Alexander Manshel
@manshel.bsky.social
Assoc. Prof., McGill English | Book: WRITING BACKWARDS (Columbia UP) | Articles: The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, LARB, Public Books, Post45, PMLA, and MELUS | Next Up: The History of High School English |📍Montreal
Pinned
Alexander Manshel
@manshel.bsky.social
· Apr 29
How “The Great Gatsby” Took Over High School
The classroom staple turns a hundred.
www.newyorker.com
For @newyorker.com, I wrote about how "The Great Gatsby," which turns 100 this month, went from flop to high school classic, and whether the novel can survive another hundred years
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
🔥🔥🔥 let’s goooooooooo!
New book going to press: *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.* It’s about social networks as context for—and formal element of—the novel. For contemporary lit, novel/narrative theory, DH, lit and sociology, network analysis crowds. Here’s what it’s about: (1/n)
January 6, 2026 at 7:09 PM
🔥🔥🔥 let’s goooooooooo!
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it.
Don’t miss it.
Don’t miss it.
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
www.chronicle.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:10 PM
This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it.
Don’t miss it.
Don’t miss it.
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Ugh. Such fomo!
If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of...
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
January 5, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Ugh. Such fomo!
If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of...
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
January 5, 2026 at 3:08 PM
If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of...
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
over 400 new bookstores opened in the USA in 2025, which is 100 more than opened in 2024. bookstores are thriving:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year
www.nytimes.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
over 400 new bookstores opened in the USA in 2025, which is 100 more than opened in 2024. bookstores are thriving:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Excited to talk about high school English in Toronto with @manshel.bsky.social, Drew Newman, Scott Newstok! Join us! #mla26
December 31, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Excited to talk about high school English in Toronto with @manshel.bsky.social, Drew Newman, Scott Newstok! Join us! #mla26
This holiday season, give the gift of “readable, timely, inventive…definitive”! Preorder MIDDLEMEN!
First up, from Gerry Howard (@ghoward1950.bsky.social), editor extraordinaire and author of THE INSIDER, my favorite work of publishing history in recent memory. I can't imagine higher praise.
December 22, 2025 at 3:15 PM
This holiday season, give the gift of “readable, timely, inventive…definitive”! Preorder MIDDLEMEN!
More details to come but…
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
Writing Backwards | Columbia University Press
Winner, 2026 Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Prize, International Society for the Study of NarrativeFinalist, 2025 SHARP Book History Book Prize, Society ... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
December 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
More details to come but…
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler!
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
December 17, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler!
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Sarah Wasserman, assistant dean for faculty affairs, was named co-editor of the eminent Oxford Studies in American Literary History book series. The scholar of 20th- and 21st-century American literature will lead the series alongside @ericafretwell.bsky.social of the University of Albany.
Wasserman Appointed Co-Editor of Oxford’s American Literary History Series | Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The prestigious book series offers an expansive approach to American literary and cultural history.
fas.dartmouth.edu
December 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Sarah Wasserman, assistant dean for faculty affairs, was named co-editor of the eminent Oxford Studies in American Literary History book series. The scholar of 20th- and 21st-century American literature will lead the series alongside @ericafretwell.bsky.social of the University of Albany.
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Today! All old & new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Literature Now series are 50% off, including POETRY AFTER BARBARISM by @xenoglossic.bsky.social; POETRY IN GENERAL by @keegancf.bsky.social; BIG FICTION by @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social; and WRITING BACKWARDS by @manshel.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9
December 1, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Today! All old & new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Literature Now series are 50% off, including POETRY AFTER BARBARISM by @xenoglossic.bsky.social; POETRY IN GENERAL by @keegancf.bsky.social; BIG FICTION by @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social; and WRITING BACKWARDS by @manshel.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9
🚨🚨🚨 Even though I find the phrase “Cyber Monday” deeply distasteful, the folks at Columbia University Press are offering my book at a 50% DISCOUNT today! Check it out, along with the other fantastic titles in the Literature Now series!
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
December 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
🚨🚨🚨 Even though I find the phrase “Cyber Monday” deeply distasteful, the folks at Columbia University Press are offering my book at a 50% DISCOUNT today! Check it out, along with the other fantastic titles in the Literature Now series!
