Isobel Cook
@isobelcook.bsky.social
Researching nuclear-themed British poetry. PhD-in-progress. Theatre and ballet fan. Based in Sheffield. Travels by train. She/her.
Pinned
Isobel Cook
@isobelcook.bsky.social
· Jan 23
Let's get connected if you're in the nuclear culture research space or you want to exchange recommendations for nuclear-themed literature. I recently enjoyed 'Termush' by Sven Holm (English translation by Sylvia Clayton), a 1960s novella about the paranoia of life in a nuclear shelter.
I don't gamble, except that I do sometimes book trains I think will run late, thus offering the possibility of a dopamine hit via Delay Repay.
November 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
I don't gamble, except that I do sometimes book trains I think will run late, thus offering the possibility of a dopamine hit via Delay Repay.
Ian McEwan - Lessons
What are you reading this weekend?
November 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Ian McEwan - Lessons
Reposted by Isobel Cook
TEN DAYS TO GO!
Just TEN DAYS LEFT to submit your abstracts for @emjlynajsh.bsky.social's and my conference on EM practical texts @sheffieldcems.bsky.social. The conference has hybrid capability, and we have six self-funded student/non-waged ECR travel bursaries of £75 each.
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies - CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature
CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature
sites.google.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:03 PM
TEN DAYS TO GO!
Having analogue creative practices and hobbies is something I find really beneficial to my wellbeing. For a long time now, I've been making my own cards to send to friends and family - recently I've been leaning into collage. Here's a little peak at recent creations, with some analysis (of course).
Music, dancers, and resisting generative AI: two collages
Against generative AI (which shovels the all-too profits of art away from its diverse makers and into the pockets of monopolising tech billionaires, all while disregarding this cultural damage and …
writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Having analogue creative practices and hobbies is something I find really beneficial to my wellbeing. For a long time now, I've been making my own cards to send to friends and family - recently I've been leaning into collage. Here's a little peak at recent creations, with some analysis (of course).
The Art in the Nuclear Age reading group returns November 10th to discuss Invisible Colors: The Arts of the Atomic Age by Gabrielle Decamous. Sign up to join the video call and share your thoughts. #nuclearCulture #bookSky
Art in the Nuclear Age
www.art-in-the-nuclear-age.org
October 27, 2025 at 6:27 PM
The Art in the Nuclear Age reading group returns November 10th to discuss Invisible Colors: The Arts of the Atomic Age by Gabrielle Decamous. Sign up to join the video call and share your thoughts. #nuclearCulture #bookSky
Reposted by Isobel Cook
The deadline is still over a month away, but reminder about this @themhra.bsky.social funded conference @fairbanc.bsky.social and I are organising on the exciting subject of **early modern practical texts**!
📅 Abstracts due 24/11.
Full details can be found here:
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
📅 Abstracts due 24/11.
Full details can be found here:
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies - CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature
CFP: Reading the Practical in Early Modern Literature
sites.google.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:01 PM
The deadline is still over a month away, but reminder about this @themhra.bsky.social funded conference @fairbanc.bsky.social and I are organising on the exciting subject of **early modern practical texts**!
📅 Abstracts due 24/11.
Full details can be found here:
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
📅 Abstracts due 24/11.
Full details can be found here:
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Reposted by Isobel Cook
March 22 is #WorldWaterDay & an apt birthday for Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear power. 🐡🧪👩🏻🔬⚒️ 🧵#histsci
March 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
March 22 is #WorldWaterDay & an apt birthday for Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear power. 🐡🧪👩🏻🔬⚒️ 🧵#histsci
'I love you for being a toad' Valentine's card incoming...
Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse
squeeze under the rickety door and sit,
full of satisfaction, in a man’s house?
—Norman MacCaig, “Toad”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
#poem #poetry #BookWormSat
birlinn.co.uk/product/the-...
squeeze under the rickety door and sit,
full of satisfaction, in a man’s house?
—Norman MacCaig, “Toad”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
#poem #poetry #BookWormSat
birlinn.co.uk/product/the-...
October 4, 2025 at 8:24 PM
'I love you for being a toad' Valentine's card incoming...
Reposted by Isobel Cook
The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not end World War II and here is why: merotribune.com/2025/08/25/t...
#NuclearBan #Disarmament #InternationalSecurity
#NuclearBan #Disarmament #InternationalSecurity
September 9, 2025 at 11:47 AM
The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not end World War II and here is why: merotribune.com/2025/08/25/t...
