And now @lukekennard.bsky.social is Booker longlisted! I've been singing the praises of #BlackBag to all and sundry - good luck and very well deserved.

John Morton@drjmorton.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I've just finished Black Bag by @lukekennard.bsky.social and highly recommend it - really funny, thoughtful and original. Best new novel I've read this year and will take some work to knock of that top spot

Brilliant time at the @tennysonsociety.bsky.social conference today. Great keynote by Claire Pettitt, excellent panel incl the ace @jimchesh.bsky.social, trip to Bardney Manor and then Tennyson's birthplace at Somersby. Sorry I could only make one day of the conf. Thx @ccapancioni.bsky.social !

At @thisisgala.bsky.social yesterday, brilliant times - 2 rewinds for "topper top"?

I’ve written more about statistics of the Guardian’s 100 best novels list, including: – Books that just missed out – Two errors in the data (Cather and Camus lost out) – Best novelists – Alternative rankings – Weirdest and least-weird ballots mpaldridge.github.io/blog/guardia...

We’re appointing a writer-in-residence! Join us to respond to our holdings related to the Bloomsbury Group (including the archives of Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press) ahead of a major exhibition in 2027. Applications close 19 May. Best of luck! collections.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...

Call for Applications: Writer in Residence - Blooming Bloomsbury and the Modernist Archives Publishing Project -Creativity and Community Co-Curation (2026)  | Museums and Collections

The selected writer will spend the summer months (June—September 2026) drawing inspiration from MAPP to develop new creative work. From September to December, they will build on this...

collections.reading.ac.uk

There's a great new Senior Research Associate role being advertised in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at University of East Anglia this month, working on an AHRC-funded project on creative-critical teaching in English studies. Please share! vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/21...

Senior Research Associate (RA2392) in University of East Anglia | UEA

View details and apply for this Senior Research Associate (RA2392) vacancy in University of East Anglia. Faculty of Arts and Humanities (HUM) School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing (L...

vacancies.uea.ac.uk

Mudie's Select Circulating Library lay at the heart of the Victorian publishing system. Karen Wade's site, now at a new URL, makes it possible to explore the library's catalogues as never before, with an index of 22,000 novels by 6000 authors. curatr.ucd.ie/mudies/ #victorian #bookhistory

I've just finished Black Bag by @lukekennard.bsky.social and highly recommend it - really funny, thoughtful and original. Best new novel I've read this year and will take some work to knock of that top spot

More exciting VPR news!

Victorian Periodicals Review@vpreditors.bsky.social · 5mo ago

CFP: VPR will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2027. We’re taking this historic occasion to capture the state of our field in a “KEYWORDS” special issue guest edited by Fionnuala Dillane, @jimmussell.bsky.social & @mdamkjaer.bsky.social. Proposals due March 30. Details: rs4vp.org/vpr-cfp-spec...

Always a joy to find a piece by Kathryn Schulz in the latest New Yorker. This article (nay, meditation) on Richard Holmes’ new biography of Tennyson is quite wonderful. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

In an Age of Science, Tennyson Grappled with an Unsettling New World

His poetry reckoned with the immensities of reality, time, and grief, confronting a world upended by new truths about the earth and the heavens.

newyorker.com

Phrases to use if you want to write a convincing gen z character, according to my students. Though doing so would be absolute cringe, imagine. (From an interactive lecture on #Intermezzo by #sallyrooney at @uniofgreenwich.bsky.social )

The deadline for the first ever Ecocriticsm / Tennyson Conference is Saturday: all details below... @thevicsoc.bsky.social @tennysonsociety.bsky.social @victorianpoetry.bsky.social @poetrysociety.org.uk @profjt.bsky.social @eecocriticism.bsky.social @gothicstudies.bsky.social

The British Library’s PhD placement scheme for 26/27 is now open. My team are offering an exciting placement aiming to raise the profile of our illustrated newspaper collection: www.bl.uk/services/res...

Here are 8 successful *proposals* for academic books/monographs. I am hoping that these help someone who is starting out trying to write one and wants to see what worked for me. They are provided as examples, rather than exemplars. A lot of it was just finding my own way eve.gd/2026/01/16/s...