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
Proposals due next Monday, December 1st! If you are (or know) a graduate student working on 20th/21st century literature and culture, this is a great, free, low-stakes, no-travel-required way to workshop a project with scholars and editors in the field!
DEAR GRAD STUDENTS,
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
CFP: The Data of Post45 Literature and Culture (Online Graduate Workshop)
How has encroaching climate disaster impacted how the future is imagined in science fiction novels? What can a century of NYT bestsellers lists tell us about trends in mainstream publishing? And how c...
docs.google.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Proposals due next Monday, December 1st! If you are (or know) a graduate student working on 20th/21st century literature and culture, this is a great, free, low-stakes, no-travel-required way to workshop a project with scholars and editors in the field!
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
Howard University AI Panel
YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
Very proud of my former student, Mairin Burke, for this deep dive into McGill's faculty unionization campaign!
November 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Very proud of my former student, Mairin Burke, for this deep dive into McGill's faculty unionization campaign!
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Cannot recommend highly enough!
Just a reminder that the deadline for abstracts for this FREE, ONLINE, GRAD STUDENT WORKSHOP is a little less than two weeks away!
DEAR GRAD STUDENTS,
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Cannot recommend highly enough!
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Today and Friday, I am teaching @manshel.bsky.social article "The Lag: Technology and Fiction in the Twentieth Century". My students are very excited to read it. I'm hoping to inspire a turn toward empirical methods, too.
November 19, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Today and Friday, I am teaching @manshel.bsky.social article "The Lag: Technology and Fiction in the Twentieth Century". My students are very excited to read it. I'm hoping to inspire a turn toward empirical methods, too.
Just a reminder that the deadline for abstracts for this FREE, ONLINE, GRAD STUDENT WORKSHOP is a little less than two weeks away!
DEAR GRAD STUDENTS,
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture.
More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/4
CFP: The Data of Post45 Literature and Culture (Online Graduate Workshop)
How has encroaching climate disaster impacted how the future is imagined in science fiction novels? What can a century of NYT bestsellers lists tell us about trends in mainstream publishing? And how c...
docs.google.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Just a reminder that the deadline for abstracts for this FREE, ONLINE, GRAD STUDENT WORKSHOP is a little less than two weeks away!
Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!
November 17, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!
"there is more than a little something constitutively utopian in the heist genre, from its depiction of competent work to its championing of collective action to its redistributive rather than retributive propensities"
"the heist film offers audiences a spectacle of highly choreographed expertise. From Rififi to Sneakers to Soderbergh canon (Out of Sight Logan Lucky Oceans 11–13), the genre has generated some of cinema’s most powerful allegories of collective action"
homework: read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlant...
homework: read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlant...
November 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
"there is more than a little something constitutively utopian in the heist genre, from its depiction of competent work to its championing of collective action to its redistributive rather than retributive propensities"
UPDATE: I have cut the line entirely. Publication is just a number!
I regret to inform you that, while copyediting an article that’s been in the works for a while, I had to change a line about a book that came out the year I was born from “published over 35 years ago” to “published nearly 40 years ago”
November 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
UPDATE: I have cut the line entirely. Publication is just a number!
I regret to inform you that, while copyediting an article that’s been in the works for a while, I had to change a line about a book that came out the year I was born from “published over 35 years ago” to “published nearly 40 years ago”
November 11, 2025 at 1:32 AM
I regret to inform you that, while copyediting an article that’s been in the works for a while, I had to change a line about a book that came out the year I was born from “published over 35 years ago” to “published nearly 40 years ago”
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
Peter Coviello isn't on Bluesky, but this definitely should be: lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Peter Coviello isn't on Bluesky, but this definitely should be: lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by Alexander Manshel
remember school? it's different now
In my AP Lit class, we read Pride and Prejudice, Crime and Punishment, The Heart of Darkness, The Metamorphosis, Native Son, and The Stranger, plus poems, plays and stories. All we did was read, discuss, and write.
November 8, 2025 at 5:10 PM
remember school? it's different now