Jess Masters
@jessmasters.bsky.social
English PhD & sessional academic, U Sydney | Modernist Studies Association Grad Student Rep | co-editor Book Reviews Space Between journal | never not thinking about form |
Jane Hirshfield, 'Let Them Not Say' (2014):
Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.
Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.
January 26, 2026 at 5:54 AM
Jane Hirshfield, 'Let Them Not Say' (2014):
Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.
Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.
January 12, 2026 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Jess Masters
I don’t do end-of-year publication roundups, but I’m deeply proud of this essay cluster on “Modernism in Comics” that I edited for @mmodernity.bsky.social, and I encourage everyone to spend some time with the brilliant pieces in it.
"We are still finding modernism where we had least expected it," writes @matthewlevay.bsky.social in his introduction to the latest Modernism/modernity cluster, which looks at "one of the period’s most vibrant yet critically derided art forms—comics": modernismmodernity.org/forums/moder...
December 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I don’t do end-of-year publication roundups, but I’m deeply proud of this essay cluster on “Modernism in Comics” that I edited for @mmodernity.bsky.social, and I encourage everyone to spend some time with the brilliant pieces in it.
Ever been generous? Considered the fraught ethical ways generosity shapes modernist literature/studies? Come to @moderniststudies.bsky.social session "Generous Modernisms" at 1.45pm Friday at #MLA2026! Showcasing work from three continents @amyeelkins.bsky.social @tamlynavery.bsky.social & others.
January 8, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Ever been generous? Considered the fraught ethical ways generosity shapes modernist literature/studies? Come to @moderniststudies.bsky.social session "Generous Modernisms" at 1.45pm Friday at #MLA2026! Showcasing work from three continents @amyeelkins.bsky.social @tamlynavery.bsky.social & others.
Reposted by Jess Masters
Layover in paradise (aka Vancouver), en route to Toronto for #MLA26. Pls join me — plus all 32 puffer jackets I’m rocking as an Aussie bracing her first 🇨🇦 winter 🤪! — this Fri. 145pm for a roundtable on generous modernisms w/ @jessmasters.bsky.social & excellent @moderniststudies.bsky.social folks.
January 7, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Layover in paradise (aka Vancouver), en route to Toronto for #MLA26. Pls join me — plus all 32 puffer jackets I’m rocking as an Aussie bracing her first 🇨🇦 winter 🤪! — this Fri. 145pm for a roundtable on generous modernisms w/ @jessmasters.bsky.social & excellent @moderniststudies.bsky.social folks.
He must have read À REBOURS (1884)
‘In 1922, Joseph H. Kraus proposed the idea of a perfume organ, in which a touch on the keyboard would release scents ranging from sandalwood (bass) up to tonka bean and violet.’
Susannah Clapp reviews ‘The Madman’s Orchestra’.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Susannah Clapp reviews ‘The Madman’s Orchestra’.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Susannah Clapp · Not Quite Music
For Rimsky-Korsakov, the key of A was clear pink; for Scriabin, it was green. Duke Ellington read the flight patterns of...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 5, 2026 at 11:14 AM
He must have read À REBOURS (1884)
Reposted by Jess Masters
new quarter century
more art
more good
more art
more good
January 1, 2026 at 1:23 PM
new quarter century
more art
more good
more art
more good
There are worse ways to farewell one year and begin the next than having the toys from Play School serenade Australia with Auld Lang Syne. May 2026 be a kinder year to us all
December 31, 2025 at 1:22 PM
There are worse ways to farewell one year and begin the next than having the toys from Play School serenade Australia with Auld Lang Syne. May 2026 be a kinder year to us all
Left 2019 as Grease Travolta, leaving 2025 as Pulp Fiction Travolta
November 21, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Left 2019 as Grease Travolta, leaving 2025 as Pulp Fiction Travolta
The nested narratives in this
this is how you become an English literature academic
October 15, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The nested narratives in this
Reposted by Jess Masters
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
October 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
The first rule of NYC is obviously mind your business, but the second one appears to be that now it's legal to jaywalk, it's stupid not to
October 13, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The first rule of NYC is obviously mind your business, but the second one appears to be that now it's legal to jaywalk, it's stupid not to
Now that the amazing and insanely full MSA Boston conference is over, I'm just making sure the place in NYC where EE Cummings would bellow YOU ALRIGHT DJUNA to Barnes across the way is still there (it's there)
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Now that the amazing and insanely full MSA Boston conference is over, I'm just making sure the place in NYC where EE Cummings would bellow YOU ALRIGHT DJUNA to Barnes across the way is still there (it's there)
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
MSA friends! Come watch me read a (too hastily-written) paper on ekphrastic accumulation at 10.15 on Friday and perhaps, if you're lucky, you may even see me butcher @glavey.bsky.social 's amazing work! The potential for fun is endless @moderniststudies.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 7:59 AM
MSA friends! Come watch me read a (too hastily-written) paper on ekphrastic accumulation at 10.15 on Friday and perhaps, if you're lucky, you may even see me butcher @glavey.bsky.social 's amazing work! The potential for fun is endless @moderniststudies.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
Oddballs unite for a Euro summer!
