Ann Kennedy Smith
@akennedysmith.bsky.social
Author, critic and researcher. Reviews & essays in TLS, Guardian, History Today, ODNB. Writing about books & women's history in my Cambridge Ladies' Dining Society newsletter. https://akennedysmith.substack.com/
Pinned
Dorothy L. Sayers at Oxford
'Scholar; Master of Arts; Domina'
open.substack.com
I wrote about the first Oxford University graduation ceremony to award degrees to women, which took place on 14 October 1920. 27-year-old Dorothy L. Sayers was among the fifty celebrants that day, and she never forgot it.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
The industry is not supporting small-press publishers enough, not because it ought to, but because small-press publishing is the future of book production in this country, says Lucy Mercer in our recent Comment piece 👇 #BookSky
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
ebx.sh
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
The industry is not supporting small-press publishers enough, not because it ought to, but because small-press publishing is the future of book production in this country, says Lucy Mercer in our recent Comment piece 👇 #BookSky
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
Another plug for my BookWeek Scotland event on Friday, talking about Nan Shepherd's Aberdeen contemporaries and pals. (My name is Timothy Baker, not Barker, and it's Lyn, not Lynn, Irvine, but so it goes...) www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Nan Shepherd and her friends
Friday 21 November | 14:30-15:30 - Aberdeen Central Library, Aberdeen
www.scottishbooktrust.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Another plug for my BookWeek Scotland event on Friday, talking about Nan Shepherd's Aberdeen contemporaries and pals. (My name is Timothy Baker, not Barker, and it's Lyn, not Lynn, Irvine, but so it goes...) www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
You just need to submit a proposal for the @bars.bsky.social conference before 30 Nov and write a *short* application note to apply for the bursary.
Of you're a historian, filmmaker, lawyer, architect, consultant, teacher, librarian - or anything else - share your new #romanticism insights with us!
Of you're a historian, filmmaker, lawyer, architect, consultant, teacher, librarian - or anything else - share your new #romanticism insights with us!
Also a reminder that @bars.bsky.social are offering a new conference #bursary this year, for professionals outside academia (not only teaching, heritage, alt-ac but any job) who are interested in #Romanticis and want to present their research.
Details on BARS website
#funding #IndependentScholars
Details on BARS website
#funding #IndependentScholars
Reminder: CfP closes for BARS 2026 'Romantic Retrospection' at the University of Birmingham, UK, and online on 30 November.
Details below:
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/arts-...
Details below:
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/arts-...
November 8, 2025 at 8:27 AM
You just need to submit a proposal for the @bars.bsky.social conference before 30 Nov and write a *short* application note to apply for the bursary.
Of you're a historian, filmmaker, lawyer, architect, consultant, teacher, librarian - or anything else - share your new #romanticism insights with us!
Of you're a historian, filmmaker, lawyer, architect, consultant, teacher, librarian - or anything else - share your new #romanticism insights with us!
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
This week Wednesday at Birkbeck, right in the heart of Bloomsbury: join us for thought-provoking talk by the brilliant Julia Laite on the history of Newfoundland, home of one of the British Empire’s most remote settlements where one of its most complete genocides took place. Free but pls register
Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Annual Graduate Lecture 2025 - Stories at the Edge of Empire: Newfoundland, 1763-1829
Join us for an exploration of ways of mapping and knowing Newfoundland in the 18th & 19th centuries delivered by Julia Laite
www.bbk.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
This week Wednesday at Birkbeck, right in the heart of Bloomsbury: join us for thought-provoking talk by the brilliant Julia Laite on the history of Newfoundland, home of one of the British Empire’s most remote settlements where one of its most complete genocides took place. Free but pls register
If you're in Cambridge in the next few weeks, I can highly recommend this exhibition and it's FREE. Don't miss it.
🧪Hold on to your urine flasks, there are only a few weeks left to visit Curious Cures!
📍 Open until 6 December 2025 at the University Library
🔗Book your FREE ticket: https://loom.ly/kVqsPRY
Music by Vlad Bakutov from Pixabay
📍 Open until 6 December 2025 at the University Library
🔗Book your FREE ticket: https://loom.ly/kVqsPRY
Music by Vlad Bakutov from Pixabay
November 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM
If you're in Cambridge in the next few weeks, I can highly recommend this exhibition and it's FREE. Don't miss it.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
It's such fantastic news that poet, writer and journalist Amy Levy's archive has been acquired by Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social. I wrote about her time as a student at Newnham College Cambridge here:
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
The archive of enigmatic 19th-century writer Amy Levy has a new home at Cambridge University Library.
Find out more: https://loom.ly/RHh3bbc
Thank you to our supporters, including: @thefnl.bsky.social, Arts Council England, Rothschild Foundation, The Polonsky Foundation, T. S. Eliot Foundation.
Find out more: https://loom.ly/RHh3bbc
Thank you to our supporters, including: @thefnl.bsky.social, Arts Council England, Rothschild Foundation, The Polonsky Foundation, T. S. Eliot Foundation.
November 17, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
Look at this excellent handkerchief from 1769 at the V & A museum: a showcase for #18thc practices of remediation. Made to imitate a quodlibet/medley print, a genre that itself aims to simulate, in a trompe l'oeil idiom, a scatter of small printed papers.
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
November 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I'm celebrating two years of writing on Substack. Less serious than it looks.
My second Substack anniversary...
...and other reasons to celebrate
akennedysmith.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I'm celebrating two years of writing on Substack. Less serious than it looks.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul
Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
Yesterday, three years and one day after our first date, I officially became Mrs @andrewmale.bsky.social in a day overflowing with love and joy. We could not be happier.
November 16, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Yesterday, three years and one day after our first date, I officially became Mrs @andrewmale.bsky.social in a day overflowing with love and joy. We could not be happier.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
'...in times of frustration or exhaustion I tap into my memories of injustice. I remind myself of why I am doing what I am doing and this sustains me. Anger transforms into a battery charger that gives me a boost when it’s sorely needed.'
#AliceWong
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
#AliceWong
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Alice Wong, ‘luminary’ writer and disability rights activist, dies aged 51
Daughter of immigrants advocated for people with disabilities to have full autonomy over their lives
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:12 PM
'...in times of frustration or exhaustion I tap into my memories of injustice. I remind myself of why I am doing what I am doing and this sustains me. Anger transforms into a battery charger that gives me a boost when it’s sorely needed.'
#AliceWong
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
#AliceWong
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
The shocking but little-known consequences of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. Important thread by @misssarahwise.bsky.social
🧵
2/ The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 introduced a new psychiatric category – the ‘moral defective’. Regardless of IQ, an individual deemed to be hopelessly recidivist was to be warehoused permanently in one of the new Mental Deficiency Colonies
2/ The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 introduced a new psychiatric category – the ‘moral defective’. Regardless of IQ, an individual deemed to be hopelessly recidivist was to be warehoused permanently in one of the new Mental Deficiency Colonies
November 16, 2025 at 3:12 PM
The shocking but little-known consequences of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. Important thread by @misssarahwise.bsky.social
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
'Sharp women everywhere, I tell you: be pointy and proud.' One of my favourite Rachel Cooke reviews (there are so many to choose from). She was especially good at writing about group biography, having written one herself (Her Brilliant Career). What a fantastic critic she was, a one-off.
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean – review
Dean’s group biography of female writers who dared speak their mind is a great and worthy project
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:19 PM
'Sharp women everywhere, I tell you: be pointy and proud.' One of my favourite Rachel Cooke reviews (there are so many to choose from). She was especially good at writing about group biography, having written one herself (Her Brilliant Career). What a fantastic critic she was, a one-off.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
Terrible news: Rachel Cooke has died. She was 56.
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Terrible news: Rachel Cooke has died. She was 56.
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
What a horrible shock. Superb tribute from @timadamswrites.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
What a horrible shock. Superb tribute from @timadamswrites.bsky.social
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
The excellent Jonathan Crain interviewed me about my novel The Orange Notebooks (@pressassembly.bsky.social & @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social). We talked about reclaiming the lost language of mourning, my hospital work, bees, the colour orange, lost libraries & more.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Writing Against Silence: Susanna Crossman and the Radical Honesty of "The Orange Notebooks"
When Susanna Crossman speaks about her new novel The Orange Notebooks, she talks about process, practice, and experimentation—terms that suggest not a tidy narrative but a living, breathing act of cre...
substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:24 AM
The excellent Jonathan Crain interviewed me about my novel The Orange Notebooks (@pressassembly.bsky.social & @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social). We talked about reclaiming the lost language of mourning, my hospital work, bees, the colour orange, lost libraries & more.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
It's such fantastic news that poet, writer and journalist Amy Levy's archive has been acquired by Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social. I wrote about her time as a student at Newnham College Cambridge here:
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
The archive of enigmatic 19th-century writer Amy Levy has a new home at Cambridge University Library.
