Alex Sawyer
@alexsawyer.bsky.social
Complete amateur, real dilettante. My debut novel, Rat Daniels, is coming out in 2026.
Pinned
Alex Sawyer
@alexsawyer.bsky.social
· Apr 29
Applications Open for The Richell Prize 2025
Hachette Australia and EWF's annual publishing prize.
www.hachette.com.au
No exaggeration to say that entering this prize two years ago changed my life. Hachette will be publishing my book, Rat Daniels next year. Can’t recommend it enough (both entering the prize and buying my book)
Everyone deserves the full Travis Head experience
November 22, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Everyone deserves the full Travis Head experience
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
We are delighted to announce that Jennifer Mills has been appointed Chair of the ASA Board of Directors. Outgoing Chair, Sophie Cunningham, will remain on the Board as Deputy Chair, continuing her valued contribution to the ASA.
www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-welcomes-new-chair-jennifer-mills/
www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-welcomes-new-chair-jennifer-mills/
ASA welcomes new Chair, Jennifer Mills - Australian Society of Authors
We are delighted to announce Jennifer Mills has been appointed Chair of the Australian Society of Authors.
www.asauthors.org.au
November 12, 2025 at 6:14 AM
We are delighted to announce that Jennifer Mills has been appointed Chair of the ASA Board of Directors. Outgoing Chair, Sophie Cunningham, will remain on the Board as Deputy Chair, continuing her valued contribution to the ASA.
www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-welcomes-new-chair-jennifer-mills/
www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-welcomes-new-chair-jennifer-mills/
Big get for the Richell
startled, flabbergasted to be on this list www.hachette.com.au/news/the-ric...
The Richell Prize Shortlist 2025
Announcing the shortlist for the 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.
www.hachette.com.au
October 16, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Big get for the Richell
Please Be Nice to the Bullshit Machine
It’s time to prepare for AI personhood | Jacy Reese Anthis
It’s time to prepare for AI personhood | Jacy Reese Anthis
Technological advances will bring social upheaval. How will we treat digital minds, and how will they treat us?
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Please Be Nice to the Bullshit Machine
Appalling, Unnecessary decision by Melbourne Uni and they need to explain themselves. It’s not a financial decision to shut down a cultural institution that runs on the cost of an executive lunch allowance
Exclusive: Australia’s second-oldest literary journal, Meanjin, is being shut down today for "financial" reasons, Crikey can reveal.
Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing
Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.
www.crikey.com.au
September 4, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Appalling, Unnecessary decision by Melbourne Uni and they need to explain themselves. It’s not a financial decision to shut down a cultural institution that runs on the cost of an executive lunch allowance
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
New from me: On coffee, names and the magic brewed by your local barista.
Cold coffee – by Aboubakr Daqiq | Australian Literary Arts Magazine | ISLAND
I haven’t always liked coffee. Loved the smell, just not the taste. In recent years, however, I’ve found myself more than impartial towards an occasional morning coffee – especially when paired with a...
islandmag.com
August 22, 2025 at 4:56 AM
New from me: On coffee, names and the magic brewed by your local barista.
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Adelaide friends: we are officially launching Here Are My Demands at Ern Malley bar in Stepney on 27 August. Come hear me tee off about the state of the future! All welcome, (free) tickets essential. Details here: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/book-launc...
Book Launch: Here Are My Demands, Andrew Roff
Join us for the launch of Andrew Roff's debut novel, HERE ARE MY DEMANDS
www.eventbrite.com.au
August 20, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Adelaide friends: we are officially launching Here Are My Demands at Ern Malley bar in Stepney on 27 August. Come hear me tee off about the state of the future! All welcome, (free) tickets essential. Details here: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/book-launc...
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Ripper launch of Alex Cothren and Olivia De Zilva's new books from Pink Shorts Press in Adelaide last night (alongside a new edition of Barbara Hanrahan's Annie Magdalene). Buy the books, it's illegal no to! www.pinkshortspress.com.au/books
July 30, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Ripper launch of Alex Cothren and Olivia De Zilva's new books from Pink Shorts Press in Adelaide last night (alongside a new edition of Barbara Hanrahan's Annie Magdalene). Buy the books, it's illegal no to! www.pinkshortspress.com.au/books
Ah bloody hell, call the council, we’ve got Ents again
July 25, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Ah bloody hell, call the council, we’ve got Ents again
Amazing to think that in five years time we’ll be able to listen to the kids raised by Grok talking like whispery coke addicts and giving people the “prompt me” stare
July 25, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Amazing to think that in five years time we’ll be able to listen to the kids raised by Grok talking like whispery coke addicts and giving people the “prompt me” stare
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
In my hands: agent copies arrive of Alex Cothren’s splendid debut, a story collection, out from Adelaide startup Pink Shorts Press next month! (nb/ this might actually be the one that makes me a millionaire, dear Alex!)
