For MTC, Nisarg Patel takes a long and hard look at the making of the contemporary Indian national bestseller, especially the prominence of the genre of mythological fiction and examines what they teach us about "the very vectors of influence which operate between the text and the nation."

Ancient Myths, National(ist) Bestsellers

The capitalist-writer’s imagination levels all concrete inconveniences in favor of abstract archetypes. If, following Jacques Derrida, we are to say that we inhabit the times of the “end of the boo…

mid-theory.com

For MTC, Abhinav Bhardwaj reviews The Woman Who Climbed Trees, Nepalese author Smriti Ravindra’s debut novel "The Woman Who Climbed Trees." "...a rare work of Nepali English fiction, is interested in what happens when a life remains discernible without yielding to the demand for definition."

Queer Altitudes in  Smriti Ravindra’s ‘The Woman Who Climbed Trees’

In this nonterrestrial space that is at once a graveyard where lives are exhumed and a park for unrestricted homosociality, bliss abounds. The women in The Woman Who Climbed Trees, Smriti Ravindra’…

mid-theory.com

"The human animal, as it appears within Vanjonack’s stories, is a simple creature no matter how many incredible technologies and ecological catastrophes it creates." For MTC, Sam Norcross reviews the hot off the press darkly funny, speculative short story collection OUT OF BODY by Chris Vanjonack

Pulp Sci-Fi for the Pre-Apocalypse: A Review of Chris Vanjonack’s ‘Out of Body’

One theory of human consciousness is that it was a mistake.  Once upon a time, the theory goes, our evolutionary ancestors developed enough cognition to remember past events and imagine possib…

mid-theory.com

"The Pitt demonstrates how “the secular” is more than a simple absence or negation of religion; it is an ambivalence about the very idea of religion, which ramifies across discursive idioms of Western modernity." Evan Goldstein on religion and 'The Pitt.'

The Prayers and Tears of Dr. Robby

“For the ransom of life is costly and can never suffice, that one should live on forever and never see the Pit.”  — Psalm 49:8-9 (New Revised Standard Version) Trying to understand the modern …

mid-theory.com

Finishing a first book in literary studies? Don't miss the Helen Tartar First Book Subvention Award. Applications due Nov 15. (You can submit with or without a contract, though in either event there is a brief publisher's application to join your author submission). www.acla.org/prize-awards...

School is back in session! For Mixtape # 9 we asked a few of our colleagues what recent academic monographs were on their summer reading list. What insights are they taking into the new academic year? What should we put back on the shelf?

Mixtape #9: Recent Monographs of Note

For Mixtape # 9 we asked a few of our colleagues what recent academic monographs were on our summer reading list. What insights are we taking with us into the new academic year? What should we put …

mid-theory.com

Many thanks to the good folks at @mid-theory.bsky.social for organizing a CAPITAL, VOL. 1 reading group for this summer. Marx's masterwork had been staring at me from the shelf for some time, and I'm proud to have made it through the reading summer. Looking forward to future Big Book Summers!

Sunday reading: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/email/971383...

Sunday Reading

The ORB has eyes.

oaklandreviewofbooks.org

For our latest, Jordan Baldridge review Zayd Ayers Dohrn's semi-autobiographical revolutionary musical 'Revolution(s), which he made in collaboration with RATM frontman, Tom Morello. "Ayers Dohrn collapses the expansive and collective past referenced here by Marx into a specific, personal one."

All in the Family: Review of Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s ‘Revolution(s)’

The showrunners claimed to want to spark revolutionary thought and to push audiences to envision bold, fresh radical futures, but got stuck in the most familiar confines possible: home – where pare…

mid-theory.com

For our latest, Jordan Baldridge review Zayd Ayers Dohrn's semi-autobiographical revolutionary musical 'Revolution(s), which he made in collaboration with RATM frontman, Tom Morello. "Ayers Dohrn collapses the expansive and collective past referenced here by Marx into a specific, personal one."

All in the Family: Review of Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s ‘Revolution(s)’

The showrunners claimed to want to spark revolutionary thought and to push audiences to envision bold, fresh radical futures, but got stuck in the most familiar confines possible: home – where pare…

mid-theory.com

The new school year is almost upon us, but summer isn’t quite done, & neither are the summer #ScholarSunday threads! Here’s my 290th of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ +

#ScholarSunday Thread 290 (8/23/26) – Black and White and Read All Over

The new school year is almost upon us, but summer isn’t quite done, & neither are the summer #ScholarSunday threads! Here’s my 290th of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthco...

blackwhiteandread.com

Post45 CFP Alert: Super excited to announce this special issue, edited by Michelle N. Huang and Carlos Alonso Nugent. If you've ever thought that our periodization (or ASAP's!) needed fixing, now is your chance. submissions.post45.org/journal/CFP/...

"In times of strife, we grasp for what we can." Abigail Dahlke & Charlotte Richardson-Deppe reflect on the latter's soft sculpture series 'Death Rattles,' which confronts the tactical aesthetic of the militarized state with the squishy, squeaky, absurd, irreverent repurposing of thrifted materials

Death Rattles, Or, Soft Guns for a Dying Empire

When the fascists march with bullet proof vests, show up with inflatable frogs.  Charlotte Richardson-Deppe is a queer artist working between performance and soft sculpture. Their work explores the…

mid-theory.com

Hi Bluesky! Please share this Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is from 2027-2029 & housed in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame. Salary is $75,000 for each year, & the fellowship carries a $15,000 research budget for its duration. Mentorship & an individual office, too!