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
August 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Oddballs unite for a Euro summer!
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
August 19, 2025 at 3:02 AM
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
This graduate mentoring program designed by @jessmasters.bsky.social is a new MSA initiative, and I wish existed when I was a grad student. Pass it along to any graduate students working in modernism or modernist-adjacent fields, like the Harlem Renaissance, 20th-century studies, etc.
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
July 27, 2025 at 3:28 PM
This graduate mentoring program designed by @jessmasters.bsky.social is a new MSA initiative, and I wish existed when I was a grad student. Pass it along to any graduate students working in modernism or modernist-adjacent fields, like the Harlem Renaissance, 20th-century studies, etc.
Reposted by Jess Masters
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
July 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.
![Reading Scenario Experiments. This series of prompts is designed to get you thinking about how the setting for reading affects concentration, comprehension, and even the existential experience of reading. Every week, one of the following prompts will appear on the syllabus. I encourage you to try all of them that you are able. How does a different reading setting affect your mood? Your receptiveness to the prose? Your pleasure or difficulty reading? What are the particular impacts of changing your lighting or surroundings? What do you notice about yourself and about the work you are reading during this experiment?
1. read by candlelight (use a small lamp in dorms where no candles are allowed!)
2. read for one hour without checking any devices, answering texts, etc.
3. walk out into nature (climb a tree, sit on a rock, grab a spot in a hammock) and read
4. host a reading night with friends & food (sit in companionable silence, reading without chatting)
5. read aloud a chapter to someone else
6. climb into bed at night and read by flashlight under the covers for at least 30 minutes, as if you’ve already been told “lights out” as a kid
7. reread a chapter and see what new things you notice the second time through
8. change your ambient-noise level: add music if you normally read in the quiet; or read without music if you are normally a music-listener
9. read with a sketchpad at hand and sketch scenes, characters, or other elements from the story
10. practice focused listening: have someone read to you
11. make yourself a special, fancy snack on a real plate to nibble while eating: pay attention to the cooking or arranging or choosing of ingredients to make it especially appetizing first
12. make tea (even if you’re not usually a tea drinker), and read and sip
13. invent a new reading scenario for yourself, or repeat the one you liked the best from this term
[writing assignment using these prompts follows; text character limit prevents inclusion of it in full]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rfs7afx6ue4mknbhhpnrzkyz/bafkreiel77b25truczj372qokmg5p3apa2dphux3jtplpz3dv35jul6wdu@jpeg)
July 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.
Reposted by Jess Masters
EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED
make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:
THE MACARONI PROBLEM
THE MACARONI PROBLEM
May 17, 2025 at 11:29 PM
EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED
Reposted by Jess Masters
We’ve run the numbers and seen all the data models. It’s not looking good.
May 16, 2025 at 11:30 PM
We’ve run the numbers and seen all the data models. It’s not looking good.
This is why I went back to grad school (though also not thyroid)
I had a thyroidectomy 6 years ago and when I met with the endocrine surgeon ahead of time, I asked her “how did you decide on this specialization?” And she said “I just really really love the thyroid” — and I totally understood this even though for me it’s not the thyroid.
May 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is why I went back to grad school (though also not thyroid)
Happy democracy sausage day to all who celebrate (Australian Federal election, everyone celebrates, it's mandatory)
May 3, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Happy democracy sausage day to all who celebrate (Australian Federal election, everyone celebrates, it's mandatory)