I'll be doing a workshop for Edmonton's LitFest that I've long wanted to put together! We'll be getting intimate with sentences, exploring the magic that can happen when you leverage language structure with skill and sensitivity. Saturday, Oct. 18, noon-2 pm. litfestalberta.org/event-1/work...

Important article at this point in history: "As much harm as a 40 percent cut to the NIH budget would have on scientific innovation, destroying the peer-evaluation system that decides what science is funded would be far worse." Indeed. It would be like doing away with criminal trial by jury.

I got to review @michaelerard.bsky.social's new book for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, a book that grapples with the things most worth thinking about: language, human connection, mortality. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

This book by David Martin was such hearty brain and soul food! I was glad to have had a chance to review it. albertaviews.ca/limited-verse/

It's delusional to think that in this day and age, scrubbing sexual content from school libraries will protect kids. More than ever, they need books and materials to help them navigate the often toxic sexual content that is everywhere.

@juliesedivy.bsky.social is the best of the best

I'm honoured and delighted that Linguaphile was chosen as the winner of this year's W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Many thanks to the jury, who read through a big pile of books, and warm congrats to my fellow finalists, David Martin and Teresa Wong.

If we listen to their poems as birds might, relieved of our preoccupation with message, we may hear the beloved music of our language on display, intensified, toyed with, subverted, stretched taut to its quivering point. #SundaySentence Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love @juliesedivy.bsky.social

A standing ovation for federal workers by the thousands of physicists who are meeting in Anaheim this week, supporting their colleagues in science agencies who couldn’t afford—or weren’t allowed—to come. Sorry, no pictures, in part out of green-card holders’ fears. #APSGlobalSummit2025 #APSMarch

So "AI safety" and "responsible AI" are now "ideological terms" that are forbidden. What's next? "Personal autonomy"? "Human flourishing"? www.wired.com/story/ai-saf...

If you are looking for a nonfiction read that’ll leave you inspired, wiser and sobbing like a baby, look no further than @juliesedivy.bsky.social latest masterpiece. #writingcommunity #canlit

I got measles back in 1970, before MMR vaccines were available. It wiped out my immune system for a year. In short order I got mumps, rubella, chicken pox and scarlet fever, which landed me (without family) in a quarantine facility. I was one sick little kid with two very, very worried parents.

This is very insightful and incredibly helpful: the different ways that academics (learn to) behave in autocratic societies.

The Many Minds podcast with the very sharp @kensycoop.bsky.social is one of my faves these days, and I especially love this episode with @tanialombrozo.bsky.social , which does a deep dive in how we learn not just by experience or exposure but also by thinking. open.spotify.com/episode/1Clj...

My favorite interviews are when the host is prepared, deeply curious and emotionally present. I loved this one, in which we talked about the difference between communication as performance versus connection, the power of obliqueness and the tragic limits of AI. open.spotify.com/episode/14pS...

“We must vow not to do stenography for people in power.” Carl Zimmer on science journalism in a politicized era.

I've long admired Alan Alda's podcast and SciComm activities—what an honor to appear on his Clear + Vivid podcast! clear-vivid-with-alan-alda.simplecast.com/episodes/jul...

ChatGPT is bad at counting, you may know. Turns out it’s also bad at accent arithmetic. Amusing bit early in Pete Holmes’ podcast today. They started wondering about sentences that would be neutral for US/UK accent & CGPT gets it so wrong. (Soon after, gets NSFW.) podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...

Stand Up for Science rallies will be held in DC and state capitals on March 7th. Share with friends. Sign-up here to get email updates with details: www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...

Looking to add science journalism to your feed? For over 40 years we've brought journalists to MIT to hone their craft. Now they're on Bluesky ⬇️ bsky.app/starter-pack...

If only someone—very many someones, even—had predicted this

I'm utterly heartbroken to see the assault on U.S. universities. My intellectual experiences there were unparalleled. My years at the U. of Rochester and Brown U. taught me all about depth and originality, and remain firmly embedded within me.

And furthermore, they’re geniuses, by the end of the episode I was 100% ready to sign up for their writing class taught by trained linguists/writers/poets that incorporates linguistic insight and eye tracking

My chat with Maryanne Wolf about Linguaphile, in which we talk about love, time, and how language is intertwined with both. If you missed this event hosted by Planet Word, you can find the recording here: planetwordmuseum.org/events/julie... langscistation.bsky.social

This episode with @juliesedivy.bsky.social is SUCH an interesting discussion of the interplay between linguistics and creative writing, I recommend it for writer friends/book nerds

Our Literary Thursdays series continues with @juliesedivy.bsky.social, the author of "Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love." Join us on February 6 at 6PM! www.queenslibrary.org/calendar/lit...

