Clare Clarke
@clareclarke.bsky.social
Lady Literature Lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. Belfast based. Cat person. Expert on Sherlock, crime fiction, true crime, Victorian lit, and 19th century newspapers. New book(s) coming soon, including Cambridge Companion to True Crime. Rep: Aevitas
Like they're all hotbeds of theoretical chatter. Guys! It's all meetings! And emails! All the time! Everyone's too busy desperately baling out the water as every single institution threatens to go down with all hands. All the talk is narrow mutiny, not wide revolution. (3/?)
My little Reading Journal Rubric in case anyone finds it useful. (Can you tell I just got a Canva account and am very enthused by making docs pretty? 🤩 😅)
Matthew L Reznicek@drreznicek.bsky.social · 2w agoHas anyone got any ideas for a reading journal/note-taking journal that asks students to keep not just a record of what they're seeing, but what it's making them think?
Almost none of my picks got included but it's still a freaking awesome list!
The 50 Best Thriller Books of the 21st Century (Gift Article)
Hundreds of novelists, librarians, editors and other book lovers voted. See how their ballots stack up.
nytimes.com
Exciting news! @bavs-uk.bsky.social are hiring an ECR/Postgrad Rep to work alongside me to develop early career professional development and networking opportunities. 10th Sept deadline, details below ⬇️ DM me with any queries 🎉
BAVS@bavs-uk.bsky.social · 12mo agoDo you want to join the BAVS Executive Committee? We have a vacancy for an ECR/Postdoctoral Representative (x 3-year term), and we'd love to hear from you if so! The deadline for applying is 10th September. More info here: bavs.ac.uk/executive-co...
Still plugging the short survey on the future of the Curran Index. Interestingly, have had almost as many retweets of my original post as there have been actual completions of the survey. Closes on the 10th, so if your work touches at all on nineteenth century periodicals please have your say!
Martin Hewitt@vicmanch.bsky.social · 3w agoWe're running a short online survey to inform development of the Curran Index. If you're interested in Victorian periodicals, whether or not you've used the Curran recently, please complete the survey! Survey closes 10th August. Please retweet. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Applications are now open for Round 3 of our Microgrants! We’re funding innovative research in #19thC periodicals by providing seed grants for archival travel, digital access to subscriptions or repositories, or digital tools to support your research. Apply by 1 September here: buff.ly/7r9cM50
All fiction titles from the English Catalogue, Volume 4 have now been added! That means 1862–1889 are complete. Next up: the 1890s... • 27,471 title entries • 6,770 author entries (most with bios) Big thank you to my students from last semester who assisted me to this milestone.
in other words, everyone should preorder @sorourke25.bsky.social's forthcoming book immediately! it is so smart & the parts I got to read are absolutely brilliant
Picturing Landscape in an Age of Extraction
O’Rourke argues that artistic representations played a pivotal role in shaping how people thought about the natural world during the Industrial Revolution. In the late eighteenth and early nineteent...
press.uchicago.edu
The 2026 @bavs-uk.bsky.social-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a second monograph goes to @sorourke25.bsky.social! 👏 The monograph started as a book about time so—don't worry—you can change topics midway through a project! Also, if the book you wanna cite doesn't exist, maybe 🫵 should ✍️ it! #BAVS2026
Book Prize – BAVS
bavs.ac.uk
Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley.bsky.social · last yr.in other words, everyone should preorder @sorourke25.bsky.social's forthcoming book immediately! it is so smart & the parts I got to read are absolutely brilliant
DVPP is already the most amazing resource for anyone interested in Victorian authorship, but the Beta version in development will clearly take things to a whole new level. Can't wait to see it live! Thanks to Alison Chapman for a fantastic opening keynote to #BAVS2026.
Marie Léger-St-Jean@marielsj.bsky.social · 3w agoMost Victorians read poetry in periodicals instead of in book form. Alison Chapman is leading the following database 👇 3 projects over 29 periodicals: - index - encoded editions - personography #BAVS2026
How has it already been a week since #RSVP2026? If you're feeling some serious conference withdrawal (as we are), why not revisit the experience by taking our conference survey? The survey should take only 5-7 min. and will stay open until Aug. 12. Scan the QR code below to access the survey!
I think about this a lot -- it sounds arrogant as hell to imagine someone might be nervous to talk to you! AND YET. It's not-unlike the relapsing-remitting impact of niche fame, EXCEPT it's a little easier to name (& dispel?) because you can blame something outside you (seniority, usually)
Christopher Pittard@christopherpittard.bsky.social · last mo.Had a great time at #vpfa this year (car issues aside), but it's occurred to me that someone mentioned that a PhD student was quite keen to talk to me, but was a bit reluctant to do so. I never found out who it was. But - if you want to talk to me at a conference, please come on up...
In my sabbatical haze, I forgot to widely publicize the availability of the Katherine D. Harris Collection of literary annuals on @archive.org w/complete & searchable table of contents, authors, engravers, literary genre, pg ## 😎 IT's ready!! archive.org/details/kath... #rsvp2026 @rs4vp.org
Katherine D. Harris Collection
About this Collection The Katherine D. Harris Collection consists of approximately 90 nineteenth-century British literary annuals. The most popular titles, including Forget Me Not, The ...
archive.org
And #RSVP2027 will be hosted next year at…the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre of Carleton University in downtown Ottawa! 🇨🇦
"Writers have been using me long before AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actually cold, and worn year-round by screenwriters. I am not new here. I am not novel. I’m the cigarette you keep saying you’ll quit."
The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations
“Writers have been using me long before the advent of AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actua...
buff.ly
Rare copy of oldest poem in English language discovered by TCD researchers
Rare copy of oldest poem in English language discovered by TCD researchers
Caedmon’s Hymn was written in the late seventh century in Old English by the English monk, author and scholar Bebe
irishtimes.com
One of the most fun things that has happened to me: @edcaesar.bsky.social, one of my favourite writers, wrote for the @newyorker.com about my long-running quest to find a hidden meaning in Jonathan Swift’s epitaph. Thanks to Ed’s narrative skills, it’s a great read! www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Jonathan Swift Wrote His Own Epitaph. Was It a Joke?
A college professor spent seven years decoding the inscription on the grave of the writer Jonathan Swift. He thinks he’s finally cracked it.
newyorker.com
JOBS! We’re currently looking for two people to join us in the School of English @universityofleeds.bsky.social: Lecturer in Creative Writing jobs.leeds.ac.uk/AHCEN1086; Lecturer in English Language (with interests in DH) jobs.leeds.ac.uk/AHCEN1087 Both are FT ongoing appointments
We're running a short online survey to inform development of the Curran Index. If you're interested in Victorian periodicals, whether or not you've used the Curran recently, please complete the survey! Survey closes 10th August. Please retweet. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Curran Index User Survey
Thanks for being willing to complete this short survey. Whether or not you have used the Curran Index recently (or at all) we are looking for opinions on how the Curran can best be improved and develo...
docs.google.com
Who can forget this scene from The Hound of the Baskervilles? I can, and did. With thanks to the amazing @arkhamlibrarian.bsky.social for another pulp take on a Victorian classic!
We only rate dogs. This is a very fast tater tot. Please stay out of the way as he clearly has places to be, and only send dogs. Thank you... 12/10 (IG: choppertp)
Indeed you all are. And, gentle Bluesky readers, check out the news projected behind this team: a British Newspaper Archive discount for RSVP members that saves serious money on that subscription. Negotiated by the inexhaustible Mary. Even more reason for all C19 scholars to join @rs4vp.org!
Clare Clarke@clareclarke.bsky.social · 3w agoWith the wonderful Mary and Priti ahead of the RSVP AGM. What a team! #RSVP2026
