I tell you what, that Santa Claus has got real presence about him

"When Hannibal tells Clarice he ate that guy’s liver with 'some fava beans and a nice chianti,' that is a metaphor for eating figgy pudding and eggnog with a big Christmas ham. Movies are filled with metaphors and symbols; you just have to look for them."

Thrilled to announce our new issue, Novel Media/Media Novel, edited by Dong Xia and Sandro Eich: c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1286/i...

💫 My book is finally in print! Immensely grateful to all my colleagues and to @emilysharp.bsky.social , @elizabethfr.bsky.social, and the whole team at @edinburghup.bsky.social for their support throughout the writing, revision, and publication process! 🚨 (For a 30% discount, use code NEW30)

Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social. bacls.org/news/187/

Solidarity with the @pcsunion.bsky.social workers at the British Library who are on strike this week and next. I've been going to the library for over a decade, the staff are the ones who make it the space it is - they need to be respected and, importantly, paid enough for the all the work they do

“Physically, you’re bigger: your shape has changed. But the space is the same. The memories are the same.” I Interviewed Dev Hynes about moving back to Ilford when his mum got sick & how it inspired the incredible album Essex Honey www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Can we shift away from low-quality UUK leadership?

On the subject of Melvyn Bragg, I think of this Private Eye cartoon more frequently than I care to admit, when I’m struggling to raise the energy for a lecture or graduate supervision

Pls sign and share this open letter to the Bristol VC, against the School of Humanities's decision to withdraw the BA in English Literature and Community Engagement (ELCE): the only part-time, flexible undergraduate degree programme available at the University forms.gle/SbyhXPSJgQTc...

Famously, between the first and the second act of Waiting for Godot, the only difference in the stage set is that a previously bare tree ‘has four or five leaves’. So what’s the main note to self I found in this copy which seems to have belonged to a stage manager called Nigel...?

Over 1000 signatories in 36 hours! Let's make it 2000 by the weekend 👇 Please sign 👇 Please circulate 👇

Heads-up: this, in August @grantabooks.bsky.social @foylesforbooks.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nicola-bar...

If anyone feels it's important to be exposed to 'views they find offensive', they can just look at Twitter for ten seconds. Universities have more serious work to do www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on. slate.com/technology/2...

*first year lecture, academic strides in* “right you sickos, im here to tell you once and for all THE FOOTNOTE GOES AFTER THE PUNCTUATION” *students wail, gnash teeth, vomit* www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ENGLISH LIT JOB! A rare beast spotted in the wild! Come work with us! I’ll provide snacks! jobs.edgehill.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

A rare thing to see in the wild these days: a Creative Writing lectureship (fixed term) at the University of East Anglia vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/15...

Modern Fiction Studies has joined BlueSky! We'll be posting CFPs and announcing new issues. Our Spring 2025 issue is now available and open-access on Project Muse! Look for us there, or check out our newsletter here: vr2.verticalresponse.com/emails/48378...

A really good opportunity here to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia: the Birch Family Scholarship is available to a home fees applicant who has applied for a place on the Poetry MA and identifies as a writer of colour. Deadline: 30 May. Please RT! www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

For the sake of 10FTE jobs, UEA are still pressing ahead with compulsory redundancies. Some of these folk are friends & colleagues in my department. This doesn’t have to happen & is an enormous error of management #SaveUEA

This looks excellent, and is available open access too!

The cat’s out of the bag! 🐈‍⬛ LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD, my weird, slippery biography of Muriel Spark, will be out in April next year. A huge thank you to the team at @sceptrebooks.bsky.social for helping me bring it to life. Please tell your libraries and favourite bookshops!

The Crab Museum is the best thing in Margate. Maybe the best thing in all of Kent.

This new Supreme Court ruling does not protect women. It protects a 'barbie doll' image of what women should be. Let me explain: I was born female. I have female genitals. It says female on my Birth Certificate. I am one of the 'women' this ruling is meant to protect. 🧵

Hello, BlueSky! We're happy to be here!

We have a brilliant new issue for you! Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 2025) is now available: c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1419/i.... There are new articles on peripheral readings of poetry, the Scottish Network Novel, the new sub-genre of up-lit & reviews. Plus more articles coming soon! #OpenAccess #AcaSky

Excited to get to talk about my first (and forthcoming) monograph at #issn2025 tomorrow! 📖 Thank you to @edinburghup.bsky.social for supplying me with these wee cards 💥

If you, or someone you know, is thinking about doing a Poetry MA next year, I'm here to tell you that at UEA we have two scholarships available, closing date 1st April (Tuesday!): The Ink Sweat and Tears (www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-a...) and The Birch Family (www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-a...) Please RT!

Well, shit, there goes the title of my memoir of my days as Head of my Department….

Posting this before the pleasure of a new publication turns to shame and embarrassment about its inadeqacies. My article '"Bullshit" Jobs and Ticklish Comedy: Humor and Sadness in the Contemporary Workplace Novel' is out now in _Contemporary Literature_ cl.uwpress.org/content/65/2....

ah, would be nice if universities removed the unnecessary *work*, not the necessary workers who do the work both necessary and unnecessary. Admin bloat is real. A bunch of it can be weeded. But you can't weed the people ACTUALLY KEEPING THINGS AFLOAT (and then assume academics will just pick it up)

Posting this before the pleasure of a new publication turns to shame and embarrassment about its inadeqacies. My article '"Bullshit" Jobs and Ticklish Comedy: Humor and Sadness in the Contemporary Workplace Novel' is out now in _Contemporary Literature_ cl.uwpress.org/content/65/2....

Here's Severance but Mr Milchick is Alan Johnson from Peep Show. Enjoy.

I’m on board with this. Almost every day I have to squeeze or shuffle past bloated SUVs that overlap bike lanes.

Keep an eye out for @/afcomm.org.uk, which has just followed me and is an obvious front for legitimating anti-trans propaganda in academia, alongside potentially legitimating Toby Young’s personal front for covid conspiracy-mongering and hate

And lo: here we are, on Bluesky. Pls repost to spread the word!

BAAS regrets to announce that the BAAS / US Embassy Small Grants Programme has been cancelled. 1/7

as of tomorrow in the northern hemisphere we have FINISHED the darkest TWELVE WEEKS of the year. That's it! The darkest quarter of the year is finished again. We made it. . . . . (I will block anyone who replies negatively to this. We must be allowed to enjoy *the return of the sun* at least.)

[reposted] The storm has broken at Cardiff University. Solidarity to everyone who is going to be affected by leaving the university, or by remaining as part of a substantially weakened workforce. Please join a union.

Applications are now sought for the Glucksman Chair in Contemporary Writing in English. Research and teaching specialism in 20th and 21st-C Writing in English. Emphasis on Irish writers may be favoured University of Limerick www.ul.ie/vacancies

Great to see our very own Bloomsbury literary studies account up on Bluesky! Drop us a follow on @bloomsburylit.bsky.social

Does anyone just happen to know a really cool theatre director, museum director, literary agent, or otherwise superdupercool arts and humanities person who's looking for a way to help shape the future of universities? And one who doesn't get pushed over? www.odgersberndtson.com/opportunitie...

It's out of copyright now -- Nella Larsen's "Passing." To celebrate, I put together a simple digital edition with web, TXT, PDF, and EPUB versions. Also wrote a brief intro. scalar.lehigh.edu/african-amer...

Here is a JOB: a full professorship in literature (any period, any specialism) - please share share share. fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Last day of the semester vibes

Last day of the semester vibes