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Timothy S. Miller

@timothysmiller.bsky.social
498 followers 904 following 83 posts

fantasy, science fiction, medieval studies, plants he/him unicorn book: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-… Earthsea book: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-…

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Reposted by Timothy S. Miller
Devin Garofalo @devingarofalo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It (nearly) lives! Forthcoming from OUP in November or December! My first reaction, for once, was glee — though the terror of writing a book is that it’s never finished. Eek! Woohoo! Wild to have proofs in hand!!!!
Title page of forthcoming book by me, titled Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Cosmologies of the Human: Worlds Unmanned. From Oxford UP.Table of contents for forthcoming book.

Introduction: Poetry, Person, Planet — with subsections on William Wordsworth; Sylvia Wynter and lyricization; climate, affectability, impress; and criticism, canonicity, and counterbumanism. 

First chapter on Wordsworth, Charles Lyell, and c19 manscapes — with subsections on Wordsworth’s and Lyell’s lyric theologies, the pathetic fallacy (Ruskin) and Wynter on desperate realization, and apostrophizing Toussaint Louverture. 

Second chapter on Tennyson’s In Memoriam, the possibilities and limits of posthumanism, and ambivalent reading — with subsections on extinction and apostrophe. 

Third chapter on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the problem of reference, and infrastructures of reading — with subsections on Swedenborgianism, sphericity, plantation inheritances, and the slippages of rhyme. 

Fourth chapter on Phillis Wheatley, extractivism, extractionist reading, and salvage criticism—with subsections on solar intergumanism, allusion, reticence, and refusal. 

Coda on contemporary representations of climate collapse, Wynter on transumption, and the afterlives of c19 aesthetic imaginaries.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/07/2026
New preprint! So honoured to have worked with Ishani Ray on providing vital critique on "AI literacy" & correctives for those interested in understanding why "just use the newest version of an LLM" is nonsense Contra Literacy-Laundering: Mechanistic Critical AI Literacy doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 1/
Critical discourse on large language models (LLMs) has bifurcated between epistemic dismissal that invokes some form of the stochastic parrot metaphor to puncture hype, and pragmatic accommodation that treats LLM capability improvements as grounds for updating the critique. We argue that both misdiagnose the problem as the issue is not whether or not LLMs work, but what kind of working is happening and at whose cost. Drawing on meta-theoretical frameworks of cognitive science, feminist labor analysis and critical pedagogy, we propose a conceptual reorientation. We develop this claim through registers of (i) the cognitive, examining what is forfeited when statistical pattern-matching substitutes for the iterative, grounded processes that constitute thinking; (ii) the pedagogical, examining how “AI literacy” as currently deployed is itself a symptom of the confusion it purports to address; and (iii) the political, examining how the infrastructure framing of AI naturalizes asymmetric labor displacement, particularly of feminized cognitive and reproductive work. The stochastic parrot, deployed with mechanistic precision rather than mere rhetorical convenience, specifies what is forfeited when cognitive labor is delegated, who bears the cost, and why a literacy adequate to this moment must begin from the epistemology of those most harmed by the systems it describes. We conclude with underlining that critical AI literacy, which this paper embodies an instance of, is the only sensible way forward.
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Science Fiction Foundation @sffoundation.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Worried you missed the deadline for our Clarke Award conference in December? Fear not - our partners at the University of Liverpool have extended the deadline to 17 August. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/04/...
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu
cfp | call for papers
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Gerry Canavan @gerrycanavan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Upcoming publication! TEACHING SCIENCE FICTION from MLA Press. www.mla.org/Publications...
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Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
"Why call this cozy mode of spec fic anything to do with 'weird' at all?" Megan Milks and Amber Dawn respond to the "New Qweird": lareviewofbooks.org/article/letter-…
lareviewofbooks.org
Letter to the Editor in Response to the ‘New Qweird’ | Los Angeles Review of Books
The editors of the anthology ‘New Queer Weird’ provide a critique of the other label, recently outlined by LARB contributors.
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A Damned Stemple @adamstemple.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
My mother, the inimitable Jane Yolen passed away this morning after a blessingly short fight with Alzheimer’s. She did not suffer, and went peacefully into the ether which, I am certain for her, will be filled with words of the most exquisite beauty and meaning.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Oh, and "Grendel's Mother" here: wipfandstock.com/978160899991...
wipfandstock.com
The Year’s Work in Medievalism, 2010- Wipf and Stock Publishers
The Year's Work in Medievalism, volume XXV, is based upon but not restricted to the 2010 proceedings of the annual International Conference on Medievalism, o...
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Here I reference "Cubs in Five" in the context of both allusions to Chaucer and medieval impossibilia/adynaton: www.jstor.org/stable/10.53...
jstor.org
Flying Chaucers, Insectile Ecclesiasts, and Pilgrims Through Space and Time: on JSTOR
T. S. Miller, Flying Chaucers, Insectile Ecclesiasts, and Pilgrims Through Space and Time:, The Chaucer Review, Vol. 48, No. 2 (2013), pp. 129-165
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
He did so much to promote a lot of really amazing work. It's a real shame that seeing those introductions, blurbs, and other endorsements now brings such queasy feelings to that same amazing work.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
@gelatinousstand.bsky.social
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
You come across the most interesting texts when you're researching monster plants: www.sharjahart.org/en/resources...
sharjahart.org
The fast-growing stinking escaped waste-loving wall-breaching self-cloning other-than-natural no-man’s tree | Sharjah Art Foundation
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Locus Magazine @locusmag.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
2026 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts locusmag.com/feature...
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Advising that my graduate students avoid writing long discursive footnotes, and then going home and writing long, long discursive footnotes...
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Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
"Swann’s fantasies spoke to the feminist, gay-rights, and environmental movements. His intense focus on 'civilization' processed the growing sense of cultural malaise." Sean Guynes on Thomas Burnett Swann: lareviewofbooks.org/article/thomas-…
lareviewofbooks.org
The Bittersweet Temporality of Love | Los Angeles Review of Books
On the 50th anniversary of his death, it’s a perfect time to unearth the forgotten fantasies of Thomas Burnett Swann.
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Nicola Griffith SHE IS HERE out now! @nicolaz.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
This novel is the sum and summit of who Vonda was and what her work was about: all of us, imperfect, and doing our best. It’s an alt-history that feels like the beginning of the world. A world we could still have, if we’re lucky.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
