Rona Altrows
LightNews LightNews
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Rona Altrows
@ronaaltrows.bsky.social
450 followers 480 following 130 posts
Writer, editor, bubby, animal lover, social democrat.
Human rights for all.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Rona Altrows @ronaaltrows.bsky.social · 15d
Anxious Kid Makes Pretty Good: A Neurodivergent Writer on Life and Writing, my new book, comes out on Oct. 15. A memoir, in essays.
You can pre-order it online or from your favourite bookstore now.
My author copies have just arrived!
#memoir #writing #canlit #ADHD #depression #anxiety
Posing on her modest apartment balcony, the happy author holds up her new book. Book cover is black & light blue. Author is dressed in a black and the same shade of blue. Coincidence?
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Two good friends consider the joys of a Sunday morning.
# cats #BennytheCat #blackcats #interspeciesfriendship
Guys sits on his comfy IKEA armchair, i-pad on his lap, chin against bearded cheek,feet on footstool. Incredibly adorable black cat Benny, is seated on the same footstool, right front paw stretched out on the stool. Man & cat are looking at each other.
September 6, 2026 at 5:07 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Anxious Kid Makes Pretty Good: A Neurodivergent Writer on Life and Writing, my new book, comes out on Oct. 15. A memoir, in essays.
You can pre-order it online or from your favourite bookstore now.
My author copies have just arrived!
#memoir #writing #canlit #ADHD #depression #anxiety
Posing on her modest apartment balcony, the happy author holds up her new book. Book cover is black & light blue. Author is dressed in a black and the same shade of blue. Coincidence?
September 4, 2026 at 7:45 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Hey friends,
A Run on Hose, the book that won me the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize for 2006, is now available for purchase wherever you buy your ebooks. Thanks, @thistledownpress.bsky.social!
(The physical book is now OP and the publisher has been gracious, so c'est la vie.)
#canlit #womensstories
A line of women'ts undergarments hang on a clothesline outside an old, innercity brick apartment building.
August 27, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
ualbertapress.bsky.social
July 24 is International Self-Care Day. It's well worth checking out our anthologies: there is so much good material in these wonderful books!
https://bit.ly/4vxwCCY

@ronaaltrows.bsky.social @juliesedivy.bsky.social #books #reading #concussion #aging #identity #anxiety #TBI
July 24, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
greatplainspress.bsky.social
Join Katherine Koller and Rona Altrows for the Calgary launch of Earthen, Stories! ☀️

📍Shelf Life Books (1302 4 St SW #100, Calgary, AB)
🗓️ Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 PM

#Calgary #BookLaunch #ShortStories #CanLit

@Katherine_Koller
June 1, 2026 at 6:04 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
From The Benny Chronicles:
Here, you see me in a small room where my subjects keep their own litterbox, a complicated mechanical device. The room is named NO! and they like to bellow that name whenever I enter that room. Strange creatures, those humans. #Caturday #Bennythecat #blackcats #cats
Benny, a handsome black cat, admires his own image as he stands on the bathroom counter with his front paws up against the mirror
May 16, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
joannemerriam.bsky.social
Unboxing video of the coolest box I have ever opened! The book is out 15 September, and you can pre-order from the usual places (partial list here: joannemerriam.com/books/aether...).

💙📚 #BookSky 📚❤️ #PrideAndPrejudice 🪐📚 #unboxingvideo #Austenauts
May 11, 2026 at 4:10 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Joyfully rebelling against Alberta's repressive Bill 28, as part of the #READdom campaign. #thisbookwontburn
April 22, 2026 at 9:52 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Join us at the Edmonton launch of Please Don't Interrupt at @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social on April 9 at 7 pm. Beautiful brief readings by 9 Edmonton writers.
Below, my co-editor @uumez.bsky.social Uche Umezurike and I, at different points in the editing process. @bibiukonu.bsky.social
Co-editors Uche and Rona in a Calgary café, looking at a laptop that is perched on a small round white acrylic table. Uche wears a ballcap, Rona a beret. Uche and Rona in animated conversation on a park bench with a laptop between them. Uche is in the same ballcap as before, while Rona has switched to a bucket hat from the dollar store.
March 19, 2026 at 2:46 AM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Please Don't Interrupt, a 30-writer anthology on the theme of interruption, is now available. Uche Umezurike and I are co-editors. Here's Uche with our magnum opus. The book will be in bookstores soon. Or you can order from the publisher, Griots Lounge Canada.
December 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
ualbertapress.bsky.social
Congratulations once again to Rona Altrows, winner of this year's Prairie Grindstone Prize. Here she is at a wonderful celebration at Shelf Life in Calgary (L: Rona / R: Lisa Murphy-Lamb).
https://bit.ly/3zoWZAk

