If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

The great Tony Harrison has died. With others such as Raymond Williams he represented a post-war breakthrough that the philistine assault on education threatens: the possibility of being working class while storming the heights of the most elite culture and transforming it

We're delighted to share that the CFP for the joint @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 conference, Weird Modernisms, is now live!

1-4 July, Loughborough University @lborouniversity.bsky.social

More info here: moderniststudies.org/conference/MSA2026/CFP/

"Vazquez has created a unique and enduring novel. Something hard and real and tangible glitters amid the vapour of text and image she describes." -Dustin Illingworth, @newleftreview.bsky.social

Excited about this new review of THE ENDLESS WEEK!
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.

Today I finished volume 2 of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume. Others have articulated the merits of this poetic, philosophical, uncanny novel already, so I will simply say that I cannot stop thinking about it (nor do I want to). Balle has cast a spell and I, for one, am enchanted.

So driving through Dublin is fun eh

Good evening
Saw Gary do a thing
“Did I ever sing?”

Finally, I'm able to look more closely at the work of my fellow contributors to Barthes Studies vol. 10, and felt I had to share this piece - 'Interrupting' - by Anfisa Doroshenko. Urgent, complex, stimulating. Do check it out: sites.cardiff.ac.uk/barthes/file...

An evening well spent. Good vibes, generous & articulate & thoughtful colleagues - and more exciting writing to look forward to!

Passed an evening with Andrew McMillan, in which we discussed my serving him during my time at WHSmith in Victoria Station, Manchester

A rotten week.

Then, late this morning, I look outside and see a neighbour opening birthday presents - still, gloriously, in their pyjamas.

Like magic, I begin to feel better.

Excellent listening to my friend Michael here (all the best people are called Michael, right?) - looking forward to seeing the (un)finished (not-an-)article! Dangerous bends ahead..

The 2nd floor of UoY library is one of my favourite places in the whole wide world - glad to see their institutional account having the mettle to editorialise about the merits of ditching X

For the Observer today I interviewed #Brassic creator and writer Danny Brocklehurst about the dearth of working class people in the TV and film industry… and of course, the last season for Vinnie & Co.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

The paperback of my book comes out in Feb, it’s available to preorder in paperback and 30% off with code: PAPER30

edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-medical...

(Sorry, I don’t know where else to publicise it!)

Calls to mind Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, which begins: “October, 2007. The Santa Ana winds are shredding the bark off the eucalyptus trees in long white stripes.”

Just now, a shooting star overhead (after a futile search for rumoured northern lights).

A nice way to end New Year’s Day - and encouragement for 2025, perhaps.