My essay "What Should a Novel Say?" is out in the new issue of Novel. I'd love to hear from readers—what do you think? Thanks to audiences at Vanderbilt and Cornell who heard earlier versions and helped me to fine-tune! read.dukeupress.edu/novel/articl...

What Should a Novel Say?

Abstract. This essay poses a question that is at once obvious and philosophically complex: What should a novel say? Taking Virginia Woolf's reflections on mid‐Victorian realism as its point of departu...

read.dukeupress.edu

Calling all novel people! With my amazing colleague Thom Dancer, I am co-organizing an ACLA 2026 seminar called "The Craft of Fiction." Link below. Please consider submitting a proposal. www.acla.org/seminar/6892...

The ICCIT is hiring! Our faculty is inviting applications for an Associate or Full Professor position in Organizational Studies, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. Think about this @nortonlibrary.bsky.social edition for all your 2025-26 teaching needs! wwnorton.com/books/978132...

Come be a postdoc @uoftmississauga.bsky.social! If you're in the field of novel studies, or literature and philosophy, or Victorian studies, and this opportunity interests you, please be in touch with me directly about a potential application. www.utm.utoronto.ca/research-inn...

UTM Postdoctoral Fellowship Award | Research and Innovation

** Updated: April 2025 ** Program Purpose:Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDFs) are an important post-PhD training opportunity, affording recent graduates an opportunity to establish an independent research...

utm.utoronto.ca

Trying to start a new thing!

A beautiful and generous review from Talia Schaffer that puts THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL into conversation with Adela Pinch's THE LOCATION OF EXPERIENCE. (And stay tuned for my own review of Pinch's incredible book, coming soon in MLQ!) muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...

My textbook is finally available! 'Writing on Fire: A Fierce Yet Friendly Guide to Writing Humanities Essays in College.' There are chapters on close reading, thesis statements, all the good stuff. If you teach writing via a humanities subject, check it out! broadviewpress.com/product/writ...

Writing on Fire - Broadview Press

Writing on Fire -

broadviewpress.com

I have dutifully shared several positive reviews of The Grounds of the Novel. This one is extremely un-positive (backhanded compliment about "ambition" notwithstanding), but I will share it anyway on the principle that all publicity is good publicity?

Ben Parker@baggymonster.bsky.social · last yr.

I reviewed @dannybwright.bsky.social “Grounds of the Novel” @stanfordpress.bsky.social for Genre. I admire the ambition and range of inquiry but I have grave doubts about the scholarship and argument. Hopefully a productive debate for researchers in novel theory! read.dukeupress.edu/genre/articl...

THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL reviewed by Anna Henchman for NCL online.ucpress.edu/ncl/article-...

Discount alert! THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL is part of the @stanfordpress.bsky.social Virtual Exhibit for MLA and you can get it for 30% off with code S25MLA between Jan 9 and Feb 12. www.sup.org/books/litera... And check out the full exhibit while you're at it! www.sup.org/virtual-exhi...

The Grounds of the Novel | Stanford University Press

What grounds the fictional world of a novel? Or is such a world peculiarly groundless? In a powerful engagement with the latest debates in novel theory, Daniel Wright investigates how novelists reckon...

sup.org

1/2: I won’t be at MLA this year for the first time in years, but if you are, I hope you’ll check out the Post*45 books at the Stanford UP booth! We had three great titles come out in 2024, by Adrienne Brown, Adam Kelly, and Shane Boyle.

My edition of Great Expectations for the Norton Library series now has a webpage, a delightfully purple cover, and a projected publication date of July 1, 2025. Think about it for your Fall 2025 syllabus needs. (Or just because it's a pretty colour!) wwnorton.com/books/978132...

Great Expectations (The Norton Library)

Part of the Norton Library series, Great Expectations (The Norton Library), Charles Dickens, Daniel Wright, 9781324046721

wwnorton.com

Please help spread the word! The English Department at Harvard is hoping to hire an assistant professor of post-45 Anglophone literature. I'm not on the committee, but would be happy to answer your questions. academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/14143

So much fun to see THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL put into surprising and illuminating conversation with @annakornbluh.bsky.social's IMMEDIACY in service of some big thinking about The Function of Theory at the Present Time. www.publicbooks.org/whats-a-theo...

