Tom Koenigs
@tomkoenigs.bsky.social
Early/19thC American Literature at Scripps College. Book: “Founded in Fiction” (http://tinyurl.com/y35bkptr). W/NBA takes. He/him.
Pinned
Tom Koenigs
@tomkoenigs.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Founded in Fiction
An original account of the importance of diverse forms of fiction in the early American republic—one that challenges the “rise of the novel” narrative
press.princeton.edu
“Founded in Fiction” is out in paperback today from @princetonupress.bsky.social! I’ve learned a great deal from the responses to the book and I hope it continues to generate conversation about the history of early American fiction in this new form: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb....
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
I got to do a lightning round about my devotion to Clarissa with @sinsleyh.bsky.social, and she has honored me beyond measure by pairing it with one by Frances Ferguson. Swoon!
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
Toward an Oral History of Clarissa
contributed by Stephanie Hershinow
open.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I got to do a lightning round about my devotion to Clarissa with @sinsleyh.bsky.social, and she has honored me beyond measure by pairing it with one by Frances Ferguson. Swoon!
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
This!
Pls note, #litcrit Bsky, the bolded statement here from Frances Ferguson: "I have increasingly come to think that Clarissa is the single most important literary work in the history of British literature—& that it keeps holding its own". This is gospel truth, guys. Why aren't you already reading it?
I got to do a lightning round about my devotion to Clarissa with @sinsleyh.bsky.social, and she has honored me beyond measure by pairing it with one by Frances Ferguson. Swoon!
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
open.substack.com/pub/clarissa...
October 31, 2025 at 4:01 AM
This!
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
People in my phone!! I will be giving a talk at Harvard’s Mahindra center on Oct 23, at 6pm:
“Aphra Behn’s White Female Pen”
It’s about Oroonoko (1688) and the nominal emergence of the racial category “white” in the late 17th C.
(from my book, which I’m still revising, still eager for feedback…)
“Aphra Behn’s White Female Pen”
It’s about Oroonoko (1688) and the nominal emergence of the racial category “white” in the late 17th C.
(from my book, which I’m still revising, still eager for feedback…)
Aphra Behn’s White Female Pen | Mahindra Humanities Center
mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu
October 7, 2025 at 4:22 PM
People in my phone!! I will be giving a talk at Harvard’s Mahindra center on Oct 23, at 6pm:
“Aphra Behn’s White Female Pen”
It’s about Oroonoko (1688) and the nominal emergence of the racial category “white” in the late 17th C.
(from my book, which I’m still revising, still eager for feedback…)
“Aphra Behn’s White Female Pen”
It’s about Oroonoko (1688) and the nominal emergence of the racial category “white” in the late 17th C.
(from my book, which I’m still revising, still eager for feedback…)
I’ve never read Dorothy Richardson and I’m thinking about diving in. Best complete edition of Pilgrimage?
October 20, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I’ve never read Dorothy Richardson and I’m thinking about diving in. Best complete edition of Pilgrimage?
What a bizarre, beautiful, brutal novel. I suspect that it will stay with me for a long time.
September 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
What a bizarre, beautiful, brutal novel. I suspect that it will stay with me for a long time.
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
New issue of Legacy is out, and open access! 🗞️
Click right here to access Volume 42, No 1:
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55448 !
On the menu:
- "Leaving Giants Unslain: Idle Activism in Catharine Sedgwick's The Linwoods and Other Writings" by Jordan L. Von Cannon
1/3
Click right here to access Volume 42, No 1:
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55448 !
On the menu:
- "Leaving Giants Unslain: Idle Activism in Catharine Sedgwick's The Linwoods and Other Writings" by Jordan L. Von Cannon
1/3
August 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
New issue of Legacy is out, and open access! 🗞️
Click right here to access Volume 42, No 1:
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55448 !
On the menu:
- "Leaving Giants Unslain: Idle Activism in Catharine Sedgwick's The Linwoods and Other Writings" by Jordan L. Von Cannon
1/3
Click right here to access Volume 42, No 1:
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55448 !
On the menu:
- "Leaving Giants Unslain: Idle Activism in Catharine Sedgwick's The Linwoods and Other Writings" by Jordan L. Von Cannon
1/3
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
I hear the of sounds of simpering university admin everywhere…
“If the University of Chicago can cut grad programs in the humanities, so can we!”
“If the University of Chicago can cut grad programs in the humanities, so can we!”
Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.
August 14, 2025 at 12:24 AM
I hear the of sounds of simpering university admin everywhere…
“If the University of Chicago can cut grad programs in the humanities, so can we!”
“If the University of Chicago can cut grad programs in the humanities, so can we!”
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
One month from today! On 7/28 come celebrate the gorgeous new @sandtclassics.bsky.social edition of Poe's PYM by hearing me & @rezekjoe.bsky.social talk about Poe's PYM! And why not buy a copy which includes a lively conversational afterword wherein me & @rezekjoe.bsky.social talk about Poe's PYM!
June 28, 2025 at 4:16 PM
One month from today! On 7/28 come celebrate the gorgeous new @sandtclassics.bsky.social edition of Poe's PYM by hearing me & @rezekjoe.bsky.social talk about Poe's PYM! And why not buy a copy which includes a lively conversational afterword wherein me & @rezekjoe.bsky.social talk about Poe's PYM!
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
syllabi looking more and more like online recipes that include the person's life story
Right, most of the syllabi I received in college were one-side of page, maybe two: a framing paragraph, a list of readings, paper due dates. Now they are 15 pp long, a freaking legal contract w/ the student. I often have to dig (scroll) to find the schedule of readings. Sign of the shifting times.
Very much enjoying the prompt and syllabus discourse on here! It’s worth grounding the conversation in its fundamental cause, which is extreme cross-institutional precarity in the labor force.
Schools try to formalize their instruction bc the workforce itself is on short contracts.
Schools try to formalize their instruction bc the workforce itself is on short contracts.
June 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
syllabi looking more and more like online recipes that include the person's life story
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
A father screams for his child from a tiny interview room within a basement waiting room inside LA federal building. The space is not a holding area. No food. No water. No diapers. Those initially detained include a 2-year-old US citizen and a woman with high-risk pregnancy.
June 7, 2025 at 3:44 PM
A father screams for his child from a tiny interview room within a basement waiting room inside LA federal building. The space is not a holding area. No food. No water. No diapers. Those initially detained include a 2-year-old US citizen and a woman with high-risk pregnancy.
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/2025/06/04/c...
CFP: Special issue of Edith Wharton Review
CFP: Special issue of Edith Wharton Review
CFP: special issue of the Edith Wharton Review – Edith Wharton and Popular Culture (Due September 10, 2025)
CFP: special issue of the Edith Wharton Review – Edith Wharton and Popular Culture Due date for completed essays is September 10, 2025 Following the highly successful panels at ALA 2025…
edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com
June 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM
edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/2025/06/04/c...
CFP: Special issue of Edith Wharton Review
CFP: Special issue of Edith Wharton Review
This is so grim.
As an AP Lang teacher, I'm not really supposed to assign 11th graders any fiction. Junior year used to be dedicated to American lit in lots of places. Sometimes, teachers try for mashups. But there's more support for test prep than for lit.
May 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM
This is so grim.
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
I’m co-organizing this proposed panel, “The Latinx-Asian Commons,” for @c19americanists.bsky.social 2026 conference with @ayendy.bsky.social! Please consider submitting, and please share widely! Due 8/1
May 28, 2025 at 12:15 AM
I’m co-organizing this proposed panel, “The Latinx-Asian Commons,” for @c19americanists.bsky.social 2026 conference with @ayendy.bsky.social! Please consider submitting, and please share widely! Due 8/1
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
many thanks to @tomkoenigs.bsky.social for this deeply engaged review of Situation Critical @dukepress.bsky.social
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - <i>Situation Critical: Critique, Theory, and Early American Studies</i> by Max Cavitch and Brian Connolly (review)
muse.jhu.edu
May 22, 2025 at 5:49 PM
many thanks to @tomkoenigs.bsky.social for this deeply engaged review of Situation Critical @dukepress.bsky.social
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
I’m getting a server overwhelmed message trying to access the Frederick Douglass Collection on the LOC website. Anyone know if this problem is specific to the Douglass papers or a more general issue?
May 13, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I’m getting a server overwhelmed message trying to access the Frederick Douglass Collection on the LOC website. Anyone know if this problem is specific to the Douglass papers or a more general issue?
Excited to get my copy of @laurelvhankins.bsky.social’s The Art of Retreat. A must read for anyone interested in the development of fiction in the United States!
May 6, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Excited to get my copy of @laurelvhankins.bsky.social’s The Art of Retreat. A must read for anyone interested in the development of fiction in the United States!
