That concrete box off the freeway wasn’t designed for storage so much as capture — of markets, workers, and, now, people detained by immigration agents, as the federal government turns warehouses into million-square-foot concentration camps.
It is a disappearing machine. We need to see it clearly.
Sharing my review of George Saunders's Vigil for @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org another time. It's also a meditation on death and the difficulties humans face as strange mixtures of spirit and matter.
#literature #fiction
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/04/09/h...
Safia H Senhaji returns to Malka Older today over at SH, and finds that “Older’s worldbuilding for this series continues to enthral.”
Some interesting asides on how different volumes in a series can sound separate notes in ongoing arcs, too.
a complex biosphere in vivid color in an illustrative style inside a circle and outside all white with shadow, with suggestion of complex ferns and other vegetation; art by rogan brown
Thrilled that my first new short story in several years, "Constellations," about astronauts crashlanding on a distant planet, has been published by the @technologyreview.com. Acquiring editor Rachel Cortland. Art by Rogan Brown. Free link to avoid the paywall: ter.li/r3tbrsgr
Locus, Strange Horizons, and Ancillary Review are my go tos for SFF reviews.
reactormag.com/why-locus-ma...
That sandworm is my new nemesis. They need some Fremen-style sandwalk effect to wiggle your way out of its jaws.
Image of a book entitled End Times Fascism - and the fight for the living world. A wide burst on a yellow background with red letters.
One year after our original Guardian essay, Naomi Klein and I are excited to reveal the North American cover of our forthcoming book END TIMES FASCISM - and the Fight for the Living World. It will be on bookshelves on September 15th and is available for pre-order. More details below. bit.ly/4cbLfEr
I wrote a review of George Saunder's Vigil, which is also me thinking about death, mortality, etc.
Three remarkably smart people walk into a lecture hall...
Relatedly.
🎙️NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS JUST DROPPED🎙️
I sit down with the @anushreenande.bsky.social and @readingtheend.bsky.social to think critically about romantasy, in my case from outside looking in - and also to consider with scepticism the critical response to it.
Lots to dig into that isn’t dug enough atm.
I'm definitely tempted to teach it in my sci-fi class next year.
This looks amazing
![Snippet of essay title & abstract.
TITLE: Literary Studies Inside Out: Notes Toward Critical University’s Press Studies
ABSTRACT: Metadiscourse about literary criticism often presupposes a distinction between academia’s inside, where we find authorized experts, and its outside, where we find “amateurs” and “the public.” Think, for example, of the commonplace that publishers want academic books with “crossover appeal,” that is, the potential to attract the interest and dollars of a mythical lay reader. Such notions and terms, however, obscure the material conditions of intellectual production and consumption today: how adjunctification, the cratering of the tenure-track job market, underfunding, and attacks on education have fostered what I call “manufactured amateurism” within colleges and universities while driving PhDs into contingent and so-called alt-ac positions, as well as other industries entirely. From my vantage as a university press editor and independent scholar, I argue that there are divisions to be drawn not between inside and outside but, rather, between disparate professional roles, labor conditions, markets for scholarly writing, and access to resources. Redressing the striking absence of publishers from discussions of the state and fate of literary studies, I argue, moreover, that university presses have long occupied a constitutive outside, mediating among far-flung communities and collaborating with scholars to sustain fields such as Victorian studies—and journals such as Victorian Poetry—amid and despite widespread institutional disinvestment. Including publishers in these discussions—both engaging us as fellow knowledge workers and critically reflecting on the role of university presses—helps bring into relief the collectivism at the heart of scholarly work and create the [End Page 65] solidarity we desperately need if we want to strengthen and build our shared institutions anew.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7wjnxcnrdzx6s4zgv4fyajgp/bafkreiccjnuk7iyhow3j4f7nnpir4kgcanwn644qgzocdumks5uxezu55y)
Snippet of essay title & abstract. TITLE: Literary Studies Inside Out: Notes Toward Critical University’s Press Studies ABSTRACT: Metadiscourse about literary criticism often presupposes a distinction between academia’s inside, where we find authorized experts, and its outside, where we find “amateurs” and “the public.” Think, for example, of the commonplace that publishers want academic books with “crossover appeal,” that is, the potential to attract the interest and dollars of a mythical lay reader. Such notions and terms, however, obscure the material conditions of intellectual production and consumption today: how adjunctification, the cratering of the tenure-track job market, underfunding, and attacks on education have fostered what I call “manufactured amateurism” within colleges and universities while driving PhDs into contingent and so-called alt-ac positions, as well as other industries entirely. From my vantage as a university press editor and independent scholar, I argue that there are divisions to be drawn not between inside and outside but, rather, between disparate professional roles, labor conditions, markets for scholarly writing, and access to resources. Redressing the striking absence of publishers from discussions of the state and fate of literary studies, I argue, moreover, that university presses have long occupied a constitutive outside, mediating among far-flung communities and collaborating with scholars to sustain fields such as Victorian studies—and journals such as Victorian Poetry—amid and despite widespread institutional disinvestment. Including publishers in these discussions—both engaging us as fellow knowledge workers and critically reflecting on the role of university presses—helps bring into relief the collectivism at the heart of scholarly work and create the [End Page 65] solidarity we desperately need if we want to strengthen and build our shared institutions anew.
@rcolesworthy.bsky.social turns to the uni press, whose workers have a shared stake in fields like Victorian poetry. Discussing fantasies of crossover success & the little book genre, she attends to manufactured amateurism as struc condition & collaborative affordance. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Likewise! So great to hang out!
Seriously it’s like there is a giant chunk of tech people who don’t understand that when you’ve learned how to write, you feel proud, you look forward to doing more of it, you cheerfully neglect your other work just so you can write more
I know I should probably just email to say this, but I really enjoyed and learned a lot from your talk—thanks, Matt! And yes, these books both look great!
Getting ready to sit down with the MUSKISM guys for next episode of AV.
I cribbed heavily from these two books during my talk at PSU last week.
I’ll say now what I said then. Both these books will be published this month, which is maybe also when you should buy them.
When the birthright citizenship decision comes out, people will say it could never have gone any other way, that the law was obvious. But the mere fact that SCOTUS took on the case is evidence enough that we are living in a time of democratic precarity.
so, so excited about this book
Tonight, Monday March 30th at 6:30 PM [ET], watch The Story of Capital book launch live stream.
Free registration for the event featuring @davidharvey.org in conversation with @adamtooze.bsky.social is available here:
peoplesforum.org/events/the-s...
A teaser for what's to come this fall and winter.
This is going to be so good. And that cover does everything.
AAAAAA!!!!
Is it technically celebrating the humanities if I mostly plan to excoriate Sam Altman and Elon Musk?
yes, absolutely, can't wait, seriously
Everyone is rightfully talking about what an incredible interview this is but I want to note this depressing and distressing quote from Mehotra. It’s the AI mentality in a nutshell. It’s not about quality or uniqueness or human creativity. Just build something sort of fiiine and they will come.
Close Reading Is Not A Luxury (Vandal Live) From the Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium, hosted by Emory University. What are the challenges, strategies, and rewards for teaching close reading? What are the stakes of teaching close reading through the nightmare of the contemporary?
The Finale of our “Close Reading For The 21st Century” trilogy is out in the world.
I promise it will make you laugh, make you cry, make you wish you were dead, & make you rage against the dying of the light.
Okay?
Congratulations, friend!
