Elizabeth Loudon
@esloudon.bsky.social
Poet, novelist, teacher, charity worker. MA 25 yrs, now back in UK. A STRANGER IN BAGHDAD (AUC) 2024 SIBF award for Best International Fiction. Best New Poets 2025. LL/Bridport. See www.elizabethloudon.com for more.
Pinned
Elizabeth Loudon
@esloudon.bsky.social
· Nov 16
This btw is the cover of my first and so far only novel. I pinned it over at Twitter and it had 9.5K views and for me that was extraordinary. The publisher (AUC Hoopoe) managed to find a picture of pretty much the exact Baghdadi house where the novel mostly takes place.
I know spiderwebs are a dime a dozen and ditto photos of them, but look what the dog and I woke up to.
November 9, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I know spiderwebs are a dime a dozen and ditto photos of them, but look what the dog and I woke up to.
Reposted by Elizabeth Loudon
www.facebook.com/share/p/19C1...
My friend Mark Mardell was chucked off his Turkish Airlines flight at the weekend because he had Parkinson’s and his son had asked for assistance for him. (He’s written about it as a public post on Facebook but the link is proving hard to share outside,)
My friend Mark Mardell was chucked off his Turkish Airlines flight at the weekend because he had Parkinson’s and his son had asked for assistance for him. (He’s written about it as a public post on Facebook but the link is proving hard to share outside,)
October 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM
www.facebook.com/share/p/19C1...
My friend Mark Mardell was chucked off his Turkish Airlines flight at the weekend because he had Parkinson’s and his son had asked for assistance for him. (He’s written about it as a public post on Facebook but the link is proving hard to share outside,)
My friend Mark Mardell was chucked off his Turkish Airlines flight at the weekend because he had Parkinson’s and his son had asked for assistance for him. (He’s written about it as a public post on Facebook but the link is proving hard to share outside,)
Dear everybody out there - here's a new anthology of prize winning writing by carers, including a poem by me. The anthology officially launches on Wednesday November 12th: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-curae-.... Want to buy a copy for a carer? It's renardpress.com/books/the-cu....
The Curae – Anthology launch
Join us for the online launch of the second Curae anthology, celebrating the work of writers who are carers.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Dear everybody out there - here's a new anthology of prize winning writing by carers, including a poem by me. The anthology officially launches on Wednesday November 12th: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-curae-.... Want to buy a copy for a carer? It's renardpress.com/books/the-cu....
A lovely gift for the caring reader?
Delighted to share that the second #curae prize is now available for sale from @renardpress.com All proceeds to carers’ charities. renardpress.com/books/the-cu...
The Curae II – Renard Press
It is estimated that there are around 10 million carers in the UK alone – unpaid people who look after someone who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, mental health problem or ad...
renardpress.com
October 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
A lovely gift for the caring reader?
So much hidden suffering for patients and their carers.
open.substack.com/pub/rorycell... Biggest ever audit of Parkinson’s in the UK says there’s a diagnosis crisis with a shortage of neurologists leaving thousands waiting up to 5 years to see a specialist
Parkinson's - the diagnosis crisis
UK's neurologist shortage continues to bite, says biggest PD audit
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:28 AM
So much hidden suffering for patients and their carers.
For a year or two I taught English to Ukrainian refugees, and several of them became close friends. They're scattered now, some back to Ukraine, some across the UK, and some still close by. This poem is for them.
Elizabeth Loudon's 'Forty' explores the unsettling nature of war in its ability to keep a semblance of natural everyday routine, slowly forcing people to acclimate to its horrors. Surprising, subtle and haunting. @esloudon.bsky.social
inksweatandtears.co.uk/40751-2/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry
inksweatandtears.co.uk/40751-2/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry
October 16, 2025 at 12:45 PM
For a year or two I taught English to Ukrainian refugees, and several of them became close friends. They're scattered now, some back to Ukraine, some across the UK, and some still close by. This poem is for them.
Well, Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin made the cut. And a director's wife. I know I know, but whatever the reason, it's so disheartening to be erased this much. www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
László Krasznahorkai, The Art of Fiction No. 240
László Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in Gyula, a provincial town in Hungary, in the Soviet era. He published his first novel, Satantango, in 1985, then The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), War and Wa...
www.theparisreview.org
October 12, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Well, Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin made the cut. And a director's wife. I know I know, but whatever the reason, it's so disheartening to be erased this much. www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
Coming soon coming soon.... an anthology of new work by writers who are also carers. I'm in here somewhere. Thank you so much to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and a heads up to @ylbooks.bsky.social and any other bookshops who might like to carry a copy (out in November).
October 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Coming soon coming soon.... an anthology of new work by writers who are also carers. I'm in here somewhere. Thank you so much to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and a heads up to @ylbooks.bsky.social and any other bookshops who might like to carry a copy (out in November).
I've been involved with Wayward Productions from its inception six years ago. The new name says it all: Judith Dimant is an outstanding leader in theatre, we're lucky to have her, and there are brilliant things to come. www.judithdimant.com @waywardprods.bsky.social @judithdimant.bsky.social
Judith Dimant Productions – Extraordinary theatre and live performance
Judith Dimant Productions make extraordinary theatre and live performance. We develop work from unexpected sources, producing relevant, inclusive theatre for a broad contemporary audience.
www.judithdimant.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM
I've been involved with Wayward Productions from its inception six years ago. The new name says it all: Judith Dimant is an outstanding leader in theatre, we're lucky to have her, and there are brilliant things to come. www.judithdimant.com @waywardprods.bsky.social @judithdimant.bsky.social
What you may wonder is the big deal with a parent begonia and its titchy baby shoot from a leaf cutting. Well my lovelies this is literally Einstein’s begonia or at least a cutting therefrom. It’s a thing. There’s even an opera about it. I’m so damn proud.
