I've been doing a new project w/a grad student collaborator & we got interested in Tagore's short stories. (Alongside everything else, he was a world-class short story writer!) We made a collection of them; it's the largest set currently online (I think): scalar.lehigh.edu/literature-o...

Literature of Colonial South Asia: Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore: A Collection

A Collection of Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore in English Translation

scalar.lehigh.edu

You can/should read Emily Wilson's latest take on the Odyssey, but I'm logging on to convey my hairdresser's reaction. She was AGHAST that Nolan, with his million $ budget, gave Matt Damon ONLY 6 hair extensions. As a result, his hair did not blow around properly, & that ruined the film for her.

An excellent discussion on Julianne Werlin's *Life& Letters* of Aarthi Vadde's WE THE PLATFORM and how it describes the way writing and ideas now flow from printed books to social media platforms and back again. bit.ly/4bxAJYK @aarthivadde.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

Authorship After the Internet

Aarthi Vadde's We the Platform

bit.ly

Ben Schwarz@benschwarz.bsky.social · 3d ago

Australia’s eSafety commissioner buried a report (released Friday afternoon) that shows the under 16 social media ban didn’t tangibly reduce teen social media use, and also resulted in parents tuning out of kids usage. We traded our privacy for no reason. theconversation.com/more-than-80...

Friends, my book—No Place for Home: Terror and Race in Literature After 9/11—has a cover! I’m so pleased with what Rachel Moeller and the design team at @uminnpress.bsky.social came up with! The book will be out in Spring 2027 and that I’ll post a pre-order link once it’s available! 1/2

It’s been a hard week and I nearly missed that this was finally out. I wrote “Victorian Studies and the American State” 5 years ago and have been discussing it with some of you for a decade. Surreal to see, and grateful to be in the good company of @jakeromanow.bsky.social and brilliant respondents

Victorian Studies and the American State | PMLA | Cambridge Core

Victorian Studies and the American State - Volume 141 Issue 2

cambridge.org

“AI writing can be lucrative, but only if it’s kept secret. Eventually, something’s got to give.”

Will Oremus@willoremus.com · last wk.

AI-assisted fiction is already here, tons of people are reading it, very few of them realize it, and no one wants to talk about it. Gift link to my latest: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Emily Wilson is not the co-writer of Nolan's THE ODYSSEY. She didn't produce it or show up to set ready to be the high authority on all things adaptation. He read her translation, liked it, and turned to it for guidance in writing. She can say whatever she wants about the movie, calm down.

"My book finds literary value in spaces where writing, reading and public conversation are all unfolding together." Aarthi Vadde discusses her new book, WE THE PLATFORM: HOW THE INTERNET CHANGED 21ST-CENTURY LITERATURE. bit.ly/4whG1j9 @aarthivadde.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

What Happens When Everyone Can Be a Writer? Aarthi Vadde’s New Book Asks Just That

From early social media experiments to contemporary AI usage, “We the Platform" examines how digital platforms reshaped the very idea of what literature is.

bit.ly

Chairs and tables, anyone? Check out the color wheel at Vitra Design Museum

What I am doing for the 4th. Reading and thinking about reading. Vadde’s critical study is INCREDIBLE.

But first, looking forward to digging into @aarthivadde.bsky.social's new "We the Platform" book!

Happy Pub Day to We the Platform and many many thanks to my editor Philip and the Columbia UP team for supporting the book!

Philip Leventhal@philipleventhal.bsky.social · last mo.

"[A] sharp and welcome rebuttal to the fatalistic 'end of literature' narrative. WE THE PLATFORM maps the complex convergence of legacy publishing and platform capitalism" - Rita Raley WE THE PLATFORM by Aarthi Vadde: bit.ly/44g6ZeG #LiteratureNow @aarthivadde.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

In the wild and in such great company!!

Partnership alert: I see it as the next phase of the platform/publisher dynamic: “A24 is betting it can take the capital and the infrastructure without ceding the judgment that makes it A24.” www.indiewire.com/news/analysi...

A24 Wouldn’t Tell Hollywood How It Works. Then It Told Google.

