Matthew P. Brown
@mpbrown.bsky.social
english & the center for the book, uiowa / ed, ui press / author, *the pilgrim & the bee* (penn, 2007) and *the novel & the blank* (jhup, 2025) / opinions about drink are, in a certain sense, from my employer
https://english.uiowa.edu/people/matthew-brown
https://english.uiowa.edu/people/matthew-brown
Pinned
Matthew P. Brown
@mpbrown.bsky.social
· Oct 20
in my book, books talk to other books.
grab *the novel and the _____* now at the @hopkinspress.bsky.social website with the discount code HTNAB25 #vastearlyamerica #bookhistory #18c #c18
grab *the novel and the _____* now at the @hopkinspress.bsky.social website with the discount code HTNAB25 #vastearlyamerica #bookhistory #18c #c18
two days ago a clown picked me to slap their a** in front of seventy-five people and my therapy bills are going to be out the roof. all praise tatarsky.biz !!!
Alex Tatarsky's Theatre Website
Alex Tatarky's Theatre Artist Website - Performance Artist, Theater, Sad Boys in Harpy Land, Gnomecore, Dirt Trip, Nothing Doing, School of Rot, Philadelphia, New York
tatarsky.biz
January 22, 2026 at 6:18 PM
two days ago a clown picked me to slap their a** in front of seventy-five people and my therapy bills are going to be out the roof. all praise tatarsky.biz !!!
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
In light of Democrats calling for more "training" for ICE, this passage from my book Copaganda seems relevant:
January 19, 2026 at 6:29 PM
In light of Democrats calling for more "training" for ICE, this passage from my book Copaganda seems relevant:
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
First podcast up on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social! Thanks to Jacob Barrett for expert hosting: newbooksnetwork.com/empire-of-pr... @academic.oup.com
Sonia Hazard, "Empire of Print: Evangelical Power in an Age of Mass Media" (Oxford UP, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:58 PM
First podcast up on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social! Thanks to Jacob Barrett for expert hosting: newbooksnetwork.com/empire-of-pr... @academic.oup.com
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
January 13, 2026 at 11:24 PM
i can't make it to toronto for #mla2026 but my book got there. go say hi to THE NOVEL AND THE BLANK at the johns hopkins up exhibit table. #mla26 #bookhistory #18c #c18 #vastearlyamerica
January 10, 2026 at 4:46 PM
i can't make it to toronto for #mla2026 but my book got there. go say hi to THE NOVEL AND THE BLANK at the johns hopkins up exhibit table. #mla26 #bookhistory #18c #c18 #vastearlyamerica
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
📢 No to genocide. No to war. No to ICE. Trillions of dollars poured into occupying communities from DC to Palestine, Chicago to Venezuela while people suffer, starving, unable to make rent or get medical treatment.
January 8, 2026 at 5:50 PM
📢 No to genocide. No to war. No to ICE. Trillions of dollars poured into occupying communities from DC to Palestine, Chicago to Venezuela while people suffer, starving, unable to make rent or get medical treatment.
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Matthew P. Brown was able to explore sheet-based texts in the amazing holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and to tell a revelatory story about British American literary dynamics. #TheNovelandtheBlank
November 18, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Matthew P. Brown was able to explore sheet-based texts in the amazing holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and to tell a revelatory story about British American literary dynamics. #TheNovelandtheBlank
of the many virtues of this @rezekjoe.bsky.social piece, will simply point out how he credits peer scholars like trish loughran and nicole eustace rather than lifting their stuff for popular consumption. wouldn’t expect anything less from joe, but not all public intellectuals from academia do this
I wrote this essay because I wanted as many people as possible to understand that what Paine did in Common Sense was recognize the urgency of his historical moment, and that he matched that moment with words. That is why it resonates now. What words will we find for our moment?
December 21, 2025 at 6:51 PM
of the many virtues of this @rezekjoe.bsky.social piece, will simply point out how he credits peer scholars like trish loughran and nicole eustace rather than lifting their stuff for popular consumption. wouldn’t expect anything less from joe, but not all public intellectuals from academia do this
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
I wrote a #bookhistory love letter to some smart folks: @ryancordell.org @rscar.bsky.social @jmadelman.bsky.social (& others!) - thx to @gbarnhisel.bsky.social and all who had their mitts on this thing, & to @amantiquarian.bsky.social for supporting the research back in 2009 - only took 16 yrs lol!
December 16, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I wrote a #bookhistory love letter to some smart folks: @ryancordell.org @rscar.bsky.social @jmadelman.bsky.social (& others!) - thx to @gbarnhisel.bsky.social and all who had their mitts on this thing, & to @amantiquarian.bsky.social for supporting the research back in 2009 - only took 16 yrs lol!
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
December 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
We Ain't Buying It!
Your Wallet.
Your Power.
Your Wallet.
Your Power.
November 29, 2025 at 2:02 PM
We Ain't Buying It!
Your Wallet.
Your Power.
Your Wallet.
Your Power.
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
When troops are deployed overseas in places they absolutely should not be because of a warmonger ass president, and they are killed by someone who acted on their own accord, we typically don’t have a problem blaming the U.S. commander in chief
"In the months leading up to the D.C. deployment, Beckstrom worked for a community health center that serves people with mental illness and substance abuse disorders." www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
National Guard member killed in D.C. shooting remembered for 'heart of gold'
The slain soldier’s former boyfriend recalled her empathy and generosity. “She doesn’t even have to know you and she’ll do anything for you,” he said.
www.nbcnews.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
When troops are deployed overseas in places they absolutely should not be because of a warmonger ass president, and they are killed by someone who acted on their own accord, we typically don’t have a problem blaming the U.S. commander in chief
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
“[T]hrifty sheet printing manages risk: the almanacs selling steadily, the devotional tract perpetually reprinted, the blank form to keep one afloat, the fugitive ad of merciless gain,” writes Matt Brown in his cultural history of eighteenth-century British American print shops. #TheNovelandtheBlank
November 21, 2025 at 8:52 PM
“[T]hrifty sheet printing manages risk: the almanacs selling steadily, the devotional tract perpetually reprinted, the blank form to keep one afloat, the fugitive ad of merciless gain,” writes Matt Brown in his cultural history of eighteenth-century British American print shops. #TheNovelandtheBlank
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
One of the nine things I admire about Matthew P. Brown’s The Novel and the Blank: A Literary History of the Book Trades in Eighteenth-Century British America is how he makes printed ephemera—legal forms, manuals, advertisements, militia directions, almanacs, jestbooks—seem as interesting as novels.
November 17, 2025 at 9:07 PM
One of the nine things I admire about Matthew P. Brown’s The Novel and the Blank: A Literary History of the Book Trades in Eighteenth-Century British America is how he makes printed ephemera—legal forms, manuals, advertisements, militia directions, almanacs, jestbooks—seem as interesting as novels.
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
In a fascinating chapter of The Novel and the Blank, Matthew P. Brown argues that jokebooks, a staple of the eighteenth-century book trades, “are a species of conduct literature, of self- and soul-fashioning, existing at one extreme along a continuum of character formation” (128).
November 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM
In a fascinating chapter of The Novel and the Blank, Matthew P. Brown argues that jokebooks, a staple of the eighteenth-century book trades, “are a species of conduct literature, of self- and soul-fashioning, existing at one extreme along a continuum of character formation” (128).
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
Died (alas!) on this day in 1625, the remarkable painter Sofonisba Anguissola. Here, self portrait as a young woman, showing off her talents in 1556.
November 16, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Died (alas!) on this day in 1625, the remarkable painter Sofonisba Anguissola. Here, self portrait as a young woman, showing off her talents in 1556.
i hate with the heat of a thousand suns the little ai icon now in the lower right hand corner of my word documents
November 15, 2025 at 7:10 PM
i hate with the heat of a thousand suns the little ai icon now in the lower right hand corner of my word documents
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
sometimes i’m like what the hell is with cricket and then sometimes i’m like people feel about cricket the way i feel about baseball and all is well
November 2, 2025 at 5:25 PM
sometimes i’m like what the hell is with cricket and then sometimes i’m like people feel about cricket the way i feel about baseball and all is well
kike hernandez is basically a morrissey song in these past few innings
November 2, 2025 at 3:57 AM
kike hernandez is basically a morrissey song in these past few innings
sixers peaking too early smdh
October 29, 2025 at 3:41 AM
sixers peaking too early smdh
Reposted by Matthew P. Brown
Spotify is now running ICE recruitment ads. We asked them to stop. They ignored us. Let's show them what we showed Disney. No Kings, No Collaborators, No Capitulators. indivisible.org/cancel-spotify
Don’t Stream Fascism: Cancel Spotify
indivisible.org
October 28, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Spotify is now running ICE recruitment ads. We asked them to stop. They ignored us. Let's show them what we showed Disney. No Kings, No Collaborators, No Capitulators. indivisible.org/cancel-spotify