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Jon McGregor

@jonmcgregor.bsky.social
5.7K followers 493 following 355 posts

I write novels and stories . (Recentlyish: Lean Fall Stand.) There is a Substack: classnotesbyjonmcgregor.substack.com Also learning Dutch - kom maar bij mij en nederlands met me spreken, alstublieft x

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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Show me the minutes of the meeting IN A UNIVERSITY where someone agreed to pay money for software that would use AI to scrape and slopify the careful and diligent work of researchers and students.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
tfw when you open a 5000 word chapter that a PhD student has worked really hard on and the UNIVERSITY SOFTWARE cheerily says "ooh this looks like a long document do you want me to summarise it for you?"
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Chris Power @chrispower.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I hope Ed Sheeran, and indeed many, many more people, read Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A question for book trade people: what's the best thing to do with, um, left over proofs/ARCs? Assuming I can't treasure *all* of them forever, but also knowing that charity shop donation is frowned upon... are there charities/reading schemes etc it would be okay to donate to? Specific examples?
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Not everything on the internet is terrible: washinglineindex.co.uk/today?locati...
washinglineindex.co.uk
Today | The Washing Line Index
Can I get my washing dry outside today? Check your local Washing Line Index, shirt score and best drying window.
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Salena Godden @salenagodden.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The Good Immigrant - 10th Anniversary Edition is out this week, 10th Sept with @canongate.co.uk @nikeshshukla.bsky.social - exactly 10yrs to the day of its 2016 post-Brexit release. I felt like making a bookstack of TGI contributors works @bookshop.org check it out > uk.bookshop.org/lists/the-go...
uk.bookshop.org
The Good Immigrant, 10th Anniversary Edition, further reading...
The Good Immigrant: 21 writers reflect on race in contemporary Britain - Canons (Paperback) Publishing this week, September 10th 2026. Edited by Nikesh Shukla with a new introduction by Candice Carty-...
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
ffs
youtube.com
The Frames - Red Chord (Acoustic Witnness 2001)
YouTube video by irishmusiccentral
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I am once again asking every department head to put this on the doors of every office and seminar room in the corridors of learning
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Holly Gramazio @hollygramazio.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Hey @artsemergency.bsky.social has their call open for mentors again! You get paired with a young person approx. 16-17 and talk to them once a month, it's great and not very much work at all and the organisation is ALWAYS short of mentors who work in games
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The brother's going to work it out
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
👀
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Solidarity with all my @uonucu.bsky.social colleagues as we move into the fourth week of a two month strike, and with colleagues at @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social, @sheffielducu.bsky.social, @uculsbu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @ucu-londonmet.bsky.social also fighting for their jobs and students.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
@eireannmor.bsky.social vindt u nu voetbal leuk?
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folukeifejola @folukeifejola.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
"UK universities have shed more than 30,000 jobs in the past three years..." Why is every sector worthy of governmental concern except ours? Even pretend concern? www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/i-dont...
timeshighereducation.com
‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be in the same room as former colleagues’
The results of Times Higher Education’s UK University Redundancy Survey vividly illustrate the deep human impact of the redundancy crisis on those who have lost their jobs. But respondents are torn ab...
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Solidarity with all my @uonucu.bsky.social colleagues starting the first day of a 61 day strike today, including the 2700 of us at formal risk of redundancy and especially colleagues in Languages, Music, and Mental Health Nursing whose departments/courses are being closed down altogether.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Savoured every minute that Buendia played for Norwich, knowing we'd never hang on to him. We saw him do stuff like this every week and it was so delicious
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Vol 6 is still available, in all its very limited, handstitched, numbered and signed, 5 different cover designs, touched with the brilliant work of this year's Letters Page students, marked with a very real sense that this is probably the final issue glory. Link in the article below.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Love to log in for an all-staff briefing at a major university and for some reason be reminded of this lad: youtu.be/6_auGsfsw5k?...
youtu.be
Niel Kinnock - Speach - Skuttling around in Taxis
YouTube video by Graham Foss
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I did some writing again
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Nederlanders: Als jullie weten wat dit 'paradijsvogel' is, kunnen jullie me erover vertellen? Ik ben absoluut in de waar.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
In my Dutch lesson last night the teacher tried to explain the figure of the 'paradijsvogel', not literally a Bird of Paradise but the woman in brightly coloured clothes and hair, who enthusiastically tells stories in the street. Hoe zeg je dit in Engels, she asked, and we were all like: WHAT.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