For those in the US, there are immediate and urgent actions to take. But for people on both sides of the border, this is key: "A person’s true security consists not in his own personal, solitary effort, but in the common integrity of human kind." - Dostoevsky www.sprawlcalgary.com/building-loc...

Our Literary Thursdays series brings you live conversations with amazing writers, every Thursday at 6PM. Learn More about our February guests: @juliesedivy.bsky.social, Gregory P. Downs, Preston Lauterbach, and Prithi Kanakamedala! www.queenslibrary.org/calendar?sea... #BlackHistoryMonth

It’s a tough day to be a dual U.S./Canadian citizen.

The FT reports OpenAI suspects DeepSeek of "a potential breach of intellectual property." As a columnist for NYT, which is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, and the author of nine books OpenAI apparently used to train its model, I couldn't possibly comment. www.ft.com/content/a0df...

New interview! Linguist and psychologist @JulieSedivy.bsky.social discusses how she developed her love of languages, how #LANGUAGE imprints upon us in utero, and how language can bring our country together. Listen: bit.ly/julie_sedivy @fsgbooks.bsky.social #smartphones #Psychology #Travel

On Jan. 30, I'll be having a virtual chat with the wonderful Maryanne Wolf on what it means to be a linguistic creature. Join us! It'll be lovely. Hosted by Planet Word! planetwordmuseum.org/events/julie...

This New Year's my wishes go out to all who are experiencing discontinuities between their past and future lives—whether through the loss of a loved one, an illness, displacement, political upheaval, or some other reason why the past is a country you've had to leave behind and can never return to.

More people speak English today than any other language in human history. But what do we lose, psychologically and culturally, as a result? For this week's @newyorker.com, I explore how English shapes thought—from our conception of time to how we talk about the senses.

I've been looking forward to this book for some time—an exploration of first and last words.

Not sure of artist to credit, but as a writer, I found this delightfully grim!

I’m halfway through @juliesedivy.bsky.social’s newest book, “Linguaphile” and just had to stop to urge anyone who loves language to go pick up a copy. Truly poetic essays on how language lives in us and shapes us.

So pleased to find LINGUAPHILE in the excellent company on this list of best nonfiction titles of 2024, as named by Sutherland House: shush.substack.com/p/best-nonfi...

Advice to writers from the wonderful @sadiqademeijer.bsky.social: "Hold on to your first language(s), and don't attempt to erase their presence in your English. Your migrations, and the histories that gave rise to them... are textures that belong in your writing voice." tinyurl.com/4tty6jdr

Reading recommendation: Hope you’ve got some time on the horizon, because this essay collection will just whet your appetite for further reading! Susan Olding explores infidelity, end of life, step-parenting, and much more through the complex prism of reading and writing. 1/2

This thoughtful essay argues that the real danger of AI is in the corrosion of how we humans see and value ourselves: "OpenAI’s [definition of] AGI wipes anything that does not count as economically valuable work from the definition of intelligence." tinyurl.com/yj8fpf4x

In which I explain how language is constrained by time in much the same way that a bird's anatomy is shaped by its fight against gravity. psyche.co/ideas/why-ev...

Trump's Cabinet appointments are shocking, but part of a plan. We should be wary of shock, which excuses inaction. We have to get through the surprise and the shock to see the design and the risk. snyder.substack.com/p/decapitati...

I recently re-subscribed to Nautilus after a hiatus. So glad I did — this piece by Julie Sedivy is the kind of science writing I aspire to: I Was Made of Language nautil.us/i-was-made-o...

Bilingual parents, go right ahead and speak both languages to your child—even in the same sentence! Kids are harder to confuse than you might think.

One of my favourite old Scots words is tartle, which describes that moment of hesitation or panic while you're desperately trying to remember someone's name (when greeting or introducing them). I especially like it because it always makes me think of this brilliant Edward Steed drawing...

Good news, but boys need to be vaccinated too. HPV can cause oral cancers, a brutal illness for which there is no early screening.

To all the novelists who struggle with feeling like your work is important: My husband had a tough medical procedure today. He'll be fine, but ... what a day. And we both got a whole lotta comfort from listening to an audiobook this afternoon while he rested, and we will again tonight. Thank you.

I truly enjoyed my conversation with the warm, intelligent, and thoroughly engaged Francesca Rheannon of the Writer's Voice podcast.

Just getting started here! Stay tuned for more...