Sign in

Samara Rafert

@rafertess.bsky.social
793 followers 971 following 450 posts

University press publicist (Mad Creek Books), pottery class enthusiast. Columbus, Ohio.

PostsRepliesMedia
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 18h
Didja hear the one about the chemist who became a literary critic? He was great at identifying isotropes
010
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gina Gwenffrewi's J. K. ROWLING AND THE ANTI-TRANS PANIC, out now from @ohiostatepress.bsky.social, is excerpted here!
020
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In 1974, Cornell lecturer Lin Farley began recognizing a pattern in the experiences women shared in her Women and Work course: women were being pushed out of jobs by men’s sexual behavior. Farley coined the term, “sexual harassment.”
31372487
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I will forever hate that person. I mean, it wasn't my fault he wrote his blurb in poem form and it was completely incomprehensible. I preserved as much as I could. And he called while I was late to pick my kid up from daycare, just to yell at me.
010
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh, I've definitely gotten some extreme anti-HLG responses, including once in the form of a phone call 🙄
110
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Currently attempting to wrestle a 150-word blurb from a big name into 2-3 sentences. But one of my favorite UP career moments was when I had to edit down a Henry Louis Gates blurb and he a) thanked me for making it better and b) asked why I was working on a Sunday. So nice!
151
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
medium.com/prismnpen/go... @tuckerlieberman.com @ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social
medium.com
There Are Good Reasons for Trans Inclusion, but I Can’t Bottle-Feed Them to Anyone
On a new book: ‘J. K. Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic’
020
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
After 30+ years of listening to "Heroin" by the VU, I finally realized it's "thank God that I'm not aware," not "thank God that I'm not all wet."
020
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
LOL, the gotcha part in the second paragraph is truly hilarious. Who will think of the straight white rightwing men in the literary world? WHO? WHO?
Last week, the longlists for the National Book Awards were announced. Among the 20 authors in the fiction and nonfiction categories, nearly all are straight white males. Most are also on the political right, some even on the far right. Remarkably, mainstream media outlets haven’t reported this, perhaps because they don’t think it’s noteworthy. It’s as if we were living in 1956 rather than 2026.

