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Isobel Cook

@isobelcook.bsky.social

Researching nuclear-themed British poetry. PhD-in-progress. Theatre and ballet fan. Based in Sheffield. Travels by train. She/her.

95 Posts194 Follower330 Folgt
Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · 9mo ago

Computer’s First Christmas Card: a Poetry/Coding workshop 4 Dec, Glasgow – free Inspired by Edwin Morgan’s poem, attendees at this Poetry/Coding workshop will code a festive poem & leave with a handmade Christmas card! No experience of coding or poetry necessary www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/computers-...

Computer's First Christmas Card: a Poetry/Coding workshop

Poetry Coding Workshop with the Edwin Morgan Collection. An introduction to coding and poetry with Michael Mullen and Claire Quigley.

eventbrite.co.uk

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Having analogue creative practices and hobbies is something I find really beneficial to my wellbeing. For a long time now, I've been making my own cards to send to friends and family - recently I've been leaning into collage. Here's a little peak at recent creations, with some analysis (of course).

Music, dancers, and resisting generative AI: two collages

Against generative AI (which shovels the all-too profits of art away from its diverse makers and into the pockets of monopolising tech billionaires, all while disregarding this cultural damage and …

writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com

Emily Naish@emjlynajsh.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The deadline is still over a month away, but reminder about this @themhra.bsky.social funded conference @fairbanc.bsky.social and I are organising on the exciting subject of **early modern practical texts**! 📅 Abstracts due 24/11. Full details can be found here: sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies - CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature

CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature

sites.google.com

Ele Willoughby@minouette.bsky.social · last yr.

March 22 is #WorldWaterDay & an apt birthday for Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear power. 🐡🧪👩🏻‍🔬⚒️ 🧵#histsci

Printed in a gradient of dark blue-green at the bottom through dark blue to light blue at the top, this is my 9.25” x 12.5” portrait of Japanese geochemist in the lab adjusting a round bottomed flask with other posts and an array of chemical glassware in the foreground. In the background are carved ocean waves so the top looks like sky over wavy ocean
Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Can't make it to today's discussion? Learn more about 'Heavy Water' and the (re)mediation of the Chernobyl disaster in my 2023 blog post: writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/b...

British poetry about the Chernobyl disaster, and chains of adaptation

In a previous blog post, I suggested two books to help readers learn about the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster of 1986. In this post, I build on that by recommending some poems about Chernobyl. Th…

writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

On Monday 8th September 2025 the Art in the Nuclear Age reading group is meeting online. Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.

CND Peace Education@cndpeaceed.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The start of September marks the anniversary of the Women of Greenham Common's Peace Camp. The camp began in 1981, opposing Britain’s nuclear policy and their decision to allow US Cruise Missiles to be stored in Greenham and lasted almost 20 years!

Bild
History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · last yr.

How did making banners help women to express themselves and support one another at Greenham Common Peace Camp? Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) explores this creative process and explains why motherhood was such a prominent theme.

Motherhood and Banner-making at Greenham Women’s Peace Camp

How did making banners help women to express themselves at Greenham Common Peace Camp? Why was motherhood was such a prominent theme?

historyworkshop.org.uk

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

I've produced a reading guide in collaboration with @commonwealuk.bsky.social on the topic of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, site of Britain's largest antinuclear protest. You can find it, and other guides to books about peace activism, here: www.commonwealnonviolence.org/reading-lists

Reading lists - Commonweal

With over 14,000 books, pamphlets and journals in the Collection, sometimes it can be hard to know how to start so here are some reading lists to get you started! New lists will be added regularly, so...

commonwealnonviolence.org

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

Always nice to see a Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp poem out in the wild. 12th December 1982 was the date of the 'Embrace the Base' action, chosen to anticipate the arrival of US cruise missiles. 30,000 women formed a human chain around the airbase in nonviolent protest against nuclear weapons.

Beth Brooke@bethbpoet.bsky.social · last yr.

Well #PoetsOfBluesky I am not sure if this qualifies as #PoemsAbout #Spectacle because I was actually a part of this particular spectacle. I know some people in my family thought that I was making a spectacle of myself by doing it.

12th December 1982, Greenham Common December, that time of waiting, when women came to Greenham Common. We stood at the gates, linked arms, made ourselves a chain of flesh, sang our dissent, invited power to see things differently. We tied bright ribbons to the fence, decorated it with photographs. Some of us brought tokens of the lives we wanted to protect: children’s jackets, baby shoes, terrycloth comforters; hung them on the wire to make a rainbow. We told each other tales of love and celebration, knew how tired we were of living stories written by men without imagination, who only found security in the hard edges of a Kalashnikov, or in the ticking hearts of bombs. We stood, sang loud and strong, on and on: hope in the voices of women.
Venus Bivar@vbivar.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm curating a collection of good reads on the horrors of AI that I can assign to students. So far I've got Teen Vogue on the environment, and the @guinz.bsky.social Substack piece. Any other recs? Needs to be short so that students will actually read it.

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

Can't say that I agree with Pinsky that 'The Horses' is the absolute bestest nuclear anxiety text... but it does still make an impact #nuclearCulture

Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · last yr.

“Edwin Muir (1887–1959) is a mysteriously neglected, gorgeous, & emotionally penetrating poet. Of all the many pieces of writing spurred by the Cold War & the threat of nuclear apocalypse […] his poem ‘The Horses’ may be the most effective” —Robert Pinsky 2/8 slate.com/culture/1999...

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

There's scope for a non-toxic masculinity which reshapes the narrative of men as protectors to centre protecting our environment and climate, I think. (Maybe this is already happening somewhere?)

Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · last yr.

"Men emit 26% more planet-heating pollution than women from transport and food, according to a preprint study of 15,000 people in France. The gap shrinks to 18% after controlling for socioeconomic factors such as income and education."

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

I really like this analysis of the event! Masculinity has also been connected to ideas of dominance - over oneself, one's emotions, over women, and importantly in this instance, over nature.

Tim Howles@timhowles.bsky.social · last yr.

1. There are various lessons that can be learned from the mindless criminality of the Sycamore Gap tree tragedy. But one that has been overlooked is its subtle indexing to toxic masculinity. There are many clues within the case that point to this. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Isobel Cook@isobelcook.bsky.social · last yr.

You can turn spam email into a thankyou message - report phishing attempts to the National Cyber Security Centre in the UK just by forwarding the email to report@phishing.gov.uk -protect less savvy (or just tired) folks from getting scammed, and get a nice (albeit automatic) thank you in response.