IIML
@modernletters.bsky.social
The home of creative writing at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Undergraduate courses, MA and PhD. Also: harbour views and baking.
This one's for the academics: deadline 28 February
Critic and Conscience of Society Award | Universities New Zealand - Te Pōkai Tara
About the award: Established in 2017, the Critic and Conscience of Society Award encourages academics to provide expert commentary on important issues affecting the New Zealand community and future generations. Previous award winners include:
www.universitiesnz.ac.nz
December 16, 2025 at 3:31 AM
This one's for the academics: deadline 28 February
Reposted by IIML
Violence begets violence, shooting innocent civilians is abhorrent 😢 Lighting a light for kindness & creativity: ‘The antithesis to Nazi ideology’: how Pippi Longstocking was born to stand up to Hitler - in response to the darkest days of the Second World War. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
‘The antithesis to Nazi ideology’: how Pippi Longstocking was born to stand up to Hitler
A new documentary explores how Astrid Lindgren’s beloved children’s books about the pigtailed free spirit were written in response to the darkest days of the second world war
www.theguardian.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Violence begets violence, shooting innocent civilians is abhorrent 😢 Lighting a light for kindness & creativity: ‘The antithesis to Nazi ideology’: how Pippi Longstocking was born to stand up to Hitler - in response to the darkest days of the Second World War. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
Reposted by IIML
It's time as always to recall everybody's favourite Christmas mondegreen:
Olive the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
Olive the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
December 16, 2025 at 12:31 AM
It's time as always to recall everybody's favourite Christmas mondegreen:
Olive the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
Olive the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
Reposted by IIML
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
Reposted by IIML
Check out the December issue!
Featuring guests Tony Guo, Helen Rickerby, Ruby Porter and John Fenton, along with the Monica Taylor Poetry Prize winner, Jilly O'Brien.
There's also an art essay by Samuel Te Kani, and so much more!
We hope you love it 🩵
www.takahe.org.nz/takahe-115/
Featuring guests Tony Guo, Helen Rickerby, Ruby Porter and John Fenton, along with the Monica Taylor Poetry Prize winner, Jilly O'Brien.
There's also an art essay by Samuel Te Kani, and so much more!
We hope you love it 🩵
www.takahe.org.nz/takahe-115/
December 12, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Check out the December issue!
Featuring guests Tony Guo, Helen Rickerby, Ruby Porter and John Fenton, along with the Monica Taylor Poetry Prize winner, Jilly O'Brien.
There's also an art essay by Samuel Te Kani, and so much more!
We hope you love it 🩵
www.takahe.org.nz/takahe-115/
Featuring guests Tony Guo, Helen Rickerby, Ruby Porter and John Fenton, along with the Monica Taylor Poetry Prize winner, Jilly O'Brien.
There's also an art essay by Samuel Te Kani, and so much more!
We hope you love it 🩵
www.takahe.org.nz/takahe-115/
Reposted by IIML
Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Criticism
December 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Criticism
Reposted by IIML
Speculative fiction journal currently open to submissions from indigenous writers, inviting general submissions in January. There's a link to a list of 'stories we see too often' at the bottom of this page that catalogues things that the editors don't want to see: useful for rookies!
Strange Horizons will be open to general fiction submissions for 48 hours beginning January 19th, 2026 at 3 p.m. UTC and ending January 21st, 2026 at 3 p.m. UTC.
There will be no cap.
See our fiction submission guidelines for more information on how to submit:
strangehorizons.com/submit/ficti...
There will be no cap.
See our fiction submission guidelines for more information on how to submit:
strangehorizons.com/submit/ficti...
December 15, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Speculative fiction journal currently open to submissions from indigenous writers, inviting general submissions in January. There's a link to a list of 'stories we see too often' at the bottom of this page that catalogues things that the editors don't want to see: useful for rookies!
A new grant! Te Waka Taki Kōrero – Māori Literature Trust invites submissions from mid-career Māori writers seeking to undertake development opportunities between February – May 2026. There are two grants available to the value of $6,000 each. Deadline 30 Jan 2026.
Apply Now: Te Tupu Hauroa Development Grants 2026
The Māori Literature Trust invites submissions from mid-career Māori writers seeking to undertake development opportunities between February – May 2026.
mlt.org.nz
December 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
A new grant! Te Waka Taki Kōrero – Māori Literature Trust invites submissions from mid-career Māori writers seeking to undertake development opportunities between February – May 2026. There are two grants available to the value of $6,000 each. Deadline 30 Jan 2026.
Reposted by IIML
2016 by Sarah Hesketh was named in the Guardian as a Poetry Book of the Year. Booksellers ordering in from Gardners are told “Publisher out of Stock”. The book's in stock both at the distributor and here, within arm’s reach – order from the CB editions website and I’ll post within 24 hours.
December 15, 2025 at 2:30 PM
2016 by Sarah Hesketh was named in the Guardian as a Poetry Book of the Year. Booksellers ordering in from Gardners are told “Publisher out of Stock”. The book's in stock both at the distributor and here, within arm’s reach – order from the CB editions website and I’ll post within 24 hours.
It’s time to party like it’s 1789
"For the first time, a majority of Americans believe billionaires are a threat to democracy. A remarkable 71 percent believe there should be a wealth tax. A majority believe there should be a cap on how much wealth a person can accumulate."
Opinion | The Billionaires Have Gone Full Louis XV
www.nytimes.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:24 PM
It’s time to party like it’s 1789
Reposted by IIML
Comment from Auckland University: How do we get beyond the scepticism each ‘side’ of the education debate seems to have for each other?
