Recently finished #AutumnNovel #AliSmith Four out of four stars. Would recommend. Would read again. "It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times." In progress: #APeople'sHistoryOfTheUnitedStates #HowardZinn
alismith
“It was the time of year when things could change their nature. […] And already, my true love said taking my arm, we're past the shortest. Light is shaving the darkness off already, a couple of minutes a day. Have you noticed?”
—from 2008: “Do you call that a Christmas present?” – a short story by Ali Smith
Book launch
Ali Smith: GLYPH
29 Jan, Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh, & online – ticketed
Ghosts don’t exist.
They don’t. End of.
Story, however.
It is haunting.
Everything tells it.
GLYPH is Ali Smith’s most soulful, playful & vital novel yet, a work of lightness that goes deep to counter the forces currently flattening the modern world. Smith will be in conversation with Jess Orr.
https://www.theportobellobookshop.com/events/ali-smith-glyph
Ali Smith: The book that changed me as a teenager
“Liz Lochhead’s Memo for Spring… I found a book so slim it had no spine, just hinges, and was by a woman who was young, Scottish and a poet (at this point in time a rare combination). The poems in it were so good, gripping and clear, written in a kind of Scottish English I knew was close to my own, but I’d never read in any book”
#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #LizLochhead #AliSmith
“It is a bold move to be so morally unflinching, especially in the face of a perceived aesthetic orthodoxy that so often privileges distance and irony, but in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day when so many others have equivocated or turned away.”
—GLYPH by Ali Smith: bearing witness to the war in Gaza
Recently finished #RilkeOnLoveAndOtherDifficulties #JohnJLMood Three out of four stars. Might recommend. Might read again. What caused me to want to read this book was a quote (posted here somewhere, I believe) but as usual, no source given for the quote 😒 In progress: #WinterNovel #AliSmith
Take Four Books: Ali Smith
Available on BBC Sounds.
Ali Smith speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, GLYPH. Together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.
@bookstodon
Recently finished #WintersetHollow #JonathanEdwardDurham Four out of four stars. Would recommend. Would read again. "John Eamon Buckley didn't even know his first name until he was already a young man, but such was the timbre of the wake in which he was raised." In progress: #SpringNovel #AliSmith
Ali Smith wins the 2026 Dublin Literary Award for her novel GLIFF
“Through the eyes of two young protagonists navigating an increasingly authoritarian society, we are reminded that courage is not always loud, but it is always consequential. At a moment when democracy across the world can too often feel fragile, this novel is a powerful reminder that freedom, dignity and democratic values should never be taken for granted.”
@bookstodon
Seasonal Quartet: New European Ensemble ft. Ali Smith
2 July, London. Tickets from £15.00.
Ali Smith joins forces with the New European Ensemble, bringing her iconic Seasonal Quartet novels into a new dimension with the UK premieres of four new musical works based on Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, interspersed with readings from the books that inspired them.
Recently finished #SummerNovel #AliSmith Four out of four stars. Would recommend. Would read again. "Everybody said: so?" In progress: #OnTheRoad #JackKerouac
CFP: Ali Smith & Her Work
The 28th METU British Novelists International Conference
3–4 Dec 2026, Ankara, Türkiye
Submissions invited on any aspect of Ali Smith’s work from any theoretical perspective. Proposals by graduate students also welcome. Deadline 31 August.
@litstudies
Seasonal Quartet: Ali Smith & New European Ensemble
30 October, Aberdeen: £0–£14
A concert performance with live readings by Ali Smith from her novels 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘯, 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 & 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳, focussing on eternally relevant contemporary themes such as climate, ecology, migrations, social media, Brexit, war, populism.
https://sound-scotland.co.uk/event/seasonal-quartet-ali-smith-writer-new-european-ensemble
#Scottish #literature #novel #AliSmith #music #classicalmusic