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
An exciting delivery from @bucknellupress.bsky.social. The Art of Retreat considers the aesthetic possibilities of domestic retreat imagined in the fiction of the early US. You can read more and order the book at the link in my profile.
April 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
An exciting delivery from @bucknellupress.bsky.social. The Art of Retreat considers the aesthetic possibilities of domestic retreat imagined in the fiction of the early US. You can read more and order the book at the link in my profile.
This special issue looks really fascinating—excited to dig in: utppublishing.com/toc/ecf/37/1...
Contents | Eighteenth-Century Fiction 37, 1
This article considers what kinds of ideas are produced for export by scholars of the eighteenth century—the assumptions or truisms that circulate about our period. Noting the common sense that there is a dearth of theory in the field and that the image ...
utppublishing.com
April 15, 2025 at 11:33 PM
This special issue looks really fascinating—excited to dig in: utppublishing.com/toc/ecf/37/1...
Very excited about this!
Super excited to sign an advance contract with @curiousmonolith.bsky.social's Re-Editions series at Lever Press to do a #openaccess edition–with @philipb1793.bsky.social–of
Charles Brockden Brown's Memoirs of Stephen Calvert (1799/00).
1st US fiction to register #queer #gothic desire
1/
Charles Brockden Brown's Memoirs of Stephen Calvert (1799/00).
1st US fiction to register #queer #gothic desire
1/
April 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Very excited about this!
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
Scripps is currently searching for a VAP in American Studies for AY 2025-26. Please share widely. I’m not on the search committee but I’m happy to answer any questions about the position: www.scrippscollege.edu/hr/faculty/v...
Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies | Scripps College in Claremont, California
Founded in 1926 in Claremont, California, Scripps College offers a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, a robust intellectual community, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and a rich residenti...
www.scrippscollege.edu
April 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Scripps is currently searching for a VAP in American Studies for AY 2025-26. Please share widely. I’m not on the search committee but I’m happy to answer any questions about the position: www.scrippscollege.edu/hr/faculty/v...
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
My curlew and I will be walking, with students and banners and singing, through the campuses today (beginning at Scripps' Humanities Building, east side). Heads in the clouds, hearts on our sleeves. Join us if you're in Claremont! 11:30, ending at the Lenzner Gallery at 12:30 #alltogethernow
April 5, 2025 at 2:39 PM
My curlew and I will be walking, with students and banners and singing, through the campuses today (beginning at Scripps' Humanities Building, east side). Heads in the clouds, hearts on our sleeves. Join us if you're in Claremont! 11:30, ending at the Lenzner Gallery at 12:30 #alltogethernow
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
I hung up my DOGE termination letter near where I’m writing my book, as a reminder that the Humanities matters to a free and open society.
Far worse than the end of my NEH grant is the wholesale gutting of the NEH itself, an incalculable loss that we must fight to prevent.
Far worse than the end of my NEH grant is the wholesale gutting of the NEH itself, an incalculable loss that we must fight to prevent.
April 4, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I hung up my DOGE termination letter near where I’m writing my book, as a reminder that the Humanities matters to a free and open society.
Far worse than the end of my NEH grant is the wholesale gutting of the NEH itself, an incalculable loss that we must fight to prevent.
Far worse than the end of my NEH grant is the wholesale gutting of the NEH itself, an incalculable loss that we must fight to prevent.
Scripps is currently searching for a VAP in American Studies for AY 2025-26. Please share widely. I’m not on the search committee but I’m happy to answer any questions about the position: www.scrippscollege.edu/hr/faculty/v...
Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies | Scripps College in Claremont, California
Founded in 1926 in Claremont, California, Scripps College offers a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, a robust intellectual community, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and a rich residenti...
www.scrippscollege.edu
April 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Scripps is currently searching for a VAP in American Studies for AY 2025-26. Please share widely. I’m not on the search committee but I’m happy to answer any questions about the position: www.scrippscollege.edu/hr/faculty/v...
Reposted by Tom Koenigs
I’m really proud to be one of the coaches working with Princeton. If you’re in the humanities or social sciences, please consider applying.
The latest round of PUP’s Book Proposal Grant applications are open until April 6, 2025. During this time, we invite applications from scholars across the #Humanities and #SocialSciences, from underrepresented communities, institutions, and regions of the world.
April 4, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I’m really proud to be one of the coaches working with Princeton. If you’re in the humanities or social sciences, please consider applying.