@mariadahvana.bsky.social I just published an essay co-authored with one of my students, Teddy Valentine, on your Beowulf, titled "'War-wedded to a woe-bringer': Gender Performance and Queer Sexuality in Maria Dahvana Headley’s Translation of Beowulf": boydellandbrewer.com/book/studies...
boydellandbrewer.com
Studies in Medievalism XXXV
Essays exploring the intersections of politics and theory through medievalism in film, literature, gaming, and political movements.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Congrats!
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Gerry Canavan @gerrycanavan.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
In the mail today: my editors' copies of Dan Hassler-Forest's FAST AND FURIOUS FRANCHISING! www.amazon.com/Fast-Furious...
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Beginning to see the word "aura" an awful lot in student writing this semester...
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Nicola Griffith SHE IS HERE out now! @nicolaz.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
How did I miss this?! "Mother-Quest: Maternal Remembrance and the Holy Grail in Chrétien de Troyes and Nicola Griffith," Brian J. Sheerin (ARTHURIANA 35,2): "...several key priorities of Chrétien are recovered by this modern retelling..." How cool! #medievalsky muse.jhu.edu/article/965242
Phto of screenshot of text: Mother-Quest:
Maternal Remembrance and the Holy Grail in Chrétien de Troyes and Nicola Griffith
Brian J. Sheerin - (bio)
This analysis of Chrétien's Conte du
Graal argues that Perceval's
experiences with and quest for the grail are significantly connected to the memory of his mother. An examination of Nicola Griffith's modern Perceval
narrative Spear then posits that several of the maternal priorities in Chrétien's narrative are recovered by this retelling.Screenshot of text: While Griffith's reimagining of Arthurian mythology has been justly lauded for its queering of traditional narratives that prioritize male (also white, heteronormative) heroism,? my interest in Spear lies rather in the way this text helps to recover overlooked themes and desires already latent in medieval storytelling.
This recuperative intersectionality, I wish to posit, is particularly compelling as it pertains to Chrétien's Conte du Graal, the original surviving elaboration of the Perceval storyline. Screenshot of text: Griffith draws heavily on Chrétien's model for her version of the tale, but rather than simply adjusting it to fit modern sensibilities, I hope to show that in many ways her narrative actually draws out priorities in Chrétien that have tended to be overlooked. These priorities are especially concentrated around Perceval's mother, a seemingly minor and even regressive figure in the original narrative who nevertheless refuses to remain forgotten after her official disappearance in the opening pages of the text.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Good thing the show has absolutely no bearing on anyone or anything's pronouns.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
@gelatinousstand.bsky.social
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Kelly McCullough @kellydmcc.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.
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Nicola Griffith SHE IS HERE out now! @nicolaz.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
So, wow, nearly 13 years after publication HILD is finally reviewed in @nytimes.com. Thank you, Sadie Stein! (It seems to be one of those days 🤩)
Image of a battered and well-read novel, Hild by Nicola Griffith, on a carpetText screenshot: 
“Hild," by Nicola Griffith
Fiction, 2013
A colleague lent this to me and I'm so glad she did. First because I'm no medievalist, so a book set in this period allows me to dial down my weird, self-imposed vigilance for anachronism. But mostly because Griffith's novel about the young life of Saint Hilda of Whitby is so deft and moving, the best of what historical fiction can be. When we meet the future saint, Hild is merely a young Anglo-Saxon woman living in seventh-century Britain - albeit one with a power of sight that's a source of both respect and fear for those around her.
Pleasurable though this is, it is not "light" reading. Griffith is world-building (or at least world-reconstructing), and the time you spend to understand the alliances and pressures, the evolution of the church and the complexities of power is all necessary to the full immersion that is the book's greatest gift.
Yes, the publisher provides a handy glossary for the unfamiliar terminology, but you quickly find yourself confident enough in the author's powers that you assume she knows what she's doing.
Read if you like: "The Name of the Rose,
," by Umberto Eco;
"Pillars of the Earth," by Ken Follett; "Redwall," by Brian Jacques.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Newly released: the latest critical companion in our series "Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon," this time Graham J. Murphy on Marvel's Squadron Supreme: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
link.springer.com
Marvel's Squadron Supreme
This book closely reads Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme for its complicated, but ultimately productive engagement with the social dreaming of utopianism.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Why are we restructuring the entire world around this technology, again?
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I missed that the latest book in the series of critical companions I edit for Palgrave has already reached print, Joseph Rex Young on George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones: link.springer.com/book/10.1007... . Feel free to pitch us on a potential project if you'd like to write one of your own!
link.springer.com
George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones
This book offers insightful analysis of A Game of Thrones, enhancing your understanding of its narrative tension and worldbuilding techniques.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Really interesting stuff: I have an MA thesis student writing on Muir, and this will be helpful.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Favorite finding doing the research: a short-lived gay bar from the 80s named "The Last Unicorn."