Education in Aotearoa doesn't need to be this divided
newsroom.co.nz
December 15, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Comment from Auckland University: How do we get beyond the scepticism each ‘side’ of the education debate seems to have for each other?
Reposted by IIML
Been chatting about poetry over on Twitter (X) and then discover this lovely shout out. So of course, I feel obliged to retweet or whatever one says on BlueSky #thecubapress
Really enjoying this debut poetry collection by @at-the-bay.bsky.social - Maggie! Such generous, nostalgic and sexy poems - well done!
#thecubapress
#thecubapress
December 15, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Been chatting about poetry over on Twitter (X) and then discover this lovely shout out. So of course, I feel obliged to retweet or whatever one says on BlueSky #thecubapress
A Christmas poem from Joanna Cho (MA20) newsroom.co.nz/2025/12/14/x...
Xmas poem, by Joanna Cho
A beautiful poem to mark the beauty of a family at Xmas
newsroom.co.nz
December 15, 2025 at 5:29 AM
A Christmas poem from Joanna Cho (MA20) newsroom.co.nz/2025/12/14/x...
The opening chapter in A Christmas Waiata, a book for tamariki & rangatahi, self-published by Hawkes Bay author Shelley Burne-Field and available by emailing her (address at end of the story)
Aunty Rangi lives happily alone in her seven-bed villa with her BMW parked under a wisteria —until she hears voices singing, 'Meri Kirihimete!'
Short story: A Christmas waiata, by Shelley Burne-Field
newsroom.co.nz
December 14, 2025 at 9:28 AM
The opening chapter in A Christmas Waiata, a book for tamariki & rangatahi, self-published by Hawkes Bay author Shelley Burne-Field and available by emailing her (address at end of the story)
Reposted by IIML
I got visited by three ghosts last night, who were all experts in English grammar.
December 14, 2025 at 8:05 AM
I got visited by three ghosts last night, who were all experts in English grammar.
International entries welcome. School and undergraduate students are eligible.
Students! Have you written a poem about math or a mathematical concept? There is a contest, and it is free to enter. Deadline January 20th: www.ams.org/learning-car...
AMS :: Math Poetry
www.ams.org
December 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
International entries welcome. School and undergraduate students are eligible.
Reposted by IIML
"Proclaiming someone’s or something’s defeat contributes to it. It’s a form of sabotage."
(And a way of giving oppressive powers exactly what they want.)
(And a way of giving oppressive powers exactly what they want.)
There's a pretense that despair/defeatism/doomerism is some kind of solidarity, when it's actually quitting while others face the horrors and resist succumbing to them. Wrote about that here.
Why climate despair is a luxury
Those facing flood and fire can’t afford to lose hope. Neither should we.
www.newstatesman.com
December 13, 2025 at 6:51 PM
"Proclaiming someone’s or something’s defeat contributes to it. It’s a form of sabotage."
(And a way of giving oppressive powers exactly what they want.)
(And a way of giving oppressive powers exactly what they want.)
Reposted by IIML
My position on taking action. And on the important space between everything and nothing.
December 13, 2025 at 4:54 PM
My position on taking action. And on the important space between everything and nothing.
UK writers recommend book gifts for Christmas
‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone
Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift
www.theguardian.com
December 13, 2025 at 8:26 PM
UK writers recommend book gifts for Christmas
Reposted by IIML
A victory for bigots. But hopefully temporary. Robin Ince is a treasure. TERFs ruin lives when allowed.
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 1:37 AM
A victory for bigots. But hopefully temporary. Robin Ince is a treasure. TERFs ruin lives when allowed.
A long journey for this book begun in the MA16 workshop and just published by OUP: 'the lively and frequently jaw-dropping story of Alan and Joan MacLeod’s 1963 journey from Dunedin to the Isle of Skye in Scotland with their six children, aged five to fifteen.'
www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/interview...
www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/interview...
A house-truck across the world: Hannah Bulloch
Author of OVERLAND TO THE ISLAND, Hannah Bulloch, delves into the writing and research processes that brought her book to life. ...
www.ketebooks.co.nz
December 13, 2025 at 12:47 AM
A long journey for this book begun in the MA16 workshop and just published by OUP: 'the lively and frequently jaw-dropping story of Alan and Joan MacLeod’s 1963 journey from Dunedin to the Isle of Skye in Scotland with their six children, aged five to fifteen.'
www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/interview...
www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/interview...
Reposted by IIML
WOW. @haleaziz.bsky.social with a new scoop: ICE now gets a running list of every person who is going to be taking a domestic flight inside the United States from the TSA and runs it through their database looking for targets. This explains the Babson College student's arrest.
Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
WOW. @haleaziz.bsky.social with a new scoop: ICE now gets a running list of every person who is going to be taking a domestic flight inside the United States from the TSA and runs it through their database looking for targets. This explains the Babson College student's arrest.
Reposted by IIML
"To attempt to find useful information and instead take part in the solidification of the internet as an ad-delivery business, where you’re given no option but to be the product."
Revised Definitions of the Verb “To Google”
1. To look something up quickly and then spend twenty minutes fact-checking the AI summary, only to find out that it was absolutely wrong. 2. To se...
buff.ly
December 11, 2025 at 3:00 AM
"To attempt to find useful information and instead take part in the solidification of the internet as an ad-delivery business, where you’re given no option but to be the product."