Amy Bouwer
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amybouwer.bsky.social
Amy Bouwer
@amybouwer.bsky.social
1.5K followers 460 following 110 posts
🇿🇦 PhD candidate researching feminist dystopias at the University of Nottingham • utopianism, critical theory, sff, decolonisation, queer revolution • she/her 🏳️‍🌈🍉
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amybouwer.bsky.social
Important words from Dorothy Roberts in my morning reading today.
An excerpt from Dorothy Roberts's 'Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights', reading: 'A reproductive justice framework can attract support from tens of thousands of women alienated by the mainstream agenda – poor and low-income women, women of colour, queer women, women with disabilities, and women whose lives revolve around caregiving. In addition, the movement’s social justice focus provides a concrete basis for building radical coalitions with organisations fighting for racial, economic, and environmental justice, for immigrant, queer, and disabled people, and for systemic change in law enforcement, health care, and education. True reproductive freedom requires a living wage, universal health care, and the abolition of prisons. Black women see the police slaughter of unarmed people in their communities as a reproductive justice issue. They recognise that women are frequent victims of racist police violence and that cutting short the lives of black youth violates the right of mothers to raise their children in healthy, humane environments. The reproductive justice movement and Black Lives Matter are likely allies because, at their core, both insist that American society must begin to value black humanity. Black, Latina, Asian-American, and indigenous reproductive justice organisations have a history of solidarity, exemplified by SisterSong, and they have begun to forge links with other social justice movements.'
March 4, 2025 at 10:08 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
My life is going great thanks I drunkenly did the NYT Mini Crossword in 14 seconds today.
February 4, 2025 at 8:58 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
4. Trinity — Leon Uris
5. Beware the Woman — Megan Abbott
6. youthjuice — E. K. Sathue
7. A Kiss Before Dying — Ira Levin
8. Pandora — Susan Stokes-Chapman
9. Pieces of Her — Karin Slaughter
10. The Hundred Thousand Kingdom — N. K. Jemisin (an old favourite, clearly)
A pile of paperbacks (listed in the post) in a sunny patch on a white bookshelf.
January 20, 2025 at 10:15 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
First books of 2025:
1. The Neighbour’s Secret — Sharon Bolton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis ⭐️⭐️
3. The Familiar — Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
January 7, 2025 at 6:47 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Possibly an unpopular opinion but after finishing the audiobook yesterday I think Bridge is my favourite Lauren Beukes novel. Tight prose, brilliant world building, intrigue balanced with ethical inquiry… not to mention all the sf/f tie-ins. Beukes is a fucking force.
Screenshot of an audiobook player, showing the cover of Lauren Beukes’s novel ‘Bridge’. The cover shows a young white woman’s profile from the shoulders up, her head tilted upwards, with a blue and green rectangle covering her eyes. The shapes in the rectangle look ethereal, like a sonar or lava lamp. Everything else is tinted pink to match a bright pink gradient background.
December 8, 2024 at 3:52 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Just saw this CfP on the Other Site and thought I’d share here for anyone that missed it! The @bacls.bsky.social What Happens Now Conference will be held in Stirling on 10-12 June 2025 🤩 Proposals due 24 Jan.
forms.gle/Jmx4BBpdB7L3...
Call for Papers: British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies - What Happens Now Conference (BACLS-WHN) 10-12th June 2025, University of Stirling BACLS are delighted to open for proposals for their 2025 conference which, for the first time, will be held in Scotland at the University of Stirling. Now a quarter of the way into the 21st century, theorisations of the contemporary and the discipline of literary study have sought to capture both new and reiterating forms: Anna Korbluh proposes that we've entered a permacrisis-induced age of 'immediacy' where art eludes mediation and prioritizes feelings of presence; for John Guillory in his recent Professing Criticism, the perennial disciplinary and existential anxieties of university English should be understood as a now-permanent feature of the subject. BACLS-WHN asks its participants to engage with cultural and creative works and their relation to the emerging formations of the present-engaging, in broad terms, with the question: what happens now?
December 5, 2024 at 7:59 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Elle Nash’s Deliver Me was weird as hell but I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended if, like me, you need something queer and thrilling and horrifying every once in a while. (Big CW for pregnancy, miscarriage, Pentecostal trauma and bugs.)
Cover of Elle Nash’s Deliver Me: a black paperback with striking orange title, featuring an open mouth with a large black and orange beetle/roach crawling out of it.
December 5, 2024 at 7:39 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Still uneasy about pandemic-related stories (/novels set during Covid) but I’m glad I gave Delphi by Clare Pollard a chance. Skilful handling of mundanity and anachronism in ‘unprecedented times’, all while meditating on prophetic methods and myths.
