Liam Bates
LightNews LightNews
banner
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Liam Bates
@liambatespoet.bsky.social
800 followers 630 following 88 posts
Funded PhD student @ MMU (ecopoetry, friendship & the more-than-human city)/ Northern Writers’ Award winner/ Human Townsperson (Broken Sleep Books)

www.liambatespoet.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · Nov 15
Oh hi I didn’t see you there! I’m a poet. My last book riffs on fantasy role playing games and Gramsci among other stuff.
I’m also recently a PhD student thinking ecopoetically about friendship and the more-than-human city.
Reposted by Liam Bates
phillipcrymble.bsky.social
Maggie Dietz
November Show's over, folks. And didn't October do A bang-up job? Crisp breezes, full-throated cries Of migrating geese. Low-floating coral moon. Nothing left but fool's gold in the trees. Did I love it enough, the full-throttle foliage, While it lasted? Was I dazzled? The bees Have up and quit their last-ditch flights of forage And gone to shiver in their winter clusters. Field mice hit the barns, big squirrels gorge On busted chestnuts. A sky like hardened plaster Hovers. The pasty river, its next of kin, Coughs up reed grass fat as feather dusters. Even the swarms of kids have given in To winter's big excuse, boxed-in allure: TVs ricochet light behind pulled curtains. The days throw up a closed sign around four. The hapless customer who'd wanted something Arrives to find lights out, a bolted door.
November 12, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
oculusimperia.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
neonpajamas.bsky.social
one of my two poems in the newest print issue of @waterstonereview.bsky.social

much love to guest editor @josehernandezdz.bsky.social
America invents a machine. They call it the machine. It’s a machine you need if and when you want to reinvent yourself. It helps, America promises, with everything. No one knows where to look or how to turn it off. The waitlist is thick. Every kid wants one. It costs 48 thousand dollars and last I checked it’s still out of stock.
November 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
calebparkinpoet.bsky.social
Hi friends - I'm Featured Poet on the new @interpretershouse, with three poems & an introductory essay to them:

