Octavia Stocker
@octaviastocker.bsky.social
Commissioning editor, Bloomsbury Continuum. Nonfiction pitches: octavia.stocker@bloomsbury.com
writing in Gino De Dominicis: A Reader (2024) and anothergaze.com
writing in Gino De Dominicis: A Reader (2024) and anothergaze.com
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
We’re absolutely delighted that The Queer Thing About Sin by Harry Tanner has been shortlisted for Foyles Book of the Year! 🎉
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
We’re absolutely delighted that The Queer Thing About Sin by Harry Tanner has been shortlisted for Foyles Book of the Year! 🎉
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Over breakfast one day (honestly, they all blur into one) - we got to hear Harry Tanner talk about his book The Queer Thing About Sin
He held the room in the palm of his hand. An extraordinary speaker and I can't wait to read this.
This one's available tomorrow!
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/the-...
He held the room in the palm of his hand. An extraordinary speaker and I can't wait to read this.
This one's available tomorrow!
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/the-...
September 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Over breakfast one day (honestly, they all blur into one) - we got to hear Harry Tanner talk about his book The Queer Thing About Sin
He held the room in the palm of his hand. An extraordinary speaker and I can't wait to read this.
This one's available tomorrow!
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/the-...
He held the room in the palm of his hand. An extraordinary speaker and I can't wait to read this.
This one's available tomorrow!
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/the-...
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Soft by Ferdinand Mount — in praise of sentimentality on.ft.com/47U3Swj
Soft by Ferdinand Mount — in praise of sentimentality
A highly readable history of culture and society’s emotional side calls for more sympathetic attitudes today
on.ft.com
September 10, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Soft by Ferdinand Mount — in praise of sentimentality on.ft.com/47U3Swj
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Super interesting book by my friend Harry Tanner about queer love and the rise of homophobia in western culture, all the way back to the Sumerians. Out in September.
July 22, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Super interesting book by my friend Harry Tanner about queer love and the rise of homophobia in western culture, all the way back to the Sumerians. Out in September.
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Very honoured to be shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize for 'Russia Starts Here'! Along with other amazing authors @lucyaash.bsky.social, @radchenko.bsky.social, @benjaminnathans.bsky.social, Donald Rayfield and even Alexei Navalny: www.pushkinhouse.org/projects/boo...
April 10, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Very honoured to be shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize for 'Russia Starts Here'! Along with other amazing authors @lucyaash.bsky.social, @radchenko.bsky.social, @benjaminnathans.bsky.social, Donald Rayfield and even Alexei Navalny: www.pushkinhouse.org/projects/boo...
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
We're thrilled to be publishing Sarah's brilliant book - a must read for anyone fed up of arguing in circles about politics! Preorder your copy now. #BookSky #donttalkaboutpolitics
Absolute dream to say it: my first book will be published with @bloomscontinuum.bsky.social very soon! Don’t Talk About Politics comes out May 15th in the UK and July 22nd in the US. I cannot wait to share it with you all—meanwhile, you can pre-order.
March 12, 2025 at 12:11 PM
We're thrilled to be publishing Sarah's brilliant book - a must read for anyone fed up of arguing in circles about politics! Preorder your copy now. #BookSky #donttalkaboutpolitics
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
"Compelling stories of real lives, shaped by hardship, loss and painful contradictions" - a very kind first review for my forthcoming book 'Russia Starts Here' in the Financial Times today: on.ft.com/4gNKphe
Russia Starts Here — ordinary lives on the edge of Putin’s empire
[FREE TO READ] In up-close encounters with Russians on the western border with the EU, Howard Amos seeks out human stories behind the headlines
on.ft.com
February 19, 2025 at 11:56 AM
"Compelling stories of real lives, shaped by hardship, loss and painful contradictions" - a very kind first review for my forthcoming book 'Russia Starts Here' in the Financial Times today: on.ft.com/4gNKphe
you will be entertained you will be shocked you will be enlightened -- working on this book has completely changed the way I think about politics, and I can't wait for readers to discover the genius of Sarah Stein Lubrano
my brilliant friend, generous collaborator, and sometimes-coauthor @sarahsteinlubrano.bsky.social's book is available for preorder! I was lucky enough to see the proposal and some of the chapters for this book & I think everyone should!
www.bloomsbury.com/us/dont-talk...
#DontTalkAboutPolitics
www.bloomsbury.com/us/dont-talk...
#DontTalkAboutPolitics
February 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
you will be entertained you will be shocked you will be enlightened -- working on this book has completely changed the way I think about politics, and I can't wait for readers to discover the genius of Sarah Stein Lubrano
never thought I’d see blurb deproliferation in my lifetime
I’ve many thoughts on this but as an editor it’s a real buzz when an established author offers to read & write a thoughtful blurb for a debut they don’t know — always feels like the coup of the century
I’ve many thoughts on this but as an editor it’s a real buzz when an established author offers to read & write a thoughtful blurb for a debut they don’t know — always feels like the coup of the century
"It takes a lot of time to produce great books, and trying to get blurbs is not a good use of anyone’s time. Instead, authors who are soliciting them could be writing their next book; agents could be trying to find new books; editors could be improving books through revisions..."
A very small, miniscule even, bit of welcome news, but I'll take it. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
February 1, 2025 at 10:20 AM
never thought I’d see blurb deproliferation in my lifetime
I’ve many thoughts on this but as an editor it’s a real buzz when an established author offers to read & write a thoughtful blurb for a debut they don’t know — always feels like the coup of the century
I’ve many thoughts on this but as an editor it’s a real buzz when an established author offers to read & write a thoughtful blurb for a debut they don’t know — always feels like the coup of the century
wish someone would do a Mamma Mia but using only John Berryman's Dream Songs
January 25, 2025 at 9:14 AM
wish someone would do a Mamma Mia but using only John Berryman's Dream Songs
In one passage Howard Amos explains the importance of 'kraevedenie' (roughly, the study of local history): "In a country where history has been erased, manipulated and marginalized, kraevedenie is a powerful bulwark against forgetting."
