Prof, Tortured Poets Dept @Harvard Bks @graywolfpress @Harvard_Press @BasicBooks Partner @jessiebennett A lot going on at the moment She/her.
Belmont, MA
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We Are Mermaids, my new book of poems, has now been out for almost a year! You can order it now (link below) even if you're not a mermaid. Yet. graywolfpress.org/books/we-a…
@GraywolfPress
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Maybe there shouldn't be for-profit psychiatric hospitals?
Thread: One of America’s largest psychiatric hospital chains is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts and reap huge profits.
Here's how Acadia Healthcare traps patients physically and financially.
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Ok I'm doing this. Our Taylor Swift course at Harvard is so popular that we need additional teaching assistants. If you live in the Boston/Providence metro, love Tay, & have *qualifications or experience to teach a writing intensive college course,* my DMs are open.
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I probably shouldn't wade in here BUT what if humanities departments are less like a moonshot (Big Results Fast, Change Everything!) than like a National Park Service (studies, maintains, & keeps accessible beauty & meaning for future generations; novelty's cool but not #1 goal?)
Half-troll, half-serious Q:
What are the most influential ideas to come out of academia over the past 10-20 years, excluding hard sciences? Effective altruism? (EA also has significant non-academic influences.) Critical theory? (Academic origins date back >> 20 years.)
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English dept faculty here. Please DM if you want me to speak w higher-ups. Harvard *says* it has channels for ppl in your situation and I'm happy to check if that's true & they work, or whether they promise money that's never delivered, or what. cc @profmarylewis
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Helen Vendler was the most important "adult" (ie generation above me) in my life besides my literal parents. Intellectually & personally. I'll try to say more when I can. Please go read what she had to say about teaching and about the poets she loved. Words Chosen Out of Desire.
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Normalize puberty blockers for all! Let kids, incl cis kids, pick when to do puberty. At least consider it.
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holy yikes I just sent off what's likely the final version of my next full-length book of (gulp) poems by me. It's gonna be called WE ARE MERMAIDS. Because we are mermaids.
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This!!!
I can finally announce that we’ll be publishing @accommodatingly again @Harvard_Press. I’ve signed her new book, tentatively titled 30 Super Gay Poems.
Stephanie & I have known each other for decades now but never worked together. Super looking forward to this super cool book.
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Usually very reluctant over here to bring up Shoah analogies but there's something here we shouldn't ignore. When hate groups take power, they work to accomplish their goals.
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If yr electeds, like mine, are safe Ds who already take "liberal" positions (eg don't rip babies from their parents arms) suggest that like @JeffMerkley they try to *visit* the camps. @EdMarkey staffer told me no one else had suggested that. @Celeste_pewter @benwikler
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Not wrong. @sarahkendzior has been saying this since 2015
Trumpism is a symptom of a far deeper disease. We're going to beat Trump, yes, know that. But that won't be the end of what we do.
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I can think of a lot more things that should be replaced with this awesome crustacean but that would be a good start. Did they name the crab for F. Douglass?
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maybe wrong day for me to say this in public but maybe it's just right: when ppl use my correct pronouns (she/her/hers) in print or in public i still sometimes say to myself "oh, is that me? it is now" and then, to myself, "I DID THIS. I ACTUALLY DID THIS. IT GOT BETTER."
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Singular they: since 1375 @OED public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-…
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It's ok to block someone if yr tones don't mesh (eg if they're often sarcastic and you don't handle sarcasm well). That doesn't make you *or person you blocked* A Bad. It just means you don't interact well on this platform. (Signed, person who wants everyone I like to get along.)
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Now that my friends know I'm teaching a class on the music of @taylorswift13 @Harvard
I'm wondering whether she wd ever want to see the syllabus? or guest lecture?
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George Eliot's name, for public literary purposes, was and is George Eliot. She said so.
We love this! The #ReclaimHerName project – from the @WomensPrize and @BaileysOfficial – will publish 25 well-known female authors (previously published with a male pseudonym) under their own name for the first time 👏 penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/…
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Thought about it; nope. No way. It's like marking a piece of music moderato. Or mezzopiano-- like an em-dash, a semicolon can improve your dynamic range. I mean... it can also convey uncertainty; see?
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Realized a while ago that profs like me, who prefer first names and not "Dr.", often grew up in white professional classes; profs who prefer "Dr." or "Professor" more likely to be first gen college, ppl of color, or both.
A guy who’d been homeless completed a program that helped him find a job, and he told me he’d hung the certificate on his wall “Like I’m sure you did with your high school diploma.” And it got me thinking about how this kind of “I don’t care about my diploma” flex looks to others
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Hey Marvel if you want to put her on any more beach balls you have to let @seananmcguire write her again, I don't make the rules
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Noticing youngish ppl here spreading the "queer is a slur" thing again. 1. You and only you should get to decide what *you're* called. 2. For me and a lot of others, queer is the most accurate label though not the only one. 3. IIRC "queer is a slur" began among British TERFs?
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I know some really good poetry jokes but does anyone want to hear them? no, everyone wants to write their own
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Is @BorderIrish the best political commentator at work today?
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Who wants a review essay on late career poets now doing their best work but nobody's writing about them bc they're known quantities??? Armantrout, Dennis, one or two others?
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What @sarahkendzior has been warning IIRC. In *at least a few* state systems incl GA hackers cd reverse a 51-49. @VerifiedVoting @rickhasen
Via @sarahposner, we just learned the government knows Russia will sabotage the next election. Anyone care? wapo.st/2tOORFx
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New book of poems by me, Advice from the Lights, @GraywolfPress out now! Order here & beat the rush: indiebound.org/book/97815559…
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Reminder: Cong. recess & town halls are coming. Do the @IndivisibleTeam thing.
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Honoured and delighted that @guardian let me write about Louise Glück @GuardianBooks theguardian.com/books/2020/o…
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Honestly this one's a profound question! First stab at an answer: songs are relational, for a singing voice that implies a live human listener, so they're more fit for interpersonal topics. Written poems can take invisible listeners, or no listened-- speech to the self.
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I think I can pin a tweet about my new book Don't Read Poetry @BasicBooks , which comes out May 21-- you can preorder it! Please do! basicbooks.com/titles/stepha…
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I'm 47, professor, literary critic, multitasking writer. Married since 2000, kids since 2006 and 2010, came out in 1994 and 1997 and 2011 (took a while), hormones since 2017. I finally feel like me. #reallifetransadult
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Why yes I am teaching a Taylor Swift class this spring @Harvard How could you tell?
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I am at a school holiday pageant and I just heard 30 kindergarteners sing "Frosty the Snowman" why do we ask small children to sing songs about the terrifying brevity of life & the imminence of our demise
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This is your periodic reminder not to share your treatments or ideas for company-owned characters with creators who work for those companies. Write your fic, show the world, but don't tag the creators! You could get *them* in trouble.
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Yeah I know Biden is pretty weak tea and he's not going to abolish police. But today's murderous HHS nonsense that says any phobic jerk can deny me health care? That's gonna be overruled the minute he's in. I think. I hope. Also, #%*£$&@#. These hateful #%@&ers. @&$% them.
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So I found this dress. And then discovered that today was #LancasterPride march. So I'll be a cliche & post a trans selfie, bc I like how things turned out. (Also the conference is great. But that's another thread.) 2/2
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I'm supporting @ewarren not just bc I think she'd be the best president by far but bc in the event of a brokered convention she's the one whose delegates I'd trust to make the best available choice.
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This! Don't date teens" doesn't mean "don't interact." It means "develop boundaries." One example: can you talk to the other trusted adults in your life abt your interactions w a teen? If not, something's extremely wrong.
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Hey senior faculty! As a new school year begins, remember that many of your nontenured colleagues and graduate students feel, rightly or wrongly, that if you ask them to do a thing they have to say yes. So think before you ask.
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I just read a 20-page review of my latest book (Callimachus) that is an absolute slam, finding nothing good in it at all, only misunderstandings and failures, and.... I enjoyed it? The author got what I was trying to do. She just hated it. May all slams be so entertaining.
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Good morning from Our University! We're happy to onboard you as a supplier through our easy 30-step process, which simply requires you to have a scanner and notary public at home. Once you've completed our onboarding process, your $50 will be there within 500 days!
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Hey @imanixdavis is giving a lecture right now abt @Danez_Smif in a class I teach & is absolutely crushing it. "Lyric poems are poems in which the feelings are the main characters." Like in Inside Out. Yes! Attn @GraywolfPress
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Frozen II is perfect. It addresses, directly, the first movie's problem with whiteness and white supremacy. And it's even more trans. Any editors out there want 2K words about it within the week? It's that trans. It's that good. I'm that serious. It's So Trans.
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My book about how to read poetry, helpfully called Don't Read Poetry, comes out next week. Coming out is good. So is pre-ordering books by authors! Consider doing so for this one if you can? basicbooks.com/titles/stepha… @BasicBooks
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Excited to announce that We Are Mermaids, my new book of poems, comes out Oct. 4! You can order it now (link below) even if you're not a mermaid yourself at the moment. As for the future, who knows? @GraywolfPress graywolfpress.org/books/we-a…
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The Trial of Magneto, 2021: one month free with no commitment. You can send him back at any time before trial period expires
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Me to teen:"Meat Loaf died." Teen: "Meatloaf is already dead. It's meat. What are you talking about?"