July 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
In my hands: agent copies arrive of Alex Cothren’s splendid debut, a story collection, out from Adelaide startup Pink Shorts Press next month! (nb/ this might actually be the one that makes me a millionaire, dear Alex!)
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Hey friends, my debut novel is out *right now* and you can ask your local bookshop to order it, or else grab a copy here:
www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/here...
www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/here...
Here Are My Demands - Wakefield Press
It's 2058 and Maggie Garewal's moment has arrived. Daringly speculative and yet all too recognisable, Here Are My Demands is a story about fighting on in the face of resistance, and the unprecedented ...
www.wakefieldpress.com.au
July 21, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Hey friends, my debut novel is out *right now* and you can ask your local bookshop to order it, or else grab a copy here:
www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/here...
www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/here...
“You see, with every block I remove I can make the structure higher. It is very possible that in our lifetime, my Jenga tower will touch the face of god”
“Yes, atmospheric CO2 has increased over time—but so has life expectancy,” writes Chris Wright. In a guest essay America’s energy secretary invites the world to rethink renewable energy
econ.st/4kCU2kY
Illustration: Dan Williams
econ.st/4kCU2kY
Illustration: Dan Williams
July 17, 2025 at 7:46 AM
“You see, with every block I remove I can make the structure higher. It is very possible that in our lifetime, my Jenga tower will touch the face of god”
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Strewth, finished copies of @roffwrites.bsky.social’s debut novel emerge! Out very soon from Adelaide’s Wakefield Press! #HereAreMyDemands
July 17, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Strewth, finished copies of @roffwrites.bsky.social’s debut novel emerge! Out very soon from Adelaide’s Wakefield Press! #HereAreMyDemands
Forty kids with mountain bikes on this train carriage. Covered in dry mud, noisy as parrots but you can’t fault their manners when someone needs to get through
July 17, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Forty kids with mountain bikes on this train carriage. Covered in dry mud, noisy as parrots but you can’t fault their manners when someone needs to get through
On holiday and reading Salvage. Feels more optimistic than @jennifermills.net.au’s last post-apocalypse, which is good because the last one came true this year and it sucks
July 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
On holiday and reading Salvage. Feels more optimistic than @jennifermills.net.au’s last post-apocalypse, which is good because the last one came true this year and it sucks
A lot of folk who gorged themselves on Mushroom Trial now seem very irate at the fact that they feel sick.
July 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
A lot of folk who gorged themselves on Mushroom Trial now seem very irate at the fact that they feel sick.
There is a high risk over the next few months of New York starting to think it’s cool again and I don’t know if the world is in a fit state to cope with that
June 27, 2025 at 7:51 AM
There is a high risk over the next few months of New York starting to think it’s cool again and I don’t know if the world is in a fit state to cope with that
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Women are lagging behind on going bankrupt on DraftKings, drinking themselves to death, and fist-fighting anyone who looks at them funny on the subway but they can catch up.
June 18, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Women are lagging behind on going bankrupt on DraftKings, drinking themselves to death, and fist-fighting anyone who looks at them funny on the subway but they can catch up.
Developing a Venus/Mars theory of LLMs: lonely men uniquely vulnerable to AI bullshit due to a crippling desire for external validation, women instinctively hostile due to valuing mutual comprehension above platitude. Expect my book tour soon
June 19, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Developing a Venus/Mars theory of LLMs: lonely men uniquely vulnerable to AI bullshit due to a crippling desire for external validation, women instinctively hostile due to valuing mutual comprehension above platitude. Expect my book tour soon
Reposted by Alex Sawyer
Another incredible review of Salvage. From Rachael Mead in Indaily.
“The world building in this novel is a work of art”
www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...
“The world building in this novel is a work of art”
www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...
Book review: Salvage - InReview | InDaily, Inside South Australia
Jennifer Mills creates a character-driven story of sisterhood and the search for a place to belong within a devastated world where working together holds the key to survival.
www.indailysa.com.au
June 5, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Another incredible review of Salvage. From Rachael Mead in Indaily.
“The world building in this novel is a work of art”
www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...
“The world building in this novel is a work of art”
www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...
But I do love the bullshit machine
June 6, 2025 at 6:07 AM
But I do love the bullshit machine
The problem with calling them ‘hallucinations’ is it implies that there are times when LLMs accurately perceive the world. It’s ALL hallucinations it’s just that sometimes the vectors line up on things that happen to be true. The bullshit machine doesn’t know the difference.
June 6, 2025 at 6:06 AM
The problem with calling them ‘hallucinations’ is it implies that there are times when LLMs accurately perceive the world. It’s ALL hallucinations it’s just that sometimes the vectors line up on things that happen to be true. The bullshit machine doesn’t know the difference.
The man on the train is checking my metro card. A big red X appears on his screen. “Yep that’s all good mate, thank you” A huge red X is your ‘valid ticket’ symbol??
June 5, 2025 at 11:26 AM
The man on the train is checking my metro card. A big red X appears on his screen. “Yep that’s all good mate, thank you” A huge red X is your ‘valid ticket’ symbol??