If you like the look of this, you'll probably want to get yourself a copy here: store.nottingham.ac.uk/product-cata...
store.nottingham.ac.uk
THE LETTERS PAGE, VOL 5 | University of Nottingham Online Store
The Letters Page, edited by Jon McGregor, is a literary journal in letters: all the stories, poems, and essays submitted are sent in the form of a handwrit
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I was a judge on this, and I can confirm that I judge this book to be an absolute banger
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Recommend 'The Literary Lifeline', by (my colleague) Kevin Harvey, on reading groups, libraries, 'bibliotherapy', & more. There's sometimes a glib assumption that reading is "good for you" in a strange medicinal way, and Kevin really unpacks that idea properly. www.bloomsbury.com/us/discover/...
The front cover of Kevin Harvey's book: "The Literary Lifeline - Bibliotherapy and the Transforming Power of Reading", with the cover image showing a 1960s style black and white photo of an older couple in deckchairs on the beach. He is reading a newspaper, she is sleeping. He has a white knotted handkerchief on his head.
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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 27/01/2026
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
There is still time to get your hands on a copy before Christmas.
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Charlotte Weatherill @ckweatherill.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Whatever my uni declares, I am not going to engage with AI. I am not going to use AI or teach students to use it. I am going to continue to explain to students why it is harmful. Absolutely absurd to allow this anti-intellectual, environmentally devastating technology into the university at all.
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John Glenday @johnglenday.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
‘You Who Wronged’ by Czesław Milosz. For some reason or other this poem came to mind this morning. Written in a time of tyrants: #Poetry
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Luke Kennard @lukekennard.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Never fails to blow my mind that something only 4% of the population can afford (or has much interest in at all) ever gets presented as *middle* class. That 96% of us are in need of outreach.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
And if you didn't recently buy your copy of the new @theletterspage.bsky.social, then you are *also* in luck! store.nottingham.ac.uk/product-cata...
store.nottingham.ac.uk
THE LETTERS PAGE, VOL 5 | University of Nottingham Online Store
The Letters Page, edited by Jon McGregor, is a literary journal in letters: all the stories, poems, and essays submitted are sent in the form of a handwrit
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
If you recently bought a copy of the new @theletterspage.bsky.social, featuring letters from across the @unesco.org Cities of Literature network, and you wished we'd had space to include the original texts alongside the excellent translations, then you're in luck: theletters.page/our-latest-e...
theletters.page
Our Latest Edition: Volume 5
The Letters Page, Vol. 5 comes to you as a collection of translated letters written by authors based in UNESCO Cities of Literature who are, like Nottingham, celebrating ten years of their City of …
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Ik kijk er zo naar uit. Mag ik dit jaar voor de eerste keer de sluis open? Ik weet het niet. Ik kan maar alleen hopen.
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38 Degrees @38degrees.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
“Tax. The. Rich.” - 38 Degrees’ CEO Matthew McGregor The public knows what they want: fair taxes, stronger public services, and the ultra-wealthy paying their share. The Government must listen when they reveal their plans in Wednesday’s budget.
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Gillian Roberts @citizenofblue.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Please sign and help to save my former department! Goodness knows this is no time to stop teaching about and researching North America! www.change.org/p/save-ameri...
change.org
Sign the Petition
SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Hello poetry friends. I'm looking, for a thing, for examples of poems that quote from TV characters in a way that makes it clear they're doing so without resorting to eg footnotes or similar. Any suggestions? I feel like I've seen it, but my mind is blanker than a blankety blank.
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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
And in the meantime, please sign this petition: www.change.org/p/stop-the-s...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop the suspension of undergraduate music courses at The University of Nottingham
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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
It's not just music and language courses- it's 48 courses across the university. But here's the thing- our UCU colleagues at other universities (like @Cardiffucu.bsky.social) have faced the exact same threats, fought back, and won. So we can too.
A screenshot of a BBC story with the headline "University to suspend music and language courses"A screenshot of a BBC story with the following headline "University scraps plan to cut music and languages"
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Hannah Robbins (they/them) @drhannahrobbins.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Devastated to share the news that was broken to colleagues in Music (and other departments) at the University of Nottingham yesterday. This is obviously a very difficult time for us and our students. Please contact us on protectuonmusic@gmail.com if you would like to be involved.
On Wednesday 5 November, the very same day the Prime Minister publicly reaffirmed the importance of music education, staff in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham were informed of the immediate suspension of recruitment to all undergraduate degree programmes. This announcement precedes proposed plans to permanently close all Music degrees at the University.