Photo credit: Carol Gauzer.
@ronaaltrows.bsky.social ‪@shelflifebooks.bsky.social‬
August 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
This fine figure of a cat has just turned 3. Thank you for adopting us, Benny. You are the best, in both your MOs, regal & goofball.
#cats #catsofbluesky #Bennythecat #KingBenny
Benny, magnificent black shorthair domestic cat, once a stray kitten & now a homebody adult, lies on purple velveteen bedspread, head and tail up, giving a royal wave with his right front paw.
July 29, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
hannahr.bsky.social
please meet Alex the Great, a therapy bunny who works at the San Fran airport and now Giants games to help people who are overwhelmed

LOOK AT HIS TINY BALLCAP. LOOK AT IT.
A very large roly-poly light brown bunny rabbit wearing a tiny SF Giants ballcap is cuddled by a man wearing a Giants jersey.
July 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Lately I've been asked a lot, what's your main feeling about winning The Prairie Grindstone Prize for 2025? My answer: deep gratitude.
Judges cited my "body of work and commitment to supporting emerging & established writers." Honoured.
#writers #writing #gratitude www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca
The Prairie Grindstone Prize
The Prairie Grindstone Prize is an annual literary award of $50,000 that alternates between the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and is granted to an engaged prairie writer in mid-career.
www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca
July 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Rona Altrows
albertaviews.bsky.social
Congratulations to @ronaaltrows.bsky.social for winning the 2025 Prairie Grindstone Prize!
www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca
The Prairie Grindstone Prize
The Prairie Grindstone Prize is an annual literary award of $50,000 that alternates between the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and is granted to an engaged prairie writer in mid-career.
www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca
June 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Psychiatrist sits in a chair, pencil in left hand and patient chart in right. Facing him & reclining in a divan is a , blob-like amoeba-like dark entity, covered in stars and with a sad look on its face. That is Dark Matter. Caption reads, "They all ask, 'What is Dark Matter.?' But they never ask, HOW is Dark Matter?'"
June 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
The only king I bow to is Benny.

#Caturday #blackcats #BennytheCat #NoKing #NoKingbutBenny
Magnificent black cat Benny, who lives in a 3rd-floor walkup apartment in an old building, perches on top of a propane barbecue on his catio and surveys the outdoor part of his vast domain.
June 15, 2025 at 12:35 AM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
June 2, 2025 at 5:11 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
A little levity for my Bluesky friends.
A dog and a squirrel are sitting on a tree branch. Holding the squirrel's right paw in both of his paws, the dog says "I'll be honest, I never in a million years thought I'd actually catch one of you guys. But right now I need you to help me get down."
May 18, 2025 at 5:03 AM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
Happy Mother's Day to all Bluesky friends who are mothers, foster mothers, surrogate mothers, mother figures, cis, trans, human, feline, canine, you get the idea. May your day be filled with positives.
#Mother'sDay #mothers
May 11, 2025 at 2:28 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
When he was crowned, King Benny opted for a scaled-down coronation ceremony. King Charles did the same.
Charles plans to visit Canada later this month to deliver the Speech from the Throne. Benny has not yet announced his plans.
#cats #blackcats #catsofbluesky #royalty
Benny, the unbelievably handsome black cat, reclines on his perchthrone with his crown, the outer rim of a preserves lid jar, sitting over his right ear, and his royal robes, a partially folded flag, over his shoulders and upper back.
May 7, 2025 at 3:35 AM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
On my third reread of Moby Dick a couple years back, I skipped the cetology chapters as my recollection as I had previously found them boring.
But on this fourth reread, I am finding the cetology chapters to be the most interesting of all. Go figure.
#Melville #writers
May 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
April 29, 2025 at 4:17 AM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
From the comfort of his bunthouse, Benny oversees delivery of new catio furniture.

#Caturday #cats #blackcats #BennytheCat #CatsofBluesky
From the top shelf of a kitchen counter, beautiful black cat Benny is lying lies so that we see only his head, which is facing right, and his front right paw, pointing right.
April 12, 2025 at 3:30 PM
ronaaltrows.bsky.social
feeling of lostness after finishing a big project
#writing #writers
April 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM