Dougal McNeill
@dougalmcneill.bsky.social
Literary critic & historian; socialist; education trade unionist; sinner who has fallen short (the throat an opened grave!); listener for the murmur of underground streams, looker for a limestone landscape.
Found this handsome hardback at 北沢書店 in 神田 today, on the same shelf I found About the House many years ago. These late, late poems doing all sorts of amazing things: “None of us are as young / as we were. So what? / Friendship never ages.”
November 14, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Found this handsome hardback at 北沢書店 in 神田 today, on the same shelf I found About the House many years ago. These late, late poems doing all sorts of amazing things: “None of us are as young / as we were. So what? / Friendship never ages.”
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
Just submitted my final page proofs. Forthcoming in March 2026.
www.sup.org/books/asian-...
www.sup.org/books/asian-...
November 6, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Just submitted my final page proofs. Forthcoming in March 2026.
www.sup.org/books/asian-...
www.sup.org/books/asian-...
<<どうも、白人至上主義や陰謀論はクソなんだけれでも、BLM運動が代表するような現代アメリカの左派文化運動も同じくらいクソである、といったシニシズムが、これら2本の映画には通底していて、ああ、これが今のアメリカの「気分」なのかと暗い気分になったのでした>>
shintak.hatenadiary.jp/entry/2025/1...
shintak.hatenadiary.jp/entry/2025/1...
現代アメリカのシニシズム〜『ワン・バトル・アフター・アナザー』（2025）／『エディントンへようこそ』（試写、2025） - 今日から四百
続けて観た2本の映画、どうもアメリカ（映画）の進む方向に暗雲を示唆しているような気がして、ちょっと気が重い。 www.youtube.com 1本目は評判のよい（よい評判しか聞かない）『ワン・バトル・アフター・アナザー』。確かに映画的なつくりとか、何もできないディカプリオ、それと対照的なチェイス・インフィニティとかすばらしいんですが、一見非常に政治的に見えつつ、シニシズムに満ちた映画である点が非常...
shintak.hatenadiary.jp
November 11, 2025 at 9:13 AM
<<どうも、白人至上主義や陰謀論はクソなんだけれでも、BLM運動が代表するような現代アメリカの左派文化運動も同じくらいクソである、といったシニシズムが、これら2本の映画には通底していて、ああ、これが今のアメリカの「気分」なのかと暗い気分になったのでした>>
shintak.hatenadiary.jp/entry/2025/1...
shintak.hatenadiary.jp/entry/2025/1...
“The book is haunted by complicity, and it is haunting in its insistence on remembering every betrayal. Dropbear was committed to the power of poetry to roll back the terrors and violence of colonialism. The Rot, more bereft, seems unsure.” theconversation.com/grim-funny-a...
Grim, funny and unremitting, Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot is a book attuned to dark times
The Rot is haunted by complicity, and haunting in its insistence on remembering every betrayal.
theconversation.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 AM
“The book is haunted by complicity, and it is haunting in its insistence on remembering every betrayal. Dropbear was committed to the power of poetry to roll back the terrors and violence of colonialism. The Rot, more bereft, seems unsure.” theconversation.com/grim-funny-a...
Charming (& tiny) exhibition of Moriwaki Masumi’s “cool boys and tough girls” in Kichijōji.
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Charming (& tiny) exhibition of Moriwaki Masumi’s “cool boys and tough girls” in Kichijōji.
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
I love to see stuff like this because it helps explain to people trapped in tech-sponsored information bubbles the actually obvious fact that universities teach people to know & think things, and AI is a way to produce the effect of knowing & thinking things w/o actually knowing & thinking them.
Opinion | Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I love to see stuff like this because it helps explain to people trapped in tech-sponsored information bubbles the actually obvious fact that universities teach people to know & think things, and AI is a way to produce the effect of knowing & thinking things w/o actually knowing & thinking them.
“I very much wanted… to be a bridge between my Māori relations and my Pākehā relations, and I wanted very much to make explicit, explicable, the spiritual world.” thespinoff.co.nz/books/31-10-...
‘You’re pulling my leg’: Forty years ago today, Keri Hulme won the Booker Prize
The night Keri Hulme's masterpiece disrupted British publishing and changed the novel forever.
thespinoff.co.nz
October 31, 2025 at 3:09 AM
“I very much wanted… to be a bridge between my Māori relations and my Pākehā relations, and I wanted very much to make explicit, explicable, the spiritual world.” thespinoff.co.nz/books/31-10-...
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
This essay began its life a long time ago, in conversation with an @elccprogramme.bsky.social Summer Scholar, Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa. It’s taken years to bring some of that early thinking to fruition.
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Congratulations to Nikki Hessell, whose essay "Robinson Crusoe as a Transpacific Novel: Hospitality, Recognition, Translation," has been selected as the winner of this year's Maximillian E. Novak Essay Prize. Abstract below:
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
#defoe #danieldefoe #transpacific #novel
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
#defoe #danieldefoe #transpacific #novel
October 30, 2025 at 1:42 AM
This essay began its life a long time ago, in conversation with an @elccprogramme.bsky.social Summer Scholar, Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa. It’s taken years to bring some of that early thinking to fruition.
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Gender-affirming crockery.
October 30, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Gender-affirming crockery.
“You can only critically assess the output of an AI chatbot if you have the skills to do so, and you don’t develop these skills by using AI. Before you can be critical of an AI summary, you have to learn to understand a text without having it summarized by an AI tool.” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 28, 2025 at 3:41 AM
“You can only critically assess the output of an AI chatbot if you have the skills to do so, and you don’t develop these skills by using AI. Before you can be critical of an AI summary, you have to learn to understand a text without having it summarized by an AI tool.” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI
Del Toro's new Frankenstein adaption reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel. Frankenstein was like a tech bro: "creating something without considering the consequences," he explains.
www.npr.org
October 23, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
Congratulations to Don Mee Choi, whose collection Mirror Nation has been shortlisted for the PEN Heaney Prize 2025 🎉
Together with @irishpen.bsky.social & the Estate of Seamus Heaney, we’re delighted to announce the PEN Heaney Prize 2025 shortlist. The winner will be announced on 1 December at a ceremony held at @nlireland.bsky.social.
Find out more & book now ⤵️
www.englishpen.org/posts/news/p...
Find out more & book now ⤵️
www.englishpen.org/posts/news/p...
PEN Heaney Prize 2025 shortlist - News & Events - English PEN
English PEN announces the six shortlisted titles for the PEN Heaney Prize 2025
www.englishpen.org
October 23, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Congratulations to Don Mee Choi, whose collection Mirror Nation has been shortlisted for the PEN Heaney Prize 2025 🎉
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa, edited by Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill and Robert Sullivan will be launched at Unity Books (Wgtn) on Friday at 6. Enjoy readings from some of the featured poets and essayists, and some lively conversation about NZ poetry!
Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa
Chris Tse to Tayi Tibble – what New Zealand poetry looks like now.
aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz
October 21, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa, edited by Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill and Robert Sullivan will be launched at Unity Books (Wgtn) on Friday at 6. Enjoy readings from some of the featured poets and essayists, and some lively conversation about NZ poetry!
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
The entire "free speech on campus" moral panic was manufactured to blackmail us into making space in intellectual life for bigots and charlatans who couldn't get there on their own merits. Its a DEI scheme for fascism. Congratulations to everyone who took it at face value.
“Following his lecture, Yarvin will debate the legendary British historian David Starkey on history and the future of conservatism.” Everything about this is so cursed. Masks off at the University of Oxford.
October 20, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The entire "free speech on campus" moral panic was manufactured to blackmail us into making space in intellectual life for bigots and charlatans who couldn't get there on their own merits. Its a DEI scheme for fascism. Congratulations to everyone who took it at face value.
Nigella Lawson's HOW TO EAT (1998) is a great text for thinking about approaching poetry in the undergraduate classroom, something I'd known without realising and that this tweet helped make clear.
I don't think students should be asked to rhetorically analyze poetry in a class before they get practice experiencing poetry without imagining it as a rhetorical structure.
Like, cooking is so much better if you begin by first developing a relationship to the pleasure of food.
Like, cooking is so much better if you begin by first developing a relationship to the pleasure of food.
October 21, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Nigella Lawson's HOW TO EAT (1998) is a great text for thinking about approaching poetry in the undergraduate classroom, something I'd known without realising and that this tweet helped make clear.
