Valerie O’Riordan
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valerieoriordan.bsky.social
Valerie O’Riordan
@valerieoriordan.bsky.social
190 followers 65 following 9 posts
Writer, academic, book nerd, runs a bit, sort of, sometimes. Senior editor @theforge.bsky.social.

Have some ham, Tina.
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Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
gsoh31.bsky.social
Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.
July 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
theforge.bsky.social
Our story of the week is Agnes and the Cemetery Bus by Susan Rose April.
Agnes and the Cemetery Bus - The Forge Literary Magazine
Agnes and the Cemetery Bus, flash fiction by Susan Rose April
forgelitmag.com
June 30, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
benjaminmyers76.bsky.social
Big congrats to this year's winner: @valerieoriordan.bsky.social.

Thanks to the judges, writer Preti Taneja and pop star Paul Smith, and all at @newwritingnorth.bsky.social
newwritingnorth.bsky.social New Writing North @newwritingnorth.bsky.social · Jun 24
The Finchale Award for Short Fiction award goes to Manchester writer @valerieoriordan.bsky.social.

"I'm beyond thrilled to have won! It's such an honour. This is going to make a really massive difference to my writing practice over the next twelve months, and I can't wait to get started!"
June 25, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
newwritingnorth.bsky.social
The Finchale Award for Short Fiction award goes to Manchester writer @valerieoriordan.bsky.social.

"I'm beyond thrilled to have won! It's such an honour. This is going to make a really massive difference to my writing practice over the next twelve months, and I can't wait to get started!"
June 24, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
jeremycorbyn.bsky.social
I was asked to come up with an "Idea for Keir".

Easy.

Stop arming Israel.

www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
Ideas for Keir
Tracey Emin, Jeremy Corbyn, Piers Morgan and others on what the Prime Minister should do next.
www.newstatesman.com
June 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
benwilko85.bsky.social
“Forget the risible rise of the hot take / then, poets who play politics, mistake / strength of feeling for technique.”

A couple of new poems in this week’s @thespectator1828.bsky.social, including this little number.
The Line Good job these poets aren't tightrope walkers she said, else half the fakers would be dead— another tumble from a tone-deaf shocker. But for a few still dexterous in their tread this formal panache isn't just possible, it's song as comprehension in itself: how meaning's strung out between two shelves. True balance makes this highwire crossable and through that crossing unforgettable. Forget the risible rise of the hot take then, poets who play politics, mistake strength of feeling for technique. Unable to admit our readers are turning away they applaud themselves beneath time's walkway. Ben Wilkinson
May 8, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
deirdreflynn.bsky.social
Lecturer in English (English Literature), 1FTE, Contract Type B, Specific Purpose Contract

University of Galway
6 months

The modules to be covered include North American Fiction, Twentieth-Century Fiction, Literature and Ideas, and Travel Literature.