Find out more: https://loom.ly/RHh3bbc
Thank you to our supporters, including: @thefnl.bsky.social, Arts Council England, Rothschild Foundation, The Polonsky Foundation, T. S. Eliot Foundation.
Find out more: https://loom.ly/RHh3bbc
Thank you to our supporters, including: @thefnl.bsky.social, Arts Council England, Rothschild Foundation, The Polonsky Foundation, T. S. Eliot Foundation.
November 13, 2025 at 8:27 PM
It's such fantastic news that poet, writer and journalist Amy Levy's archive has been acquired by Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social. I wrote about her time as a student at Newnham College Cambridge here:
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
akennedysmith.substack.com/p/written-wi...
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
"An innovative exploration of the roles of women working in policing and private agencies."
The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they have shortlisted 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by Sara Lodge (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they have shortlisted 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by Sara Lodge (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
November 12, 2025 at 9:15 AM
"An innovative exploration of the roles of women working in policing and private agencies."
The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they have shortlisted 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by Sara Lodge (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they have shortlisted 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by Sara Lodge (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
"The news sent me out walking alone along the dyke above the marshes of Rhuddlan.... cursing and sobbing and thinking of the dead."
Robert Graves gets news of the Armistice, today in 1918
Robert Graves gets news of the Armistice, today in 1918
November 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
"The news sent me out walking alone along the dyke above the marshes of Rhuddlan.... cursing and sobbing and thinking of the dead."
Robert Graves gets news of the Armistice, today in 1918
Robert Graves gets news of the Armistice, today in 1918
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
Part of the problem is the way We have treated scientific discovery as if it is made by brilliant men.
All science is built on the science that came before. It is collaborative in multiple ways.
All attempts to credit a single scientist with THE crucial discovery are flawed.
All science is built on the science that came before. It is collaborative in multiple ways.
All attempts to credit a single scientist with THE crucial discovery are flawed.
November 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Part of the problem is the way We have treated scientific discovery as if it is made by brilliant men.
All science is built on the science that came before. It is collaborative in multiple ways.
All attempts to credit a single scientist with THE crucial discovery are flawed.
All science is built on the science that came before. It is collaborative in multiple ways.
All attempts to credit a single scientist with THE crucial discovery are flawed.
'Knowing was probably written by a male cleric, but ostensibly addresses a female readership. It emphasises the role of women as caregivers and midwives, but also as readers and mediators of the written word' James Freeman @theulspeccoll.bsky.social
specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=30906
specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=30906
In their own words: medical writings in Middle English – Cambridge University Library Special Collections
specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:54 AM
'Knowing was probably written by a male cleric, but ostensibly addresses a female readership. It emphasises the role of women as caregivers and midwives, but also as readers and mediators of the written word' James Freeman @theulspeccoll.bsky.social
specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=30906
specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=30906
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
In the lead up to the #WolfsonHistoryPrize winner announcement next month, we are shining a light on each of the shortlisted books.
This week, Sara Lodge's (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' takes the spotlight @yalebooks.bsky.social.
This week, Sara Lodge's (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' takes the spotlight @yalebooks.bsky.social.
November 10, 2025 at 9:08 AM
In the lead up to the #WolfsonHistoryPrize winner announcement next month, we are shining a light on each of the shortlisted books.
This week, Sara Lodge's (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' takes the spotlight @yalebooks.bsky.social.
This week, Sara Lodge's (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' takes the spotlight @yalebooks.bsky.social.
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
My first lot of marking has arrived but so has the cover of the book!
November 10, 2025 at 9:43 AM
My first lot of marking has arrived but so has the cover of the book!
Reposted by Ann Kennedy Smith
@akennedysmith.bsky.social's essay on DNA pioneer Dr Rosalind Franklin reminds us of the continued importance of giving women's historic scientific discoveries their due.
As Francis Crick put it, ‘I’m afraid we always used to adopt – let’s say, a patronizing attitude towards her.’ I wrote about DNA pioneer Dr Rosalind Franklin, and how she was deliberately excluded from her male colleagues' conversations.
Conversations with scientists
British chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Dr Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
open.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 PM
@akennedysmith.bsky.social's essay on DNA pioneer Dr Rosalind Franklin reminds us of the continued importance of giving women's historic scientific discoveries their due.