Once again reminding all academics in the UK that they really, really, really, really should sign up to @alcs.co.uk Lifetime membership is £36 and they take it out of the money they collect for you so it really is "free money". I'm getting a little over £100 *every year*. Do it!

You can now vote for "Lines of Flight" in the Opening Up category of the New Media Writing Prize! (There are other cool entries too, of course, but I'm thoroughly biased here). newmediawritingprize.co.uk/opening-up-2... #art #design #dataviz #dh

Not in the same league, but I once discovered a visiting card from Adam Smith in one of Joshua Reynold’s notebooks. The librarian at the RA sighed and told me to put it back where I had found it.

I wrote about BookTok - and why publishers need an escape strategy: open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/b...

Tomorrow!👀 Join us for this launch event and panel discussion on open research in the arts, humanities & qualitative social sciences. We're looking forward to sharing recent outputs from MORPHSS & hearing from a range of experts including @openreflections.bsky.social and @henrygonnet.bsky.social

Let's kill "comics are a gateway to reading" dead please?

I'm one of many professors quoted in this report from Alice Speri. I really appreciate The Guardian taking an angle which has basically eluded every other major outlet.

Did you publish an edited collection, catalogue or monograph on book history in 2025? Please submit the citation info to the form below! We're preparing the next SHARP bibliography! #BookHistory @sharpnews.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Media Cymru and Ffilm Cymru Wales Climate Stories have announced that three Research and Development projects will be receiving further investment from their Climate Stories Fund

If publishing wants to reverse reading decline, it must understand how adults return to books, says Dr Caroline Cauchi in her recent Comment piece 👇 #BookSky

We’re hiring a Social Media Manager at the British Library. Join our Digital Engagement team and help connect audiences with the stories, collections and ideas of the UK’s national library. 📍 St Pancras Apply by 15 March 2026 More details here: link.bl.uk/rkj

The Publishers Association has urged the government in a new AI report to rule out a copyright exception for AI to allow publishing to help the UK become an 'AI content superpower' 👇 #BookSky

Worried about the demise of reading? Come to France, where we’re up to our eyes in print | Alexander Hurst

Adaptation is everywhere! This spring MTC is running a new series called ADAPTATION ANXIETY, where new and returning writers consider literary adaptations from the last few years. To kick off our managing editor Martha Henzy takes on the unsexy absolution of the gothic monster.

New teaser for Netflix Pride & Prejudice is more like Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation: a copy of a copy of a copy

Walking together can be a powerful way to feel a sense of belonging in our environment.

This is a very, very good feature by E. Alex Jung on fanfiction, fujoshis and the Heated Rivalry phenomenon: www.vulture.com/article/heat...

Would you like to apply for the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships at Tampere University with me as your PI and join our masterclass to prepare your app? Get in touch with me (or another prospective supervisor from @pluraltampere.bsky.social) by 27.4. www.tuni.fi/en/research/...

Re-upping our PGR-organised ECR conference on Place - send us an abstract by 1st May for a (hopefully) sunny day in June 😎

Everyone (not you, Boris Johnson and your "government") was doing their best during the pandemic. It was bad. But this suit is just hateful and an embodiment of the reduction of university to an "experience".

This is emblematic of the consumer culture that fees have engendered. What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Having taught right through this period, I think this is (i) absurd; and (ii) fuelled by the worst kind of lawyer-ly 'ambulance chasing'. Anyway: 1. Unis did what the govt said; 2. Students got every hr of teaching they'd paid for, just online; 3. Unis weren't saving £££, as they didn't sack staff.

“It’s Fine: An Ecopoetics of Exhaustion in Weather Writing” — my chapter in “Transformative Repetition in Experimental and Post-Digital Poetics" ed. @brunoministro.bsky.social April2026, Edinburgh University Press edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-transfo...

Today’s find in the ‘Diff

Some moving testimonies here responding to story about reading and dementia www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Spotify has partnered with Bookshop.org to enable listeners in the US and the UK to purchase physical books via the Spotify app, connecting audiobook discovery with physical ownership 👇 #BookSky

if circumstances were different I would 100% be applying for this gorgeous job — maybe you should?

The Books Council of Wales is launching a year of celebrations in 2026 as the Tir na n-Og Awards turn 50

Really looking forward to this talk by @tylershores.bsky.social at @uclpublishing.bsky.social - some space available for in person attendance as well! #reading #publishing #bookhistory

Bournemouth Beach and Cliffs from Pier: sent in 1903 to Miss Marriott, Eastlake Road, Camberwell: Dear Fan, we are not at all hot in fact had to return for coats this morning. Just going to Boscombe on electric car and have booked seats for theatre tonight. #PostedInThePast

ICYMI: The government has pledged £27.5m to the Libraries Improvement Fund as part of a £1.5bn package to be invested in cultural organisations over a five-year period 👇 #BookSky

Have you completed a PhD in the last 10 years? Applications are open for our Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship in Sustainability and Environment. Funding covers an £8000 bursary for part-time (0.5) research over 8 months, plus travel expenses. Apply by Monday 9 February. link.bl.uk/VisitingFellowship

🎉 THE BIG NEWS IS HERE 🎉 This spring, Fansplaining will relaunch as a full weekly publication, featuring reporting, analysis, criticism, personal essays, and much more, all under our longtime strapline: “By, for, and about fandom.” Check out our full announcement (in written and audio form):