universityvacancies.com/university-g...
Lecturer in English (English Literature), 1FTE, Contract Type B, Specific Purpose Contract | University Vacancies IrelandUniversity Vacancies Logo
universityvacancies.com
May 8, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
leyawn.bsky.social
“is my calculator horny?“ our tech columnist asks. “i entered 5318008 into it and turned it upside down. what i saw surprised me”
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Apr 24
“Can ChatGPT experience joy or suffering? Does Gemini deserve human rights?” our tech columnist asks. “Many A.I. experts I know would say no, not yet, not even close. But I was intrigued.”
Should We Start Taking the Welfare of A.I. Seriously?
As artificial intelligence systems become smarter, one A.I. company is trying to figure out what to do if they become conscious.
www.nytimes.com
April 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
valerieoriordan.bsky.social
Super excited about this!
dipikam.bsky.social Dipika Mummery @dipikam.bsky.social · Apr 22
Quite exciting/nerve-wracking to see signs up in Levenshulme for mine and @valerieoriordan.bsky.social's stories for @levyoldlibrary.bsky.social's You Are Here project! The podcast launches on Friday - see more info here: levenshulmeoldlibrary.org.uk/you-are-here/
A sign on a fence for the You Are Here project trailing Dipika Mummery's story, 'Parakeet', with a QR code for the podcast. A sign on a fence for the You Are Here project trailing Valerie O'Riordan's story, 'Litter', with a QR code for the podcast.
April 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
theforge.bsky.social
Our story of the week is Visitor, by Drew Townsend.
Visitor - The Forge Literary Magazine
Visitor, fiction by Drew Townsend
forgelitmag.com
April 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
valerieoriordan.bsky.social
Nice to see this pop up unexpectedly on my feed! 😍
March 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
lottelydia.bsky.social
saw a thread of people posting poetry today and I re-read this one, by Ben Wilkinson earlier — a perfect invocation of student life and nostalgia (and Sheffield, a city I’ve never lived but always loved)
Invocation Here's to hope that, decades on. I still remember it all - how the rain played a heavy beat on the skylight the nights I sat reading Derrida then Not Saussure. cigarette smoke drifting from the ashtray on my desk. Sam and Joe in stitches at the third season of Scrubs. mornings when that brunette undressed before a window and must've have known that half the street might see her. the day we found POLICE LINE - DO NOT CROSS sealing off Eastwood Road, uncovering an attic full of marijuana. and our unruly garden. all weeds, one growing to six feet In three weeks when we left the place over Easter. the distant throb of techno filtering through the windows. our living room's threadbare carpet, textured white walls. the nightly wailing alarm of some Corsa. Aygo or Golf. that evening we played Articulate! while pissed. Brawley somehow confusing Charles Dickens with Oliver Twist. those final months brimming with all this, the milk bottles sitting on our porch uncollected, full with stagnant water. my hair curly. wild and unkempt and three times longer than It ever was or has been since. Roney's bacon baps twice a week for breakfast, kids on BMXs flying along the pavements. summer days of rain continually pouring while the leak from our attic's knackered shower snaked behind the wallpaper, long Friday nights at the Lescar. junk mail. misdirected mail and flyers dropping through the letterbox. jars and tubs of stuff sat in the fridge forever. eating tinned soup. pasta bake. Marmite on toast, muesit. the long walk from Brocco Bank up towards Walkley. carly hours' laughter heading home from The Leadmill. the Guardtan, ten deck of Marlboros, and pint of milk from the newsagents, the radio blaring. Rich singing Club Tropicana' as he scrambled eggs in our kitchen. the pollen count through the roof, the lead clean stolen In the middle of the night from the local church's roof. and all of us, for the last time. gathered in that front room. our stuff in boxes, sitting, wait…
January 10, 2025 at 11:18 PM
valerieoriordan.bsky.social
Check me on my high horse: www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat...
T. S. Eliot’s prose | TLS
Stephen Romer’s bibliographical description of T. S. Eliot’s four-volume Collected Prose (January 24) doesn’t leave him much space to deal with le vrai Eliot at its core, but he almost gets there with...
www.the-tls.co.uk
February 13, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
theforge.bsky.social
Our story of the week is Smoke by Kirk Vanderbeek.
Smoke - The Forge Literary Magazine
Short Fiction by Kirk Vanderbeek
forgelitmag.com
February 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
benwilko85.bsky.social
Squid Game is terrifying and all, but having worked in a liberal arts department at a UK university this past decade, it mainly feels unnervingly familiar. Except the massive cash jackpot always goes to the VC, naturally.
January 16, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
seventydys.bsky.social
Nothing is hidden