The studio that never reveals its secrets of success has opened its workflow to one of the world's largest AI companies.

indiewire.com

"Aarthi Vadde’s state-of-the-art account of our postscarcity literary world offers a wonderfully energizing tour of some of the most fascinating experiments it has inspired." -- Mark McGurl bit.ly/44g6ZeG @aarthivadde.bsky.social #LiteratureNow @columbiaup.bsky.social

We the Platform | Columbia University Press

Web 2.0 gave us the online world as we know it today. Popularized in 2004, it redefined the internet as social, a “platform” for self-expression and data... | CUP

bit.ly

The website for SNS 2027, hosted by Janice Ho at UBC, just launched with a fabulous lineup of keynote speakers, keyword seminars, and novel seminars. Check it out! And please submit abstracts for panels or single papers on any novel-related topic (deadline Nov. 15): snsnovelgeographies.arts.ubc.ca

For those still following the Commonwealth short story contest, the foundation released another statement standing by the finalists who were asked to provide proof of process. It also looks like they may integrate detectors into the next round of judging. commonwealthfoundation.com/2026-cw-priz...

2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Update - Commonwealth Foundation

Statement from Razmi Farook, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, 22 June 2026 Last month, there were serious concerns raised regarding the alleged use of Artificial […]

commonwealthfoundation.com

AI has started blocking the Wayback Machine from chronicling the web. Considering that nearly 40% of websites disappear after 10 years, this will enforce a giant loss in collective memory.

AI’s biggest casualty could be history itself

The Internet Archive is a vital resource that has helped the search for truth in more than one global event, writes Anthony Cuthbertson, but it is in danger of becoming the latest collateral damage of...

the-independent.com

This just in from Granta.

I’ve been witnessing its evolution over the past few years, and I am so excited to read @aarthivadde.bsky.social’s We The Platform in its final form. I just started and am already inspired by its clarity and optimism. Down with fatalism! Up with collaborative creation!

Hot off the press! The much-anticipated WE THE PLATFORM: HOW THE INTERNET CHANGED 21ST-CENTURY LITERATURE, by Aarthi Vadde. Use the coupon code CUP20 and save 20%! bit.ly/44g6ZeG @aarthivadde.bsky.social #LiteratureNow @columbiaup.bsky.social

Happy Bloomsday to all who celebrate! And a gift from the archive: the first time James Joyce appeared in the New York Times (1914), it was for his poetry 😂 archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes....

1914: James Joyce Hears an Army

On May 24, 1914, The New York Times reported on the publication of a new poetry anthology, “The Imagists,” that featured the works of James Joyce.

archive.nytimes.com

Here comes the physical media! My first encounter with We the Platform in book form. I loved the cover already, but the yellow spine was a particularly nice surprise 😍

For the @ajc.com, I wrote about how close reading cultivates the virtues that promote eudaimonia, or human flourishing, or the good life. That's me in the picture at the front of the room. www.ajc.com/opinion/2026...

‘Close reading’ is a solution for students looking to live a good life

Education is being polarized by advocates on the left and right, but students' learning should not be limited to mastering skills that lead to economic output.

ajc.com

This feels like a turning point in literary judgment where the provenance of writing is always potentially in dispute. AI detection and honor codes seem like symptoms of our new textual conditions rather than workable solutions. I wish I had solutions!

Vauhini Vara@vauhinivara.bsky.social · 3mo ago

this is from the statement from Razmi Farook, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation — which awarded the prize resulting in this publication.

Okay I am gonna try this Bluesky thing again, mostly so I can celebrate the terrific books that @ericafretwell.bsky.social and I have the privilege of stewarding into the world for OUP’s American Literary History Series. Watch this space 👀

I'm sharing an extraordinary farewell letter from my colleague Vic Strandberg who taught in Duke's English Department for 60 years. He's touched the lives of over 10k students, which is unreal. Also, he shared Duke's salary for asst. prof in English in 1962: $9500 english.duke.edu/news/farewel...

Farewell Letter from Vic Strandberg

You could call this my last will and testament. I will begin with the testament, based on my institutional memory going back sixty years. After earning my PhD at Brown in 1962, I taught at the Univers...

english.duke.edu

Can’t wait!

Scott Selisker@sselisker.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Cover, official page, Oct 6 2026 hardcover / late-June ebook release dates, ISBN-13 for my book, *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction*... global.oup.com/academic/pro...