Katherine Firth
@katherinefirth.bsky.social
Writes about writing, especially for PhDs and researchers: poetry, music, food. Blogs at Research Degree Insider
It was a blast to talk to Amra Pajalic on her podcast about all things #3MinuteThesis.
Amra won the La Trobe University 3MT competition,—listen in to hear Amra’s journey and how 3MT made a difference. 🎧✨📚
Available on all the pod platforms:
amrasarmchairanecdotes.buzzsprout.com/2448457/follow
Amra won the La Trobe University 3MT competition,—listen in to hear Amra’s journey and how 3MT made a difference. 🎧✨📚
Available on all the pod platforms:
amrasarmchairanecdotes.buzzsprout.com/2448457/follow
November 10, 2025 at 10:06 AM
It was a blast to talk to Amra Pajalic on her podcast about all things #3MinuteThesis.
Amra won the La Trobe University 3MT competition,—listen in to hear Amra’s journey and how 3MT made a difference. 🎧✨📚
Available on all the pod platforms:
amrasarmchairanecdotes.buzzsprout.com/2448457/follow
Amra won the La Trobe University 3MT competition,—listen in to hear Amra’s journey and how 3MT made a difference. 🎧✨📚
Available on all the pod platforms:
amrasarmchairanecdotes.buzzsprout.com/2448457/follow
Anyway, you too need a Toga Return/ Togari Turn Sonic. I got mine from Bungu Store Tokyo. ✏️🫶✨📚
bungu.store/products/man...
bungu.store/products/man...
October 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Anyway, you too need a Toga Return/ Togari Turn Sonic. I got mine from Bungu Store Tokyo. ✏️🫶✨📚
bungu.store/products/man...
bungu.store/products/man...
You use the crank to hoick in the pencil, even a totally flat, never touched one. You then wind the crank half a dozen times, and tiny shavings fall. Suddenly, the pencil is ejected—perfectly sharp, perfectly smooth, and not a millimetre of pencil wasted
October 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM
You use the crank to hoick in the pencil, even a totally flat, never touched one. You then wind the crank half a dozen times, and tiny shavings fall. Suddenly, the pencil is ejected—perfectly sharp, perfectly smooth, and not a millimetre of pencil wasted
My doves, my dears. Magic pencil sharpener!
I spent a silly amount of money on Japanese stationary that I wasn’t sure I needed (I did need it, this story ends well).
You will not believe this pencil sharpener though
I spent a silly amount of money on Japanese stationary that I wasn’t sure I needed (I did need it, this story ends well).
You will not believe this pencil sharpener though
October 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM
My doves, my dears. Magic pencil sharpener!
I spent a silly amount of money on Japanese stationary that I wasn’t sure I needed (I did need it, this story ends well).
You will not believe this pencil sharpener though
I spent a silly amount of money on Japanese stationary that I wasn’t sure I needed (I did need it, this story ends well).
You will not believe this pencil sharpener though
What’s in the drawers of your desk?
I have a bureau that I bought when we lived in Cambridge and I was doing my PhD, not-quite 2 decades ago.
Today I sat at it and realised it was still full of old UK stuff
🧵1/5
I have a bureau that I bought when we lived in Cambridge and I was doing my PhD, not-quite 2 decades ago.
Today I sat at it and realised it was still full of old UK stuff
🧵1/5
October 10, 2025 at 6:11 AM
What’s in the drawers of your desk?
I have a bureau that I bought when we lived in Cambridge and I was doing my PhD, not-quite 2 decades ago.
Today I sat at it and realised it was still full of old UK stuff
🧵1/5
I have a bureau that I bought when we lived in Cambridge and I was doing my PhD, not-quite 2 decades ago.
Today I sat at it and realised it was still full of old UK stuff
🧵1/5
#CommunityInWriting Day 2
Book Launch for the new #ShutUpandWrite book
Available for pre-order now
www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-an...
Book Launch for the new #ShutUpandWrite book
Available for pre-order now
www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-an...
October 7, 2025 at 1:29 AM
#CommunityInWriting Day 2
Book Launch for the new #ShutUpandWrite book
Available for pre-order now
www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-an...
Book Launch for the new #ShutUpandWrite book
Available for pre-order now
www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-an...
#CommunityInWriting Symposium Day 1 at Deakin Downtown #SUAW #Shutupandwrite
Sneak peek of new book cover ✨📚
Sneak peek of new book cover ✨📚
October 5, 2025 at 10:39 PM
#CommunityInWriting Symposium Day 1 at Deakin Downtown #SUAW #Shutupandwrite
Sneak peek of new book cover ✨📚
Sneak peek of new book cover ✨📚
Inside you are two wolves
September 17, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Inside you are two wolves
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re all comrades in a war that has infinite fronts. Nobody can fight on all of them…But there is no neutral territory here. There may be plenty of front lines, but there are no sidelines.”
open.substack.com/pub/experime...
open.substack.com/pub/experime...
September 7, 2025 at 3:51 AM
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re all comrades in a war that has infinite fronts. Nobody can fight on all of them…But there is no neutral territory here. There may be plenty of front lines, but there are no sidelines.”
open.substack.com/pub/experime...
open.substack.com/pub/experime...
The perfect food for jet-lagged eating is congee with all the toppings. Feeling energised and moved by the tips, challenges and sharing from the room.
May 20, 2025 at 4:27 PM
The perfect food for jet-lagged eating is congee with all the toppings. Feeling energised and moved by the tips, challenges and sharing from the room.
Since I’m talking about wellbeing, I’ve got myself the water, the coffee, the SNACK BAR to keep up the energy through the Aussie nighttime.
May 20, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Since I’m talking about wellbeing, I’ve got myself the water, the coffee, the SNACK BAR to keep up the energy through the Aussie nighttime.
Just the most glorious weather for a run, to queue up in the sun with a flat white, vote, and support the local school by having a #democracysausage
May 3, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Just the most glorious weather for a run, to queue up in the sun with a flat white, vote, and support the local school by having a #democracysausage
Behind the scenes of a symposium and concert on Dietrich Bonhoeffer—an inspiration to us all. With @melbournedean.bsky.social
March 1, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Behind the scenes of a symposium and concert on Dietrich Bonhoeffer—an inspiration to us all. With @melbournedean.bsky.social
“Great courage is, again, to hold your eyes as open to the light as to death.”
Only makes sense near the desert, where the light will kill you, even as it makes you more alive than you have ever been. ✨📚
Only makes sense near the desert, where the light will kill you, even as it makes you more alive than you have ever been. ✨📚
February 28, 2025 at 10:07 AM
“Great courage is, again, to hold your eyes as open to the light as to death.”
Only makes sense near the desert, where the light will kill you, even as it makes you more alive than you have ever been. ✨📚
Only makes sense near the desert, where the light will kill you, even as it makes you more alive than you have ever been. ✨📚
Camus’ prose really comes alive when he tries to describe the Algerian sun. Sun-prose, when there is too much sun, breaks northern European languages wide open.
February 28, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Camus’ prose really comes alive when he tries to describe the Algerian sun. Sun-prose, when there is too much sun, breaks northern European languages wide open.
Herman Hesse, my new fave, uses ‘?!’ to in a paragraph paraphrased best as ‘what the hell dude! Is everything meaningless?!’
There is nothing new under the sun, beloved, even in super-online punctuation ✨📚
There is nothing new under the sun, beloved, even in super-online punctuation ✨📚
February 16, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Herman Hesse, my new fave, uses ‘?!’ to in a paragraph paraphrased best as ‘what the hell dude! Is everything meaningless?!’
There is nothing new under the sun, beloved, even in super-online punctuation ✨📚
There is nothing new under the sun, beloved, even in super-online punctuation ✨📚
My garden has been hunkering down to get through this heatwave—so we are limited to hardy mediterranean herbs. This week I’ve used thyme, sage, bay leaf, oregano, parsley, tarragon and rosemary.
February 2, 2025 at 10:16 AM
My garden has been hunkering down to get through this heatwave—so we are limited to hardy mediterranean herbs. This week I’ve used thyme, sage, bay leaf, oregano, parsley, tarragon and rosemary.
Reading Muriel Rukeyser (from her 1968 collection). Almost 60 years ago, could have been written this morning.
January 26, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reading Muriel Rukeyser (from her 1968 collection). Almost 60 years ago, could have been written this morning.
I got so worked up about it, that for the first time I added to the marginalia.
I love to read annotated books I had read first decades ago, I engage both with the text and my own re-readings.
I love to read annotated books I had read first decades ago, I engage both with the text and my own re-readings.
January 11, 2025 at 11:06 AM
I got so worked up about it, that for the first time I added to the marginalia.
I love to read annotated books I had read first decades ago, I engage both with the text and my own re-readings.
I love to read annotated books I had read first decades ago, I engage both with the text and my own re-readings.
Oooh, this copy of Camus’ L’envers et l’endroit has ‘unopened leaves’—ie the pages were printed on big sheets, folded and bound, but then not trimmed, so the reader has to cut them open with a pocketknife.
I have a pocket knife, so we are good to go.
I have a pocket knife, so we are good to go.
January 4, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Oooh, this copy of Camus’ L’envers et l’endroit has ‘unopened leaves’—ie the pages were printed on big sheets, folded and bound, but then not trimmed, so the reader has to cut them open with a pocketknife.
I have a pocket knife, so we are good to go.
I have a pocket knife, so we are good to go.
I’m still on leave, so today’s self care was bigger than usual—but we went swimming in the river and it was so restorative!
January 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
I’m still on leave, so today’s self care was bigger than usual—but we went swimming in the river and it was so restorative!
My mother reports from Facebook that my Already Light poem is ‘doing the rounds’. Love you Mum!
(Full poem in photo alt text)
(Full poem in photo alt text)
December 25, 2024 at 12:47 AM
My mother reports from Facebook that my Already Light poem is ‘doing the rounds’. Love you Mum!
(Full poem in photo alt text)
(Full poem in photo alt text)
Citronella candles and mosquito incense deployed (an oft forgotten element of a warm weather Christmas)
December 24, 2024 at 11:59 PM
Citronella candles and mosquito incense deployed (an oft forgotten element of a warm weather Christmas)
Garden swept and watered, the sun shade is up and the cushions out. It’s currently 19C but is forecast to be over 30 by tonight.
December 24, 2024 at 10:33 PM
Garden swept and watered, the sun shade is up and the cushions out. It’s currently 19C but is forecast to be over 30 by tonight.