Jonathan Ellis
@jonathansellis.bsky.social
Author/editor of things on Elizabeth Bishop. Yes, I still write letters & postcards. Paid and sometimes unpaid academic. He/him.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
This includes my book, with an already reasonably prized paperback manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526167125/
January 8, 2026 at 8:46 PM
This includes my book, with an already reasonably prized paperback manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526167125/
In a fortnight I am leading a four week online class on Elizabeth Bishop’s Geography III. Info on how to register is here: roundtable.org/live-courses... @roundtable92ny.bsky.social
January 5, 2026 at 6:22 PM
In a fortnight I am leading a four week online class on Elizabeth Bishop’s Geography III. Info on how to register is here: roundtable.org/live-courses... @roundtable92ny.bsky.social
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Senior University administration recruits mainly from two populations
Those who did not succeed in academia
Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money
This explains present condition of UK universities
Those who did not succeed in academia
Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money
This explains present condition of UK universities
December 26, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Senior University administration recruits mainly from two populations
Those who did not succeed in academia
Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money
This explains present condition of UK universities
Those who did not succeed in academia
Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money
This explains present condition of UK universities
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.
December 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM
James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
I think one of the best things my university could do for my mental health is allow me to unsubscribe from end of year emails that tell what a great and wonderful 12 months that was and how jolly things are looking for the future. It's like getting newsletters from a parallel universe.
December 21, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I think one of the best things my university could do for my mental health is allow me to unsubscribe from end of year emails that tell what a great and wonderful 12 months that was and how jolly things are looking for the future. It's like getting newsletters from a parallel universe.
I’ve been lucky getting a grant this year which means lots of fun things to look forward to in 2026 & 2027 but the constant & destructive attack on arts and humanities, some from close to home, is anxiety inducing and upsetting. I’ve seen the very best and the very worst of people this year.
December 18, 2025 at 9:54 AM
I’ve been lucky getting a grant this year which means lots of fun things to look forward to in 2026 & 2027 but the constant & destructive attack on arts and humanities, some from close to home, is anxiety inducing and upsetting. I’ve seen the very best and the very worst of people this year.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
One of the reasons that emergence of ‘cold spots’ of subject provision matters: 52% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (the most deprived quintile in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation) plan to live at home when they go the university
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...
Nearly a third of university 18-year-olds will live at home
According to figures from Ucas, a record 89,510 18-year-olds with university offers plan to live at home when they begin their studies this autumn
www.thetimes.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:23 PM
One of the reasons that emergence of ‘cold spots’ of subject provision matters: 52% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (the most deprived quintile in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation) plan to live at home when they go the university
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
If you are a University of Sheffield student could you please consider signing this letter in support of the strike? Thank you. You need to log in to Muse to sign @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
December 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
If you are a University of Sheffield student could you please consider signing this letter in support of the strike? Thank you. You need to log in to Muse to sign @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Evidence aplenty that the open letter is not dead!
December 9, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Evidence aplenty that the open letter is not dead!
Reading about the return of the Erasmus scheme and I read this: “Any agreement for EU students to pay the same as Britons is being resisted by the UK university sector.” Groan.
December 6, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reading about the return of the Erasmus scheme and I read this: “Any agreement for EU students to pay the same as Britons is being resisted by the UK university sector.” Groan.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI”
Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages
Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages
December 6, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI”
Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages
Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
What the British government is letting happen to universities is unconscionable
December 6, 2025 at 10:55 AM
What the British government is letting happen to universities is unconscionable
FAQs that aren’t even shared with staff is certainly a novel form of communication.
December 4, 2025 at 9:54 AM
FAQs that aren’t even shared with staff is certainly a novel form of communication.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Check out this post about our current situation from a colleague at another university. @sheffielducu.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Check out this post about our current situation from a colleague at another university. @sheffielducu.bsky.social
A great essay on why close reading is a more radical methodology than most people think and why university managers don’t like those of us who teach it!
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 29, 2025 at 7:55 PM
A great essay on why close reading is a more radical methodology than most people think and why university managers don’t like those of us who teach it!
“Letter Writing Among Poets: From William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop” is just £12.50 in the EUP sale (Paul Muldoon, Hermione Lee, Anne Fadiman, Angela Leighton… and others!) edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-letter-....
Letter Writing Among Poets
Letter Writing Among Poets
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:14 PM
“Letter Writing Among Poets: From William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop” is just £12.50 in the EUP sale (Paul Muldoon, Hermione Lee, Anne Fadiman, Angela Leighton… and others!) edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-letter-....
“Reading Elizabeth Bishop” is £13.50 in the EUP sale… edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
Reading Elizabeth Bishop
Reading Elizabeth Bishop
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:11 PM
“Reading Elizabeth Bishop” is £13.50 in the EUP sale… edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
How have Sheffield University management contrived to turn an easily resolvable dispute into something approaching MAB-like levels of crisis? From a pre-strike offer that could have been patched up into something that worked, to threatening a lockout from 5 January. I despair.
