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Sophie Ratcliffe

@sophieratcliffe.bsky.social
166 followers 125 following 14 posts

Writer, academic, thinks about collections, archives, grief, love and the kitchen sink - most recent book Loss, A Love Story www.sophieratcliffe.com

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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Dear lovely people who know things. I seem to remember I've read some books or articles on this and it's probably super obvious - looking for (literary critically or philosophically inflected) reading on 'the present' (maybe particularly in relation to the historical novel) but also generally.
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
A few weeks ago I think there was a conversation here about reading/teaching in Universities. The idea of making space to read. I think someone shared an amazing syllabus about reading (on dropbox?), which mentioned Calvino and surface reading. I've lost the link. Anyone out there/here remember it?
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Andrew Schuman @andrewschuman.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
@melpryorpoetry.bsky.social I loved your recent posting of Sam’s poem ‘A Redbreast Flew..’ from ‘New Light’ (2010) - which is such a cracking volume. Do you know what happened to him, or where he is now?
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Inscription: the Journal of Material Text @inscriptionjournal.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Inscription issue 6 (out spring 2026) is all about cuts / tears. Here is our call for papers -- cut up. Talk to us if you have an idea for an article!
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Maggie Smith @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Lucille Clifton, always.
“i am running into a new year” by Lucille Clifton 

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty-six and thirty-six
even thirty-six but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me
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Philippe Sands @philippesands.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
A new conversation on Always Take Notes podcast .... www.alwaystakenotes.com/episodes/202...
alwaystakenotes.com
#202: Philippe Sands, author and lawyer — Always Take Notes
In this episode Simon and Rachel speak to the author and lawyer Philippe Sands . He is the author of books including " East West Street ", which won the Baillie Gifford prize ...
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Another of my bookmarks from the other place was for this great looking book by @drlynnsomers.bsky.social about one of my favourite artist-makers
drlynnsomers.bsky.social
Lynn Somers (@drlynnsomers.bsky.social)
Art historian/modern & contemporary sculpture/psychoanalysis/object relations/aesthetics/disabled yogi/Frenchie mom/she-her pronouns
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
So delighted and fortunate to have had this conversation with the brilliant @njdames.bsky.social - just published today. Would love to hear further thoughts/continue the conversation here… www.publicbooks.org/parallel-tra...
publicbooks.org
“Parallel Tracks”: Sophie Ratcliffe on Academia, Memoirs, and Motherhood
“I used to want to experience everything. I don’t anymore.”
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Sudden flashback. Aged 7, was cast in school nativity-fringe as a maidamilking. Spent ages in run up trying to overcome my resentment (at not being Gabriel) & trying to figure out how to make the most of my 5 secs of assembly fame, how to milk my imaginary cow with flair & grace..plus ca change
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Another of my bookmarks from the other place - this piece by @timkendall70.bsky.social about Keith Douglas news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
news.exeter.ac.uk
D-Day 80th Anniversary: Time is all I lacked
In the week of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, academics from across the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are providing a series of opinion pieces from different disciplinar...
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Matthew Hodson @matthewhodson.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
40 years ago: Pits and Perverts was a fundraiser for Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. The Bronski Beat gig raised £5000. It helped build relationships between Unions and #LGBTQ communities, united by the common enemy of Thatcher’s Government, leading to Union support for pro-gay policies.
Flyer for Pits and Perverts featuring Bronski Beat and guests. 
Flyer is black and white with a picture of a miner against a background of a Union Jack flag.
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Love it. I was introduced to this gorgeous cartoon by @andrewschuman.bsky.social and it provided the start of this piece on Adam Phillips. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/3841...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
The complex pleasures of Adam Phillips
In his new works, the therapist takes on the cult of self-improvement
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Here's another from my bookmarks - haven't listened to it yet but looks rather wonderful www.rte.ie/archives/202...
rte.ie
Sylvia Beach Publishing Ulysses
Sylvia Beach, the woman responsible for publishing one of the most important pieces of modernist literature 'Ulysses' by James Joyce.
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Andrew Schuman @andrewschuman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Ushering in another December - with Housman
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
I love I Capture The Castle so much. An extraordinary book about grief, I think - and included it in this fivebooks.com/best-books/g...
fivebooks.com
Grief
The best grief books and the best books about mourning, loss and death recommended by Oxford academic and memoirist Sophie Ratcliffe.
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Sophie Ratcliffe @sophieratcliffe.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Thinking that the way to start, maybe, is to begin by making a record of interesting things found in the other place that I’ve bookmarked over the years..the first is this article from Nyrob about Dodie Smith’s ICTC - discovered thanks to @sarramanning.bsky.social www.nybooks.com/online/2024/...
nybooks.com
‘The Small-Girl’s Proust’ | Anna Leszkiewicz
One of the worst moments of Dodie Smith’s life was when her debut novel became a bestseller. It was 1948, she was fifty-two, and I Capture the Castle, her
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