Pleased to announce my new article, "W. Adolphe Roberts: Latin Americanism from the Jamaican Periphery," in Confluencia 41.2. #academicsky

Recently, I had a long drive down to/back from UC Irvine. I spent a lot of the time listening to Bruce Springsteen's first five albums (I'd already listened to "Nebraska" all the way through). Of the first six, "Darkness on the Edge of Town" is clearly my favorite. What a piece of work. #musicsky

Excited to participate in the UC Iberian Studies Consortium's 2026 event at UC Irvine, May 7-8. My talk will be "Punks in the Labyrinth: National Absence in Early Portuguese Punk Rock." #academicsky #musicsky

Angel Dust’s new album is so, so good. Recommended if you’re into Drug Church, Fiddlehead, etc., or like your high-energy rock music to have some bounce and groove. Here’s the first song: #musicsky

A victory for democracy anywhere is a victory for democracy everywhere. Congratulations, Hungary!🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺

Join me tomorrow (Thursday, April 9) for a bilingual conversation with the Gibraltar poet Gabriel Moreno and translator/publisher Rafael Peñas Cruz, on Gabriel's bilingual English/Spanish anthology "Gibraltar"! #booksky #academicsky

Join me on Thursday, April 9 for a conversation with the Gibraltar poet Gabriel Moreno and translator/publisher Rafael Peñas Cruz, on Gabriel's bilingual English/Spanish anthology "Gibraltar." #booksky #academicsky

Looking forward to teaching my UC Davis course on Latin American lit in translation, starting next week. We're focusing on the greater Caribbean, and reading Carpentier, Ferré, Pauline Melville, Danticat, Rita Indiana, Kei Miller, Fernanda Melchor, and Jaquira Díaz. #booksky #academicsky

Just finished María Esquinca's beautiful collection "Where Heaven Sinks." Esquinca is a very talented poet, and her depictions of El Paso and the US-Mexican border are gorgeous, heartbreaking, and humane. I especially loved "We Made a Kingdom from Trash." #booksky unpress.nevada.edu/978164779218...

I've just published a series of translated newspaper pieces by the great Brazilian writer Machado de Assis (1839-1908). They deal with one of his favorite literary motifs - the donkey - and touch on slavery, greed, modernization, and as always, human folly. Open access. #academicsky

Join the Mediterranean Studies forum at #mla2027 in LA! Proposals for both sessions are due March 15. #academicsky

The Ukrainian Institute and @kyivindependent.com have teamed up to popularize Ukrainian classics! Read more at the press release. kyivindependent.com/rediscoverin...

I loved Walter Kempowski's novel "All for Nothing" and I'm now really enjoying "Marrow and Bone." Next up is "An Ordinary Youth." Looking for recommendations of similar German fiction available in English translation, or of novels about displacement and empire's physical remains. #booksky

Excellent song by the band MAQUINA., from Lisbon. For fans of krautrock, noise, and Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR." // Excelente canção da banda lisboeta MAQUINA. Recomendo para fãs de krautrock, noise, e "XTRMNTR" de Primal Scream. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqYX... #musicsky

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I want to recommend this book, An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States by Rosina Lozano. www.ucpress.edu/books/an-ame...

Just finished reading Fernanda Melchor’s “This Is Not Miami.” Excellent collection, very much complementary reading to her novels. Melchor is one of my favorite young(-ish) writers, and her depictions of Veracruz are electrifying. #booksky

This is the university library at KU Leuven (Belgium). It was destroyed during World War I. US universities and schools funded its reconstruction. I saw their names carved into the facade when I visited last month. I want to believe that gestures like this are still possible. #academicsky

Just finished Brandon Hobson’s ”The Removed.” One of the best new-ish novels I’ve read in a while. Recommended. #booksky

Looking forward to presenting on Tuesday, January 13 at #KULeuven and the Centre for Global Governance Studies on "Sovereignty and Iberian National Literatures: Comparing Catalonia and Portugal." #academicsky

#mla2026 #academicsky

Drove into Canada today for #MLA2026 in Toronto and the minute I crossed the border the "Kids in the Hall" theme popped into my head. Couldn't be helped.

I mostly listened to old reggae and dub in 2025. But I did listen to some new songs. Favorites: Crush Your Soul, Living Gracious Die Spitz, Pop Punk Anthem Suede, Dancing With the Europeans Nothing, Cannibal World Real Daze, Shulgin Sharon Van Etten, Live Forever Mil-Spec, When the Music Ends 6.52

UC Davis tied for No. 9 among the nation’s top public universities and earned accolades for innovation, social mobility and more in the 2026 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings. This is the 5th consecutive year the campus has been ranked among the top 10 public universities: ucdav.is/46Pv7qx

Rereading “Nostromo.” From a Latin Americanist perspective, it seems preoccupied with the binarisms of the day (Latin/Anglo-Saxon, North/South America), partly recalling writers like Rodó - despite Conrad’s stereotyping and second-hand knowledge. A Latin Americanist novel? #booksky #academicsky

Congrats to my childhood friend, the incredible writer and artist, Sophie Campbell, @mooncalfe1.bsky.social, for her work on Supergirl! 🏳️‍⚧️

