iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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A truly stunning set of children’s books for the book historian or printmaker in your life. We just got a full set for the library @skeuomorphpress.org

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Dylan Lewis @iamdylanlewis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Another year of Queer Bibliography— please share widely; we are looking forward to this!

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illumi @yallchemist.bsky.social · 12/10/2023

sometimes i delete a post because i've grown as a person in those 45 seconds

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Extremely excited to share the CFP for the ✨fifth✨ annual #QueerBibliography conference! bit.ly/QB2027CfP When? 2-4 September 2027 Where? Manchester, UK & online Theme: TAKING STOCK Deadline for abstracts: 29 January 2027 Decisions: by 12 March 2027 Submit here: forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWm...

Queer Bibliography
Taking Stock
Manchester, UK and online
2-4 September 2027

Call for Proposals

Since the inaugural 2023 conference, queer bibliography has grown from an interesting concept to a burgeoning field. Our 2027 theme, Taking Stock, marks the fifth annual conference and is a chance to pause and reflect on genealogies of the field, the present state of queer bibliographical enquiry, and our senses of the future. How might we trace queer histories of queer bibliography? How can we imagine critical futures for bibliographical enquiry within and beyond its traditional academic locations? Where do we find ourselves and our work?

Stock also has meaning in bibliography. While “stock” originally referred to a tree trunk or plant stem, and figuratively to the source of a line of descent or even a human torso, it later began to connote an aggregate of goods—in the context of bookmaking, one might own a stock of paper or pasteboard. Towards the mid-nineteenth century, “paper stock” began to connote the raw material of paper itself. “Stock” might refer to the inventories of booksellers, the process of beginning and curating an institutional or personal collection, and the supply and material characteristics of paper. From the raw materials of books to the origins and shapes of personal, commercial, and institutional collections, how does "stock" participate in the production, articulation, and study of queer textuality and textual communities? What is queer about materiality, the ecology of books, and the processes of making and engaging with (collections of) physical textual objects?

We invite participants to engage in stock-taking or reflect on
bibliographical stock, broadly defined. We welcome meta, theoretical, and historiographical work that takes stock of queer bibliography, and we
welcome proposals that relate to “stock” in bibliography, book history, and reception studies.

This three-day hybrid conference will be hosted at the John Rylands
Library, part of the University of Manchester, and online on 2–4 September 2027. The conference will feature two days of panels, conversation, and discussion on 2 and 3 September and will be followed by an optional workshop on 4 September. Conference programming may also include evening receptions, tours of Manchester libraries (including Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in England), and collection viewings at the Rylands.

The conference welcomes participants from a diverse range of fields and
career stages, including: book arts practitioners, activists, postgraduates,
early career researchers, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and
booksellers, both in person and via video conference. As in past years, the goal of the broadly articulated theme of “taking stock” is to bring people in and to shape conversation, not to exclude or limit. All submissions that engage with the intertwined relationship between queerness and bibliography are encouraged.

Participants will be invited to submit a 2000-word pre-circulated paper,
before presenting in panels of 10-minute papers. We also welcome
alternative contributions, such as workshops, roundtables, or self-organised seminars and creative presentations, with a pre-circulated submission that provides a grounding for the conference contribution.

Contributors should submit an abstract of 200–300 words, along with a
short bio, by 29 January 2027:

https:/ /forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWmtfjZ8

Prospective speakers will be informed of the outcome by 12th March. Pre-circulated papers will be collected and shared in mid-July.

Any questions should be directed to: queerbibliography@gmail.com

http://queerbibliography.org

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Stopped in my tracks yesterday by ‘Snakes and ladders: a game for learning about AIDS/HIV’ (London, 1988), which a colleague got out for a display. Self-explanatory but brings home the randomness & chance of it all at the time. At least 10,000 men died from HIV/AIDS in the USA in 1987. (1/2)

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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 02/10/2026

"The University of Cambridge refused to sign plagiarism detection software Turnitin’s new licence agreement, which could have allowed students’ work to be used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models."

varsity.co.uk

Uni opposes Turnitin AI training plans

The University is now exploring alternatives to the plagiarism detection service, according to the SU

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Ancient Egyptian Prayer Bot @egyptianprayerbot.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I come to you; my arms are carrying wine. I pour for you the best of it (wine), at its prime moment, may you drink with what your hearts rejoice in. (WWO)