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
What if we just let Canvas stay down… forever?
October 20, 2025 at 10:52 PM
What if we just let Canvas stay down… forever?
"To all who rely on these public sector workers [...] now is the time to publicly, visibly show your support and refute the toxic narratives of the government" iso.org.nz/2025/10/20/o...
Open Letter to the Working People of Aotearoa
To the patients, students and whānau of those affected by the government’s dismantling of public services, We condemn the suffering that has been inflicted on you by systematic neglect of the public ...
iso.org.nz
October 20, 2025 at 8:24 AM
"To all who rely on these public sector workers [...] now is the time to publicly, visibly show your support and refute the toxic narratives of the government" iso.org.nz/2025/10/20/o...
Grateful to Nicola Andrews for this generous and open review of our book. Love to follow the conversation as it goes along in the world . www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/reviews/r...
Review: Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa
'This book encourages close reading and gifting - between poems, collections, poets, and generations. The writing is rich and complex, yet offered in a way accessible to anyone with an interest in lit...
www.ketebooks.co.nz
October 18, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Grateful to Nicola Andrews for this generous and open review of our book. Love to follow the conversation as it goes along in the world . www.ketebooks.co.nz/en/reviews/r...
“The waters between Fukuoka and Pusan narrowed through intensified interactions that continued even after the end of empire, creating enduring legacies for the postwar and postcolonial eras.” www.ucpress.edu/books/the-na...
The Narrowing Sea by Hannah Shepherd - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
www.ucpress.edu
October 17, 2025 at 6:35 AM
“The waters between Fukuoka and Pusan narrowed through intensified interactions that continued even after the end of empire, creating enduring legacies for the postwar and postcolonial eras.” www.ucpress.edu/books/the-na...
This is not a time to look away: justiceforpalestine.nz/2025/10/13/j...
Justice for Palestine statement on Gaza ceasefire
Justice for Palestine welcomes the Gaza ceasefire agreement. After two years of unrelenting violence, the people of Gaza desperately need this relief. The resumption of humanitarian aid and the hal…
justiceforpalestine.nz
October 15, 2025 at 6:47 AM
This is not a time to look away: justiceforpalestine.nz/2025/10/13/j...
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
I wrote about what I found this week digging about in the enormous new Poems of Seamus Heaney someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/pinks-37-t...
Pinks #37: The Melancholy Spouts of Tractors
On The Poems of Seamus Heaney (2025)
someflowerssoon.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 8:19 AM
I wrote about what I found this week digging about in the enormous new Poems of Seamus Heaney someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/pinks-37-t...
Reposted by Dougal McNeill
I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
Toward the Higher- and Secondary-Ed Alliance! - Public Books
The influence of K-12 policy and pedagogy on higher ed can perhaps be seen best in the trickle-up effect of the standards of the Common Core.
www.publicbooks.org
October 10, 2025 at 4:39 PM
I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
“I would love for them to reject the ideal of “debate” as such, because serious intellectual reflection is not something you can win or lose.” adamkotsko.substack.com/p/pedagogy-i...
Pedagogy in the Age of Hyperpolitics
Or, Creating a space for a politics not centered on venting
adamkotsko.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 9:29 PM
“I would love for them to reject the ideal of “debate” as such, because serious intellectual reflection is not something you can win or lose.” adamkotsko.substack.com/p/pedagogy-i...
First entry for gimbap from 1966, a nicely evocative description of a North Carolina picnic. www.hani.co.kr/arti/english...
From ‘kimbap’ to ‘maknae,’ Oxford English Dictionary sees explosion of Korean loanwords
The lion’s share of terms of Korean origin have been added within the last four years, with a total of 48 Korean loanwords now listed in the OED
www.hani.co.kr
October 11, 2025 at 3:49 AM
First entry for gimbap from 1966, a nicely evocative description of a North Carolina picnic. www.hani.co.kr/arti/english...
“Poetry is not a democratic process!” badapple.gay/2025/08/08/v...
Very Good, In Fact – bad apple
badapple.gay
October 10, 2025 at 7:12 AM
“Poetry is not a democratic process!” badapple.gay/2025/08/08/v...