Clare Pollard’s novel ‘Delphi’: a bright yellow paperback, with an off-centre faded picture of dying pink tulips on the cover.
December 4, 2024 at 6:21 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Arrived home-home to this little one today 🥰 I’m away for 8-10 months at a time and she still comes to sleep on my childhood bed whenever I visit my parents.
A small tabby cat curled up on a blue and white crocheted blanket, one paw stretched out as she licks her leg.
December 4, 2024 at 4:28 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
To me it looks like ‘shadow’. The ‘h’ and ‘a’ are warped, but your As do tend to be larger than other letters elsewhere… People seem to be getting tripped up bc of the comma on the previous line (which looks like the dot of an ‘i’) — I’m pretty sure the final three letters are ‘dow’.
December 1, 2024 at 10:31 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Finally spotted DUDE WIPES in the wild and I cannot stop laughing. $5 plus tax to protect you from germs, mess, AND emasculation.

(Alternate caption: chapstick lesbian fall starter pack.)
A supermarket display of NyQuil, Dude Wipes, lip balm, Advil and Benadryl.
November 18, 2024 at 10:26 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Had the best time at Day 1 of the NWSA annual conference yesterday! Ready for a full day of panels and discussions about feminist scholarship, reproductive activism, and the traps of neoliberal feminism today ✨
NWSA swag, including colourful feminist-themed stickers, a journal with a quote from Grace Lee Boggs (‘Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass’), ribbons reading ‘Feminist’ and ‘#CiteBlackWomen’, and a name tag. Picture of me (brunette, white 20-something in her best white billowy shirt and black trousers) smiling and holding my name tag for the NWSA annual conference.
November 15, 2024 at 1:25 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Waking up and checking the news like
Screen cap from The Princess Bride, where a man reading the book to his grandson says, ‘All right, now, let’s see. Where were we? Oh, yes. In the Pit of Despair.’
November 6, 2024 at 11:02 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Academia masquerades as an objective profession but it is, has always been, bloody business.
Another picture of the Palestine solidarity encampment outside the US Embassy in London. Signs read ‘Stop arming Israel’ and ‘USA, this is your genocide’.
October 9, 2024 at 7:32 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Fuck the U$ and fuck Isr@el. Obviously this is all just academic bullshit and pales when held in tension with literal genocide. But the moments of tension are still worth acknowledging when the systemic decimation of Palestine is so normalised that it threatens to become background noise.
Picture of the Palestine solidarity camp outside the US Embassy in London. A large red sign reads ‘Stop the genocide’.
October 9, 2024 at 7:31 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Deeply unsettling experience applying for a visa to attend a conference on gender in Detroit. Imagine engraving a quote about peace* into the marble floors of your embassy whilst discouraging everyone from looking out the window at a protest encampment for Palestine.
Picture of the concrete facade of the US Embassy in London
October 9, 2024 at 7:24 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 7 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, with a park of outstretched hands framing a bird that looks like an eagle.
September 12, 2024 at 9:53 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 6 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost. The image is black and white, of the top half of a woman’s face. Fabric covers the bridge of her nose, and her dark hair frames bright eyes.
September 11, 2024 at 7:00 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 5 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of Jill Lepore’s The Secret History of Wonder Woman, featuring an image of Wonder Woman from Action Comics (wearing a gold tiara, round glasses, stripping off a dark shirt to reveal her red, white and blue leotard with an eagle across the chest).
September 10, 2024 at 5:36 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
New house came with two resident artists 🕷️🕸️
Two dewy spiderwebs above a hedge on a quiet street. Brick houses behind, and you can just about make out a large brown spider at the centre of each web.
September 9, 2024 at 10:26 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 4 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin, with a sticker announcing that it won the Hugo Award. The cover is of intricate stonework that looks ancient and has a green tinge.
September 9, 2024 at 10:22 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 3 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of ‘The Orchard of Lost Souls’ by Nadifa Mohamed, featuring a landscape of Somaliland and a woman walking ahead.
September 8, 2024 at 8:28 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. Day 2 #booksky 📚💙
Cover of John Irving’s ‘The Cider House Rules’, which has a faded image of a young boy looking out a bright window between two beds in what looks like a dormitory
September 7, 2024 at 8:05 AM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, only covers. #booksky 📚💙
Cover of The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, subtitled ‘The dark story of America’s shining women’
September 6, 2024 at 6:23 PM
amybouwer.bsky.social
Big Swiss is keeping me company through packing/unpacking boredom — y’all this book is SO STRANGE I love it.
Screenshot of an audiobook app playing ‘Big Swiss’ by Jen Beagin. The cover has is yellow and has two dogs’ snouts facing each other in a square in the centre. Right dog has its tongue out as if it wants to lick left dog’s nose.
September 6, 2024 at 11:29 AM