Julie Sedivy

Workshop: Crafting Superb Sentences, with Julie Sedivy - LitFest Alberta Facilitator: Julie Sedivy Tickets: $15, Available HERE Sentences are the foundation of all writing, and mastering the sentence is essential to developing a strong writing voice. In this workshop, I […...

I'll be doing a workshop for Edmonton's LitFest that I've long wanted to put together! We'll be getting intimate with sentences, exploring the magic that can happen when you leverage language structure with skill and sensitivity. Saturday, Oct. 18, noon-2 pm. litfestalberta.org/event-1/work...

Meticulous, time-consuming peer review is the biggest thing standing between us and the inevitable dumbing down of science that comes with authoritarianism. It's such essential work right now.

Important article at this point in history: "As much harm as a 40 percent cut to the NIH budget would have on scientific innovation, destroying the peer-evaluation system that decides what science is funded would be far worse." Indeed. It would be like doing away with criminal trial by jury.

The Thing You’ve Been Saying Your Whole Life | Los Angeles Review of Books Julie Sedivy reviews Michael Erard’s “Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words.”

I got to review @michaelerard.bsky.social's new book for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, a book that grapples with the things most worth thinking about: language, human connection, mortality.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

Limited Verse by David Martin - Alberta Views David Martin’s third book, Limited Verse, is a brilliant feat of imagination, mashing together poetry, dystopian sci-fi and literary theory.

This book by David Martin was such hearty brain and soul food! I was glad to have had a chance to review it. albertaviews.ca/limited-verse/

It's delusional to think that in this day and age, scrubbing sexual content from school libraries will protect kids. More than ever, they need books and materials to help them navigate the often toxic sexual content that is everywhere.

@juliesedivy.bsky.social is the best of the best

I'm honoured and delighted that Linguaphile was chosen as the winner of this year's W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Many thanks to the jury, who read through a big pile of books, and warm congrats to my fellow finalists, David Martin and Teresa Wong.

If we listen to their poems as birds might, relieved of our preoccupation with message, we may hear the beloved music of our language on display, intensified, toyed with, subverted, stretched taut to its quivering point.

#SundaySentence
Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love
@juliesedivy.bsky.social

Ah, you’ve understood how much my book really WANTS to be near a plant. They are kindred spirits.

Thank you for your kind words, friend.

A standing ovation for federal workers by the thousands of physicists who are meeting in Anaheim this week, supporting their colleagues in science agencies who couldn’t afford—or weren’t allowed—to come. Sorry, no pictures, in part out of green-card holders’ fears. #APSGlobalSummit2025 #APSMarch

Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told to Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”

So "AI safety" and "responsible AI" are now "ideological terms" that are forbidden. What's next? "Personal autonomy"? "Human flourishing"? www.wired.com/story/ai-saf...

Thank you for the generous words! So glad it spoke to you!

If you are looking for a nonfiction read that’ll leave you inspired, wiser and sobbing like a baby, look no further than @juliesedivy.bsky.social latest masterpiece. #writingcommunity #canlit

I got measles back in 1970, before MMR vaccines were available. It wiped out my immune system for a year. In short order I got mumps, rubella, chicken pox and scarlet fever, which landed me (without family) in a quarantine facility. I was one sick little kid with two very, very worried parents.

How about that! That made my day.

This is very insightful and incredibly helpful: the different ways that academics (learn to) behave in autocratic societies.

A paradox of learning Many Minds · Episode

The Many Minds podcast with the very sharp @kensycoop.bsky.social is one of my faves these days, and I especially love this episode with @tanialombrozo.bsky.social , which does a deep dive in how we learn not just by experience or exposure but also by thinking.
open.spotify.com/episode/1Clj...

The Sounds of Language Flow · Episode

My favorite interviews are when the host is prepared, deeply curious and emotionally present. I loved this one, in which we talked about the difference between communication as performance versus connection, the power of obliqueness and the tragic limits of AI.

open.spotify.com/episode/14pS...

“We must vow not to do stenography for people in power.” Carl Zimmer on science journalism in a politicized era.

Julie Sedivy: How Language Shapes Us | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda Her new book, Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love is an ode to the power of language to both shape us and be shaped by us. It’s informed by her own experience with languages: she spoke five before le...

I've long admired Alan Alda's podcast and SciComm activities—what an honor to appear on his Clear + Vivid podcast! clear-vivid-with-alan-alda.simplecast.com/episodes/jul...

Gareth Reynolds Returns Podcast Episode · You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes · 12/02/2025 · 2h 25m

ChatGPT is bad at counting, you may know. Turns out it’s also bad at accent arithmetic. Amusing bit early in Pete Holmes’ podcast today. They started wondering about sentences that would be neutral for US/UK accent & CGPT gets it so wrong. (Soon after, gets NSFW.)

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...

I hear you! The future does indeed seem faceless. But I feel we can't be paralyzed by the uncertainty of everything. FWIW, I'm planning a trip to Baltimore/PA/DC to give a couple of talks this spring.

Stand Up for Science rallies will be held in DC and state capitals on March 7th. Share with friends. Sign-up here to get email updates with details: www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...

Thanks so much! And I really do recommend The Knowledge Illusion by Steven Sloman and Phil Fernbach.

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For over 40 years we've brought journalists to MIT to hone their craft. Now they're on Bluesky ⬇️

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If only someone—very many someones, even—had predicted this

I wish strength for my academic colleagues (from all around the world) who are in the US. May you hold fast to those essential values and carry them forward as best you can. And if Canada, the UK and Europe are smart, they’ll invest heavily in universities right now.

One semester, a Chinese scholar sat in on my psycholinguistics class at Brown and told me "Now I understand why so many Nobel winners are from the US" I took that to be less a comment on my own teaching than a culture that aimed to train students to surpass their teachers.

I'm utterly heartbroken to see the assault on U.S. universities. My intellectual experiences there were unparalleled. My years at the U. of Rochester and Brown U. taught me all about depth and originality, and remain firmly embedded within me.