It exists! Publication day in the UK of ARRESTING ECOLOGIES: GLOBAL LITERATURE ACROSS AIR, LAND, AND SEA, 1926-2014. Available everywhere for preorder with discount code AUFLY30 at Oxford UP WEBSITE; digital edition available now at all libraries with Oxford academic subscriptions.

It's Thursday, which means a new MTC essay! This week Sarah Hopkinson pens a studied and stunning review of Karen Solie's collection of poems, 'Wellwater.' "...in Wellwater, there is no “Away” for waste, toxins, objects or even memories: what we try to abandon, someone else will have to inherit."

Sunday links to things for which clicking provides access and then allows you to read them: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/email/aa04a7...

📚New cluster!! Ed. Robert LeBlanc "The Specter of High School English" initiates a conversation across institutional boundaries that discusses literacy, censorship, technology, writing instruction, and so much more! Check it out: post45.org/sections/con...

Wonderful review of a performance based on Dürer’s Rhinoceros: “the performance takes up puppetry as a dynamic and … a unique access for us to reimagine the objects with a diverse mode of liveliness, demanding that we rediscover the subjecthood of animals that we have long ignored and suppressed.”

This is happening THIS AFTERNOON, Friday at 3pm ET. There is still time to sign up. Sign up here to get the zoom link: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...

this is easily one of the best reviews i have read in recent year! “Solie is concerned with what it means to leave an impression upon the world: in the objects we use and then discard, in the fertilizers applied to soils, in the land transformed into a grid, and in the marks we leave on others.”

It's Thursday, which means a new MTC essay! This week Sarah Hopkinson pens a studied and stunning review of Karen Solie's collection of poems, 'Wellwater.' "...in Wellwater, there is no “Away” for waste, toxins, objects or even memories: what we try to abandon, someone else will have to inherit."

To kickoff our summer workshop series, MTC will host a workshop on the book proposal process, featuring senior editors at three different university presses. Our meeting will take place on Friday June 5 @ 3pm ET. Sign up below to receive the zoom link. mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...

For MTC, Yiwen Wu reviews 'Rhynoceron,' presented at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in January 2026. "...dramaturgically structured as two parts: the first half from the perspective of gawking gaze of human collectors and the second half from that of the animal, the rhinoceron."

For MTC, Yiwen Wu reviews 'Rhynoceron,' presented at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in January 2026. "...dramaturgically structured as two parts: the first half from the perspective of gawking gaze of human collectors and the second half from that of the animal, the rhinoceron."

For this week's essay, Sarah Sgro takes on "ideological sweat," mule runs, and the many ecosystems of Strava. Read it or it didn't happen. "Slop and sweat are not so much poison and its antidote as messy co-pollutants."

For this week's essay, Sarah Sgro takes on "ideological sweat," mule runs, and the many ecosystems of Strava. Read it or it didn't happen. "Slop and sweat are not so much poison and its antidote as messy co-pollutants."

For the Boston Review, I wrote about Somaliland and Israel, the consequences of imagining political freedom as a struggle for national sovereignty, and what growing up in and alongside Somaliland had meant for my political education.

You can MTC May Newsletter in the link below. And if you are not a subscriber to our monthly newsletter, then please join us to be in the loop on what we are up to. We promise not to spam! mid-theory.com?mailpoet_rou...

"The Pitt, making apparent how morbidity flourishes through and not despite the secular gaze that structures it, refuses to participate in the revolt against mourning. This pessimism is The Pitt’s greatest virtue; it cannot imagine an alternative form of revolt." Evan Goldstein on The Pitt

wrote bout da pitt for @mid-theory.bsky.social mid-theory.com/2026/05/07/t...

For MTC, Evan Goldstein pens this absolutely stunning and studied piece of religion in The Pitt. "Being secular is unbearable, but one cannot be otherwise; religion, in the most positive formation the show can give it, is at best something we remember fondly."

“The Sexual Politics of Pastry” is up now on Mid-Theory! mid-theory.com/2026/04/17/t... Thank you to Martha Henzy, Farah Bakaari, & esp to Marissa Fenley, who thought alongside me patiently and enthusiastically. She was an invaluable help. Thanks also to Carolyn Jao for the amazing animations!

Body language! Marthine Satris interviews the scene sisters who are stoking the fire at Oakland's Sultry Sessions: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/body-language/

New at MTC: Marcus Prasad returns with a heady and careful reading of Lanthimos’ BUGONIA which prompts us to reflect on just how far we might be willing to reach for meaning and for the chance to explain away the daily tragedy of having our lives stolen by extractive capitalism.

"...the performances of horny chefs read as experiments rather than arguments. A woman who does not enjoy spitting (for example) can watch a horny chef spit on things without feeling pinned down against her will by a claim ('Women like to be spat upon') or command ('Learn to like being spat upon')."

I wrote about Infinite Jest’s wild 30-year journey online—from feminist YouTube stunts to sexist 4chan posts to Luigi Mangione’s Goodreads. How far down the rabbit hole do DFW bros go? What do the memes reveal about our relationship to literature & the internet? lareviewofbooks.org/article/infi...

