Man, will I ever miss my colleagues at Emory! In the Writing Program, @palermog.bsky.social, @mtyrhetoric.bsky.social, and, especially, the peerless @shsalter.bsky.social. On the lit side, @emmadavenport.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social. Forever grateful for the support and friendship!
Sharing some professional news: In a few months, I’ll be joining @pomonacollege.bsky.social as an Assistant Prof of English and the Director of College Writing. My plan is to continue blinking in disbelief for the foreseeable future
Abstracts are due today for POETRY'S PROGRAM ERA INSTITUTIONS--a seminar at ASAP/17 in Madison this October. A heavy line-up is shaping up--join us! @asapartsnow.bsky.social
One premise of close reading is that meaning doesn't arrive for you prepacked and legible—you need to do something in order to access and understand the meaning a text has to offer. Not a bad metaphor for freedom, life, etc.
Last chance, friends interested in academic novels & administration (and even have worked in it, as directors of study or associate chairs or program heads or whatever you people call yourselves) & might want to be on a roundtable. Got some submissions, looking to round things out, let me know.
New essay about some creeps, contemporary and canonical, in the history of the novel. I'm thinking about the nexus of the romance plot, commercial surveillance, and "the desire of the other." DM me for a PDF!
It was a treat to talk with @andeamarzocchi.bsky.social about writer's block in literary fiction on @smallgoodpodcast.bsky.social
Listen here: www.spreaker.com/episode/writ...
New episode out today (you really don’t want to miss this one)!
What can fictional representations of blocked short story writers teach us about writer’s block and what causes it? Listen to this episode with @acolton.bsky.social to find out!
Listen here: www.spreaker.com/episode/writ...
Ah the freedom to experience life as nothing but consumption!
Seasons are such a scam. Hoodie weather for 345 days a year is what I want
Was lucky to have @manshel.bsky.social's article on high-school English on hand in today's seminar on Percival Everett. The mock novel in Erasure is described as "the kind of book they will be reading in high schools thirty years from now"—the students spent a whole class unpacking that line!
@modernlanguage.bsky.social CFP: session sponsored by Association of Departments of English on academic novels and administration call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/02/... #MLA2027 #CFP #AcademicNovel #CampusNovel #Administration #DepartmentChair #Leadership #CriticalUniversityStudies
Wait, this isn't the Leland Palmer wake scene?
Three weeks left to apply!
Much as GoFundMe is no replacement for national health care, ten thousand individual newsletters by really excellent writers is no replacement for their institutional employment.
I LOVE @thesundaylongread.bsky.social and frequently peruse for new stories to teach. Such a fun surprise to see my Doomsday Clock piece in this week’s edition!
Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com.
‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’
economist.com/united-state...
Here's an example I'm experimenting with in a first-year humanities course, feel free to adapt/borrow/etc!
With many thanks to @annakornbluh.bsky.social's against-a-i.com for both the memes and the wisdom
Coming soon to a faculty workshop near you!
How rad it was to be on KSQD (K-Squid!) talking with @pkreports.bsky.social about writer's block in fiction and practice. Podcast below!
The Emory Writing Program Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship application is now open! 3/3 teaching in first-year writing with opportunities to design/instruct upper-level classes in rhet/comp. Renewable up to three years. All PhDs with experience/interest in writing are welcome to apply—share widely!
I don’t know, books do this pretty well without having to fine tune them for outputs.
inspired by @acolton.bsky.social's Writing Through Writer's Block today: "...for writers struggling with perfectionism, procrastination, fear of failure, evaluation anxiety, or... predetermination that one is, inherently, a 'bad writer,' the fiction of writer’s block offers an invaluable resource."
This piece gets at one of the underlying reasons students turn to LLMs - because they think it makes them sound like they belong in a university setting. It's the same motive that had students overusing the thesaurus pre-ChatGPT. theimportantwork.substack.com/p/chatgpt-an...
"The book review is central to what we do—and who we are. It is a relish worthy of savor, a form of communion that is as learned as it is precious."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
I think it would be fun if writers who love language started intentionally writing more strangely as AI flattens written "content" into a mono-voice. it would cool I think if writers responded by focusing their individual efforts on cultivating a really unique voice that's hard to copy