🌱 ⓥ Francisco Robles ⓥ 🌱@franciscondine.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Please share! My department is searching for a postdoctoral fellow for two years. Also, stay tuned for more news from ND English. This is going to be a year! joblist.mla.org/job/2001161/...

@mid-theory.bsky.social have created something so deeply needed by this generation of academics. Honored to participate in this project

Thanks to @mitchrmurray.bsky.social for a truly outstanding workshop presentation today and to the 60+ colleagues who attended. The market is bleak but our support & service to one another does not have to be. We will see you in two weeks for the second part of the series. See more at mid-theory.com

Mid Theory Collective@mid-theory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our second academic job market materials workshop starts this Friday with @mitchrmurray.bsky.social. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/36fvvctv More info on our website: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...

This is tomorrow!

Mid Theory Collective@mid-theory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our second academic job market materials workshop starts this Friday with @mitchrmurray.bsky.social. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/36fvvctv More info on our website: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...

We get it, it is (a) drag.

The Drag of Being Bond

It is a drag, and it is drag doing the gender work expected of 007. One of popular media’s perennial questions, whether the role is currently filled or not, is “who will be the next James Bond?” It…

mid-theory.com

The Independent@the-independent.com · 2mo ago

James Bond producer shares update on 007 casting: ‘It’s got to be really different’

Our second academic job market materials workshop starts this Friday with @mitchrmurray.bsky.social. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/36fvvctv More info on our website: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...

I'll be giving advice on developing academic job materials on Friday at 1:00 ET with @mid-theory.bsky.social. Register here: tinyurl.com/kc5jcf8y

MTC August Newsletter

Summer is not over yet and MTC has got your Fridays covered!

tinyurl.com

You can read MTC August newsletter here: tinyurl.com/kc5jcf8y

Laura Heffernan and I are proposing an in-person seminar on "Aesthetics for Amateurs" for ACLA 2027. It's about recentering creativity and making--especially amateur making--in our theories of the aesthetic. If this is your jam, please consider submitting! www.acla.org/seminar/d6b4...

Mid Theory Collective congratulates our editor Jay Shelat @jshelat1.bsky.social 🎉

Jay Shelat@jshelat1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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

Emily Coccia pens an anti-eulogy for 'Hacks,' and an ode to the queer fun of making thing, hard and hacky things with others even when, especially when, nothing is guaranteed.

An Anti-Eulogy for ‘Hacks’

Because they’re not just writing jokes; they’re writing a years-long love letter to each other.  As a rule, Deborah Vance doesn’t do funerals. Neither, it turns out, does Hacks (2021-26), whic…

mid-theory.com

Emily Coccia pens an anti-eulogy for 'Hacks,' and an ode to the queer fun of making thing, hard and hacky things with others even when, especially when, nothing is guaranteed.

An Anti-Eulogy for ‘Hacks’

Because they’re not just writing jokes; they’re writing a years-long love letter to each other.  As a rule, Deborah Vance doesn’t do funerals. Neither, it turns out, does Hacks (2021-26), whic…

mid-theory.com

We're having a party! luma.com/6viuhae6

Our Launchiversary: Always Be Launching · Luma

Oakland Review of Books continues to exist in space and time, and like Oakland, is always becoming. Celebrate with us on a randomly chosen day we've deemed our…

luma.com

I had so much fun doing this event with McKenzie. @eflux.bsky.social were spectacular hosts. The audience was lively and smart as hell. And I'm pleased to say it all comes across on the recording, which'll be in your feed tomorrow morning.

Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · 4mo ago

American Vandal in Brooklyn with @mckenziewark.bsky.social

For our latest installment of Adaptation Anxiety series, Nathan Likert reviews The Odyssey and what it says about the director's futile guilt & generational angst! "Homer’s text thus becomes a Trojan horse through which the contemporary can be litigated."

What Can A Homer, Or A Nolan, Offer the Future?

Adaptation is everywhere! In 2026, MTC is running a new series called Adaptation Anxiety, where new and returning writers consider literary adaptations from the last few years. We ask not whet…

mid-theory.com

For our latest installment of Adaptation Anxiety series, Nathan Likert reviews The Odyssey and what it says about the director's futile guilt & generational angst! "Homer’s text thus becomes a Trojan horse through which the contemporary can be litigated."

What Can A Homer, Or A Nolan, Offer the Future?

Adaptation is everywhere! In 2026, MTC is running a new series called Adaptation Anxiety, where new and returning writers consider literary adaptations from the last few years. We ask not whet…

mid-theory.com

"I recognize and even admire that date’s characters’ failure of action is the play’s subject itself rather than a failure of the play." Hanu Shahdadpuri reviews Jake Flume’s 'date.'

The Flat Theatricality of the Scroll: Review of Jake Flume’s ‘date’

date feels, then, like an anti-drama trying to become a drama. Another name for the play might be Two Characters in Search of a Desire. On the trip uptown from Chicago’s Hyde Park to Humboldt Park’…

mid-theory.com