Just finished Dan Flores’s “Coyote America.” The coyote is impressive for so many reasons, not least of which is that it’s prospered and expanded its range immensely despite all attempts to destroy it. Coming to a North American city near you, if not there already! #booksky

Just finished Kei Miller's novel "Augustown." A really nice novel about historical repetition and cyclical injustice and resistance in contemporary Jamaica. Despite the narrator's assertion that it's not a magical realist novel, it compares with Alejo Carpentier's "El reino de este mundo." #booksky

Finishing up Wilson Harris's hallucinatory, occasionally maddening novel "Palace of the Peacock." An account of a hellish journey upriver in Guyana, it doubles as a lament for and denunciation of colonialism. Worth a look for readers of Joseph Conrad, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo. #booksky

'The author of Girl, Woman, Other and Mr Loverman has been rewarded for her entire body of work, as well as her “transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices across the cultural landscape”.' Kudos richly merited.

The UC Iberian Studies Consortium just started a listserv. University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) faculty interested in Iberian Studies are welcome to join. Email me at [email protected] if interested.

Planning to teach a seminar next year on Latin American literature in translation, focusing on three countries that are “peripheral” to Latin America: Brazil, Jamaica, & Haiti. I’d appreciate any recommendations of scholars of Jamaican or Haitian literature. I have questions! #academicsky #booksky

If no one has done this yet, someone should write a paper on the circulation of William DeVaughn‘s song “Be Thankful for What You Got” (1974) between the US, Jamaica, and the UK (via Massive Attack) as an example of cultural exchange across the Black Atlantic.

Delighted to see 'Strategies for Writing Gibraltar into the World'! Congratulations to guest editor, @rpnewcomb.bsky.social, contributors: Edwige Tamalet Talbayev, David Álvarez + José Juan Yborra Aznar. @antonpujol.bsky.social @acis46.bsky.social intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/ijis/38/1

Pleased to announce that the new issue of the International Journal of Iberian Studies features a dossier, "Strategies for Writing Gibraltar into the World," which I edited. It features articles on Gibraltarian literature by me, David Alvarez, José Juan Yborra Aznar, and Edwige Tamalet Talbayev.

My review of Earl E. Fitz’s “The Literatures of Spanish America and Brazil” is out now in the Luso-Brazilian Review.

My translation of the great, dearly missed Alfredo Bosi's "An Ideological Knot - On Interlaced Perspectives in Machado de Assis" has been published in a special issue of Santa Barbara Portuguese Studies dedicated to Bosi, a major Brazilian literary and cultural critic.

The United States are, have been, and will be a multilingual country, whether or not it has an “official” language. // EEUU son, han sido, y serán país plurilingüe, teniendo o no lengua “oficial.”

Compiling a list of non-current books that uncannily help explain the current political moment. I nominate Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent.” Share your picks and thoughts in the comments. #booksky

'An Interview with Cristina Martins' by Robert Newcomb on the Mirandese language. Fascinating! Both Robert Newcomb and Cristina Martins were keynote speakers at the 44th ACIS Conference in Porto back in 2023 🗣 ➡️ escholarship.org/content/qt93...

Your periodic reminder to listen to Kate Bush.

Really enjoying Ava Mendoza’s “The Circular Train”: dazzling solo guitar and occasional vocals. Sounds like it belongs on a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack. Thanks to KDVS for yet another recommendation.

What Camus’s “The Plague” was for the early Covid years, Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent” should be for our current moment. It has domestic extremism, political bad actors, a diffuse fear of foreigners, gaslighting, and a tenacious desire to get at the truth. Read it. #booksky

A escritora Maria Teresa Horta, a última das “Três Marias”, morreu hoje, aos 87 anos, em Lisboa

Ha fallecido Maria Teresa Horta, última de las “Três Marias” que se rebelaron contra la situación política y social de la mujer en los estertores de la dictadura salazarista. Las tres escribieron colectivamente "Novas cartas portuguesas", obra esencial en el feminismo portugués.

Santiago Pérez Isasi’s “Iberism and the Latin World: Political and Cultural Potentialities and Resistances in Portugal and Spain (1870-1930)” available in the Romance Quarterly now.

Taking another run at Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent." This time the novel seems even more relevant, and the pacing much less plodding - practically speedy by Conradian standards! Amazing what a few years distance can do. "Nostromo" will probably still be my favorite, but who knows? #booksky

My first book, “Nossa and Nuestra América: Inter-American Dialogues” (Purdue, 2011), is now available for free download from Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures. Check it out!

Reading Benjamín Labatut’s “When We Cease to Understand the World” (trans. Adrian Nathan West, NYRB, 2020), a dazzling hybrid of fiction, essayistic reflection, and the history of science - with none of the ponderousness that description might imply. #booksky

Just finished Miranda July’s novel “All Fours.” It’s an evocative account of middle aged dissatisfaction, of accepting mortality and denying death-in-life. I don’t have an overall “take” on it, other than that I read it obsessively and I continue to think about it. Maybe that’s the point? #booksky