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

grimly fascinating interview with Philipp Ruch, whose new book, Der Rückfall, sounds excellent www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

It’s hard to admit this from a modern perspective, but historical fascism’s lust for violence didn’t make it repulsive but extremely attractive to a lot of German voters. And we are seeing similar things with the AfD today, where fantasies of violent retribution seem to be integral to campaign events on market squares. We are witnessing the poisoning of an entire society, and as a democracy we should ask ourselves whether criminal law shouldn’t apply when political parties communicate that way. Communication is one thing, political plans are another. The NSDAP had both. But we know that the AfD is a radical party that seems to want to ethnically cleanse Germany. If the AfD is voted into power, one of the most highly advanced economies in the world could experience something similar to what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A book arrived (second edition of Johnson’s abridged Dictionary, 2 vols. octavo, 1760) padded in several dozen (curiously clean) chocolate bar wrappers. Respect.

Cardboard box stuffed with paper-and-foil candy wrappers

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

ahahahah found a villanelle I wrote years ago in which I repeatedly used a word I didn’t realise also/actually meant ‘penis’ and THAT is one of many reasons why you mustn‘t share poetry you wrote in your twenties

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

putting bay leaves in with the bulgar: a revelation 🍃

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 01/10/2026

‘These are experiments in pushing poetry to the boundaries of legibility, into new forms, and even off the page entirely.’ Gill Partington on the re-emergence of the little magazine: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Gill Partington · Boxed into Our Language: Mimeo-Revolutionaries

More so than letterpress, mimeograph printing is a visceral snapshot of an instant in time, preserving the flux and mess...

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

1777: Nectarines are delicate to the last.

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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Dada perfection

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

hello @jntod.bsky.social, a very non-urgent question for you: am I dreaming this or did you have a Some Flowers Soon post at some point in the last year or so about the use of white space in poetry and/or somewhere in a comments thread say there was a special word for it? I have been searching but…

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

a thing I love is reading someone else’s brilliant work and thinking THAT IS HOW YOU DO IT 🤩 and then being able to use what I’ve learned to make my own writing better (this post brought to you by @gabrielduckels.bsky.social’s fantastic chapter "AIDS and the Antisocial Subject”)

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

maybe obligations are good actually

Undergraduates learn the language and rituals too: to wear gowns for more than just graduation, to keep out of the wrong gardens, to join dining societies and to compete for historic prizes – including the plum of seven years with no obligations at All Souls, the Oxford college that has no undergraduates but can, wonderfully, pour out Puligny-Montrachet at a dinner for fifty.

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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Plive, Plath, Plove

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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

German cat photography c. 1919

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

thoughts with everyone at Edinburgh doing the principled thing

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Ancient Egyptian Prayer Bot @egyptianprayerbot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A mouthful of herbs strengthens the heart; one good thing stands for goodness, a little something stands for much. (Instruction Addressed to Kageni) (ALL)

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

just sent off an article that is not really like anything I've written before. It's not on poetry but somehow it has Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and Don (?) Paterson (??) in it??? They just muscled their way in?

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

how it started: excitedly getting your hands on a monograph you need for the thing you're writing how it's going: realising you are going to cite p. 1

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#bookhistory & publishing studies help! If a book's colophon doesn't give a year of publication (??), then does the ISBN tell you which year it was published? When I look it up it says '1975' but could it be a later edition with the same ISBN? Please explain how to read the little book code, tysm!

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

went to a talk *this year* in Germany where there’s a strict 6-yr limit for postdocs on fixed-term contracts w/o third-party funding. One exception: if you have kids, you can add a year (I think?) for each baby. A youngish (50?) male prof opened with this as his advice. Saved his career apparently 🙃

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

me, closing the bsky tab on my laptop and immediately picking up my phone

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

love how jobs.ac.uk make this sound like it’s my fault

Email from jobs.ac.uk:

Hi Sarah,

There have been no new jobs matching your chosen search criteria within the last 3 months. You might like to consider creating a new job alert to ensure you don’t miss out on great opportunities. Here are some suggestions:

Broaden your search by selecting fewer criteria
Reduce the number of keywords in your search
Extend your search range if searching by location
Search using keywords or categories only
Increase your salary range if searching by salary