What’s a Theory to Do?

Given the scope of the crisis before us, we will need theory of all stripes to find our way forward.

publicbooks.org

I’m so honoured to be read with such generosity by the brilliant Deidre Lynch.

Deidre Lynch@drbibliomane.bsky.social · 2y ago

My review of the mind-blowing, FOUNDATIONAL work of novel theory by @dannybwright.bsky.social is now up on the Critical Inquiry site. Bluesky #litcrit friends, _The Grounds of the Novel_ will change how you think about what realism is and what it can do. criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/deidre_lynch...

Timothy Gao reviews @dannybwright.bsky.social 's The Grounds of the Novel for Review 19, " For Wright, the strange ontological foundations of novelistic worlds become a "resource" (6) for thinking through our own ambiguities and ethics of being": www.review19.org/view_doc.php...

Paging George Eliot! www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/s...

Parents of small children everywhere cursing the Oscars for the early start time on the first post-lost-hour evening. Bedtimes are *complicated* tonight Academy!

I am *so excited* for this book, and not only because it is authored by a fellow Daniel W. I've been lucky enough to get to know snippets of Daniel's brilliant work over the years, and am so eager to get to know more of it!

Daniel Williams@dbenjw.bsky.social · 3y ago

✨The Art of Uncertainty: Probable Realism and the Victorian Novel✨ is out with Cambridge UP! Available in US/UK (cambridge.org/9781009436113), 20% off w/ TAU2024 Huge thanks to all who shepherded it into print and to Kate Flint & Clare Pettitt for including it in their series!

✨The Art of Uncertainty: Probable Realism and the Victorian Novel✨ is out with Cambridge UP! Available in US/UK (cambridge.org/9781009436113), 20% off w/ TAU2024 Huge thanks to all who shepherded it into print and to Kate Flint & Clare Pettitt for including it in their series!

Days later, still have not recovered emotional equilibrium after watching Andrew Haigh’s remarkable ALL OF US STRANGERS. Double whammy of impact as both a gay man and a parent!!

There's still time to get a 30% discount on THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL, through the end of February (including Leap Day of course!) -- and while you're at it, buy some of the many exciting new titles from SUP: Fyfe, MacDuffie, Kasa, Wong, Marriott, etc. etc. etc. etc. www.sup.org/books/title/...

What grounds the fictional world of a novel? Or is such a world peculiarly groundless? In a powerful engagement with the latest debates in novel theory, The Grounds of the Novel by Daniel Wright investigates how novelists reckon w/ the ontological status of their works www.sup.org/books/title/...

Important thread.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 3y ago

It is my pre-existing belief (so you might want to be wary of my analysis )that models of revenue sharing, shifting core curriculum requirements, and the establishment of undergraduate business majors lie at the heart of the destruction of the modern university. Today's case: U Chicago. /1

The response to a revenue gap is not to fire instructors and reduce classes; this simply destroys FTEs and retention, which means you're taking in less revenue, which means you'll make cuts again. It's like an automaker saying they'll stave off bankruptcy by simply not making cars.

Talia Schaffer@taliaschaffer.bsky.social · 3y ago

Queens College just forced chairs to fire 26 of my colleagues, two weeks before the semester starts. They've lost health insurance and income, we've lost 79 sections and over 1600 students have lost their classes. Please help us protest! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Today’s the day! THE GROUNDS OF THE NOVEL is out in the world. I’m proud of this book and eager to hear what you all think about it.

Daniel Wright@dannybwright.bsky.social · 3y ago

Two week countdown!!

Practicing the most ancient of MLA rituals for us Canadians: extreme flight delay, bracing for likely cancellation, when I’m supposed to teach tomorrow morning. Pray for me.

En route to MLA. See you in Philly!

Buy Amy’s book, and since you’re getting such a great discount, get my book too!