theinterpretershouse.org/parkin-84

They're PhD work: one of my jay poems & two from my travels last year 🐦 🚢 🐻
Parkin 84 — The Interpreter's House
theinterpretershouse.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:14 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
the poetry competition is pounding at the door; your tithes are overdue
October 30, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
lbmcgrath.bsky.social
I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...
Speak and Sell | Sophie Pinkham
The siren song of Ms. Rachel cannot be understood outside of America’s ongoing impoverishment of families.
thebaffler.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
mcrlitfest.bsky.social
Last chance to get tickets for tonight🎟️ manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/whats-on
October 22, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Liam Bates
buliejell.bsky.social
Beautiful readings today from #YvonneReddick and @liambatespoet.bsky.social exploring #friendship #climate and #journeys
October 18, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
ianseedauthor.bsky.social
Looking forward to listening to the wonderful Yvonne Reddick and @liambatespoet.bsky.social reading at @litfest.bsky.social later today
October 18, 2025 at 8:58 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Dean Browne (@deanbrowne.bsky.social)
The Triangle I should never have written the instruction manual illustrating the 52 distinct tones that can be struck from the triangle, popular now in concert halls from here to Berlin. It's brought me nothing but success. The joke, at first, was exquisite as a devilled egg and the expression on their faces like a sweet pimento. You put the phony in symphony tonight, grinned back the shiny hand-dryer in the gents. Gobs dropped and I went on, describing the point tapped just so for the blackbird's dawn trill, the ripple on a clear lake in Sweden, the squeak of gas that jets from a roasting coal. One tone only audible to toddlers, another only to dogs. Of course I reddened when those rich fools googled me, the search results proved it true. The hits were legion. Not only that, the book had entered its fourth print run and was forthcoming in Russian and Nynorsk. That's when it occurred to me that I was late to deliver the keynote address at the annual summit for triangle-lovers, my lecture on the sweeter octaves of beryllium copper - how to damp it for the rustle like the train of a bridal dress over cobbles. Or pitch it like the mice celebrating the owl's demise by lightning. Or the ting! so crystalline it's called 'frost creeping'. So I jotted some notes, grabbed my jacket, and said taxi.
October 7, 2025 at 12:03 PM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
No news but agonising over the ending of a poem I’ll ultimately decide was shit anyway. National Poetry Day!
October 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
jntod.bsky.social
Is there a poet listening in to your conversation? Watch out: you might become an immortal line...
Booking the Phrases
The power of found speech in poetry
someflowerssoon.substack.com
September 28, 2025 at 9:04 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Who are the poets you think of as citational or allusive, the kind that might allude to, quote or paraphrase e.g. cartoons, philosophy, music?
September 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
dannyve.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Gardeners urged to collaborate to help moths and hover flies thrive in cities
Researchers found moths and hover flies are more negatively affected by urbanisation than bees
www.theguardian.com
August 6, 2025 at 5:39 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Saw that the strong white cider we used to drink in the park as teenagers is being bottled in recycled plastic now.
July 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
danielghinds.bsky.social
I was fortunate to spend some time with Liam's excellent poetry earlier this year. Highly recommend taking him up on his offer in the below post!
July 18, 2025 at 11:39 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
I’m clearing the house out so have some copies of my debut poetry collection, Human Townsperson, going cheap. A BARGAIN EVERYTHING MUST GO SALE PRICE £5+P&P if you’d like one.
Two copies of Human Townsperson Human Toznsperson, the debut collection by Liam Bates. centres around a heroic quest. The hero? Somebody. The quest's objective? Unsure. Utilising Bates' engaging and absurd poetics. Human townsperson follows the journey of a poet leaving town bearing gear and supplies: a pack full of fantastic weaponry, potions and prescription medication. The work will be precarious and the costs grave, but out in the wilderness for long enough, maybe we'll remember why we're here. Al the speed of human brain synapses Liam Bates poems in Human lozensperson zing around conceptually but always hold the dry wit at their centre. The poems constantly strive to make sense of a world that plays out as if it's a dream state. As the book progresses we become aligned with Bates' mode of thought. because it scems like the only sanity in a constantly discombobulating world. A book we all need. to guide us gently back to the ordinary from the bizarre times weire in. - Roger Robinson To encounter these poems is to embark on a surreal quest, where the language of gaming and fantasy act as waymarkers to move deeper into our understanding of ourselves. - Andrew McMillan Reading a poem by Liam Bates is like embarking upon a mysterious mission. You don't know who the enemy is, or where you're going. but the poet hands you a scroll and a sword and an office stapler and sends you out to seek yourself. - Caroline Bird Bates makes ludic operations, life as endless side quests, magic potions and mysterious exchanges collide with the hyper-real. Intense invention is balanced with a compassionate sensibility and connection with the world. The voice is so charming and the experimentation worn so naturally that the moral challenge and heartfelt Ivricism arrive by stealth and take your breath away. - Luke Kennard
July 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Liam Bates
neonpajamas.bsky.social
Alice Notley - The Descent of Alette
CAConrad - The Book of Frank
GennaRose Nethercott - The Lumberjack's Dove
liambatespoet.bsky.social Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · Jun 19
Today we’re talking BOOK-LENGTH POEMS. What are the essential ones? Which are underrated? Broad interpretations always welcome
June 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Today we’re talking BOOK-LENGTH POEMS. What are the essential ones? Which are underrated? Broad interpretations always welcome
June 19, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Liam Bates
kymdeyn.bsky.social
MY PRESS IS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS. WE PAY YOU. WE'RE WEIRD. thebraag.co/the-press/
the braag opens for poetry and prose subs june 15th - july 31st
June 15, 2025 at 10:19 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
I see a blurb from @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social and I can’t help myself. I liked this a lot
The cover of Infinite Ground by Martin Macinnes, with a blurb by Jeff Vandermeer which reads ‘Stunning… I doubt you’ve read anything like it.’ The cover is a white background and in the foreground a human-shaped figure made of vegetation/flora.
June 10, 2025 at 12:26 PM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Applying for arts funding to cover the cost of buying a Nintendo Switch 2 and time to play my Nintendo Switch 2
June 7, 2025 at 8:38 AM
liambatespoet.bsky.social
Good chance to get Human Townsperson at a bargain price today.
www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
May 30, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Liam Bates
lrb.co.uk
Do not accidentally
express
yourself. Remember. Stay private. Can you do this?
Analysis of the smile is particularly important. Do not. They try to ensure the
smile threshold is triggered. Do not.

‘When the World Ended’, a poem by @joriegraham.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jorie Graham · Poem: ‘When the World Ended’
www.lrb.co.uk
May 29, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Liam Bates
newintermag.bsky.social
Adam Jones (@sanktmaxtci.bsky.social) reads “AI” politically:

“Data centres function as an increasingly central part of the nervous system of an imperial, techno-capitalist order. Democratic politics holds the right to question their present and future existence.”

newintermag.com/ai-as-class-...
‘AI’ as Class Warfare
So-called ‘AI’ does not reduce, but rather diffuses and renders labour practically invisible.
newintermag.com
May 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM