Liz Bourke
@hawkwinglb.bsky.social
Ph.D Classics. Reviews @ Reactor Magazine (ex. Tor.com) and Locus Magazine.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hawkwing_lb
Wordpress: https://lizbourke.wordpress.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@hawkwing_lb
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hawkwing_lb
Wordpress: https://lizbourke.wordpress.com
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Liz Bourke
@hawkwinglb.bsky.social
· Nov 9
κῆπος τῶν βιβλιοθηκῶν | a garden from the libraries
Liz Bourke: books, history, writing, and culture.
lizbourke.wordpress.com
Hello, new followers! I write reviews of science fiction and fantasy novels for @locusmag.bsky.social and for @reactorsff.bsky.social. On my blog lizbourke.wordpress.com/news-and-upd..., I write about the nonfiction I've been reading lately, and the occasional deeper dive on some aspect of SFF.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I love this
as promised: I'm back and I have Opinions fozmeadows.substack.com/p/against-ai
January 2, 2026 at 6:07 PM
I love this
Slept normal hours last night for the first time in two or three weeks. Making a plan for the month. Trying to triage the email, after hiding from it. Resolving not to look at the timeline except infrequently: the Americans keep having politics, and that is stressful.
January 2, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Slept normal hours last night for the first time in two or three weeks. Making a plan for the month. Trying to triage the email, after hiding from it. Resolving not to look at the timeline except infrequently: the Americans keep having politics, and that is stressful.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Yessss. Drink those tears!
Please enjoy this picture that I took of my dad to commemorate the time I came from *behind the skunk line* to beat him, because I counted first.
December 30, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Yessss. Drink those tears!
Reposted by Liz Bourke
A rare, but much needed TL cleanse of levity that speaks to and for many of us belonging to the WDNC club. Enjoy:
December 30, 2025 at 4:52 PM
A rare, but much needed TL cleanse of levity that speaks to and for many of us belonging to the WDNC club. Enjoy:
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Early modern studies also gets badly handled by this dynamic, I should note. When I say 'modern' we really mean departments dominated by post-1700 or even post-1789 subfields.
My sense is it is about as hard to get hired focused on 1500 as 1000 as 100.
My sense is it is about as hard to get hired focused on 1500 as 1000 as 100.
December 30, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Early modern studies also gets badly handled by this dynamic, I should note. When I say 'modern' we really mean departments dominated by post-1700 or even post-1789 subfields.
My sense is it is about as hard to get hired focused on 1500 as 1000 as 100.
My sense is it is about as hard to get hired focused on 1500 as 1000 as 100.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Excessive modernism - departments unbalanced towards the study of modern history - is the crop-blight of history departments and has long been so.
Modern history and modernists are valuable and important, of course, but the ratios have long since skewed absurdly in favor of modern history.
Modern history and modernists are valuable and important, of course, but the ratios have long since skewed absurdly in favor of modern history.
YES! I have been banging this drum constantly for years now, mostly at my prior institution. Premodernity is marginalized even in history departments, which should absolutely know better.
Humanities programs have ceded scholarship of the premodern to bad actors on the right. This is a serious problem, not only because it represents a loss of current and future knowledge, but also because it enables white supremacists and Christian nationalists to twist history to their own ends.
December 30, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Excessive modernism - departments unbalanced towards the study of modern history - is the crop-blight of history departments and has long been so.
Modern history and modernists are valuable and important, of course, but the ratios have long since skewed absurdly in favor of modern history.
Modern history and modernists are valuable and important, of course, but the ratios have long since skewed absurdly in favor of modern history.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Just going to use this to one up the job reports: www.themedievalacademyblog.org/wp-content/u... and www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-job.... New one in the new year. Also, the quote below from Speculum (the Medieval Studies journal) is relevant.
December 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Just going to use this to one up the job reports: www.themedievalacademyblog.org/wp-content/u... and www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-job.... New one in the new year. Also, the quote below from Speculum (the Medieval Studies journal) is relevant.
130. Nonfiction books at the end of the year.
Scraping out the embers of my brain like the clagged and gritty ash of a grease fire on the top of the cooker... In this post: Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba. Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters Orkeyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Steven…
Scraping out the embers of my brain like the clagged and gritty ash of a grease fire on the top of the cooker... In this post: Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba. Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters Orkeyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Steven…
130. Nonfiction books at the end of the year.
Scraping out the embers of my brain like the clagged and gritty ash of a grease fire on the top of the cooker... In this post: Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba. Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters Orkeyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Steven Vanderputten, Dark Age Nunneries: The Ambiguous Identity of Female Monasticism, 800-1050 Larissa Tracy and Jay Paul Gate, …
lizbourke.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:31 PM
130. Nonfiction books at the end of the year.
Scraping out the embers of my brain like the clagged and gritty ash of a grease fire on the top of the cooker... In this post: Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba. Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters Orkeyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Steven…
Scraping out the embers of my brain like the clagged and gritty ash of a grease fire on the top of the cooker... In this post: Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba. Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters Orkeyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Steven…
Reposted by Liz Bourke
There is no justification for anyone on the left to enter government with FFG.
GP can't tackle climate change with parties who intend to INCREASE carbon emissions.
Labour can't advocate for workers with parties who allow rampant fake self employment and zero hour contracts. 1/2
#spéirgorm
GP can't tackle climate change with parties who intend to INCREASE carbon emissions.
Labour can't advocate for workers with parties who allow rampant fake self employment and zero hour contracts. 1/2
#spéirgorm
People might well ask why I keep banging on about the past like this?
Because a continual succession of FF-FG governments is NOT the way to get the change Ireland needs, but small progressive parties (especially the Greens and Labour) have a history of failing to grasp that.
Because a continual succession of FF-FG governments is NOT the way to get the change Ireland needs, but small progressive parties (especially the Greens and Labour) have a history of failing to grasp that.
December 30, 2025 at 3:24 PM
There is no justification for anyone on the left to enter government with FFG.
GP can't tackle climate change with parties who intend to INCREASE carbon emissions.
Labour can't advocate for workers with parties who allow rampant fake self employment and zero hour contracts. 1/2
#spéirgorm
GP can't tackle climate change with parties who intend to INCREASE carbon emissions.
Labour can't advocate for workers with parties who allow rampant fake self employment and zero hour contracts. 1/2
#spéirgorm
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I just started testing Ellipsus for fun and I enjoyed it!
Some thoughts about Word alternatives:
- Ellipsus is lovely to write in. Very pretty, strong anti-AI stance, accessible everywhere. It gets bogged down when files get large (especially on mobile), I have half a dozen problems with the UI, and its export/import functions are not great.
- Ellipsus is lovely to write in. Very pretty, strong anti-AI stance, accessible everywhere. It gets bogged down when files get large (especially on mobile), I have half a dozen problems with the UI, and its export/import functions are not great.
December 30, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I just started testing Ellipsus for fun and I enjoyed it!
I do love a good heist. No one physically hurt.
December 30, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I do love a good heist. No one physically hurt.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I repost this on every platform when I see it
It's that time again. It will be hard to let go.
From Lucille Clifton's book, How to Carry Water: bit.ly/howtocarrywa...
#poem #booksky #writing
From Lucille Clifton's book, How to Carry Water: bit.ly/howtocarrywa...
#poem #booksky #writing
December 30, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I repost this on every platform when I see it
Yeah. My seasonal depression is not so terrible, but basically December is a time for sleeping, sadness, lack of focus, and keeping the sunlamp on for hours on end. The suicidal ideations are fine, really, I'm used to them. The great clotting exhaustion & lack of focus - this year on top of burnout?
like folks I would LIKE to be able to take advantage of a number of attractive far-north places except for the minor detail of “my brain initiates a genuine and totally implacable self-destruct switch sometime around mid-December” in dark cold climates
December 30, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Yeah. My seasonal depression is not so terrible, but basically December is a time for sleeping, sadness, lack of focus, and keeping the sunlamp on for hours on end. The suicidal ideations are fine, really, I'm used to them. The great clotting exhaustion & lack of focus - this year on top of burnout?
I am so fucking burned out, guys, I can't even express it. Trying to improve my attitude but mostly I've just got a feeling in my brain like when you're trying to clean grease off the cooker rings and it just won't shift: clagged, gritty, and futile.
129. Some romance novels at the end of the year
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
129. Some romance novels at the end of the year
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head Juniper Butterworth's The Changeling, Priest-Queen, and The Dragon Under The Hill…
lizbourke.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:15 PM
I am so fucking burned out, guys, I can't even express it. Trying to improve my attitude but mostly I've just got a feeling in my brain like when you're trying to clean grease off the cooker rings and it just won't shift: clagged, gritty, and futile.
129. Some romance novels at the end of the year
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
129. Some romance novels at the end of the year
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head Juniper Butterworth's The Changeling, Priest-Queen, and The Dragon Under The Hill…
lizbourke.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:11 PM
129. Some romance novels at the end of the year
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
It's the tail end of 2025 and I'm hella burned out. In this post: a handful of romance novels, all but the last named of which I picked up on account of reading Felicia Davin's newsletter. Judith Ivory's Black Silk J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy…
My review of @finnlongman.com's The Wolf and His King is now available on the Locus website: locusmag.com/review/the-w...
