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Aaron Colton

@acolton.bsky.social
143 followers 183 following 43 posts

Assistant Professor of English, Director of College Writing at Pomona College. On writer's block in American fiction: uipress.uiowa.edu/books/writing-thr…

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 21h
My friend and former colleague—the very off-social-media Hannah Markley—has an excellent monograph coming out soon! Preorder!
ohiostatepress.org
Morbid Cravings: Appetite and Addiction in the Nineteenth Century
Via literary analysis, traces the twinned rise of eating disorders and drug addiction in nineteenth-century British culture, as a product of, response to, and driver of colonial expansion.
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The very best of the summer, the year, my whole life
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Innovative pedagogical technologies!
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Victorian Poetry @victorianpoetry.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
A new issue of VP is live, featuring @emmadavenport.bsky.social prize-winning essay on Toru Dutt! Issue contents previewed in the image & alt-text, + a reminder abt the upcoming submission deadline for the journal’s annual early career essay prize. Please share far and wide! muse.jhu.edu/issue/57126
Issue 63.2 of Victorian Poetry is live! The full issue is open access. Its contents are as follows:

EMMA DAVENPORT, "Crediting Toru Dutt's Poetic Labor: 'Our Casuarina Tree' and Paradise Lost -- winner of VP's inaugural early career essay prize

MONICA DAVID, "'Your Harlot Roofs': Women, Individualism, and the Towers of Idylls of the King"

JAMES QUINNELL, "'The Burden of the Strain': Self and World in the Poetry of Emily Brontë and Gerard Manley Hopkins"

ELIZABETH K. HELSINGER, "Writing Toward and Against Death: Tennyson and the Rossettis"

BENJAMIN O'DELL, "Verse Novel" -- a Poetry's Parts keyword essay

In other news, Victorian Poetry invites submissions for its 2026 Early Career Prize, which recognizes exemplary essays by untenured scholars of all ranks and affiliations (including NTT and graduate student colleagues). Conferred on an annual basis, the prize carries an award of $500 and publication in Victorian Poetry. Strong essays that do not win the award may also be considered for publication as recommended by the prize committee. Submissions are due 3 August 2026. Scholars wishing to be considered should submit anonymized MS Word essays and brief CVs to victorianpoetryjournal [at] gmail [dot] com with "Early Career Essay Prize" in the subject line. Prior to submission, consult our guidelines for authors. Essays conceived and / or written with the assistance of generative AI are ineligible for the prize.