If you’re scratching your head at this “news,” well, it’s because I made it up. Or rather, I inverted the particulars about the authors’ identities and their political views to make a point: If today, as a reader, you recoil at the thought of a time in which minorities were systematically marginalized when it came to the literary world’s public honors (and so much else), shouldn’t you also recoil now that the tables have been almost completely turned? And if you object to the right’s efforts to politicize the arts, won’t you also object when the efforts come from the left?
2662438216
Reposted by Samara Rafert
The Onion @theonion.com · 18/09/2026
Report Reveals Jesus Christ May Have Benefited From Father’s Influential Position To Gain High-Powered Role As Lord And Savior theonion.com/report-reveals-jesus-c…
Report Reveals Jesus Christ May Have Benefited From Father’s Influential Position To Gain High-Powered Role As Lord And Savior
432908362
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I just blew 7 minutes on watching videos of a weird Austrian guy in the Alps with a cat on his shoulder and I haven't had coffee yet
010
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Only 15 min?!
110
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I mean this song is incredible youtu.be/EuhBQoE1Hr0
youtu.be
Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure
YouTube video by The Weakerthans - Topic
021
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Amaro + The Weakerthans (new musical obsession)=bliss @dangearino.bsky.social
120
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Gina Gwenffrewi @ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Out now: my book, about the institutional and localized impact of anti-trans campaigns in the UK. C1 + 4 analyse the anti-trans outputs of JKR and R.Gervais; C2 + 3 about GC ideology and anti-trans campaigns on a uni campus; C5 about media; C6 about the beauty and magic of being trans in Edinburgh.
03720
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...
ohiostatepress.org
J. K. Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic
Weaves the author’s lived experience as a trans woman with pop culture and media analysis to dissect J. K. Rowling’s emergence as an anti-trans activist within the context of the UK’s anti-trans moral...
032
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
@ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social's JK ROWLING AND THE ANTI-TRANS PANIC, just published by Ohio State Press, is an @autostraddle.bsky.social most anticipated queer book for September! www.autostraddle.com/our-most-ant...
autostraddle.com
Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for September 2026
There's so much new queer poetry coming out this month.
150
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I couldn't decide how I pronounce centaur.
000
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What were your tells?
100
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
That's fascinating!
000
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
mydialect.us/quiz-standar...
mydialect.us
Standard Language Quiz — Dialect Map Quiz
Take the Standard Language Quiz to see your regional US speech profile on an interactive dialect map. Based on the Harvard Dialect Survey.
000
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I've spent almost my entire adult life in the Midwest and they still got me (Delaware born and raised)
Screenshot of a dialect map indicating in from Philadelphia/New Jersey
210
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Gary Hornseth @garyhornseth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Workers at the signage firm Spanjer Brothers, Newark, New Jersey, with giant wooden letters destined for the Singer Sewing Machine Co., 1897 Image: 1916 company catalog, Avery Library Architectural Trade Catalogs Collection via @archive.org; archive.org/details/cata...
A photograph of the Spanjer Bros. Wood Carving & Sign Work building, showing workers lined up in front and a horse-drawn delivery wagon. The two-story brick building features commercial signage advertising specialized services like wood turning and scroll sawing. Displayed across the facade at ground level and a second-story loading bay are five large wooden letters made for exterior signage.
113829
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...
ohiostatepress.org
Place Envy: Essays in Search of Orientation
Chronicles the author’s quest for orientation in the world: as an agnostic Jew, as a queer traveler and lover, and as a writer who can tell or twist the truth.
011
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Michael Lowenthal's Place Envy featured in Word of the Day! @merriam-webster.com @jwi.bsky.social urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
urldefense.com
Word of the Day: Divulge
Information divulged is typically secret, or known only to insiders, and it isn’t usually shouted from the rooftops. But when divulge first entered English in the 15th century, it did so as a synonym
122
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Gary Hornseth @garyhornseth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Dense fog, Minneapolis 9th St. and LaSalle Ave. October 27, 1943 Image: Hennepin County Library; digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/coll...
A black-and-white photograph capturing a layer of fog blanketing a city street. Pale, low sun in the sky. A pedestrian walks down the sidewalk away from the camera, another just enters the scene from the left foreground. Cars from the are parked along the curb left and in a lot to the right. In the foreground, a street lamp stands on the left, while a parking sign with partial text is visible on the right. In the high background, outlines of large downtown buildings shrouded in the fog.
1479
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Neige Sinno addresses this somewhat in Sad Tiger.
000
Reposted by Samara Rafert
John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This reminds me of Simon Armitage's brilliant entry in the book Mortification: Writers' Stories of their Public Shame.
816031
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"Thou, oh monarch of the riverbank"
000
Reposted by Samara Rafert
The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Life and Death Contrasted, engraving from ca. 1770. Discover its male counterpart here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/l…
08025
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
If I fits, I sits
A dilute calico cat, mostly gray with scattered peach patches and a white chest, sits placidly and perfectly centered on a rectangular computer bag on a navy and white rug, looking up at the camera.
030
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I recently got Larkin's collected works out of a little free library and IMMEDIATELY made my daughter read this poem.
110
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Dan Gearino @dangearino.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Rendered by the inimitable @cooljerk.bsky.social, here are all the new power plants that went online in the first half of the year, by state. Wow, Texas! That's a shit ton of batteries. Here's the accompanying story: insideclimatenews.org/news/1308202...
A chart showing Texas leading the country in new power plant capacity in the first half of 2026, followed by New Mexico, Arizona and others.
11516
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We can't find any of our flashlights! The ONE time we actually need them
110
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This cruelty has no need but cruelty. Haiti remains deeply dangerous; a country in the throes of anarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people are SAFE. They are safe. They are safe here and the nation has decided to make them unsafe. We are embarking on a tragedy and we cannot look away. We cannot.
15561342409
Reposted by Samara Rafert
DEAD TEENAGERS out now in paperback @judedoyle.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Really value my morning ritual of waking up, pouring myself a cup of coffee, making my way through the next few minutes in a dissociative fugue state, and pouring myself the same cup of coffee again
1652
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I strongly disapprove of the decision to have an extremely loud rock band play in the middle of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on a Sunday afternoon #getoffmylawn
110
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The two most satisfying moments so far on my trip home to Delaware: --Revealing to my high school friend that not everyone calls it "water ice" --Explaining to my Ohio children what scrapple is
021
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Liz Thornberry @lizthornberry.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I also did not want to cut my children’s sandwiches into star shapes, a problem for which there was an extremely straightforward solution
051
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Yep.
010
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I have definitely noticed an uptick in deep backlist sales from the OSU Press list. It's not the perpetual bestsellers but one-offs from decades ago that even I, after seven years at the press, have barely heard of. www.404media.co/ai-companies...
404media.co
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
13526
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Original artwork available via everydayoriginal.com. Pachycephalosaurus Brown and graphite pencils on Hand Book Journal Company sketchbook paper, approximately 207 x 130 mm. Another small page of studies from c.2018. As with others from then, I would do things a little differently now. 1/2
Pencil drawing of the dome-headed dinosaur, Pachycephalosaurus, with two smaller head studies of 'Dracorex' and 'Stygimoloch.'
320057
Reposted by Samara Rafert
ceej @ceej.online · 16/07/2026
I am so fucking tired of creating accounts
2071281
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I also love how the Irish people pronounce Okamura "O'Camera"
010
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Convalescing from toe surgery (it's a thing) and I'm so glad I stumbled across this documentary. I just wish it was more than 20 minutes long. vimeo.com/1197413135
vimeo.com
The Memories of Others: Akihiko Okamura's Ireland
A short documentary film uncovering Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura’s extraordinary work in Ireland during the Troubles, and the artistic and emotional impact of its recent rediscovery. After a ...
100
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
My favorite part of the print @theonion.com is "passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood"
000
Reposted by Samara Rafert
HyperEssays @hyperessays.net · 01/07/2026
HyperEssays has had full-text search of John Florio’s and my own ongoing translation of the Essays (w/ Cotton/Hazlitt’s as a placeholder) for a while. Today I’m happy to announce that the original Middle French text is also searchable on the site. 🥳 hyperessays.net
hyperessays.net
HyperEssays
HyperEssays is a project to create a modern and accessible online edition of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne.
222
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Association of University Presses @aupresses.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Want to know more about the US at 250? ReadUP! Here are some suggestions from university presses & their expert authors, reflecting on the American experiment from the Founding to today: bit.ly/4xQZlFq
American flag on a wooden dowel planted in sand
0129
Reposted by Samara Rafert
Gary Hornseth @garyhornseth.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Annual Report cover Minneapolis Public Library 1966 Images: Hennepin County Library Organizational Records Collection; digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/coll...
A light-colored annual report cover that’s plain except for showing a couple of library card-catalog cards in the lower half bearing what the indexing would be for that same report.
3347
Samara Rafert @rafertess.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I just heard Dan ask our child, "Should we listen to Charles Mingus or Charles Mingus?" Say what you will about Dan, when he finds something he likes sticks with it.
011