The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman: Review by Liz Bourke
The Wolf and His King, Finn Longman (Gollancz 978-1-39962-099-4, £20.00, 350pp, hc) November 2025. (Erewhon 978-1-64566-311-9, $32.00 368pp, hc) January 2026. I read Finn Longman’s first trilogy, …
locusmag.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:47 PM
My review of @finnlongman.com's The Wolf and His King is now available on the Locus website: locusmag.com/review/the-w...
Reposted by Liz Bourke
If this is accurate, NO WONDER the “They Tried To Hit Himself’s Dacha With A Drone!” thing surfaced so suddenly. 😏
SECURITY GUARANTEES INCLUDE U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE IN UKRAINE: For the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. included the deployment of American troops in Ukraine in security guarantees.
США заявили про готовність розгорнути війська в Україні як елемент гарантій безпеки - Туск
Мир в Україні вперше від початку повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну «з’явився на горизонті», а ключовим результатом переговорів в останні дні стала декларація США про гарантії безпеки, включн...
www.ukrinform.ua
December 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
If this is accurate, NO WONDER the “They Tried To Hit Himself’s Dacha With A Drone!” thing surfaced so suddenly. 😏
Reposted by Liz Bourke
totally the norm in Japan/China/Taiwan etc to mask:
* if you're sick, out of consideration for others
* if you don't want to get sick
* to mitigate pollution.
I can not understand why this is a big deal.
* if you're sick, out of consideration for others
* if you don't want to get sick
* to mitigate pollution.
I can not understand why this is a big deal.
It’s wild we’re still talking about masks. I still mask up in grocery stores, elevators, public bathrooms, and public transit cuz I don’t like being sick and I don’t want to get my kid sick and it doesn’t have to be more complicated than not liking being sick. It’s weird anyone would question that.
December 29, 2025 at 5:58 PM
totally the norm in Japan/China/Taiwan etc to mask:
* if you're sick, out of consideration for others
* if you don't want to get sick
* to mitigate pollution.
I can not understand why this is a big deal.
* if you're sick, out of consideration for others
* if you don't want to get sick
* to mitigate pollution.
I can not understand why this is a big deal.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Ask this question and its follow-up. Like Begum before him, Alaa el-Fattah is being used as a crowbar to shift reasonable people - even some progressives - into a space of thinking that full citizenship, if granted recently or dual, is retroactively conditional or attracts a lower class of rights.
December 29, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Ask this question and its follow-up. Like Begum before him, Alaa el-Fattah is being used as a crowbar to shift reasonable people - even some progressives - into a space of thinking that full citizenship, if granted recently or dual, is retroactively conditional or attracts a lower class of rights.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
They're being targeted for their skill set so they cam live indefinately in chains to work for nothing, while never actually being charged & tried for anything.
If they don't comply, they are beaten. Or worse.
That's slavery. Real time, concentration camp labor slavery.
The slaves must be freed.
If they don't comply, they are beaten. Or worse.
That's slavery. Real time, concentration camp labor slavery.
The slaves must be freed.
Detention centers aren't just holding people; they’re profiting from their forced labor.
December 30, 2025 at 2:55 AM
They're being targeted for their skill set so they cam live indefinately in chains to work for nothing, while never actually being charged & tried for anything.
If they don't comply, they are beaten. Or worse.
That's slavery. Real time, concentration camp labor slavery.
The slaves must be freed.
If they don't comply, they are beaten. Or worse.
That's slavery. Real time, concentration camp labor slavery.
The slaves must be freed.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
“Women in early medieval Ireland”,
Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland
youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...
Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland
youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...
Women in Early Medieval Ireland - Aidan O'Sullivan, Elizabeth Boyle, Charlene Eska, & Fergus Kelly
YouTube video by Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland
youtu.be
December 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
“Women in early medieval Ireland”,
Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland
youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...
Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland
youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Very much hoping our colleagues in the sciences not only read this, but take its urgent messages to heart. 🧪
It was amazing to write with @ehayot.bsky.social & each of us put our stank into every part of this essay.
I have no memory of how we drafted it in October, but when we came back to it a couple weeks ago, I felt this paragraph in my bones.
I have no memory of how we drafted it in October, but when we came back to it a couple weeks ago, I felt this paragraph in my bones.
December 30, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Very much hoping our colleagues in the sciences not only read this, but take its urgent messages to heart. 🧪
Reposted by Liz Bourke
There’s no such thing as two-tier citizenship. If you start revoking non-natural citizenship then all non-natural citizenship is effectively just a higher and harder to lose category of residence permit.
These people have gone absolutely fucking nuts. How do we stop it?
December 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM
There’s no such thing as two-tier citizenship. If you start revoking non-natural citizenship then all non-natural citizenship is effectively just a higher and harder to lose category of residence permit.