Winning articles will be selected according to three criteria: (1) significance of contribution; (2) excellence of research, interpretation, and method; and (3) efficacy of presentation. The journal continues to expand its purview to a wider compass of archives and approaches. We welcome work that capaciously (re)interprets the field's originary contexts and reconsiders Victorian poetry (broadly construed) in new, innovative, cross-disciplinary, theoretical, and / or experimental ways.
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Hey @jamesdraney.bsky.social you've got readers!
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Cannonball with Wesley Morris is great stuff
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I think alongside assigning books for students to read, we should also show them how great it is to be a reader.
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Students have really taken to Nam Le's Iowa-MFA-set short story "Love and Honor and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice"
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lindsey adler @lindseyadler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
This is the longest story I have ever written. It is also the most meaningful. It will go out in The Small Bow's newsletter tomorrow. You can read it here now: www.thesmallbow.com/p/consider-t...
thesmallbow.com
Consider the Sister
Amy Wallace has spent two decades guarding the human her brother was—against a world that prefers David Foster Wallace as a puzzle.
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Brandon Walsh @walshbr.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Now that I've signed the contract, excited to share my first book "Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change" is forthcoming with @openbookpublish.bsky.social! Much more info about it on the publisher site here. www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
openbookpublishers.com
Embedded Pedagogies Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change
This volume offers a timely and incisive exploration of teaching in an era of institutional instability and political pressure.
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Sam Cohen @samcohen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
New from New American Canon www.instagram.com/p/DXrmrK3jfI...
instagram.com
University of Iowa Press on Instagram: "🎸 Happy pub day to Tim Gray’s EASY: A HARD LOOK AT SOFT ROCK 🎸 “‘Soft Rock,’ they call it; low-key stuff with wide appeal.” So stated a 1971 Chicago Tribune ar...
uiowapress on April 28, 2026: "🎸 Happy pub day to Tim Gray’s EASY: A HARD LOOK AT SOFT ROCK 🎸 “‘Soft Rock,’ they call it; low-key stuff with wide appeal.” So stated a 1971 Chicago Tribune article on ...
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The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 28/04/2026
The gospel singer Mavis Staples‘s recent albums affirm “the importance, even necessity, of putting trust in the people around you,” writes Sophie Abramowitz. “No ‘I’ gets by alone.”
nybooks.com
She Knows a Place | Sophie Abramowitz
There’s a recording I hold close, Joan Armatrading’s “Woncha Come on Home.” When the song was released in 1977, it was common for music producers to
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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Listen I read a lot, and a lot of it is dull as hell, and I’ll tell you one thing I’ve learned: tedious writing is almost always a product of the writer conveying, rather than discovering. When a writer is discovering, or sharing discovery, no editor on earth can scrub out the vividity & joy.
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Man, will I ever miss my colleagues at Emory! In the Writing Program, @palermog.bsky.social, @mtyrhetoric.bsky.social, and, especially, the peerless @shsalter.bsky.social. On the lit side, @emmadavenport.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social. Forever grateful for the support and friendship!
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Sharing some professional news: In a few months, I’ll be joining @pomonacollege.bsky.social as an Assistant Prof of English and the Director of College Writing. My plan is to continue blinking in disbelief for the foreseeable future
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Nick Sturm @nicksturm.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Abstracts are due today for POETRY'S PROGRAM ERA INSTITUTIONS--a seminar at ASAP/17 in Madison this October. A heavy line-up is shaping up--join us! @asapartsnow.bsky.social
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
One premise of close reading is that meaning doesn't arrive for you prepacked and legible—you need to do something in order to access and understand the meaning a text has to offer. Not a bad metaphor for freedom, life, etc.
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Sam Cohen @samcohen.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Last chance, friends interested in academic novels & administration (and even have worked in it, as directors of study or associate chairs or program heads or whatever you people call yourselves) & might want to be on a roundtable. Got some submissions, looking to round things out, let me know.
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James @jamesdraney.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
New essay about some creeps, contemporary and canonical, in the history of the novel. I'm thinking about the nexus of the romance plot, commercial surveillance, and "the desire of the other." DM me for a PDF!
cambridge.org
The Creep’s Dilemma: The Novel in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism | PMLA | Cambridge Core
The Creep’s Dilemma: The Novel in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Volume 140 Issue 5
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
It was a treat to talk with @andeamarzocchi.bsky.social about writer's block in literary fiction on @smallgoodpodcast.bsky.social Listen here: www.spreaker.com/episode/writ...
spreaker.com
Writing Through Writer's Block (With Aaron Colton) - A Small, Good Thing
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A Small, Good Thing @smallgoodpodcast.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
New episode out today (you really don’t want to miss this one)! What can fictional representations of blocked short story writers teach us about writer’s block and what causes it? Listen to this episode with @acolton.bsky.social to find out! Listen here: www.spreaker.com/episode/writ...
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Ah the freedom to experience life as nothing but consumption!
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Joel D. Anderson @joelanderson.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Seasons are such a scam. Hoodie weather for 345 days a year is what I want
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Was lucky to have @manshel.bsky.social's article on high-school English on hand in today's seminar on Percival Everett. The mock novel in Erasure is described as "the kind of book they will be reading in high schools thirty years from now"—the students spent a whole class unpacking that line!
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Sam Cohen @samcohen.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
@modernlanguage.bsky.social CFP: session sponsored by Association of Departments of English on academic novels and administration call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/02/... #MLA2027 #CFP #AcademicNovel #CampusNovel #Administration #DepartmentChair #Leadership #CriticalUniversityStudies
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Wait, this isn't the Leland Palmer wake scene?
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Three weeks left to apply!
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Ben Wurgaft @benwurgaft.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Much as GoFundMe is no replacement for national health care, ten thousand individual newsletters by really excellent writers is no replacement for their institutional employment.
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Emily Strasser @emilystrasser.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
I LOVE @thesundaylongread.bsky.social and frequently peruse for new stories to teach. Such a fun surprise to see my Doomsday Clock piece in this week’s edition!
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com. ‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’ economist.com/united-state...
economist.com
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
Independent research identifies few learning gains
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Here's an example I'm experimenting with in a first-year humanities course, feel free to adapt/borrow/etc!
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
With many thanks to @annakornbluh.bsky.social's against-a-i.com for both the memes and the wisdom
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Coming soon to a faculty workshop near you!
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
How rad it was to be on KSQD (K-Squid!) talking with @pkreports.bsky.social about writer's block in fiction and practice. Podcast below!
podcasts.apple.com
Writing Through Writer’s Block with author, educator Aaron Colton
Podcast Episode · Talk of the Bay from KSQD · 01/10/2026 · 53m
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
The Emory Writing Program Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship application is now open! 3/3 teaching in first-year writing with opportunities to design/instruct upper-level classes in rhet/comp. Renewable up to three years. All PhDs with experience/interest in writing are welcome to apply—share widely!
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
I don’t know, books do this pretty well without having to fine tune them for outputs.
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James @jamesdraney.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
inspired by @acolton.bsky.social's Writing Through Writer's Block today: "...for writers struggling with perfectionism, procrastination, fear of failure, evaluation anxiety, or... predetermination that one is, inherently, a 'bad writer,' the fiction of writer’s block offers an invaluable resource."
uipress.uiowa.edu
Writing Through Writer’s Block
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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
This piece gets at one of the underlying reasons students turn to LLMs - because they think it makes them sound like they belong in a university setting. It's the same motive that had students overusing the thesaurus pre-ChatGPT. theimportantwork.substack.com/p/chatgpt-an...
theimportantwork.substack.com
ChatGPT and "Inventing the University"
What we can learn from the em dash debate
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Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
"The book review is central to what we do—and who we are. It is a relish worthy of savor, a form of communion that is as learned as it is precious." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
insidehighered.com
Why Review? (opinion)
We review because it’s what we do, and it’s who we are.
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JP @jpbrammer.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
I think it would be fun if writers who love language started intentionally writing more strangely as AI flattens written "content" into a mono-voice. it would cool I think if writers responded by focusing their individual efforts on cultivating a really unique voice that's hard to copy
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Brings to mind the Orwell classic: "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought"
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
A book on representations of writer's block in US fiction!
uipress.uiowa.edu
Writing Through Writer’s Block
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Love (x1,000) this promo photo of the book from U of Iowa Press!
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
And to the many others whose writing or mentorship found its way into this project: @vl1959.bsky.social, @poetphd.bsky.social, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social, @bradleyfest.bsky.social, @biblioracle.bsky.social, @manshel.bsky.social, @epikt.bsky.social, @mai-linhhong.bsky.social, @hiphination.bsky.social
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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
A million thanks to @samcohen.bsky.social and @profdgd.bsky.social for their kind work as editors and readers.
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