Timothy S. Miller's Avatar

Timothy S. Miller

@timothysmiller.bsky.social

fantasy, science fiction, medieval studies, plants he/him unicorn book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-53425-6 Earthsea book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-24640-1

471 Followers  |  878 Following  |  57 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  2.1672

Latest posts by timothysmiller.bsky.social on Bluesky

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...

22.10.2025 16:20 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"Anyone with perfect posture was faking it, overcompensating for entrenched trauma."

05.10.2025 20:44 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

There was a time when JSTOR even sold merch: hats, mugs, and whatever else.

29.09.2025 13:38 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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"?

17.09.2025 15:53 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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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 MiΓ©ville speaking to the subject of "Marxism and Fantasy.")

15.09.2025 15:11 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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.

02.09.2025 11:30 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

(An advertisement I was served for a different, better way to cheat.)

22.08.2025 13:34 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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What is going on in the world?

22.08.2025 13:33 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Lawn Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.A quintessential feature in Western gardens and landsc…

I would give a copy of this book to everyone in my neighborhood but I think they already hate us enough:

www.bloomsbury.com/us/lawn-9798...

08.06.2025 22:39 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Very cool!!

05.06.2025 16:14 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

A new experience: an undergraduate sending me a request for an article I never wrote based off a fake AI citation.

13.05.2025 16:39 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 3
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Home | Polyphony Polypghony

Beautiful new medieval-themed issue of our UoM undergrad English Literature journal, with a foreword by me (doing my best to explain why medieval literature is worth studying): www.polyphonyjournal.com

07.05.2025 18:30 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

After the brutal reality of dealing with student papers in the ChatGPT era finally hit me, here are a few tactics that I've found at least somewhat effective in getting students to do their own writing: 🧡

07.05.2025 13:36 β€” πŸ‘ 855    πŸ” 278    πŸ’¬ 26    πŸ“Œ 44

Classes are done: we're closing so many browser tabs today.

28.04.2025 17:51 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I still think it's funny that we both review the book quite positively, but you say that the discussion of Terry Brooks is one of your favorite parts of it, and in my review I say it's one of my least favorite...!

26.04.2025 19:55 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Reviews of Books | Extrapolation View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

The latest issue of EXTRAPOLATION has a bunch of great reviews, including my review of Matthew Sanger's AN INTRODUCTION TO FANTASY.

Check it out (or, if you don't have access, DM me for a copy!).
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

25.04.2025 16:18 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Can it be true that the audiobook of @alexpheby.bsky.social 's Mordew doesn't include the glossary? Unconscionable! I almost want to write a journal article on the glossary by itself.

25.04.2025 23:07 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks to our contributors @grmorgan.bsky.social @timothysmiller.bsky.social @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social @nomad93.bsky.social @larsschmeink.bsky.social and many others. You can see the full table of contents here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edi...

25.03.2025 08:04 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
28 books are arranged around a handwritten page that says "Nominations open!" The books are: Spear by Nicola Griffith; Wolfish by Christiane M. Andrews; Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo; The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber; How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu; The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente; Sift by Alissa Hattman; The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera; The Employees by Olga Ravn; Drinking from Graveyard Wells by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu; The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher; A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger; After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang; The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez; Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson; Aboreality by Rebecca Campbell; The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson; Appleseed by Matt Bell; The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed; It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken; Geometries of Belonging by R.B. Lemberg; Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil; Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky; Orbital by Samantha Harvey; Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera; Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh; Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; and Meet Us By the Roaring See by Akil Kumarasamy.

28 books are arranged around a handwritten page that says "Nominations open!" The books are: Spear by Nicola Griffith; Wolfish by Christiane M. Andrews; Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo; The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber; How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu; The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente; Sift by Alissa Hattman; The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera; The Employees by Olga Ravn; Drinking from Graveyard Wells by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu; The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher; A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger; After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang; The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez; Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson; Aboreality by Rebecca Campbell; The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson; Appleseed by Matt Bell; The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed; It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken; Geometries of Belonging by R.B. Lemberg; Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil; Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky; Orbital by Samantha Harvey; Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera; Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh; Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; and Meet Us By the Roaring See by Akil Kumarasamy.

You have two weeks left to nominate books for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction!

Nominations close March 31st.

Which books will join those shortlisted the last three years? (Yes, we fit them all in this picture.)

www.ursulakleguin.com/prize-nomina...

17.03.2025 18:24 β€” πŸ‘ 111    πŸ” 43    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 8

"...it was less that they were two separate people and more that they were a single person with two different ways of being in the world, each of which both knew."

27.02.2025 22:48 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

As a consequence of my desire to avoid doomscrolling lately, I feel I've only really been using this site when I'm self-promoting. So, to counter that trend, here is an out-of-context passage from a novel, which is how I used to post in the good old days of social media...

27.02.2025 22:47 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Choice of Chaucers: Teaching Kate Heartfield’s Interactive Novel The Road to Canterbury Author(s): Miller, Timothy S. | Abstract: Kate Heartfield’s 2018 interactive novel invites a contemporary audience to join Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. This te...

Here is my own essay reflecting on teaching her interactive fiction The Road to Canterbury: escholarship.org/uc/item/1vv9... .

And you can play/read the thing itself here: www.choiceofgames.com/road-to-cant....

27.02.2025 20:43 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Thank you so much again! They really enjoyed it.

27.02.2025 20:40 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It also provided students with an important reminder that sometimes an author's response to "Why did you decide to do _________ this way?" has to be "You know, I can't remember."

27.02.2025 20:29 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

My Chaucer course just had a lovely visit with author Kate Heartfield @kateheartfield.com. What better way to talk about interactive fiction than interacting with the author?

27.02.2025 20:28 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Ursula K. Le Guin’s This introduction to Ursula K. LeGuin's

I don't really know why (and when) my Wizard of Earthsea book sometimes costs much less, but the ebook version appears to be only $16.99 right now: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

23.02.2025 23:50 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Returning to The Beginning Place: Le Guin’s Forgotten Anti-fantasy Four Decades On Ursula K. Le Guin's 1980 portal fantasy The Beginning Place has received a fraction of the critical attention that most of her other novels have attracted over the years. This short book's many enigma...

Very excited to be part of the launch issue of the new journal UKL: The Journal of Ursula K. Le Guin Studies, with an article on her 1980 novel The Beginning Place: scholarworks.uni.edu/ukl/vol1/iss...

14.02.2025 16:29 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
Call for participants for a mentorship programme for scholars who have not yet published in English

Call for participants for a mentorship programme for scholars who have not yet published in English

/postmedieval/ is launching a new mentorship programme to facilitate publication for scholars whose first language is not English.

πŸ‘‡ find all the details here πŸ‘‡
sites.google.com/view/postmed...

11.02.2025 13:58 β€” πŸ‘ 45    πŸ” 38    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 4
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Speculative Fiction and the Contemporary Novel (Chapter 10) - The Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants The Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants - February 2025

New publication: "Speculative Fiction and the Contemporary Novel" in The Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants: www.cambridge.org/core/books/a....

11.02.2025 13:50 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

@timothysmiller is following 19 prominent accounts