Dan Sinykin
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social
former 2x pie-eating champion of St Olaf College
Pinned
I crunched the numbers. You want traditional literary success? You’re boned. But Jayne Anne Phillips is THE UNICORN. The unicorn of unicorns of unicorns open.substack.com/pub/sinykin/...
The Iowa Pipeline
What Are Your Odds of Literary Success?
open.substack.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:09 PM
I crunched the numbers. You want traditional literary success? You’re boned. But Jayne Anne Phillips is THE UNICORN. The unicorn of unicorns of unicorns open.substack.com/pub/sinykin/...
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
This is my first attempt to capture a live event of this size.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
February 10, 2026 at 12:28 PM
This is my first attempt to capture a live event of this size.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
Pretty sure this is the first (and probably only) time I’m on a podcast. ☺️
This is my first attempt to capture a live event of this size.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
I’m thankful to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & @johannawinant.bsky.social for letting me adapt the launch of their tremendous book.
I think these episodes will be an additive supplement to it.
February 10, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Pretty sure this is the first (and probably only) time I’m on a podcast. ☺️
It's here! I hosted a symposium on close reading at Emory in November. Matt Seybold recorded it for his podcast, American Vandal, and the first of three episodes is out today. Catch me, @johannawinant.bsky.social, @becimay.bsky.social, @bakaari.bsky.social + more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium (Vandal Live at Emory)
Podcast Episode · The American Vandal · S12 E4 · 1 sec
podcasts.apple.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:42 PM
It's here! I hosted a symposium on close reading at Emory in November. Matt Seybold recorded it for his podcast, American Vandal, and the first of three episodes is out today. Catch me, @johannawinant.bsky.social, @becimay.bsky.social, @bakaari.bsky.social + more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
Protect your heart from breaking by padding it with soft cheese.
February 9, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Protect your heart from breaking by padding it with soft cheese.
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
what a goddamn amazing project
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
February 9, 2026 at 9:44 PM
what a goddamn amazing project
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
Love this. I taught the introduction to this book to my intro to lit students using both the authors’ WCW example and my own example of a single preposition in Leonard Cohen’s song “Suzanne,” as articulated on @foxydigitalis.bsky.social’s “Songs of Our Lives” podcast.
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
February 9, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Love this. I taught the introduction to this book to my intro to lit students using both the authors’ WCW example and my own example of a single preposition in Leonard Cohen’s song “Suzanne,” as articulated on @foxydigitalis.bsky.social’s “Songs of Our Lives” podcast.
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
Read this fantastic roundtable that @andyhines.bsky.social put together featuring faves Vineeta Singh, Annie McClanahan, Dan Nemser, and Rana Jaleel. The possibility of the university lives!
“I don’t understand why so many people have conceded that the university is a left space. Can someone show me a Marxist university president?”
Defending the Possibility of the University: A Roundtable on “University Keywords” - Public Books
“What would it look like for faculty unions and graduate student unions to collaborate or work together with K-12 teachers’ unions to push back against anti-DEI legislation or book bans?”
www.publicbooks.org
February 9, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Read this fantastic roundtable that @andyhines.bsky.social put together featuring faves Vineeta Singh, Annie McClanahan, Dan Nemser, and Rana Jaleel. The possibility of the university lives!
You can click "look inside" here and should be able to read the intro press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century
A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises
press.princeton.edu
February 9, 2026 at 6:15 PM
You can click "look inside" here and should be able to read the intro press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
February 9, 2026 at 1:56 PM
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
Well, I went ahead and wrote it. An attempt to work through the discomfort people feel with AI agents on social media by reframing it as an aesthetic problem.
The marionette theater of AI
Is it funny, or painful, when bots talk about their inner lives?
tedunderwood.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Well, I went ahead and wrote it. An attempt to work through the discomfort people feel with AI agents on social media by reframing it as an aesthetic problem.
I should get in on this easy money
February 8, 2026 at 9:24 PM
I should get in on this easy money
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race?” God this is bleak
The New Fabio Is Claude
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:47 PM
“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race?” God this is bleak
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
I don't see how self-publishing world survives GenAI. It's going to be an absurd increase in slop books with no reason to expect any increase in paying readers.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
February 8, 2026 at 1:11 PM
I don't see how self-publishing world survives GenAI. It's going to be an absurd increase in slop books with no reason to expect any increase in paying readers.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
Updated this post so it now includes not only a Power Ranking for US writers via the NEA, major prizes, and NYT bestsellers, but also a Power Ranking that drops the NEA, which brings major writers to the top of the list—a list that looks for those who marry sales + prestige: Updike, Roth, Morrison
Used Claude Code to analyze three datasets from @post45data.bsky.social together: NEA literature winners; NYT bestsellers; major prize winners. Made a power list of the 51 writers (out of ~7000) who hit all three open.substack.com/pub/sinykin/...
