You’d think it’s about single syllable names or internal rhyme but it’s not exclusively! I’ve got examples for days and they defy all theorization!

We need to get to the bottom of why a rare group of people must always be referred to by their FULL names! (e.g., If you're name is Jack Black, there's just no one in your life calling you "Jack") Are you one of these people? Do you have any insight into this? Is this my next book project?

With Ron Charles and Becca Rothfeld laid off from WaPo, there are now only 5 full-time book critics working in the United States. That's down from 7 when this pubbed last year, though you may find my definition of a "full-time book critic" arbitrary. worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...

“Anyone curious about how their favorite books came to be will appreciate this peek behind the curtain.” @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen—“an enlightening study” of literary agents—earns a @publisherswkly.bsky.social review:

Started mucking around with data this morning. Made a couple interesting charts from data about all the writers who ever got an NEA grant, with data from Xander Manshel + team. Decided I’d write it up for my first post. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Ok hello who can tell me the name of the google doc that I made in 2018 and where I stored it please and thank you.

The wisdom of the Pagliacci joke! I can't find the original post but one of my favorite examples of the genre went like... Man goes to the doctor. Says, "It hurts when I do this." Doc says, "Then don't do that!" Man bursts into tears. "But doc, I AM DO THIS!"

Are you looking for an indexer for an academic monograph? I have space this summer for one or two clients. DMs open for more info!

@mowhan.bsky.social's SCHOOLS OF FICTION is outstanding, and I could not be more excited for NOTES ON THE NOVELLA!

“Canon building is Empire building. Canon defense is national defense. Canon debate, whatever the terrain, nature and range…is the clash of cultures. And *all* of the interests are vested.” — Toni Morrison, “Unspeakable Things Unspoken”

Fun talking with @andeamarzocchi.bsky.social and @smallgoodpodcast.bsky.social, about the history of the American short story, and the institutions (prizes, anthologies, The New Yorker) that elevate a select few to the status of The Best of The Best!

Out today! Meet Alexander Manshel, Associate Professor of English at McGill University. How is contemporary short fiction in America influenced by the people and institutions that contribute to its production, circulation, and reception? Listen here to find out: www.spreaker.com/episode/the-...

Nice write-up by @uwnews.uw.edu about our research into the most read canonical American authors in Seattle, drawing on library data. It was so fun to work on this project with @neel2112.bsky.social and a stellar group of undergraduate students. www.washington.edu/news/2026/01...

This #MLA26 panel on "Public Canons" is going to be a blast! Some of my favorite people and scholars. We're saving time for open conversation, so please join us!

If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of... On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!

🔥🔥🔥 let’s goooooooooo!

This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it. Don’t miss it.

Ugh. Such fomo!

If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of... On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!

over 400 new bookstores opened in the USA in 2025, which is 100 more than opened in 2024. bookstores are thriving: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...

This holiday season, give the gift of “readable, timely, inventive…definitive”! Preorder MIDDLEMEN!

More details to come but… 🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉 cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...

Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler! You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work." Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.

Sarah Wasserman, assistant dean for faculty affairs, was named co-editor of the eminent Oxford Studies in American Literary History book series. The scholar of 20th- and 21st-century American literature will lead the series alongside @ericafretwell.bsky.social of the University of Albany.

*you're

Today! All old & new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Literature Now series are 50% off, including POETRY AFTER BARBARISM by @xenoglossic.bsky.social; POETRY IN GENERAL by @keegancf.bsky.social; BIG FICTION by @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social; and WRITING BACKWARDS by @manshel.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9

🚨🚨🚨 Even though I find the phrase “Cyber Monday” deeply distasteful, the folks at Columbia University Press are offering my book at a 50% DISCOUNT today! Check it out, along with the other fantastic titles in the Literature Now series! cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...

Proposals due next Monday, December 1st! If you are (or know) a graduate student working on 20th/21st century literature and culture, this is a great, free, low-stakes, no-travel-required way to workshop a project with scholars and editors in the field!

I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ

Very proud of my former student, Mairin Burke, for this deep dive into McGill's faculty unionization campaign!

Cannot recommend highly enough!

Today and Friday, I am teaching @manshel.bsky.social article "The Lag: Technology and Fiction in the Twentieth Century". My students are very excited to read it. I'm hoping to inspire a turn toward empirical methods, too.

Just a reminder that the deadline for abstracts for this FREE, ONLINE, GRAD STUDENT WORKSHOP is a little less than two weeks away!

Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!

"there is more than a little something constitutively utopian in the heist genre, from its depiction of competent work to its championing of collective action to its redistributive rather than retributive propensities"

UPDATE: I have cut the line entirely. Publication is just a number!

I regret to inform you that, while copyediting an article that’s been in the works for a while, I had to change a line about a book that came out the year I was born from “published over 35 years ago” to “published nearly 40 years ago”

Peter Coviello isn't on Bluesky, but this definitely should be: lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

A new special issue of English Studies I'm really keen to put together! Please consider submitting and circulate widely! @drchrislouttit.bsky.social bookshoplit.com/cfp-booksell...

If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.

Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!

Going to inscribe @manshel.bsky.social into the American HS canon by assigning this essay to my 11th graders next week www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

"[A] striking example of the power that cultural history can lend to narrative studies, and vice-versa." Congrats to Alexander Manshel, whose book, WRITING BACKWARDS, was awarded the 2026 Perkins Prize. bit.ly/4oqeqbQ @manshel.bsky.social #LiteratureNow @columbiaup.bsky.social

I cannot effing wait to read this, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

huge if true

Just learned that WRITING BACKWARDS has won Narrative's 2026 Perkins Prize, "awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year." A true honor, especially given the prize's past recipients! www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...

I had the distinct pleasure of hearing parts of this book at a conference a couple years ago and I can’t wait to read the rest of it! Congrats, @acolton.bsky.social!!!

DEAR GRAD STUDENTS, This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture. More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 1/4