Wisława Szymborska, ‘Reality Demands’. Tr Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh.
REALITY DEMANDS Reality demands that we also mention this: Life goes on. It continues at Cannae and Borodino, at Kosovo Polje and Guernica. There's a gas station on a little square in Jericho, and wet paint on park benches in Bila Hora. Letters fly back and forth between Pearl Harbor and Hastings, a moving van passes beneath the eye of the lion at Chaeronea, and the blooming orchards near Verdun cannot escape the approaching atmospheric front. There is so much Everything that Nothing is hidden quite nicely. Music pours from the yachts moored at Actium and couples dance on their sunlit decks. So much is always going on, that it must be going on all over. Where not a stone still stands, you see the Ice Cream Man besieged by children. Where Hiroshima had been Hiroshima is again, producing many products for everyday use. REALITY DEMANDS Reality demands that we also mention this: Life goes on. It continues at Cannae and Borodino, at Kosovo Polje and Guernica. There's a gas station on a little square in Jericho, and wet paint on park benches in Bila Hora. Letters fly back and forth between Pearl Harbor and Hastings, a moving van passes beneath the eye of the lion at Chaeronea, and the blooming orchards near Verdun cannot escape the approaching atmospheric front. There is so much Everything that Nothing is hidden quite nicely, Music pours from the yachts moored at Actium and couples dance on their sunlit decks. So much is always going on, that it must be going on all over. Where not a stone still stands, you see the Ice Cream Man besieged by children. Where Hiroshima had been Hiroshima is again, producing many products for everyday use.
December 25, 2024 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
miriamposner.com
Maybe one of the reasons there are so many unhinged academics is that in order to keep your job, you’re constantly required to tout yourself as a Scholar of World-Historical Significance, even as your office’s ceiling tiles slowly dislodge themselves to fall on your head.
December 6, 2024 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
bristolshortstory.bsky.social
Did you know our 2010 winner's story was only 350 words? Just because we accept stories up to 4000 words, we love a good story whatever its size! You can enter until the end of January, more details here: bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
Bristol Short Story Prize
bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
December 9, 2024 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
taniahershman.bsky.social
I was lucky enough to be one of the BSSP judges that year, and we were all completely wowed by the 350-word winning story, by @valerieoriordan.bsky.social - so let that inspire you, writers of very short things!
bristolshortstory.bsky.social Bristol Short Story Prize @bristolshortstory.bsky.social · Dec 9
Did you know our 2010 winner's story was only 350 words? Just because we accept stories up to 4000 words, we love a good story whatever its size! You can enter until the end of January, more details here: bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
Bristol Short Story Prize
bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
December 9, 2024 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
joannechocolat.bsky.social
Of all the problems with AI, I think we neglect this one: it is the enemy of diversity. Trained largely on white, mainstream creators, it creates a bland, soulless art form in which no individual voice, no diverse life experience can exist…
December 4, 2024 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
alicebennett.bsky.social
the sector is fatigued? the sector doesn't have the political clout of the steel industry? could it be because uni managements have engaged in a prolonged war of attrition with their own staff, aimed primarily at crushing organised labour in the sector?
December 4, 2024 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
alicebennett.bsky.social
seeing the leaders of French unis actually resisting cuts rather than treating staff and students like their enemy made me remember these interviews from the times higher last week (Shitij Kapur, Julie Sanders)
Professor Kapur said the government had to make decisions about whether to provide further funds to English universities instead of giving money to other underfunded areas of society. He also raised concerns that higher education lacked the “political clout” of other industries – comparing the outcry there would be over the closure of a steel plant with the possible shuttering of a British university. “I think our political system is relatively nonplussed about the fact that something of that magnitude could possibly happen to what at the moment is Britain’s best industry,” he warned. Julie Sanders, vice-chancellor of Royal Holloway, University of London, said the “perma-crisis” of the last few years had made the sector fatigued at a time when it had to be at its most daring and innovative. Along with the need for other voices to advocate on behalf of the sector, Professor Sanders said university leaders needed to talk about their own successes more – particularly around widening access to disadvantaged students. “Listening to those students and hearing those voices of future students is so vital and they need to be in these debates with us around what that 10-year vision is and where we need to go – and that needs to be a global and a civic conversation,” Professor Sanders said.
December 4, 2024 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
Amazon employees around the world are demonstrating between Black Friday and Cyber Monday to call for improved wages and working conditions, including unionization rights.

Workers are striking in 20 countries including the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and India.
November 29, 2024 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
ofmooseandmen.bsky.social
Happy Blue Friday.

If you are able, please buy your Bluemoose Books direct from our website.

Mr Bezos has enough money to fly to the moon and back.

www.Bluemoosebooks.com

Thank you you. Kevin, Leo and Panda.
November 29, 2024 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Valerie O’Riordan
canongate.co.uk
What's interesting about this trend for book marketing AI companies—who secure £Xmil in seed funding, get a write-up in the Bookseller, and will now wither away, leaving only a slime trail of AI generated goop across the surface of culture—is mainly what it says about capital’s engagement with books
jambookshopuk.bsky.social David Ziggy Greene (Jam bookshop) @jambookshopuk.bsky.social · Nov 25
Least surprising photo line up of all time
November 25, 2024 at 12:21 PM