#NuclearBan #Disarmament #InternationalSecurity
#NuclearBan #Disarmament #InternationalSecurity
Can't make it to today's discussion? Learn more about 'Heavy Water' and the (re)mediation of the Chernobyl disaster in my 2023 blog post: writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/b...
September 8, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Can't make it to today's discussion? Learn more about 'Heavy Water' and the (re)mediation of the Chernobyl disaster in my 2023 blog post: writingverbaboutwritingnoun.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/b...
Got around to deleting my duolingo account (which I've used on and off since 2014) and it was... anticlimactic.
September 6, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Got around to deleting my duolingo account (which I've used on and off since 2014) and it was... anticlimactic.
Reposted by Isobel Cook
On Monday 8th September 2025 the Art in the Nuclear Age reading group is meeting online.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
AiNA Reading Group: 'Heavy Water' by Mario Petrucci
A regular reading group with Art in the Nuclear Age: a UK-based arts hub exploring nuclear culture.
www.eventbrite.com
September 2, 2025 at 2:28 PM
On Monday 8th September 2025 the Art in the Nuclear Age reading group is meeting online.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Reposted by Isobel Cook
The start of September marks the anniversary of the Women of Greenham Common's Peace Camp. The camp began in 1981, opposing Britain’s nuclear policy and their decision to allow US Cruise Missiles to be stored in Greenham and lasted almost 20 years!
September 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
The start of September marks the anniversary of the Women of Greenham Common's Peace Camp. The camp began in 1981, opposing Britain’s nuclear policy and their decision to allow US Cruise Missiles to be stored in Greenham and lasted almost 20 years!
Reposted by Isobel Cook
A quick reminder: our next online meeting of The Film Thread film club is TOMORROW when we’ll be discussing this incredible anime about a young boy living in Hiroshima when the bomb drops. It’s just £8 to sign up - all details in the post. I’d love to see you there! open.substack.com/pub/vickiles...
10 Things to Know About... 'Barefoot Gen'
Your introductory primer, plus two companion shorts to watch
open.substack.com
September 6, 2025 at 1:42 PM
A quick reminder: our next online meeting of The Film Thread film club is TOMORROW when we’ll be discussing this incredible anime about a young boy living in Hiroshima when the bomb drops. It’s just £8 to sign up - all details in the post. I’d love to see you there! open.substack.com/pub/vickiles...
Reposted by Isobel Cook
The French civil defence booklet from 1965, kindly sent to me by @jeremycartier.bsky.social I've uploaded it here and it's free to view.
Savoir Pour Vivre | Atomic Hobo
Get more from Atomic Hobo on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 2, 2025 at 7:08 PM
The French civil defence booklet from 1965, kindly sent to me by @jeremycartier.bsky.social I've uploaded it here and it's free to view.
On Monday 8th September 2025 the Art in the Nuclear Age reading group is meeting online.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
AiNA Reading Group: 'Heavy Water' by Mario Petrucci
A regular reading group with Art in the Nuclear Age: a UK-based arts hub exploring nuclear culture.
www.eventbrite.com
September 2, 2025 at 2:28 PM
On Monday 8th September 2025 the Art in the Nuclear Age reading group is meeting online.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Heavy Water by Mario Petrucci is a response to Svetlana Alexievich's haunting oral history of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Researchers, creatives, and #nuclearCulture enthusiasts welcome.
Reposted by Isobel Cook
How did making banners help women to express themselves and support one another at Greenham Common Peace Camp?
Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) explores this creative process and explains why motherhood was such a prominent theme.
Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) explores this creative process and explains why motherhood was such a prominent theme.
Motherhood and Banner-making at Greenham Women’s Peace Camp
How did making banners help women to express themselves at Greenham Common Peace Camp? Why was motherhood was such a prominent theme?
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
August 7, 2025 at 6:30 AM
How did making banners help women to express themselves and support one another at Greenham Common Peace Camp?
Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) explores this creative process and explains why motherhood was such a prominent theme.
Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) explores this creative process and explains why motherhood was such a prominent theme.
I've produced a reading guide in collaboration with @commonwealuk.bsky.social on the topic of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, site of Britain's largest antinuclear protest.
You can find it, and other guides to books about peace activism, here:
www.commonwealnonviolence.org/reading-lists
You can find it, and other guides to books about peace activism, here:
www.commonwealnonviolence.org/reading-lists
Reading lists - Commonweal
With over 14,000 books, pamphlets and journals in the Collection, sometimes it can be hard to know how to start so here are some reading lists to get you started! New lists will be added regularly, so...
www.commonwealnonviolence.org
July 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM
I've produced a reading guide in collaboration with @commonwealuk.bsky.social on the topic of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, site of Britain's largest antinuclear protest.