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

‘Printer is offline’ says my printer as it starts to print on the first attempt.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Started a new secondary school in a new city in September 1997. In one of the first assemblies the deputy head sang Candle in the Wind and accompanied himself on acoustic guitar

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Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is good & it should challenge the @ucu.org.uk leadership @drjogrady.bsky.social @dyfrigjones.bsky.social @markpendleton.bsky.social to explain why a new website is a better strategy than a national dispute. Would also be good if they followed congress mandates tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/brit...

tribunemag.co.uk

British Academia is Dying. It’s Time for a National Industrial Response

Workers in higher education are fighting atomised struggles to save their jobs. A rank-and-file strategy is needed to unite them.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

read some of the longlist over the summer & I’m v glad M. John Harrison is shortlisted (though I’ve preferred others of his) but for that almost nostalgic proper fat yes! glowing novel-as-potential-time-to-come laughing-&-reading-bits-out glad-this-exists satisfying experience: Black Bag all the way

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Germany going to the polls on a Sunday, a day you can‘t buy milk, put your glass recycling out or use a lawnmower, is so disorienting somehow

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Happy birthday to Sylvia Plimack Mangold, one of the great artists of "looking at the overlooked," who turns 88 today (thread). First up: "Floor with Laundry #1," 1970

Painting of a wooden parquet floor with a small stack of laundry at center

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A system designed to erode care.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Six months on and it’s been downhill all the way. The resilience being shown by those at the sharp end of this is mindblowing to me

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

1777: Findon. Deep, wet fog. Sweet day.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

just me reading 'Norwegian Leather Industry' for 'Norwegian Consumer Council', is it?

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

…while November is simply leaf-fall, listopad. Lithuanian months, otherwise close to Polish ones, use birds for spring—March is the crow, April the dove, May the cuckoo (for some reason, winter months seem to have the most obscure provenance). Czech, Slovak, Croatian, and Slovenian also do this.

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

…September in Poland, for example, is wrzesień, the month of heather, August is sierpień, sickle-month, July is lipiec, the month of linden blossoms, June is czerwiec, the month of the worms ancient Indo-Europeans used to make red dye…In fall, October is październik, threshing floor month…

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Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Happy to announce that, as my French Revolution wall calendar informed me, we are about to finish Fructidor and enter a period of "complementary days": the Fêtes of Virtue, Genius, Work, Opinion, Rewards, & Revolution await. I feel strongly that we should make the most of these interstitial days.

A picture of my calendar, which has been printed in black and red: a sans-culottes inllustrating this period, and then the symbols of vertu (a heart), genie (a flame), travail (a hammer), option (paper and pen), recompenses (a star), and revolution (a tricolor flag).

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I love this card catalogue so much. Here's a short piece I wrote for @litreview.bsky.social about it (and my great-grandmother's wartime reading diary) earlier this year literaryreview.co.uk/list-of-a-li...

Bookends piece in Literary Review magazine

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Roger Luckhurst @theprofrog.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

DO YOU MIND IF I SIT HERE AND BELLOW INTO MY PHONE ABOUT MY DRAMATURGICAL PRACTICE?

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Dr Karen Di Franco @archivist23.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Woke in the night convinced I was experiencing some kind of physical transformation.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

one of the reasons I can tell this particular student has used generative AI in the composition of their term paper is, ironically, their citation of an article about the authorship of AI-generated works

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Rhetorical questions in an article introduction, y/n?

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

iirc termination of collective agreements either happened or was threatened when I worked at *checks notes* amnesty international, puts everyone in a weird legal limbo & is a precursor to making people reapply for a slightly more shit, less specialised, less well paid version of their existing job

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Quick equalities check: across English, History/Politics/War Studies 6 women have lost their jobs and 0.5 men. 4 men and one woman are safe. English goes from 50:50 (6M, 6F) to 1 woman and 2.5 men.

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Adam Smyth @adamwithbooks.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Record what you're doing on your phone at 5.35pm BST on Friday 2 October and be part of an international collage of one minute on the planet! 📽️ ⏱️ 🌍 adamsmyth.substack.com/p/be-part-of...

adamsmyth.substack.com

Be part of a film!

An invitation!

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