Amal El-Mohtar
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amalelmohtar.com
Amal El-Mohtar
@amalelmohtar.com
21K followers 400 following 4.3K posts
Wrote half of This Is How You Lose the Time War & all of The River Has Roots. Next book: Seasons of Glass & Iron, March 24, 2026. I have a newsletter you can sign up for at amalelmohtar.com
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amalelmohtar.com
Barcelona is so beautiful & everyone is so nice & the food is so good 😭
Three small plates on a black table top. Clockwise from top left: patatas bravas (fried potatoes served with garlic and tomato sauces) esqueixada de bacalao (a salad of salted cod, onions, olives, bell peppers) and Pa amb tomàquet (bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, sprinkled with salt and drizzled with olive oil) A seafood paella for two Gildas, skewers of olive, anchovy, pickled cucumber and hot pepper. A round flan on a plate with a smear of dulce de leche alongside it, next to a cafe con leche.
November 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Hello from Rouen
Photo of the front page of a newspaper called Libération showing a smiling Zohran Mamdani with the headline “ELECTION A NEW YORK ZOHRAN MAMDANI, ANTIDOTE ANTITRUMP”
November 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Anyway boats are great I love them
A selfie in profile. I’m on the deck of a ferry, looking to the right; my hair’s pulled into a dark and messy windswept top-knot. I’m wearing an olive-green corduroy jacket, a light green and black keffiyeh, glasses, and silver stud earrings imprinted with the kind of star that’s also a compass rose. Behind me a grey sky meets a pale green sea at the level of my eyes.
November 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM
amalelmohtar.com
I have never been as Canadian as I was at 1:00AM in a hotel bar in Brighton
A photo of the manic top half of my face in the foreground while in the background a TV screen shows the last game in the world series, between the LA Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays are up 3-0 at the bottom of the third.
November 2, 2025 at 1:14 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Friday: worked out, had a lovely lunch & writing session & dinner in excellent company before the mass signing situation where I met many new people & caught up with friends before venturing into a gorgeous cocktail bar called The Black Dove with @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social & @seraph76.bsky.social
Selfie including me, Sarah Rees Brennan and Chris Caldwell, in a lush and eclectically decorated basement bar space empty but for us: mirrors, haphazardly laid out framed art, and an oriental rug on the wall in the background.
November 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Charis was generous enough to let me take video of their explanation of the different elements of the image.
November 1, 2025 at 12:41 PM
amalelmohtar.com
WFC Thursday: a perfect meet-the-author group where one of the attendees (Charis Loke!) surprised me with an illustration of our wide-ranging discussion.
Pencil drawing by Charis Loke. 12 figures representing the group gather in a circle under a weeping willow by the edge of a star-strewn lake stretching into the foreground, its edge a wispy feather. At bottom right is a stack of books topped with the Twitter icon of a bird, while other elements of the fantastic landscape are made of pastries: a jam ring in the sun, croissants making little root mounds around the base of the tree.
November 1, 2025 at 12:38 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Can highly recommend The Salt Room in Brighton for delicious food & drink!
Selfie in which I’m wearing my hair down, glasses, and holding up a half drunk smoked old fashioned cocktail while smiling close-mouthed.
October 30, 2025 at 8:29 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Cramming in a tremendous amount of feeling into the 30-odd hours I’ve had in London this visit: today we caught the @ursulakleguin.com Word for World exhibit, & had lovely impromptu whirlwind stock signings at Foyles & the Waterstones on Tottenham Court Road.
A dark blue wall on which the words THE WORD FOR WORLD are spotlit in white, subtitled “The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin.” Beneath them is a shelf on which are maps for navigating the exhibit as well as maps illustrating its contents: to the right is a pile of stones inscribed with designs or covered in knotwork, to show how maps are talismans in Le Guin’s novel ALWAYS COMING HOME. A full length photo of me in a bookstore, wearing brown trousers, black boots, glasses, a green corduroy jacket and a light green keffiyeh. I’m smiling and wearing my long dark hair down while holding a stack of 19 signed copies of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Selfie in front of Foyles bookstore. Selfie taken with two lovely staff members at Foyles. I’m beaming in the foreground while in the background the staff members hold up copies of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Between us on a countertop are two stacks of the book topped with a single one standing up.
October 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Rarely have I been more excited to rip the arms off a shirt & wear it to the gym
A black t-shirt spread out on a bed. On it are the words “does my flesh dazzle you?” in acidic yellow. This is merch from Liz Duffy Adams’ play BORN WITH TEETH, about Shakespeare and Marlowe; the line is spoken by Marlowe.
October 30, 2025 at 2:16 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Saw @lizduffyadams.bsky.social’s BORN WITH TEETH & it was absolutely smashingly brilliant. Excruciatingly hot. Gorgeously written. Beautifully staged. Getting to see it with @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social & chat with @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social (not pictured) afterwards was utterly wonderful.