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I'm really thrilled to share an article that I co-wrote with one of my students, Arwen Paredes: "The First Queer Unicorn?: Reading Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn as Trans Narrative." www.mdpi.com/2410-9789/6/...
mdpi.com
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D. Harlan Wilson @dharlanwilson.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
EXTRAPOLATION seeks a reviewer for Mayurika Chakravorty’s FANTASY AND THE POLITICS OF SUBVERSION: SPECULATIVE WRITING IN COLONIAL INDIA. Please send queries to david.wilson@wright.edu. www.bloomsbury.com/us/fantasy-a... @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social (2026)
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sean guynes @guynes.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
A bio of Charles R. Saunders, an important but sadly too often forgotten Black writer of sword and sorcery fantasy (which he called sword and soul), early critic of racism in fantasy, and journalist is coming out in January. The author, Jon Tattrie, will be on @mealofthorns.bsky.social, too!
blackgate.com
The Bio of a Fantasy Giant: To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy, by Jon Tattrie – Black Gate
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
???????????????????????????
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
When we asked ChatGPT to grade it ourselves in the same way, and then repeat the grading a second time, it produced two different scores, and invented new issues not in the actual writing it was claiming to be analyzing and evaluating.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
So delighted to learn that my middle schooler's English teacher has started using ChatGPT to grade writing assignments. She received a near failing grade based in part on a diagnosis of specific grammatical errors that were not in fact in the assignment.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Here's a new one from graduate school recommendation systems: rating the "Clarity of career goals" of the applicant, and on a percentile basis. How do you distinguish applicants of the top 2% versus top 5% career goal clarity?
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Dr Rebecca Williams @augustaquarius.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
New issue of Science Fiction Film and Television ⬇️⬇️⬇️ liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/sfftv/18/3
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
Contents | Science Fiction Film & Television 18, 3
In her book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (2019), Ebony Elizabeth Thomas explains that privileging marginalized characters in her examination of the fantastic illustrates how “race and the imagination ...
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Science Fiction Foundation @sffoundation.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Quick reminder that, not only is Christmas around the corner, the deadline for this year's Peter Nicholls Essay Prize is only six weeks away - 11 January. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/...
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu
cfp | call for papers
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Surreal experience: a quarter century or so after I'd always be asking my parents to buy me more Magic: The Gathering cards all the time, here I am saying "No, I'm not buying you more Magic: The Gathering cards" to my own twelve-year-old...
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Somehow back down in the unicorn hole once again
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Science Fiction Foundation @sffoundation.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Proud to be sponsoring this event next summer.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
The Earthsea one oddly costs more in print than it did upon publication, but the ebook price has dropped in the same way: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
link.springer.com
Ursula K. Le Guin’s
This introduction to Ursula K. LeGuin's
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
I have no idea what governs the price changes for my books even though I now co-edit the series they're published in, but for whatever reason the Beagle book is sitting at a much more affordable price at the moment: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
link.springer.com
Peter S. Beagle's “The Last Unicorn”
This book assesses the work of one of the foundational figures of American fantasy, Peter S. Beagle through its focused analysis of The Last Unicorn.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Those Starmont volumes are often really great sources, but, yes, can be incredibly rare. I can usually find them held by one library or another when I use Interlibrary Loan, but often the number of libraries is in the single digits.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Very disturbing to see that Grammarly itself now offers an "AI Humanizer" as one of its core services. Our university provides Grammarly subscriptions to students...
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
"Anyone with perfect posture was faking it, overcompensating for entrenched trauma."
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
There was a time when JSTOR even sold merch: hats, mugs, and whatever else.
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Did kids these days still know about CliffsNotes? When I say "It's like the Cliffsnotes version of X," should I be saying something like "It's like the AI summary version of X"?
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
This is such a huge problem: I'm googling a quotation to find a page number, and the AI overview confidently produces total nonsense that would mislead students and others. (This is of course a quotation from noted Jung distiller China Miéville speaking to the subject of "Marxism and Fantasy.")
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Timothy S. Miller @timothysmiller.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
It was possibly a mistake to assign the entire Tales of Nevèrÿon, because now I just want to spend the entire semester talking about the series.
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