You can find it, and other guides to books about peace activism, here:
www.commonwealnonviolence.org/reading-lists
You can find it, and other guides to books about peace activism, here:
www.commonwealnonviolence.org/reading-lists
Reposted by Isobel Cook
Still not too late to submit poems for the National Peace Poetry Competition: Verses of Hope, 3 categories primary, secondary and FE/College. Deadline 23rd July. @peaceeduscot.bsky.social @facinghistoryuk.bsky.social @acitizenshipt.bsky.social
July 16, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Still not too late to submit poems for the National Peace Poetry Competition: Verses of Hope, 3 categories primary, secondary and FE/College. Deadline 23rd July. @peaceeduscot.bsky.social @facinghistoryuk.bsky.social @acitizenshipt.bsky.social
Always nice to see a Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp poem out in the wild. 12th December 1982 was the date of the 'Embrace the Base' action, chosen to anticipate the arrival of US cruise missiles. 30,000 women formed a human chain around the airbase in nonviolent protest against nuclear weapons.
Well #PoetsOfBluesky I am not sure if this qualifies as #PoemsAbout #Spectacle because I was actually a part of this particular spectacle. I know some people in my family thought that I was making a spectacle of myself by doing it.
June 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Always nice to see a Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp poem out in the wild. 12th December 1982 was the date of the 'Embrace the Base' action, chosen to anticipate the arrival of US cruise missiles. 30,000 women formed a human chain around the airbase in nonviolent protest against nuclear weapons.
Reposted by Isobel Cook
I'm curating a collection of good reads on the horrors of AI that I can assign to students. So far I've got Teen Vogue on the environment, and the @guinz.bsky.social Substack piece. Any other recs? Needs to be short so that students will actually read it.
June 6, 2025 at 10:42 AM
I'm curating a collection of good reads on the horrors of AI that I can assign to students. So far I've got Teen Vogue on the environment, and the @guinz.bsky.social Substack piece. Any other recs? Needs to be short so that students will actually read it.
Can't say that I agree with Pinsky that 'The Horses' is the absolute bestest nuclear anxiety text... but it does still make an impact #nuclearCulture
“Edwin Muir (1887–1959) is a mysteriously neglected, gorgeous, & emotionally penetrating poet. Of all the many pieces of writing spurred by the Cold War & the threat of nuclear apocalypse […] his poem ‘The Horses’ may be the most effective”
—Robert Pinsky
2/8
slate.com/culture/1999...
—Robert Pinsky
2/8
slate.com/culture/1999...
The Horses
To hear Robert Pinsky read "The Horses," click here.
slate.com
May 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Can't say that I agree with Pinsky that 'The Horses' is the absolute bestest nuclear anxiety text... but it does still make an impact #nuclearCulture
There's scope for a non-toxic masculinity which reshapes the narrative of men as protectors to centre protecting our environment and climate, I think. (Maybe this is already happening somewhere?)
"Men emit 26% more planet-heating pollution than women from transport and food, according to a preprint study of 15,000 people in France. The gap shrinks to 18% after controlling for socioeconomic factors such as income and education."
Car use and meat consumption drive emissions gender gap, research suggests
The French study of 15,000 people shows men emit 26% more pollution due to eating red meat and driving more
www.theguardian.com
May 15, 2025 at 6:35 PM
There's scope for a non-toxic masculinity which reshapes the narrative of men as protectors to centre protecting our environment and climate, I think. (Maybe this is already happening somewhere?)
I really like this analysis of the event! Masculinity has also been connected to ideas of dominance - over oneself, one's emotions, over women, and importantly in this instance, over nature.
1. There are various lessons that can be learned from the mindless criminality of the Sycamore Gap tree tragedy. But one that has been overlooked is its subtle indexing to toxic masculinity. There are many clues within the case that point to this.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Two men found guilty of ‘mindless, moronic’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, found to have criminally damaged tree and Hadrian’s Wall
www.theguardian.com
May 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
I really like this analysis of the event! Masculinity has also been connected to ideas of dominance - over oneself, one's emotions, over women, and importantly in this instance, over nature.
You can turn spam email into a thankyou message - report phishing attempts to the National Cyber Security Centre in the UK just by forwarding the email to report@phishing.gov.uk -protect less savvy (or just tired) folks from getting scammed, and get a nice (albeit automatic) thank you in response.
May 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM
You can turn spam email into a thankyou message - report phishing attempts to the National Cyber Security Centre in the UK just by forwarding the email to report@phishing.gov.uk -protect less savvy (or just tired) folks from getting scammed, and get a nice (albeit automatic) thank you in response.