November 28, 2025 at 2:44 PM
How have Sheffield University management contrived to turn an easily resolvable dispute into something approaching MAB-like levels of crisis? From a pre-strike offer that could have been patched up into something that worked, to threatening a lockout from 5 January. I despair.
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Tuesday my union offered to call off 2 weeks of strikes, in return for postponing the redudnacy of, maybe, 5 people for three months. Yesterday the uni wrote to all staff saying "not interested", unless we completely caved. Today we toured picket lines across campus:
@sheffielducu.bsky.social
@sheffielducu.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Tuesday my union offered to call off 2 weeks of strikes, in return for postponing the redudnacy of, maybe, 5 people for three months. Yesterday the uni wrote to all staff saying "not interested", unless we completely caved. Today we toured picket lines across campus:
@sheffielducu.bsky.social
@sheffielducu.bsky.social
Too sad to say anything coherent about the state of UK universities.
November 28, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Too sad to say anything coherent about the state of UK universities.
Happy to see this rave for two books by and on people I love… observer.co.uk/culture/book... @notquitehydepark.bsky.social #SylviaPlath #TaylorSwift #MaggieNelson
November 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Happy to see this rave for two books by and on people I love… observer.co.uk/culture/book... @notquitehydepark.bsky.social #SylviaPlath #TaylorSwift #MaggieNelson
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Yes life was better under Franco for some. For the majority, no:
1/ May Spaniards leaving the country because they could not make a living
2/ No compulsory education and underfunded state schools
3/ no job security either: people in squares waiting to be offered work for the day
1/ May Spaniards leaving the country because they could not make a living
2/ No compulsory education and underfunded state schools
3/ no job security either: people in squares waiting to be offered work for the day
Worrying trends amongst the young in Spain reported by
@grahamkeeley.bsky.social
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...
@grahamkeeley.bsky.social
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...
‘Life was better under Franco’: The young Spaniards rewriting dictator’s legacy
Concerns over housing, jobs and immigration are sparking interest in the right wing among young Spaniards - and a belief, 50 years on, that life under the repressive dictator was not all bad, writes G...
www.independent.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Yes life was better under Franco for some. For the majority, no:
1/ May Spaniards leaving the country because they could not make a living
2/ No compulsory education and underfunded state schools
3/ no job security either: people in squares waiting to be offered work for the day
1/ May Spaniards leaving the country because they could not make a living
2/ No compulsory education and underfunded state schools
3/ no job security either: people in squares waiting to be offered work for the day
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
Celebrating #NationalPoetryDay and our 2026 collections – Divinations on Survival by Natalie Linh Bolderston @natlinhbolderston.bsky.social, Here & Thereafter by Alice Miller, and Against Falling by Linda Anderson. Available to pre-order from Friday the 10th October! bit.ly/Pavilion26
October 2, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Celebrating #NationalPoetryDay and our 2026 collections – Divinations on Survival by Natalie Linh Bolderston @natlinhbolderston.bsky.social, Here & Thereafter by Alice Miller, and Against Falling by Linda Anderson. Available to pre-order from Friday the 10th October! bit.ly/Pavilion26
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for our Michael Murphy Poetry Prize! englishassociation.ac.uk/michael-murp... Winner announced on #NationalPoetryDay!
@carcanet.bsky.social
@prototypepubs.bsky.social
@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
@faberbooks.bsky.social
@picadorbooks.bsky.social
@carcanet.bsky.social
@prototypepubs.bsky.social
@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
@faberbooks.bsky.social
@picadorbooks.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 9:21 AM
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for our Michael Murphy Poetry Prize! englishassociation.ac.uk/michael-murp... Winner announced on #NationalPoetryDay!
@carcanet.bsky.social
@prototypepubs.bsky.social
@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
@faberbooks.bsky.social
@picadorbooks.bsky.social
@carcanet.bsky.social
@prototypepubs.bsky.social
@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
@faberbooks.bsky.social
@picadorbooks.bsky.social
Reposted by Jonathan Ellis
📢 We’re thrilled to announce that we have up to 4 student bursary awards for the MA in Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York for 2025-26. Deadline to apply is 31 July. Please share widely! www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-c... #18thcentury #18thC
Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies bursaries - Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York
Thanks to funding from an external donor, we offer up to four bursaries towards fees for the MA in Eighteenth Century Studies.
www.york.ac.uk
June 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
📢 We’re thrilled to announce that we have up to 4 student bursary awards for the MA in Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York for 2025-26. Deadline to apply is 31 July. Please share widely! www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-c... #18thcentury #18thC