Advertisers... if you make a 2 minute ad for YouTube please realise that the only people who are still listening by the end are those who are unable to hit the skip button right now and they're just getting increasingly pissed off with your product!

Explain to me how it's fair... My 8 month old gets about 12-13 hours sleep in a 24-hour period, whereas I get about 7 hours. And I have way more responsibilities than he does!

Had a great chat with Stefano Gualeni @gua-le-ni.com yesterday morning recording an interview for the next episode of the podcast. Going to be a fun one discussing, among other things, play and games in utopia/dystopia!

Always exciting to meet the new first years ahead of next week's teaching. The poor souls have 6 hours a week with me until Christmas. They'll be sick of me in no time!

Excited to be writing a class on Lois Lowry's The Giver... a novel I've wanted to teach for a long time but never quite found the space for it!

Daniel Jenkin-Smith, one half of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social, is a guest on @utopiaanddystopia.bsky.social. Bigger than the 1968 crossover Thanksgiving episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. Can't wait to listen! open.spotify.com/episode/3mD0... @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social @drabigailboucher.bsky.social

We all love bureaucracy, right? Here it is for your enjoyment... bureaucratic utopias and dystopias with Daniel Jenkin Smith. Please rate, subscribe, recommend, and all that other bureaucratic nonsense! open.spotify.com/episode/3mD0...

Episode 15 drops this afternoon, 1pm BST. It should be fun. An episode about bureaucratic utopias/dystopias featuring an interview with Daniel Jenkin Smith, author of The Rise of Office Literature and co-host of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social.

Picked this up recently as something I've been meaning to read for a while and it has blown me away! Fully recommend!

Been out in the wild for a month today! Hope to be doing one or two things to promote over the next few months starting with an episode about play on the pod and a small book launch event in Winchester. Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction | Home www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Cover art is in! Wastelands and Wonderlands coming in April. Massive thanks to the creative team at SUNY for another brilliant cover! This has some amazing contribs and I can't wait for you to read their work!

A week today we'll be putting out our next episode and you can listen to me chatting about bureaucratic dystopias (and utopias) with @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social 'fame'!... I use fame in scare quotes because I know he'd want me to!

The copy edits for the Wastelands and Wonderlands: Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature edited collection have just landed! Exciting, but I'm certainly going to have a busy few weeks!

Missed a trick... surely it should be Ministry of Peace? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

One of my fave lines from Omelas!

It has been a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, I can't make this as it's a bit of a distance but if you live anywhere nearby you should definitely drop in for this. Two great speakers and I'm currently reading Stefano's book which is so interesting!

From a fun one-shot I ran yesterday! #DnD

Here it is, episode 14. An interview with scholar Athira Unni about, among other things, postcolonial dystopias (particularly from South Asia and the Caribbean) and social reproduction theory. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating the pod. open.spotify.com/episode/3cbZ...

New episode incoming later today. Postcolonial Dystopias and Social Reproduction Theory. A reminder that you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. More soon...

Want to hear more about Jordan Carroll's excellent Hugo Award winning book "Speculative Whiteness"?You can listen to our interview with him from a couple of months ago here: open.spotify.com/episode/557f...

It's alive! Publication day! Play in Utopian and Dystopian Ficion arrived in the mail. Thanks Liverpool University Press for producing such a beautiful book.

Massive congratulations to @jordanscarroll.bsky.social on his #HugoAward win for Speculative Whiteness. Having interviewed him recently on the podcast, he's a great guy and a really worthy winner! Great to see criticism recognised in this way!

So delighted to share that BETWEEN WORLDS: THE IF ANTHOLOGY OF NEW INDIAN SFF, is now available for pre-order - and will be in bookshops on 18 August! Pre-order here, or from your local bookshop: www.amazon.in/Between-Worl...

Has anyone else noted an increase in the number of common typographical errors in mainstream media output recently? I rarely read an article on the BBC these days without spotting at least two errors. Have I become more pedantic, or is something happening?

Symposium: The UK Tabletop Role-Playing Game Scene – Histories, Cultures, and Legacies DEADLINE TOMORROW Symposium Details Date: September 16, 2025 Location: Tampere University, Tampere, Finland Participation: On-site or online www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-j...

Just finished recording an interview with the super smart @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social fame on the relationship between bureaucracy and utopia/dystopia! Lots of great insight and a really fun chat. Looking forward to the episode making its appearance.

Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.

Our majestic doggo had to have a vaccination today and she was very sad. Took this lovely picture of her though. She's a very popper lady!

My new book is out. Utopia in the Factory: Prefigurative Knowledge Against Cybernetics. It's open access you can read it free here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

From yesterday's game. A cottage in the forest... what could possibly go wrong? #D&D

Turns out we're a month ahead of schedule and this now has a publication date of 28th August... this month! Can't wait to receive my copies and take that awkward selfie! Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction | Home www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Started weaning our 6 month old and he loves avocado... we've created a middle-class monster!

Thrice said it pretty well: "Finally, when will it be enough, to find there's no them, there is only us?"

Screw that 'Open to Work' banner they now have on LinkedIn... I need one that says 'Closed to Work'!

Looks like I'll be writing a piece on Lovecraft and the city for a collection titled "Haunted Cities: Spaces, Spectres, and Urban Hauntologies"... a chance to revisit some research I did for an American Gothic module a few years ago.

And so begins two weeks of annual leave!

I knew I was funny and that I just had to find an audience. Well, finally I have. And it turns out that audience is a baby!

The latest episode of Utopian and Dystopian Fictions is here. It features an interview with the fantastic @andrecarrington.bsky.social. We discuss his books Speculative Blackness and The Black Fantastic. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube: open.spotify.com/episode/32dG...

Stay tuned... our latest episode will drop later this afternoon!

Publication day! If you're interested in reading my piece on Julie Dash's brilliant "Daughters of the Dust" (film and novel), co-authored with the wonderful Betty Knight, you can read it here. It's Open Access. doi.org/10.1080/0195...

Managed to get it so I've got only 3 tabs open on my phone and no pages open on the laptop. This feels like a MAJOR achievement!

The Strange Horizons fund-drive has been a little stuck between the 14K and 15K mark for the last week; and with 11 days to go, we could use some help — whether it is through donations or amplification. And a lot of excellent rewards still available! To donate: www.kickstarter.com/projects/str...

This managed to pass me by, but my article on Star Trek and the Holodeck has been published by Eludamos! It's open access you can read it here: eludamos.org/index.php/el...

If you follow the show please support us by rating. It really helps the algorithm. We'd also love to hear from you. You can email us @ [email protected]

Indexing for Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction DONE!

Anyone else read The Unworthy yet? It's one I think will stay with me and I'm keen to hear what others made of it...

Willow has been enjoying the cooler weather this week!

Marking finally complete for the semester!