It’s open house at the high school tonight, and at the entrance cheerleaders are waving people in while the jazz band plays. Couldn’t be more charming?

I'm on the program committee this year, and befitting our partnership with the @miamiuniversity.bsky.social Humanities Center, I'd love to see a broad range of Midwest Studies presentations at this year's conference!

Sitting in a coffee shop, preparing to teach The Green Corn Rebellion for the first time, and I had forgotten that it kicks off with such a banger

This article on Disney and the collapse of the middle class is an absolute banger www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used. As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how Part 1: is your work in Libgen? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Advanced Reader Copy! Look at this beauty

Saw my favorite truck in the wild this morning

I’m reading Middlemarch for the first time, and though a youth baseball clinic is pretty great for a morning of reading, and there are both lovely and funny passages, I can’t help but think I could have used some guidance to really appreciate this book

Banner day: introducing the children to Wayne’s World

Check it out: the pre-order link for Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest! This book collects dozens of #LiteraryLandscapes essays, and pre-orders will ship in November—perfect for Christmas! www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...

It’s a good afternoon, finally getting to settle in with Ashley Howard’s Midwest Unrest

"In many fields of study, including literature, philosophy, and the humanities more broadly, ambiguity is not a problem to be solved. It is a resource for continuous critical thinking, renegotiating arguments, and reflection." Co-written w/ @jeppestricker.bsky.social www.unesco.org/en/articles/...

My excellent colleague Weishun Lu interviewed me about Old-Fashioned Modernism for her New Books Network podcast. Thanks to her for asking good questions that mostly made me sound like I know what I'm talking about! newbooksnetwork.com/old-fashione...

I *wish* I were at a Des Moines brewery instead of in a hotel room drinking chamomile tea and babying my voice, but here's a little preview of tomorrow's #MHA2025 presentation.

Flight delayed in MSP on my way to #MHA2025, but I found somebody’s “Songs about Minneapolis” mix on Spotify, so I’ll survive

It’s my birthday, and I’ve got a book and a latte and a carrot cake muffin, and on the way to the coffee shop I saw a bunny

My daughters are doing a VERY SLOW and DRAMATIC Macarena to Karma Police

Paul Vasey & the Ambassador Bridge—connecting with Vasey's fondness for the river but envying his obliviousness to the border. #LiteraryLandscapes by @ramya.bsky.social. #PaulVasey #DetroitRiver #Detroit #Michigan #Windsor #Ontario #AmbassadorBridge newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

John Niehardt & Branson, MO—known as a Nebraska poet, Niehardt’s three decades in MO are marked only by a small boulder w/ a bronze plaque, sitting b/w a strip mall and the Branson Visitors Center. #LiteraryLandscapes by Matt Miller. #Branson #Missouri #Nebraska newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

Albert Goldbarth & the Arkansas River—ice skating in Wichita, learning poetry and grief from a venerable teacher, finally finding an elusive line. #LiteraryLandscapes by @[email protected]. #AlbertGoldbarth #ArkansasRiver #Wichita #KansasCity #Kansas newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

José Olivarez & Calumet City—maps might make the world legible, but poetry reveals “the little cracks in the totality.” #LiteraryLandscapes by Ava Tomasula y Garcia. @joseolivarez.bsky.social #CalumetCity #Chicago #Illinois newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

Michael Martone & U.S. Highway 30—blending fact and fiction across the ordinary landscapes of northern Indiana. #LiteraryLandscapes by @dawnburns.bsky.social. #MichaelMartone #US30 #Hanna #FortWayne #Indiana #TheFlatness newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

It's here—Literary Landscapes, Vol. 16, is up and ready for your reading pleasure! Essays on José Olivarez, Michael Martone, Paul Vasey, Albert Goldbarth, and John G. Neihardt, focused on spaces from Windsor to Wichita. Enjoy! newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

Great work by @philipchristman.bsky.social in today's Chronicle www.chronicle.com/article/can-...

I love college radio so much. Just heard the opening minutes of the morning DJ’s first show of the new year. Clearly scripted, obv happy to be there, 20 minutes of bangers, no genre restrictions

If I were teaching a class on the personal essay, I would assign the Hootie and the Blowfish episode of 60 Songs that Explain the 90s as an example of structure. Rob Harvilla is so damn good podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/6...

Today's the day we answer "what is literature?" using Franny Choi's "Pussy Monster." www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qnk...

Bluesky literature professors: these days, in a lower-level literature class for non-majors, how much time do you expect students to spend each week preparing for class?

Need a road trip mix on your way home from the holidays? open.spotify.com/playlist/6ic...

"Some English departments have introduced 'tracks' within the major...This may work in practice, but it does not answer the question of what the study of English is—or ought to be." #academicsky profession.mla.org/the-conflict...

The line at our local fish market, with complimentary Bloody Mary

Well, I made a hash of the fluting, but Elin’s birthday mulberry pie (berries from our tree) is ready to go for tomorrow!

I'm populating the publications on my promotion application, and I want this list to be so long they roll their eyes

When teachers complain about not having enough planning time, most are not complaining about having to plan. They are complaining about not having time because they have too many classes, students, bosses, parents, duties, meetings, and paperwork. This solves the wrong problem.

We’ve had a department tic-tac-toe game for a while—play when you walk by, set the next piece out—and then today somebody added jenga

Students should study the humanities not because it makes them better workers but because it rips you open and breaks your brain and changes everything you thought you knew. I *promise* you this. I *promise* it has this ability, no matter how smart you think you are. I have seen it countless times.

Across the country, people are starting meal preparations and traveling to be with friends and family. Tell us your favorite dish on the Thanksgiving table, and we’ll share our knowledge about the work behind the ingredients. #WeFeedYou

Super excited that the #LiteraryLandscapes book has a title! Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest, forthcoming 2025 from @illinoispress.bsky.social

This WPA poster! libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item...

Corporate logic: You pay us for our product. But you don’t own that product, we do. And when that product breaks you can’t fix it unless you pay us more money. Right to repair laws will fix this scam.

Started a list of working-class and rural authors, for your ease of follow. Feel free to share and add to the list. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Since we’re all doing starter packs, here’s one for anyone interested in Midwestern History. If you’d like to be added, please comment or message! go.bsky.app/EXpXSTu

I made a quick and dirty start to a Midwest Studies starter pack. Happy to add or replace, as you wish! go.bsky.app/FxiDR4B

Academia runs on contacting other academics out of the blue and saying HEY do you wanna do this COOL THING for essentially NO REWARD and equally certainly NO RECOGNITION from your employer and those people going OH MAN that sounds AWESOME sign me up for the COOL NO REWARD NO RECOGNITION EXPERIENCE.

I loved working with @aktange.bsky.social on this essay, and I’m so glad the longer version is now out there for you all to read

Introduce yourself with some jobs you've done apart from what you do now: Liquor store clerk Resume tutor Legislative research Peace Corps volunteer Crop insurance admin asst College admissions asst Walmart media clerk Bailing hay/general farm labor

My 11yo is so desperate for something to do that he asked to wash the car in the rain

My election anxiety must have been obvious today, bc a good colleague gifted me these spice packets

Toni Morrison & Euclid Ave mural—on Black women lifting up each other, bc as Morrison said, “the function of freedom is to free someone else.” #LiteraryLandscapes by Monique Wingard. #ToniMorrison #Cleveland #Ohio #ClevelandIstheReason newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...