September 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
What you may wonder is the big deal with a parent begonia and its titchy baby shoot from a leaf cutting. Well my lovelies this is literally Einstein’s begonia or at least a cutting therefrom. It’s a thing. There’s even an opera about it. I’m so damn proud.
Guess whose work will be in Best New Poets 2025? Which goes to show, you can endure months of battling with hospital park and pay machines and poetry still wins, for all of us.
September 22, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Guess whose work will be in Best New Poets 2025? Which goes to show, you can endure months of battling with hospital park and pay machines and poetry still wins, for all of us.
Also when somebody very close to you dies slowly while you watch helplessly, nothing encourages more magical thinking. Magpies and owls. Trees lit up at sunset. The wolf hour. Everything's a damn sign.
September 14, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Also when somebody very close to you dies slowly while you watch helplessly, nothing encourages more magical thinking. Magpies and owls. Trees lit up at sunset. The wolf hour. Everything's a damn sign.
One of the weird things about somebody very close to you dying slowly is that you keep thinking how you'll tell them all about it when they're done.
September 14, 2025 at 12:07 PM
One of the weird things about somebody very close to you dying slowly is that you keep thinking how you'll tell them all about it when they're done.
The first rainbow of the autumn and it’s a double.
September 12, 2025 at 4:45 PM
The first rainbow of the autumn and it’s a double.
Reposted by Elizabeth Loudon
Pensions, productivity and the myth of the migrant “drain” – why Britain’s real crisis is ageing, not immigration.
Another cracker from the Bear.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk
Another cracker from the Bear.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk
Nan’s not bankrupting Britain (but politicians might be)
Pensions, productivity and the myth of the migrant “drain” – why Britain’s real crisis is ageing, not immigration
eastangliabylines.co.uk
September 7, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Pensions, productivity and the myth of the migrant “drain” – why Britain’s real crisis is ageing, not immigration.
Another cracker from the Bear.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk
Another cracker from the Bear.
@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk
It is. It's an omen. Wordle 1,539 2/6
🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
September 5, 2025 at 6:27 AM
It is. It's an omen. Wordle 1,539 2/6
🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Could this be an .... omen? Wordle 1,538 2/6
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
September 4, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Could this be an .... omen? Wordle 1,538 2/6
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
So it's possible to revise a poem all weekend and submit it to somewhere that feels just right and get a kind acceptance on the Monday.
September 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
So it's possible to revise a poem all weekend and submit it to somewhere that feels just right and get a kind acceptance on the Monday.
Reposted by Elizabeth Loudon
Sadly I have yet to meet Jonathan Main at Bookseller Crow. However, I know him to be a very good thing. Jon is rather under the weather & they need a bit of an umph.
If you were going to buy books from us online in the next few days, please don't.
Buy them from them instead.
booksellercrow.co.uk
If you were going to buy books from us online in the next few days, please don't.
Buy them from them instead.
booksellercrow.co.uk
September 1, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Sadly I have yet to meet Jonathan Main at Bookseller Crow. However, I know him to be a very good thing. Jon is rather under the weather & they need a bit of an umph.
If you were going to buy books from us online in the next few days, please don't.
Buy them from them instead.
booksellercrow.co.uk
If you were going to buy books from us online in the next few days, please don't.
Buy them from them instead.
booksellercrow.co.uk
"'When Gary is done I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.' And he is right... Writers typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place..." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever
Seven agonizing nights aboard the Icon of the Seas
www.theatlantic.com
August 28, 2025 at 9:09 AM
"'When Gary is done I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.' And he is right... Writers typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place..." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Reading Helen Garner's diaries, so vivid and sharp, and my only criticism is - why so little about the dog? Not even an initial for the dog's name? Will the dog suddenly get its own entries or is it all writers and lovers and her sister and daughter and the odd bystander bloke?
August 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reading Helen Garner's diaries, so vivid and sharp, and my only criticism is - why so little about the dog? Not even an initial for the dog's name? Will the dog suddenly get its own entries or is it all writers and lovers and her sister and daughter and the odd bystander bloke?
Reposted by Elizabeth Loudon
Bristol friends, Shearsman book fans, come to East Bristol Books 18 September to hear not me (well, me, too) but the splendid Frances Presley and Andrew Duncan. I have such admiration for them both. Share?
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...
Shearsman Showcase: Carrie Etter, Frances Presley, Andrew Duncan at East Bristol Books
EBB presents a showcase of three Shearsman poets: Carrie Etter, Frances Presley and Andrew Duncan. Shearsman is a vital publisher of innovative poetries from the UK and beyond: we celebrate Etter's ne...
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk
August 11, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Bristol friends, Shearsman book fans, come to East Bristol Books 18 September to hear not me (well, me, too) but the splendid Frances Presley and Andrew Duncan. I have such admiration for them both. Share?
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...
There's never a bad time for a Natalie Shapero poem. www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Slip
The wail when they lower the high-grade aluminum wheels at 165 miles per hour— a powerful part.
www.poetryfoundation.org
August 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
There's never a bad time for a Natalie Shapero poem. www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Almost a #BodegaCat in Giudecca Venice, last winter. In a local caff. He had a cool name which I've now forgotten (Marlo?). Anybody?
August 11, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Almost a #BodegaCat in Giudecca Venice, last winter. In a local caff. He had a cool name which I've now forgotten (Marlo?). Anybody?
This gentle photograph was taken by the great Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji, I believe of his own house, and his wife Balkees. I kept it close by as I wrote about Baghdad's past, with its moments of calm and hope.
August 11, 2025 at 6:06 AM
This gentle photograph was taken by the great Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji, I believe of his own house, and his wife Balkees. I kept it close by as I wrote about Baghdad's past, with its moments of calm and hope.