February 8, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Updated this post so it now includes not only a Power Ranking for US writers via the NEA, major prizes, and NYT bestsellers, but also a Power Ranking that drops the NEA, which brings major writers to the top of the list—a list that looks for those who marry sales + prestige: Updike, Roth, Morrison
My big takeaway from Tooze on Klein: a toss-off comment in the final minutes dismissing (implicitly) Arrighi. Doesn't buy the model of hegemonic transfer that goes back through the Dutch and Genoese.
That, and his recommendation of Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse.
That, and his recommendation of Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse.
February 7, 2026 at 8:08 PM
My big takeaway from Tooze on Klein: a toss-off comment in the final minutes dismissing (implicitly) Arrighi. Doesn't buy the model of hegemonic transfer that goes back through the Dutch and Genoese.
That, and his recommendation of Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse.
That, and his recommendation of Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse.
Used Claude Code to analyze three datasets from @post45data.bsky.social together: NEA literature winners; NYT bestsellers; major prize winners. Made a power list of the 51 writers (out of ~7000) who hit all three open.substack.com/pub/sinykin/...
February 7, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Used Claude Code to analyze three datasets from @post45data.bsky.social together: NEA literature winners; NYT bestsellers; major prize winners. Made a power list of the 51 writers (out of ~7000) who hit all three open.substack.com/pub/sinykin/...
The best part of Mansfield Park is when Fanny leaves well-to-do Mansfield Park, goes home, looks at her poor, working-class family, and declares them "dirty and gross" and "under-bred"
February 7, 2026 at 5:44 PM
The best part of Mansfield Park is when Fanny leaves well-to-do Mansfield Park, goes home, looks at her poor, working-class family, and declares them "dirty and gross" and "under-bred"
i downloaded claude code. it is insane.
February 7, 2026 at 4:23 PM
i downloaded claude code. it is insane.
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet
February 7, 2026 at 3:38 AM
By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
My book is now available for pre-order!
Beneath The Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work - Zone Books
Zone Books
www.zonebooks.org
February 5, 2026 at 10:16 PM
My book is now available for pre-order!
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
I hope Dems begin to see that moderate or progressive, AIPAC is not our friend.
They endorse January 6th insurrectionists. Yet if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you.
They endorse January 6th insurrectionists. Yet if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you.
February 6, 2026 at 2:52 PM
I hope Dems begin to see that moderate or progressive, AIPAC is not our friend.
They endorse January 6th insurrectionists. Yet if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you.
They endorse January 6th insurrectionists. Yet if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you.
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
For MTC, a reading group reflects on Tsai's WALKER, the literature & legacy of the flâneur, and why thinking needs straying.
"After metaphysics, the monk becomes the aesthete; the empty space left behind by the death of God is filled up by art, literature, and, of course, Tsai Ming-Liang’s cinema."
"After metaphysics, the monk becomes the aesthete; the empty space left behind by the death of God is filled up by art, literature, and, of course, Tsai Ming-Liang’s cinema."
Astray: A Reading Journal
The following conversation emerges from the authors’ reading group’s discussion of Tsai Ming-Liang’s film, Walker (2012). Tsai Ming-Liang is a Malaysian-Taiwanese director, part of Taiw…
mid-theory.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:00 PM
For MTC, a reading group reflects on Tsai's WALKER, the literature & legacy of the flâneur, and why thinking needs straying.
"After metaphysics, the monk becomes the aesthete; the empty space left behind by the death of God is filled up by art, literature, and, of course, Tsai Ming-Liang’s cinema."
"After metaphysics, the monk becomes the aesthete; the empty space left behind by the death of God is filled up by art, literature, and, of course, Tsai Ming-Liang’s cinema."
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
this was a privilege and joy -- thank you to Vincent and Central State!
I've developed a set of workshops and talks on close reading, and I'm always happy to have more informal conversations too.
If you'd like me to zoom into a class, reading group, etc., I'd love to (no honorarium necessary)
I've developed a set of workshops and talks on close reading, and I'm always happy to have more informal conversations too.
If you'd like me to zoom into a class, reading group, etc., I'd love to (no honorarium necessary)
So grateful to @johannawinant.bsky.social for joining our faculty for a brilliant conversation about CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, coedited with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social The book is a true achievement and invaluable resource for the teaching of literature. @princetonupress.bsky.social
February 6, 2026 at 12:33 AM
this was a privilege and joy -- thank you to Vincent and Central State!
I've developed a set of workshops and talks on close reading, and I'm always happy to have more informal conversations too.
If you'd like me to zoom into a class, reading group, etc., I'd love to (no honorarium necessary)
I've developed a set of workshops and talks on close reading, and I'm always happy to have more informal conversations too.
If you'd like me to zoom into a class, reading group, etc., I'd love to (no honorarium necessary)
Reposted by Dan Sinykin
So grateful to @johannawinant.bsky.social for joining our faculty for a brilliant conversation about CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, coedited with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social The book is a true achievement and invaluable resource for the teaching of literature. @princetonupress.bsky.social
February 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM
So grateful to @johannawinant.bsky.social for joining our faculty for a brilliant conversation about CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, coedited with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social The book is a true achievement and invaluable resource for the teaching of literature. @princetonupress.bsky.social