Sarah Pyke
@sarahpyke.bsky.social
teaching children's and YA literature at the University of Münster
london.ac.uk/seized-books | #QueerBibliography
researching and writing various things
close reading forever
london.ac.uk/seized-books | #QueerBibliography
researching and writing various things
close reading forever
closes TONIGHT
anyway the consultation shuts tomorrow, one minute to midnight UK time: www.gov.uk/government/c... Amnesty have some good guidance here. Go on: media.amnesty.org.uk/documents/Am...
media.amnesty.org.uk
February 12, 2026 at 8:05 AM
closes TONIGHT
really wasn‘t expecting this to get attention — a tiny bit of my faith in humanity has been restored. Consultation closes at 11.59pm UK time tonight, so THERE IS STILL TIME to respond and/or share
the whole thing is of course completely revolting. 20 YEARS to settlement for refugees? no settlement if you’ve ever had a criminal conviction or a tax debt? 10 YEARS added if you’ve ever received benefits? partners and children on their own routes to settlement? What are you even TALKING about
February 12, 2026 at 8:05 AM
really wasn‘t expecting this to get attention — a tiny bit of my faith in humanity has been restored. Consultation closes at 11.59pm UK time tonight, so THERE IS STILL TIME to respond and/or share
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
A reminder that next week I'll be speaking alongside @heggledepeg.bsky.social at @keelrowbooks.bsky.social. There will be wine and hand-press era books in ample supply.
RSVP: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
RSVP: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
February 11, 2026 at 8:24 AM
A reminder that next week I'll be speaking alongside @heggledepeg.bsky.social at @keelrowbooks.bsky.social. There will be wine and hand-press era books in ample supply.
RSVP: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
RSVP: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
filled out the horrible settlement consultation and I’m sorry, the question that is framed as a negative so that you have to ‘strongly disagree’ with something not happening?? This has enraged me
February 11, 2026 at 8:15 AM
filled out the horrible settlement consultation and I’m sorry, the question that is framed as a negative so that you have to ‘strongly disagree’ with something not happening?? This has enraged me
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Please take the time to read what the children detained in Dilley wrote me in their own words: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... 10/
“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility
Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end...
www.propublica.org
February 9, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Please take the time to read what the children detained in Dilley wrote me in their own words: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... 10/
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
February 9, 2026 at 1:56 PM
CALL FOR PITCHES
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience.
We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not.
Details below!
last day of our winter semester and I'm thinking about this again: here's to rest, space, sleep, care and hot dinners for all
Last week I posted that the image on the left was one of the single greatest pages in twentieth century literature, and I stand by that! But look what I noticed for the very first time: Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are closes with an almost-identical page layout, to wildly different ends
February 6, 2026 at 4:26 PM
last day of our winter semester and I'm thinking about this again: here's to rest, space, sleep, care and hot dinners for all
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Childhood forever, childhood for all ✊
Childhood was a political project, centuries of activism carving out time and space for young people to grow and learn. It's an unfinished project, and the right wing wants it ended when it's barely even begun.
The Right has spent years trying to push a return to child labor and attacking age of consent laws. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re exposing us to mountains of the most horrendous stuff imaginable while also normalizing it.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
February 5, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Childhood forever, childhood for all ✊
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Photograph of Mên-an-Tol, formation of standing stones, in Cornwall by John Piper
February 5, 2026 at 6:34 AM
Photograph of Mên-an-Tol, formation of standing stones, in Cornwall by John Piper
been thinking so much recently of Muriel Rukeyser’s Ballad of Orange and Grape
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57158/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57158/...
February 4, 2026 at 7:17 PM
been thinking so much recently of Muriel Rukeyser’s Ballad of Orange and Grape
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57158/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57158/...
how can you organise if you don’t mourn?
February 4, 2026 at 6:55 PM
how can you organise if you don’t mourn?
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Pursued by federal agents, suburban ICE observers remain resolved
After a frightening pursuit by federal agents, suburban ICE observers say fear hasn’t stopped them from protecting their communities.
www.mprnews.org
February 4, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
a student told me yesterday that she liked my office 'because there are so many books in it" 🥹
February 4, 2026 at 11:17 AM
a student told me yesterday that she liked my office 'because there are so many books in it" 🥹
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
This is how enjambment can work in a poem. Bridge 77 on the Macclesfield Canal allows a horse to cross the canal without having to untie it from the canal boat.
January 7, 2026 at 8:11 AM
This is how enjambment can work in a poem. Bridge 77 on the Macclesfield Canal allows a horse to cross the canal without having to untie it from the canal boat.
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Btw, my gorgeous cover star is a gynandromorph gypsy moth, female on its left side, male on the right. It was caught in Berlin in July 1864 and pictured by German entomologist Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg in 1877. It makes more than one appearance in my book!
#booksky #histsci #sts #queerhistory 🦋🌈📚🗃️
#booksky #histsci #sts #queerhistory 🦋🌈📚🗃️
February 3, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Btw, my gorgeous cover star is a gynandromorph gypsy moth, female on its left side, male on the right. It was caught in Berlin in July 1864 and pictured by German entomologist Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg in 1877. It makes more than one appearance in my book!
#booksky #histsci #sts #queerhistory 🦋🌈📚🗃️
#booksky #histsci #sts #queerhistory 🦋🌈📚🗃️
if circumstances were different I would 100% be applying for this gorgeous job — maybe you should?
DREAM job: two-years of full-time research on Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness and its various histories www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQI985/r...
Research Associate: 100 Years of The Well of Loneliness at University of York
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Research Associate: 100 Years of The Well of Loneliness on jobs.ac.uk!
www.jobs.ac.uk
February 3, 2026 at 8:50 AM
if circumstances were different I would 100% be applying for this gorgeous job — maybe you should?
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Milton tangent complete, I am returning to my work on erased/struck out/obliterated inscriptions.
For many reasons they aren't the easiest things to locate in online catalogues. So if you come across any fun ones (esp. in books published prior to ~1750), here is a public request to think of me.
For many reasons they aren't the easiest things to locate in online catalogues. So if you come across any fun ones (esp. in books published prior to ~1750), here is a public request to think of me.
February 2, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Milton tangent complete, I am returning to my work on erased/struck out/obliterated inscriptions.
For many reasons they aren't the easiest things to locate in online catalogues. So if you come across any fun ones (esp. in books published prior to ~1750), here is a public request to think of me.
For many reasons they aren't the easiest things to locate in online catalogues. So if you come across any fun ones (esp. in books published prior to ~1750), here is a public request to think of me.
riding into the last week of the winter semester like
February 2, 2026 at 11:20 AM
riding into the last week of the winter semester like
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Heute in den USA (links). Vor 100 Jahren in Deutschland (rechts).
February 1, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Heute in den USA (links). Vor 100 Jahren in Deutschland (rechts).
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
I love this photo of photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston in her studio (1896). Look at all the posters for periodicals & little magazines! www.loc.gov/pictures/res...
February 1, 2026 at 3:46 PM
I love this photo of photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston in her studio (1896). Look at all the posters for periodicals & little magazines! www.loc.gov/pictures/res...
ty to the person in my mentions having the argument I do not have time to get into
January 30, 2026 at 4:46 PM
ty to the person in my mentions having the argument I do not have time to get into
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
Outside the Level 2 Reading Room in @bodleian.ox.ac.uk there is a wellbeing display. Here are some it's little zines that genuinely made me smile.
January 30, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Outside the Level 2 Reading Room in @bodleian.ox.ac.uk there is a wellbeing display. Here are some it's little zines that genuinely made me smile.
Reposted by Sarah Pyke
we use an accession number system for rare book shelving instead of LC numbers (pros and cons, tbh) which means you can find our 1607 Orlando Furioso & 1609 Faerie Queene next to queer pulps like Sucked into Success, Weekend Homo, and Young, Hard Hitch-Hiker
January 29, 2026 at 4:54 PM
we use an accession number system for rare book shelving instead of LC numbers (pros and cons, tbh) which means you can find our 1607 Orlando Furioso & 1609 Faerie Queene next to queer pulps like Sucked into Success, Weekend Homo, and Young, Hard Hitch-Hiker
Me, increasingly wild-eyed, to my students:
How? How do you double-check the accuracy, if you're not already an expert? Ask a different GenAI? Or do you, you know... Have to go and do the research you would have done anyway, pre-AI? Because I'm buggered if I can think of how you do that in a way where the GenAI saved you time.
January 29, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Me, increasingly wild-eyed, to my students: