Caelyn Cobb

30 boxes of books taking most of the apartment

a tall white bookshelf slowly being filled with books. Many boxes labeled books in front of it

we just emerged from this nightmare

screenshot of a spreadsheet showing that, out of 12 books out for review, 9 of them have only 1 out of 2 reviews turned in, even though many have deadlines that have passed in June, August, or September

A view from the peer review trenches (pls turn in your reviews)

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

FYI I can tell when you are using ChatGPT to write your proposals and pitch emails

paging @sohopress.bsky.social

For once, excited to NOT see my workplace in the breaking news article!

He’s just doing counter-terrorism, guys

Please check out this excellent interview with my fabulous @columbiaup.bsky.social colleague Alyssa Napier about her new list in sociology and black studies and the challenges of being a university press worker in our current climate

black bag with vintage-y cartoon saying ‘toxic masculinity ruins the party again’

not canvas but

Such an easy miss to not make them look like this

would listen the fuck out of it

[logging on every day] man what

I did have a second where I was like, honestly, this could be true. There could be a couple of guys somewhere who specialize in dental realism. There could be a Dental Realism Studies journal with a circulation of 11.

AI Overview: "Dental realism"refers to the philosophical debate about whether teeth exist independently of human perception, a concept rooted in metaphysical realism. While realism asserts an objective reality for teeth, idealist philosophies contend that teeth's existence is tied to our consciousness and perception. Philosophers use this idea, for example, to discuss the ethics of tooth extraction, examining whether a procedure impacts a real entity or merely a subjective experience.

When a typo in your Google search leads to new and exciting philosophical positions

The Remarkable Madame Pandit | Columbia University Press A pioneering politician and diplomat, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was an Indian icon, admired worldwide for her brilliance and glamour. Eleanor Roose... | CUP

Get yours here: cup.columbia.edu/book/the-rem...

Manu Bhagavan at a podium with a Hunter College banner. Black and white picture of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit in a white sari in the background

Manu Bhagavan and Vishaka Desai at a table on stage discussing the book. The cover for the book The Remarkable Madame Pandit is projected on the wall behind them

Manu Bhagavan seated in front of a fireplace holding a copy of his book The Remarkable Madame Pandit

Lovely event last night at Hunter College to launch the global edition of @manubhagavan.bsky.social’s THE REMARKABLE MADAME PANDIT, the definitive biography of pioneering Indian diplomat Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Out now with @columbiaup.bsky.social!

I was worried when I went to 25.1 from 24.9, but now...

hotel president thinks fire codes stop wildfires

The 2025 Kukula Award Winners Annual award celebrates nonfiction book reviewing and honors the memory of Kukula Kapoor Glastris, the magazine’s beloved books editor.

A fun thing--a (belated) congrats to Ian Johnson for winning an award for excellence in book reviewing for his NYRB of our @columbiaup.bsky.social biography of Liu Xiaobo by Perry Link & Wu Dazhi washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/20/t...

a wacky idea i unironically believe is that dead suburban shopping malls should all be turned into small public commuter colleges. most non-anchor stores are a decent size to be a classroom, parking/road access is already there, you even have a food court

Omg

I mean, they would be wrong but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work with the right levels of uninformed decision makers lol. Some editors are really good at bullshitting!

I'm picturing someone in an editorial meeting going like, "there are 30k likes! this is going to be the gay 50 Shades of Gray!"

yeah that one is definitely meant for people who already read that fic…as a friend said once, OFMD is the most fanfic show I’ve ever seen

fanfic for people who don't know they like fanfic lol

Re: supporting financially—I’d much rather know a fic author I like has original work out and purchase that, though I can’t say I wouldn’t be curious how they transformed a fic into a standalone original work

they might not be, but the publishers probably think they are, or that word will get out. (I’ve seen when a popular fic is going to disappear bc the au is taking it pro, a warning will go up to go grab it.) They might also be looking at the popularity of the fic as a proxy for the book’s sales.

like, this is just how the business works, but it's gotten more blatant. Instead of getting the audience to consume new works by someone, they try to get them to consume the exact thing they already consume. Same for the rise of the essay collection

in some ways it's nice, to be able to support a fic author financially when you're a fan of their work? But also as a publishing worker I can't help but view this cynically as publishers wanting new authors that have a built-in following so they can do less work shaping and promoting the books