We're HIRING: “The Dept of English at UMass Amherst invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor, beginning fall 2026, specializing in 20th- and 21st-century British literature, with an emphasis on literatures of the diaspora." See below for description, and please share the news.

Happy "I made the mistake of getting a haircut in the middle of the semester" day. And traditional apologies to my change-averse students.

hello friends! I'm giving a talk at the Columbia Shakespeare Seminar this friday -- it'll be on Ovid (ish), Petrarch (sorta), obscure 17th century English lyric (yes!), trans poetics, and maybe a hint of psychoanalysis. Abstract at the link below -- and if you want to Zoom in, DM me for a link :)

I was told by my children to never use this, but what do they know about tapping into the energy of youth culture?? Locals - consider a Sunday evening music event? I wrote new songs. There is a boggle subtext to many of them. And Peter Mulvey - that guy is good.

Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10

Somewhat astonishingly, here it is, a book, a thing in the world... More, including acknowledgements, soon❤️

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History

Pioneer Valley types - come out to the Odyssey next Wednesday to hear from the marvelous Erin White read from her new novel, and to hear her in conversation, as she often is, with Heather Abel.

Doing some personal website freshening, I discovered that a youtube link I thought was connected to a Folger Ed. lecture on Macbeth actually sent people to an episode of The Midnight Special from 1973 I had watched featuring Gladys Knight and Chris Smither. Much better than the lecture!

We're just past the 1 year anniversary of Shakespeare Unlearned's UK publication date. I am celebrating by posting odd places it pops up when you run a search for it. We'll begin with a barely discounted copy on UK ebay: www.ebay.co.uk/p/12083690676

You guys know I am married to a writer, correct?

Not sure the Simpsons illustrators ever topped Zombie Shakespeare.

I generally endorse poetry bumper stickers, but no. Exactly the opposite.

New HLQ issue live on Project MUSE. Articles explore imagined art in antislavery lit, deception in Stuart politics, reader engagement with the first English Quran, geopolitics in More's Utopia, anthologizing Shakespeare, and a bad actor in a c17 domestic dispute. #earlymodern #skystorians

It's my band! With a glowing mushroom that was the stage property of a different band. We're playing our first show in 18 months in Easthampton, MA at The Marigold, and Peter Mulvey be there, too. I for one am using this as motivation to stay on track until mid-November. No promises after that.

Just accidentally replied-all to the department list-serv via email for the first time in my life. I feel like this should start the clock on forced retirement.

My university canceled its library subscription to Project MUSE, making it harder for me to do research, but enrolled all us faculty in Salesforce

The school year begins and ends and begins again. But map content is forever. Here's a story in the @umassamherst.bsky.social magazine about the map at @folger.edu I helped to script. (A few obscure jokes made it onto the thumbnail!) -- www.umass.edu/magazine/ext...

I think we can all agree that the extended discussion of Lacan’s analysis of “The Purloined Letter” was one of the low points of last summer’s Democratic convention.

I did not think I would live to see a day when recalled radioactive shrimp and cash bribes inside of potato chip bags would come together in one glorious explosion of content, but I have.

Truly a satisfying documentary, btw. Such a literalist. "My wife, she told me it was crazy to drive my motorcycle in the rain. But I survived. And that's what inspired the song about me driving my motorcycle in the rain and surviving and my wife telling me I was crazy." Love it. A fan since age 6.

"My mother used to tell me, 'The quality of mercy is not strained.'" -- Billy Joel in the Billy Joel documentary, reflecting on life after he broke up with Christie Brinkley.

ooh I'm name checked today (along with @gabrielroth.bsky.social, Patricia Lockwood, and Zadie Smith) in Heather and Erin's substack... heatheranderin.substack.com

300 rhymed lines into a 900 line scene at the end of Love's Labour's Lost, the author briefly cracks:

Interested in all things nonsensical? I've got just the seminar for you at #Shax2026...

Lisbon's wall culture: top notch.

Someone's translation software is finding deep truths buried within the ticket-buyer's soul.

My latest squib, in the esteemed @thelondonjournal.bsky.social - and it's open access! Pageant Stations: Civic Entertainments in The London Journal www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Do I like going to conferences? Sure. Do I like writing conference papers? Sometimes. Do I like making slides featuring little orange translucent rectangles with rounded corners placed over minor variants in early texts? Heck, yeah!

Eric Dolphy was born on this day in 1928. A genius artist of startling originality, Dolphy possessed the revolutionary spirit of the avant-garde while keeping a foot firmly planted in the feeling of swing as heard on his 1964 Blue Note masterpiece "Out To Lunch!" bluenote.lnk.to/EricDolphy-O...

The Rehearsal season 2.

The inimitable @heatherabel.bsky.social, who has just asked me to peel some carrots for lunch, has, with the less-married-to-me-but-no-less-inimitable @erinowhite.bsky.social, begun to write short good posts recommending things: They have books coming out soon... heatheranderin.substack.com

I tend to roll my eyes at NYT editorial decisions and forgive them their inanities owing to the 50 years of engagement I've had with them but the 'omg they are so mad at each other' teenager tone they're using for the palace intrigue story is driving me batty.

My wife just texted me to let me know that admin isn’t a word, and I was like yes but it is a PRACTICE

A FUNNY THING will be out this Thursday, June 5! Ask your libraries to order it! If you read it, tell me which parts made you laugh!!

Naming them "Romeo and Juliet" is a little on the nose for my taste.

my most Gen X coded belief is that cities and the culture at large suffer profoundly for the near-complete death of alt-weeklies

I am not really a pill popping daddy, but I think I'm going to have to take something if I want to survive the game this evening. Which I suppose I do.

If you’re planning to attend @saaupdates.bsky.social in Denver next year, consider joining @roaringgirle.bsky.social and me for a seminar on Shakespeare & Public Libraries. Public libraries are crucial to our understanding of collection histories of all kinds of books and material. We need them!

From the department of Dangling Modifiers In The New York Times, I bring you... small Augustinians.

The number of impassioned speeches about AI I’ve already given to next fall’s Shakespeare lecture students in my head and/or while driving is impressive.

Literature classrooms have little to do with writing work emails and memos, despite our anxious messaging since 2008. I am not worried about AI essays, aggravating as they may be. I am, however, worried that the major has long been marketed as off-beat training for skilled office writers. Now what?

Every time I am asked to write up a report or a plan or a memo of some sort I think - is this good for us, or good for the CV/application packet of an administrator? It can be both! But it often isn't.

Handing over academic institutional leadership to a roving class of elite administrators, none remaining in place long, just climbing ladders and cashing checks … was a mistake,

About to grace the Iron Horse stage to raise money for the Northampton High School PTO. Locals - come out for a matinee of bands composed entirely of NHS parents. Which @remhq.bsky.social song are we covering? You will have to appear to find out. (Hint: not Shiny Happy People.)

Up at 6:45 AM the Saturday morning after playing a show to bring kid to the SAT in West Springfield MA... there are many tonal shadings in the grand mystery of existence.

There is only one way to find out if our songs are written by AI and that is to come to this show.

Fine I'll follow the NYT pitchbot here also.