Little one is old enough to watch The Sopranos. Significant milestone achieved. Bada Bing!

Alas, this. And very close to home.

Blue cover of Letters: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Ellis

Book cover reveal! #Letters

Updating my CV is not an activity that fills me with joy.

We managed 24 pancakes this year! With Vermont maple syrup courtesy of a friend.

Looking forward to being in conversation with Harriet Tarlo this evening at the Old Head Post Office. As a letter writer I can’t think of a better venue!

Disaster. So Jekyll & Hyde this season.

I have just typed the following sentence to a friend—“Paris show coming together”—and it’s not a lie.

Staff ,supporters and students gathered outside Firth Court today in solidarity with colleagues locked out and facing withheld pay after lawful strike action at
@sheffielducu

Punishment is not negotiation. ✊

This includes my book, with an already reasonably prized paperback manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526167125/

In a fortnight I am leading a four week online class on Elizabeth Bishop’s Geography III. Info on how to register is here: roundtable.org/live-courses... @roundtable92ny.bsky.social

Senior University administration recruits mainly from two populations

Those who did not succeed in academia

Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money

This explains present condition of UK universities

JAMES MERRILL CHRISTMAS TREE From loes torn hamin Had been fed, looked after, kept still, Meant, I knew— of course I knew - That it would be only a matter of weeks, That there was nothing more to do. Warmly they took me in, made much of me, The point from the start was to keep my spirits up. I could assent to that. For honestly, It did help to be wound in jewels, to send Their colors flashing forth from vents in the deep Fragrant sables that cloaked me head to foot. Over me then they wove a spell of shining — Purple and silver chains, eavesdripping tinsel, Amulets, milagros: software of silver, A heart, a little girl, a Model T Two staring eyes. Then angels, trumpets, BUD and BEA (The children's names) in clownlike capitals, Somewhere a music box whose tiny song Played and replayed I ended before long By loving. And in shadow behind me, a primitive IV To keep the show going. Yes, yes, what lay ahead Was clear: the stripping, the cold street, my chemicals Plowed back into the Earth for lives to come — No doubt a blessing, a harvest, but one that doesn't bear, Now or ever, dwelling upon. To have grown so thin. Needles and bone. The little boy's hands meeting About my spine. The mother's voice: Holding up wonderfully! No dread. No bitterness. The end beginning. Today's Dusk room aglow For the last time With candlelight. Faces love-lit, Gifts underfoot. Still to be so poised, so Receptive. Still to recall, to praise.

James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.

I think one of the best things my university could do for my mental health is allow me to unsubscribe from end of year emails that tell what a great and wonderful 12 months that was and how jolly things are looking for the future. It's like getting newsletters from a parallel universe.

I was there! Doesn’t seem that long ago!

I’ve been lucky getting a grant this year which means lots of fun things to look forward to in 2026 & 2027 but the constant & destructive attack on arts and humanities, some from close to home, is anxiety inducing and upsetting. I’ve seen the very best and the very worst of people this year.

Nearly a third of university 18-year-olds will live at home According to figures from Ucas, a record 89,510 18-year-olds with university offers plan to live at home when they begin their studies this autumn

One of the reasons that emergence of ‘cold spots’ of subject provision matters: 52% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (the most deprived quintile in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation) plan to live at home when they go the university
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...

If you are a University of Sheffield student could you please consider signing this letter in support of the strike? Thank you. You need to log in to Muse to sign @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Evidence aplenty that the open letter is not dead!

Reading about the return of the Erasmus scheme and I read this: “Any agreement for EU students to pay the same as Britons is being resisted by the UK university sector.” Groan.

Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI”

Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages

What the British government is letting happen to universities is unconscionable

FAQs that aren’t even shared with staff is certainly a novel form of communication.

Check out this post about our current situation from a colleague at another university. @sheffielducu.bsky.social

A great essay on why close reading is a more radical methodology than most people think and why university managers don’t like those of us who teach it!

If only

Letter Writing Among Poets Letter Writing Among Poets

“Letter Writing Among Poets: From William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop” is just £12.50 in the EUP sale (Paul Muldoon, Hermione Lee, Anne Fadiman, Angela Leighton… and others!) edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-letter-....

Reading Elizabeth Bishop Reading Elizabeth Bishop

“Reading Elizabeth Bishop” is £13.50 in the EUP sale… edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...

How have Sheffield University management contrived to turn an easily resolvable dispute into something approaching MAB-like levels of crisis? From a pre-strike offer that could have been patched up into something that worked, to threatening a lockout from 5 January. I despair.

A picket line outside a unversity building

A picket line outside a unversity building

A picket line outside a unversity building

A picket line outside a unversity building

Tuesday my union offered to call off 2 weeks of strikes, in return for postponing the redudnacy of, maybe, 5 people for three months. Yesterday the uni wrote to all staff saying "not interested", unless we completely caved. Today we toured picket lines across campus:
@sheffielducu.bsky.social