And that's 100% part of the wonder of his book (out Feb!)
And that's 100% part of the wonder of his book (out Feb!)
After more than five years work, my book 'Russia Starts Here - Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire' will be published by @bloomscontinuum.bsky.social on 27th February
January 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM
In one passage Howard Amos explains the importance of 'kraevedenie' (roughly, the study of local history): "In a country where history has been erased, manipulated and marginalized, kraevedenie is a powerful bulwark against forgetting."
And that's 100% part of the wonder of his book (out Feb!)
And that's 100% part of the wonder of his book (out Feb!)
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
What is the gravest ecological challenge? Global heating, mass extinction, pollution? My new book, ‘Just Earth’, published by Bloomsbury Books & which is out in March, suggests it’s actually social inequalities.
January 6, 2025 at 5:48 PM
What is the gravest ecological challenge? Global heating, mass extinction, pollution? My new book, ‘Just Earth’, published by Bloomsbury Books & which is out in March, suggests it’s actually social inequalities.
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Italian artists Carla Lonzi, Carla Accardi, Luciano Fabro, Luciano Pistoi and Giulio Paolini mucking around in 1965
December 5, 2024 at 8:09 PM
Italian artists Carla Lonzi, Carla Accardi, Luciano Fabro, Luciano Pistoi and Giulio Paolini mucking around in 1965
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
Very fun selection!!
It has started. Here's Zachary Petit's list of the best book covers of 2024 for PRINT
www.printmag.com/book-covers/...
www.printmag.com/book-covers/...
100 of the Best Book Covers of 2024 – PRINT Magazine
Here’s to all the striking book covers in 2024! There has truly never been a better time to get lost in a book—or a book cover.
www.printmag.com
December 5, 2024 at 2:28 PM
Very fun selection!!
look at this beauty of a book -- Elise has curated a fascinating list of artworks all of which have stories have tell, impatient for my copy to arrive
How’s this for a first post? My Opinionated Guide to Erotic Art is available to pre-order.
Erotic Art is not just a story about sex, it’s the story of how desire has shaped civilisation. I hope you have a very sexy time with it
Link in bio!
Erotic Art is not just a story about sex, it’s the story of how desire has shaped civilisation. I hope you have a very sexy time with it
Link in bio!
November 21, 2024 at 8:18 PM
look at this beauty of a book -- Elise has curated a fascinating list of artworks all of which have stories have tell, impatient for my copy to arrive
Barbara Pym
You're at the church bazaar in your second-best brown dress but then the handsome new curate asks if you could proofread his monograph. You need a sherry.
You're at the church bazaar in your second-best brown dress but then the handsome new curate asks if you could proofread his monograph. You need a sherry.
Charles Dickens
An open-deck bus tour of London guided by 15 character-comics repeating the same ‘bit’ for 12 to 20 hours. Then, someone poor dies outside, and everyone from the bus descends to stare.
www.the-fence.com/all-possible...
An open-deck bus tour of London guided by 15 character-comics repeating the same ‘bit’ for 12 to 20 hours. Then, someone poor dies outside, and everyone from the bus descends to stare.
www.the-fence.com/all-possible...
All Possible Plots II
Alice Munro in the mud.
www.the-fence.com
November 17, 2024 at 5:41 PM
Barbara Pym
You're at the church bazaar in your second-best brown dress but then the handsome new curate asks if you could proofread his monograph. You need a sherry.
You're at the church bazaar in your second-best brown dress but then the handsome new curate asks if you could proofread his monograph. You need a sherry.
Loved working on this book, we just don't know enough about Goethe in the UK -- like how whenever he went to the theatre he insisted on bringing his own big personal bowl of punch
We attempted the unusual on our little imprint - a life of one of the greatest creative minds in history told through the epic poem he spent his whole life writing. And now Goethe: His Faustian Life by A N Wilson has been chosen as a biography of the year 😊
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...
The best biographies and memoirs of 2024, from Elizabeth II’s life to Rushdie’s near-death
This year saw the release of Craig Brown’s magnum opus on the late Queen, as well as dissections of the messy difficulty of genius
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 17, 2024 at 8:35 AM
Loved working on this book, we just don't know enough about Goethe in the UK -- like how whenever he went to the theatre he insisted on bringing his own big personal bowl of punch
that one bookshop in Shetland now the focus of all my desire
and remember if you want to find those bookshops that aren't on Bluesky I've got a growing directory at
www.indiebookshops.com
💙📚 #BookSky #bookshop #bookstore
www.indiebookshops.com
💙📚 #BookSky #bookshop #bookstore
November 16, 2024 at 6:47 PM
that one bookshop in Shetland now the focus of all my desire
Reposted by Octavia Stocker
So pleased to see the final version of Hetta Howes' Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife! It's a beaut.
November 15, 2024 at 6:58 AM
So pleased to see the final version of Hetta Howes' Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife! It's a beaut.
essays like this are why my subscription will outlive me
‘We should stop looking to people from the deep past for answers; we cannot know them and they are not “worthy of our love”. Better to accept that we live inescapably in our historical present.’
Oliver Cussen disagrees with ‘The Invention of Prehistory’:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Oliver Cussen disagrees with ‘The Invention of Prehistory’:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Oliver Cussen · Lamentable Stick Figure: Uses of Prehistory
Recognition of a past without people yielded a centuries-long ‘obsession’ with trying to find the essence of...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 16, 2024 at 11:03 AM
essays like this are why my subscription will outlive me