous writer.
aeon.co/essays/some-...
aeon.co/essays/some-...
Reposted by Marina Benjamin
Updating my LEGO White House
October 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Updating my LEGO White House
You do hsve to wonder sometimes if the world can roll back from Trump when he's gone.
Breaking News: The U.S. will allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine wilderness in the country. nyti.ms/3WhrQui
October 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
You do hsve to wonder sometimes if the world can roll back from Trump when he's gone.
Palace gossip from pal w connections in Police: Andrew would smuggle girls into palace (circumventing sign-in book all guests are required to sign). Also Andrew Lownie let on that A took massive cash bribes when he was special trade envoy - and still paid no rent. He should be in fucking prison.
October 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Palace gossip from pal w connections in Police: Andrew would smuggle girls into palace (circumventing sign-in book all guests are required to sign). Also Andrew Lownie let on that A took massive cash bribes when he was special trade envoy - and still paid no rent. He should be in fucking prison.
Reposted by Marina Benjamin
Writers please spread far and wide. Six of my books were scraped by Meta (and the situation is much worse for many others). This cannot put right the past but it does enable readers to support publishers who value the work of actual writers. Thanks so much to those who have worked on this.
Info on Books By People here: booksbypeople.org
Books By People | Defending Organic Literature in an AI world
Books by People's mission is to safeguard human creativity in modern literature by helping publishers and authors to certify their books as human-authored, with a process readers can trust.
booksbypeople.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Writers please spread far and wide. Six of my books were scraped by Meta (and the situation is much worse for many others). This cannot put right the past but it does enable readers to support publishers who value the work of actual writers. Thanks so much to those who have worked on this.
Untold Narratives does amazing work helping writers who are censored at home find outlets in the English-language press. Excited to dive into this one.
October 14, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Untold Narratives does amazing work helping writers who are censored at home find outlets in the English-language press. Excited to dive into this one.
I am happy about the ceasefire that prevents Israel from killing any more Palestinians, but the lovefest around preening Western leaders who've actively armed the IDF for the past two years in nauseating. This goes beyond hypocricy. It is rewriting of events.
October 13, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I am happy about the ceasefire that prevents Israel from killing any more Palestinians, but the lovefest around preening Western leaders who've actively armed the IDF for the past two years in nauseating. This goes beyond hypocricy. It is rewriting of events.
Very excited to get my hands on an early copy of @gavinmevans.bsky.social latest book.
October 13, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Very excited to get my hands on an early copy of @gavinmevans.bsky.social latest book.
Ooh, I see a Kate Briggs book there 👀
"Reading is both a virtue and a duty." Ma Bibliothèque is the London-based imprint of artist, writer and editor Sharon Kivland, publishing essays, experimental fiction, poetry, critical writing and writing about reading. Discover the library at #smallpublishersfair25, London, Fri 24 / Sat 25 Oct
October 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Ooh, I see a Kate Briggs book there 👀
Normally our turnings points are about overcoming difficult experiences of one kind or another, but this one is light, funny and profound. I'm in the market for pitches for these btw.
psyche.co/turning-poin...
psyche.co/turning-poin...
How my fake accent became a full-blown identity experiment | Psyche Turning points
When I spoke like someone I wasn’t, people listened more closely. What did that say about them – and me?
psyche.co
October 13, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Normally our turnings points are about overcoming difficult experiences of one kind or another, but this one is light, funny and profound. I'm in the market for pitches for these btw.
psyche.co/turning-poin...
psyche.co/turning-poin...
Desperate? Or joyful... either way, slightly disturbing
Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) located in the Río Pinturas Canyon in the province of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, Argentina, created over 9,000 years ago.
October 10, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Desperate? Or joyful... either way, slightly disturbing
The future of UK Independent presses hang by a thread. Supporting the sector is vital: this is where ALL the bravery lies. The big houses are risk averse, but copycat small press successes to revitalise their lists. Small presses are the motor!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
Open letter on the future of small press publishing in the UK
The industry must work together to ensure the longevity of the UK’s independent presses.
www.thebookseller.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
The future of UK Independent presses hang by a thread. Supporting the sector is vital: this is where ALL the bravery lies. The big houses are risk averse, but copycat small press successes to revitalise their lists. Small presses are the motor!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
Priceless
The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.
October 10, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Priceless