Helena and I stand to either side of a large poster for BORN WITH TEETH, gazing appreciatively at the hotness with which Ncuti Gatwa & Edward Bluemel depict Marlowe and Shakespeare. The poster shows Gatwa standing behind Bluemel, looking directly at camera while he holds Bluemel possessively against him, his fingers in Bluemel’s mouth, while Bluemel’s eyes are ecstatically closed and he covers Gatwa’s hand with his.
October 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Dishooooom
Selfie in which my husband and I hold up small glasses of chai while waiting to be seated at Dishoom.
October 29, 2025 at 7:08 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Have since learned from replies to this that there are raspberry varietals that do a second fruiting in the autumn! This is probably still the last fruit I’ll be collecting this year, though, what with frosts & travel.
A bunch of raspberries in varying stages of ripeness dangling from a green cane against a white wall. Bright red raspberries in a small blue bowl.
October 27, 2025 at 8:27 PM
amalelmohtar.com
This lives in my phone now
Screenshot of a tile from a logic puzzle game called Clues by Sam, in which a farmer emoji named Noah declares “There are more innocents among witches than any other profession”
October 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
amalelmohtar.com
oh my GOD
Screenshot from Marc Carig, senior managing editor for the NYT’s MLB coverage, that I pulled off someone else’s screenshot on a different platform. It reads as follows: “On the bright side for the Dodgers, that grand slam was hit in Canada, so with the exchange rate it worth only like 3.1 runs. So there's that.”
October 25, 2025 at 3:14 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Season of mists & mellow fruitfulness yes good however raspberries are a JULY FRUIT
My hand holding up a cluster of raspberries on the vine in varying stages of ripeness against a background of green leaves. My hand holding a small plastic container about a third full of raspberries against a background of green leaves.
October 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Performing my genre identity
Selfie in which I’m wearing glasses, a soft black beanie over my long dark hair which has escaped a side braid, and a black hoodie with the words SCI-FI FANTASY outlined on it in small silver studs shaping two contrasting fonts. In the background are yellow and orange autumn leaves against a cloud-dappled blue sky.
October 22, 2025 at 1:59 AM
amalelmohtar.com
@premeemohamed.com & I simply love a @banffcentre.bsky.social reunion & it is extra good when it ends with plotting the wildly unlikely location of the next one
Bookstore selfie with Premee Mohamed, in which we’re both smiling, wearing glasses, & looking hella cute
October 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Love to see @premeemohamed.com at Perfect Books in conversation with @kateheartfield.com! Makes the country feel comfortably small to see her here after saying goodbye in @banffcentre.bsky.social a month ago.
Kate Heartfield sits on the left and Premee Mohamed stands on the right, reading from the last book in her trilogy, “The First Thousand Trees.”
October 20, 2025 at 11:11 PM
amalelmohtar.com
I swear all my best fits involve my friends’ clothes. Thanks to @csecooney.bsky.social for this vest!
Mirror selfie in which I’m wearing a double-breasted black vest over off-white trousers and black boots. My long wavy dark hair is loose over my shoulders and I’m also wearing glasses. a silver bracelet, rings on every finger, dangly earrings that terminate in a pearl disk, and have layered three necklaces.
October 19, 2025 at 9:05 PM
amalelmohtar.com
UK friends! Waterstones is running a 25% off promo on 2026 preorders which includes my short story collection SEASONS OF GLASS & IRON! Only til Friday, October 17. Enjoy!

www.waterstones.com/book/seasons...
Promo image advertising the 25% discount on preorders with code OCTOBER25, alongside the cover to SEASONS OF GLASS AND IRON.
October 14, 2025 at 3:12 PM
amalelmohtar.com
Day 7: starfish
#inktober
A fish leaps out of water under a field of stars, mouth open to catch one.
October 12, 2025 at 2:03 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Already doing callbacks by day 5 #inktober
In response to the prompt l “Deer,” an attempt at drawing a reposed buck, but the antlers, like the ghost’s mustache before it, are a costume held up on a stick by the deer’s hoofed, ah, arm.
October 12, 2025 at 1:57 AM
amalelmohtar.com
Decided to do #inktober belatedly & am catching up; so far am happiest with the very first prompt
My fingers hold open a very small notebook. The top of the page reads “October 1: Mustache”, and below that is a drawing in black ink of a sheet-ghost holding up a costume mustache to its face, looking to the left of the frame. I think he’s really cute.
October 11, 2025 at 3:44 AM
amalelmohtar.com
It is once again time
Photo of a television screen showing the title card for OVER THE GARDEN WALL, the most perfect show to ever exist
October 10, 2025 at 11:01 PM