This decision threatens to end over a century of music education in the East Midlands, offered continuously since the University opened in 1881. Across that time, the Department has educated thousands of composers, researchers, performers, educators and other creative professionals. Its graduates have taken up leadership roles within the country’s leading arts organisations, fostering creativity and growth within the UK’s dynamic creative industries. It remains a centre of world-leading research, using music to explore and address complex societal and global challenges.The Department is deeply embedded in the local community, working with schools, music hubs, community groups and venues. Its closure would not only dismantle a thriving academic and cultural institution but also severely diminish musical life and future opportunities across Nottingham, the wider East Midlands and the nation as a whole.

As staff we are devastated, especially on behalf of our students, but also for the future of music education and research in the UK. We remain committed to advocating for the value of Music programmes at Nottingham and beyond. If you share our concern and wish to support efforts to protect music education at the University of Nottingham, please get in touch with protectuonmusic@gmail.com. Your voice can make a difference.

Thursday 6 November 2025
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Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday. It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
I just want a place of learning where we can read books, learn languages, plant trees, figure things out, build houses, fix plumbing, ride bikes, do childcare, ask questions, welcome strangers, grow food, care for older people, and dance, who's in
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Somebody needs to draw a Venn diagram of (fig. a) universities who close their language departments and (fig. b) universities who have the word "global" or "international" in their mission statements, because these people won't understand a thing unless you put it in a powerpoint presentation
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'The Conditional Citizen' (Don’t you want me baby?) @zooindigo.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Final rehearsal week for The Conditional Citizen
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Twice in the last fortnight I've seen someone on a bike get hit by a car, and both times the driver has started shouting about it being the other person's fault. I feel quite strongly that if you drive your car into a human being the first words out of your miserable mouth should be "are you okay?"
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Dublin Small Press Fair @dublinsmpressfair.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
our small press fair brings all the depictions of Englishmen by 19th-century Japanese printmakers to the yard. and they're like, wow, I really enjoy browsing books from a range of very small, small, independent, underground, and other presses based on the island of Ireland and from abroad.
two men sit at a breakfast table in a 19th-century print by Utagawa Yoshitora (Metropolitan Museum's Open Access collection). One is reading a book. Speech balloons have been applied. One says, "I got this book at the first annual DUBLIN SMALL PRESS FAIR. November 28 + 29, 2025. Pearse St Library. free + open to all." The other says, "how delightful. I shall attend". At the lower edge is information about the event's sponsors—Dublin City Council, Dublin UNSECO City of Literature, Poetry Ireland, Publishing Ireland, and Skein Press. The URL (dublinsmallpressfair.com) appears at the right edge.
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The Letters Page @theletterspage.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
The Letters Page is back! The Letters Page is back and better than ever. We have some exciting things for you in the works, so keep an eye out and get ready!
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Watching the Bibi & Don Show treat this like some grand victory, while people returning to northern Gaza dig the rubble for loved ones' remains, is pretty revolting.
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Jon McGregor @jonmcgregor.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
My classroom policy on AI is: this is the only AI we will be using in the classroom.
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Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
This photo of Alaa Abdel Fattah's smile by Mohamed El Raai is the most beautiful thing you could wake up to.
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Viet Thanh Nguyen @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux and Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen are among 20 authors urging French president Emmanuel Macron to resume a “lifeline” programme for evacuating Palestinian writers, scholars and artists from Gaza.
theguardian.com
Sally Rooney and Annie Ernaux among authors urging Macron to reinstate Gaza writers programme
20 authors, including Viet Thanh Nguyen and Abdulrazak Gurnah, call on the French president to restart scheme to help creatives evacuate
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Sinéad Gleeson @sineadgleeson.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Mariam Dagga, a journalist killed yesterday by the IDF left behind two sets of instructions: that her colleagues not cry at her funeral, and asked her 11-year-old son to make her proud. Murdering journalists. Bombing hospitals. Causing a manmade famine. Slaughtering children. This horror has to end.
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