Bécquer Seguín

Book cover with aerial photograph showing an oblique aerial view of the city of Paris, picturing the avanue du Bois du Boulogne and the Arc de Triomphe. The surface of the photograph is annotated in red and black ink. The book title and author appear in white serif font: Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts, by Emily Doucet .

My book has a cover! Inventing Nadar will be out in April 2026 from @dukepress.bsky.social.

On Our Nightstands: September 2025 - Public Books A behind-the-scenes look at what Public Books editors and staff have been reading this month.

For the latest On Our Nightstands, Literature in Translation editor @becquer.bsky.social recommends All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld.

Muchísimas felicidades compa!

I had a fascinating conversation with
@nicoabu.bsky.social about his 4 decade history of the Francoist dictatorship, 'Ni una, ni grande, ni libre'.

We discuss the Spanish path to fascism, how it diverged from the Germany & Italy & how the dictatorship evolved post-WWII while demolishing any idea

Thank you!

What a great privilege to get to know and support the truly stellar faculty at Johns Hopkins, especially early in their career.

We just announced the 2025 cohort of Catalyst Award recipients.

This award will allow them to move into new bold directions.

research.jhu.edu/major-initia...

Congratulations! 🎉

Catalyst Awards presented to 20 early-career Johns Hopkins faculty Faculty across dozens of disciplines awarded $100K to pursue their work

Many congratulations to our Hispanic issue editor @becquer.bsky.social who has just been honored with a prestigious award for early career faculty.
¡Bien merecido!
hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/17/j...

Catalyst Awards presented to 20 early-career Johns Hopkins faculty Faculty across dozens of disciplines awarded $100K to pursue their work

I still can't believe this happened.

Many thanks to @jhu.edu, @jhuartssciences.bsky.social, and @deniswirtz.bsky.social's office for this very, very generous award.

hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/17/j...

cover image for MLN's Hispanic issue

Coming soon! Edited by @becquer.bsky.social + a dossier on Catalan studies edited by Anna Casas Aguilar, Maria Dasca, @albertlloret.bsky.social, and Olga Sendra Ferrer. Managing editor @victoriajane.bsky.social Assistant Editor Lauren Reynolds.
Cover: SON RAVAL © Consuelo Bautista. 2013.

Trump contra Emilia Pardo Bazán Un estudio sobre la escritora gallega es uno de los libros retirados de la biblioteca de la Academia Naval de Estados Unidos

Hoy en @elpais.com, escribo sobre Trump, Emilia Pardo Bazán y el auge de la censura de libros en EE.UU.

elpais.com/babelia/2025...

Hace bien el movimiento MAGA en censurar "El Cuento de la Criada", porque el dedo de Margaret Atwood apunta directamente al ojo de Trump.

Trump contra Emilia Pardo Bazán Un estudio sobre la escritora gallega es uno de los libros retirados de la biblioteca de la Academia Naval de Estados Unidos

@becquer.bsky.social: Su ineptitud literaria se ve reflejada en la selección de títulos censurados. “No parece que los censores hubieran leído casi ninguno de los libros prohibidos”
...entre ellos también se encuentra El cuento de la criada, de Margaret Atwood.
elpais.com/babelia/2025...

Shout out to Baltimore! Courtesy of @becquer.bsky.social

“The Door’s Still Locked”: Fiction after Fascism “Labor” forces us to ask: Who has power? “Horror” forces us to ask: Who is the monster? And the combination of the two, “Labor-as-Horror,” tells us to beware the uncomfortable fractures in our…

“For Estela and Felice—as for Chile and Italy—fascism is in the past. And yet its horrors endure.”

As our Italian issue is prepared for printing, we're reviewing proofs for our Hispanic issue, edited by @becquer.bsky.social with @albertlloret.bsky.social as one of our guest editors for a dossier on Catalan studies. With managing editor @victoriajane.bsky.social

Muchísimas felicidades compa!!

Congratulations!!!

From MLN Hispanic issue editor @becquer.bsky.social-- for @criticalinquiry.bsky.social

I reviewed Zakir Paul’s “Disarming Intelligence (@princetonupress.bsky.social ) for @criticalinquiry.bsky.social

It’s an excellent book that breathes life into the study of a staid critical concept.

criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/becquer_segu...

"Intelligence . . . also has a literary history, one that might help free us from the shackles of narrow-minded thinking about what intelligence was, what it is, and what it could be."

New in review, Bécquer Seguín on Zakir Paul's Disarming Intelligence: criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/becquer_segu...

A reminder that today is the last day to submit to the MLN Hispanic issue-- we will consider full-length (7k-9k words) original scholarly articles in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

These are all amazing projects, and well deserved. But yet again, the ACLS only awards projects on Latin America by historians. No one from a Spanish dept in sight. 🙄

Bécquer Seguín · Mind the Gap Between Novel and Newspaper With millions in sales, royalties from big-time TV, and widely read op-eds on the Basque question, Fernando Aramburu is a star in the Spanish literary scene. While his best-selling novels show a lack ...

In the latest issue of @blnreview.bsky.social, I make by debut with a piece that is nominally a review of Fernando Aramburu's novel "El niño," but is really an essay on how Aramburu deals with historical facts in his novels, where he triumphs, and where he falls short.

blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...

We extended our deadline for general submissions to the Hispanic issue. Send us your work! mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mln

Opinion | Keeping a Diary in a Second Language Taught Me About Myself (Gift Article) Writing in a second language can feel unnatural, but it presents a new way for writers to understand who they are — and how they fit into the world.

wrote an essay about writing in english, my first for @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/o...

Death in Mexico Means Something Different Now Mexico once cultivated a “special relationship” with death. But cultural globalization and rising violence is weakening that bond.

“A shocking criminality and the diffusion of traditional Mexican images in the stream of global entertainment have erased any trace of a ‘special relationship’ between the national culture and death.”

From the archive:

One can only hope that that’s what “viewpoint diversity” actually entails!

People in the tri-state area!

On Tuesday at 5pm, I’ll be speaking at Yale about my book, “The Op-Ed Novel.” We will also talk about journalism as an object of study and praxis. If you are in the area and have time, please join us!

Come over if you are in the area!