Repost, please, so people see what's going on every day of their "Fall of Icarus" lives

at my kids' school's fundraiser, you could buy a strand of tickets and each lets you play a game or do an activity my favorite was the magical cookie palace: you pay one ticket to enter a room where, on table after table, there's various batches of cookies donated by families at the school. and...

My preteen daughter will judge nearly everything as embarrassing — shoes or idioms etc. I don’t agree, but I do judge nearly every car as embarrassing.

(3) But the Democrat view is also bad: while it's fine for people at Princeton and Harvard to study Latin and Sanskrit, public higher education is about job training and $ ROI. There is no room for the idea that curiosity-driven inquiry is a good that should be supported by the public.

I grew up in Philadelphia and Terry Gross on WHYY is the sound of my whole childhood so this proximity is a big deal for me

I have a big new essay out that argues that Erich Auerbach is the crucial figure for historicist reading in lit studies today + argues that the epistemology of such reading depends on the profoundly humanist criterion "sufficient passion" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

I'll be at the CUNY Grad Center on Friday, Feb 20 to give a little talk and lead a workshop on close reading. Thank you to @sinsleyh.bsky.social for hosting it, and you can RSVP to her below.

I didn’t think my estimation of Gordon Gee could sink lower

I know what "medium specificity" means but every time I hear it, I still have a split second of correcting my younger self's misunderstanding and reminding myself it's not about how large the specificity is

This is my first attempt to capture a live event of this size. I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book. I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.

It's here! I hosted a symposium on close reading at Emory in November. Matt Seybold recorded it for his podcast, American Vandal, and the first of three episodes is out today. Catch me, @johannawinant.bsky.social, @becimay.bsky.social, @bakaari.bsky.social + more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

what a goddamn amazing project

Well this is very exciting!

Please take the time to read what the children detained in Dilley wrote me in their own words: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... 10/

CALL FOR PITCHES @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience. We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not. Details below!

this is further corroboration of my theory of the private sandwich, that many of us have a sandwich (often stemming from late childhood) that we make only for ourselves.

Well, let's give it a shot again and see what we get.

writing always feels like seasickness when I can’t see the horizon

this was a privilege and joy -- thank you to Vincent and Central State! I've developed a set of workshops and talks on close reading, and I'm always happy to have more informal conversations too. If you'd like me to zoom into a class, reading group, etc., I'd love to (no honorarium necessary)

So it looks as though you can access my new book already if you’re subscribed to OUP. Here’s the link :) 🎉✨ academic.oup.com/book/62228?s...

High school teachers and college teachers unite!

I had a great conversation with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social on the what/why/how of close reading. There’s much to be gained by creating connective tissue between literary studies & secondary English, so I’m excited to share this episode! open.substack.com/pub/trevoral...

Johanna Winant and I talked with Trevor Aleo about why close reading matters now, and about our book, Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century @johannawinant.bsky.social @mraleosays.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social trevoraleo.substack.com/p/drs-dan-si...

excited to host Johanna at Rutgers on February 19 for a panel on close reading today feat. brilliant contributors - come if you're local?

Thanks for writing about a sunny, gassy Saturday in Portland @sarahjeong.bsky.social! www.theverge.com/policy/87278...

later this month, I’m doing a small mid-Atlantic tour of events for Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century: Weds, 2/18 at Princeton’s McGraw Center Thursday, 2/19 at Rutgers NB’s English Dept Friday, 2/20 at the CUNY Grad Center If you are at any of these places, please come!

free book idea that I would buy right now: activities or exercises to do for the time between when you submit the manuscript and when the book comes out in the world

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!

among everything else this week dunno if you heard but coding is over. huge opp for humanities folks. should be megaphoning 'learning to think never goes out of style'

tfw you're like a ship without a belt

here to admit that I have profound soft spot for Bruce singing a song about the streets of any city

one of the things I'm really excited about this semester is having my intro to poetics class do a group recitation of Bishop's "The Moose"

I just realized that Glusenkamp Perez is a Reed grad. And all Reed grads’ theses are in Thesis Tower in the library.

these clergy are now being arrested

as part of “easing into” the seminar on criticism we read auerbach’s essay on odysseus’ scar alongside first 10 pages of sinykin & winant’s close reading book. it’s not an easy essay but the students were up for the challenge and for exploring the worlds opened up by an attention to a single detail!

You can read Katie Kadue's brilliant, hilarious essay on Christopher Ricks and cliché from Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century in Harper's, now harpers.org/archive/2026...

@johannawinant.bsky.social @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social Just read the first 20pp of Close Reading for the 21st Century with an intro lit course and wanted share that it was effing fantastic. Happy to share a few moments offline if you’re interested in hearing, but really just wanted to say THANKS! 🙏 🔥

are they not monsters?

I came home and hugged my children a little too hard for a little too long today and still feel near tears

A 5-year-old preschool student was taken with his father by federal immigration agents shortly after arriving home from school, Columbia Heights school leaders said Jan. 21.

once again, I think I'm grateful to have long ago memorized W. H. Auden's "The Fall of Rome"

extremely delighted that @harpers.bsky.social wanted to excerpt and republish one of the essays in Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, this hilarious brilliance by @kukukadoo.bsky.social

Found a reading of a close reading in the Readings section of the magazine I’m reading, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and @johannawinant.bsky.social. Good stuff!

I highly recommend a version of @johannawinant.bsky.social's in-class guidance to students: "point to a detail, one that’s really on the page and small enough to fit under your finger". Actual pages and human fingers make it even better.

everything is bad but teaching close reading remains so good

my child casually using the word "riparian"