Some example academic book proposal forms in case they help

A pivotal moment in my academic career, or at least one I remember clearly, was when a very senior professor in the US sent me his book proposal for an acade...

eve.gd

It's here! We are delighted to announce that Issue 8 of the RRR Journal, Play in the Long Nineteenth Century, is available to read now at the link below. We can't wait to hear your thoughts on these brilliant articles! www.rrrjournal.com/issue/8

Issue 8: Play in the Long Nineteenth Century

Issue 8 of Romance, Revolution and Reform.

rrrjournal.com

FAO whoever has messaged me on here, I am not verifying so please can you email my work mj20 @ gre . Ac. UK and I'll pick it up on 5 jan.

Here are my cultural highlights of 2025: Best new novel = Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh - incisive coming of age/ending school novel which is also one of the best treatments of sport in prose fiction I've read. Also loved Geoff Dyer's memoir Homework. (Cont)

Save the date for the next Tennyson Talk on Thursday, December 4 at 7:30 PM GMT, 230 EST by Professor Alison Chapman, University of Victoria Her title is “Cut-and-Paste Tennyson: illustrated periodical poetry extracts and the poetic line.” Contact vpurton@hotmail.co.uk for the Zoom link if needed

As announced at the close of #RSVP2025, congratulations are in order to our two Colby Book Prize winners, Andrew Lewis and @tejapusapati.bsky.social! You can read what our committee has to say about these fantastic additions to the field of periodical studies here: rs4vp.org/awards/colby...

#skyhistorians My uni, LJMU, have announced their VC PhD scholarships. Reach out to me if you are interested in doing something on homes; philanthropy/ charity; material culture and lived religion in the long c19th. These are competitive. You do need strong marks www.ljmu.ac.uk/research/phd...

Vice-Chancellor PhD Scholarship 2026 application form

Apply for one of the studentships available to PhD students at Liverpool John Moores University, and join a fantastic, vibrant community of researchers.

ljmu.ac.uk

Breakfast (still jet lagged so early!) the morning after #rsvp2025 #voicesandvisions and it only felt right to buy a paper after a lot of discussion of the uncertain future of print... Brilliant conference and so nice to catch up with friends and make new ones.

Am not keen on this piece by Crewe. For a hit job like this to work it needs to at least acknowledge what the potential justification for the choices taken might be (& for the writer's popularity) - scoffing at the endorsements, 1 of which is imo intentionally misread, is not enough. 1/3

See the call for @victorianpoetry.bsky.social’s 2025 Early Career Essay Prize (more info below & in the alt text) — please help me get the word out, with thanks!

Victorian Poetry@victorianpoetry.bsky.social · last yr.

Excited to share the call for Victorian Poetry’s 2025 Early Career Prize! Please circulate widely. Happy to answer any questions (see the attached CFP for more details)!

A really good opportunity here to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia: the Birch Family Scholarship is available to a home fees applicant who has applied for a place on the Poetry MA and identifies as a writer of colour. Deadline: 30 May. Please RT! www.uea.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

Call for presentations for an online event, Dickens and Death! This will be livestreamed on June 7 and then posted on our YouTube channel June 9. Proposals should center on the theme of Dickens and Death. Submit proposals of 100-200 words by May 1, 2025 to Céleste Callen: celeston60@gmail.com.

Absolutely love this MJ Lenderman cover of This is Lorelei open.spotify.com/track/3yxJaR...

Dancing in the Club - MJ Lenderman Version

This Is Lorelei, MJ Lenderman · Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version) · Song · 2025

open.spotify.com

This is awful news. RIP

The Bookseller@thebookseller.com · last yr.

Children’s writer and author of the award-winning Crongton series, Alex Wheatle MBE, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. 👇 #BookSky

Brian Maidment, past president and friend of RSVP, passed away on Jan 28. This past summer, he spoke with Marysa Demoor for our Roots of RSVP series and reflected on a long career of studying mass circulation print culture. Read the interview in VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.bsky.social

Victorian Poetry is thrilled to announce a new open-access special issue, “Transition and Transformation.” Guest edited by Erik Gray, it features contributions by Florence Boos, Mary Ellis Gibson, @lindakhughes.bsky.social , Britta Martens, & Herbert F. Tucker. muse.jhu.edu/issue/53644

Do you have an innovative idea for advancing periodicals research? Do you need 💰 to make this idea a reality? Consider applying for our annual Patrick Leary Field Development Grant! Applications are open through March 15. More details can be found on our website: rs4vp.org/awards/leary...

The Patrick Leary Field Development Grant – RSVP

The Patrick Leary Field Development Grant is named for long-time RSVP supporter, Board member and former President, Patrick Leary. It is intended to support one scholar or a team of researchers in cre...

rs4vp.org