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This is your periodic reminder that apparently autobiographical poetry may or may not be literally accurate (eg Paul Muldoon has no sister).
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Anyone else finding it hard rn to concentrate on book-length or long works read on a glowing screen, even though we stare at the same damn screen for hours taking in bits of slightly stale information?
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I keep on thinking NYT is just bending over backwards to avoid accusation of left bias & then I see ledes like this & think @sarahkendzior may be right abt an uglier explanation nitter.app/mattyglesias/status/10…
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Sometimes when people, esp young ppl, change their tastes the results can be drastic and unexpected. I had a friend who turned punk really fast-- they threw all their LPs by Rush and Yes and Pink Floyd out a third-story window. It was a defenestration of prog.
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OK who wants about 2K words from me on how gay the new Taylor Swift is? DM pls. I can't help myself. There is a Shakespearean connection.
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Before I transitioned people said I looked angry or worried all the time, except when I was really, really into something (and I get really into things). Now, when I'm happy, I'm happy and I know it.
Someone once described my resting face as "profoundly saddened by life's hardships." It was the kind of teasing that carries a deep truth- that was my default, even on my best days and it showed.
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Everything dies baby that's a fact. And everything that dies someday comes back. Fighting Zombies w Prof Springsteen, MW 10-11:15am. Fall. 3 credits. Satisfies the Contemporary Society requirement.
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It's about most of those things, but I do want to hire ppl who admire her work, just I would for a course on Wordsworth (which this one also is, a bit).
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If Kavanaugh had said "like many men w my background, I did terrible, terrible things before I was 21; I've been trying to make amends ever since," I'd still vote against him, but we'd hear interesting arguments. The nonstop lying, however, isn't even interesting. Just gross.
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I just did a difficult parenting thing that I can't talk about in detail in public (would totally violate someone else's privacy) but I feel that I deserve a very discreet and socially distanced high five
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As soon as he said "Seamus Heaney" I knew it would be
"Hope and history rhyme." (And that's OK.)
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I now have enough applicants for the last few TA slots in Taylor Swift, thanks. If you've already written/ DM'd please be assured I'll get back to you. Everyone else: feel free to share Taylor stuff if you're not asking to teach w me. (No, the class isn't offered online.)
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This happened @TIME time.com/6969280/taylor-swif…
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Writing about Wallace Stevens tonight for a paper I'm giving this month. Also writing about isolation, guilt, being bad at real life (but good at writing), and persistent dysphoria, because those are some things I.... found in Stevens.
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Hey my Sapphic poem about X-Men Gold 30 is gonna be in a real magazine online (just accepted) I am inordinately excited (it is so Sapphic that it is an actual version of Sappho)
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1. Cis men-- especially men over a certain age; especially men in certain fields (like comedy)-- grew up & were socialized into their profession being told that sexual harassment is not only OK but funny, expected and awesome.
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I appear to have 9,999 followers. Hi everyone! I like reading & writing & talking about poetry & social justice & elections & fiction & queerness & transness & pedagogy & parenthood & cats & the WNBA & X-Men comics, not always in that order. Who will be 10,000?
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So uh this is out now @NewYorker newyorker.com/magazine/2022/…
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New chapbook @RainTaxiReview For All Mutants. Poems about X-Men, She-Ra, & more. Guaranteed trans. Perhaps formative. Try some today! raintaxi.com/for-all-mutants… (cover by @Marabobeara )
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What if X-Factor is ending because they need the cast (exc. Polaris) of X-Factor for the Trial of Magneto, which has the same (awesome) writer, and she (or editors) don't want the same cast members to star in two books at the same time?
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I would love to live in a world where that was a winning slogan in a US Pres race please take me to that world
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Help I would rather do laundry dishes and vacuum than make a syllabus but I already did those other things and I can't concentrate enough to do anything creative because I have to make a syllabus what should I do
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Not always a fan of @sullydish but this piece struck me as profound and right andrewsullivan.substack.com/…
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Look, if your students don't want you to teach a writer you love because the writer is racist/ misogynist/ other bad things, listen to them. Then ask yourself why you love that writer and whether you are willing to show your students why. 1/3
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Gonna be lecturing on #TaylorSwift tonight in Boise. 8pm EDT/ 6pm MDT. Watch it online! boisestate.edu/events/event/…
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