Article Illustrations by Carolyn Jao for Mid Theory Collective

In case you missed it, here is a juicy essay for your weekend read.

"When bodies jiggle, shake, leak, or squirt they supply the evidence of a pleasure received. By transposing these expressions from humans to food, our chefs coax bodies to confess without claiming to have triumphed over a real woman’s self-command." Elizabeth Greeniaus on "horny chef videos."

This essay over the new Wuthering Heights

"When bodies jiggle, shake, leak, or squirt they supply the evidence of a pleasure received. By transposing these expressions from humans to food, our chefs coax bodies to confess without claiming to have triumphed over a real woman’s self-command." Elizabeth Greeniaus on "horny chef videos."

If you're an ORB subscriber, you get this linkdump in your inbox, and you know that is what you want: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/email/f8bfdb...

This week, we published an excerpt on the Oakland sideshow, from Alex Werth's "On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland," and it's essentially the one thing you need to read to understand the sideshow outside of the envelope of white moral panic: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/sideshow-his...

We are back from our spring hiatus with a mixtape about spring cleaning! For Mixtape #8, we asked our editors and contributing writers what in culture they’re cleaning out for spring. Here are some of what we’re leaving behind and what we’re making space for this spring.

We are back from our spring hiatus with a mixtape about spring cleaning! For Mixtape #8, we asked our editors and contributing writers what in culture they’re cleaning out for spring. Here are some of what we’re leaving behind and what we’re making space for this spring.

In our latest installment of our 'Adaptation Anxiety' series, Emily Coccia scrutinizes the oft-cited charge that a work of adaptation reads like 'fanfiction' as a short-hand for a host of complaints about recent works written and/or directed by women.

In our latest installment of our 'Adaptation Anxiety' series, Emily Coccia scrutinizes the oft-cited charge that a work of adaptation reads like 'fanfiction' as a short-hand for a host of complaints about recent works written and/or directed by women.

Coming this fall! Started as a Twitter (RIP) conversation and now it’s got a most pleasing cover!

In our latest installment of our "Adaptation Anxiety" series, MTC contributing writer Omid Bagherli writes about 'Hamnet' and the Oscar-winning film's unsteady and anxious relationship with O'Farrell's novel, with hands held and misread, and with "capital L Literature."

In our latest installment of our "Adaptation Anxiety" series, MTC contributing writer Omid Bagherli writes about 'Hamnet' and the Oscar-winning film's unsteady and anxious relationship with O'Farrell's novel, with hands held and misread, and with "capital L Literature."

Happy Oscar Sunday to all those who celebrate. For your consideration, we offer this brilliant analysis of Frankenstein and the abiding anxiety over adapting Shelley's monstrous masterpiece.

Happy Oscar Sunday to all those who celebrate. For your consideration, we offer this brilliant analysis of Frankenstein and the abiding anxiety over adapting Shelley's monstrous masterpiece.

Before the Oscars, I’m nominating myself for Best Supporting Scholar with my 267th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & the winner will be … all of us! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Our "Adaptation Anxiety" series continues with MTC contributing writer Charline Jao discussing the recent adaptation of Frankenstein and our protective, possessive attachments to Mary Shelley. "What is this need to tear Shelley away from her intellectual influences, desires, and complexity?"

Our "Adaptation Anxiety" series continues with MTC contributing writer Charline Jao discussing the recent adaptation of Frankenstein and our protective, possessive attachments to Mary Shelley. "What is this need to tear Shelley away from her intellectual influences, desires, and complexity?"

"Rather than being mediated by parties or trade unions, self-organized movements are led by those on the ground, with an absence of hierarchical leadership structures: the doer decides. In addition, the commune and workers’ councils both necessarily entail the occupation of physical space."

MTC contributing writer Matthew Beeber reviews recent books that return Paris Commune of 1871 as way of thinking about contemporary leftist uprisings and the future of revolution.

“If we’ve learned anything from revolutionary history, it’s that we won’t know how it will look until it happens.” Brilliant review by Matt on recent works on history of the left.

MTC contributing writer Matthew Beeber reviews recent books that return Paris Commune of 1871 as way of thinking about contemporary leftist uprisings and the future of revolution.

Maggie Boyd reviews Nina McConigley's debut novel HOW TO COMMIT A POSTCOLONIAL MURDER and the author's self-conscious attempt to foil certain novelistic expectations. "The novel resists resolution at every turn, repeatedly identifying a satisfying story arc and then refusing to take the exit."

MTC is running a series of reading & writing groups this spring & summer. Our first reading group on the recent English translation of Punjabi novella Keeru by Fauzia Rafique hosted by Nico Millman & the translator Haider Shabaz will meet on April 15 @ 6pm ET. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/yfvycxut

Congratulations to Jess! You can read her piece for MTC on precarity and platform hygiene MTC: mid-theory.com/2025/04/03/o...

adaptation really IS everywhere!