Johanna Winant

if you want your book to be reviewed...

...go review a book! people need to write reviews for books to be reviewed!

In early 2024, I got to speak to Deans from up & down the West Coast of the US & Canada about "AI". I told them that the only value of ChatGPT for university administrators is as a contrast-dye test to show where resources are lacking.

every semester, every semester

and the first step to being a parent is recognizing that your children are their own people, not extensions of you

do you need a chair?!

I mean, in what sense will you be able to say the college “survived”?

(ahh that’s very kind, thank you, and I don’t know of any reviews yet)

let’s start a list of reviewable books!

modern/contemporary poetry is having a great stretch with books by @kristingrogan.bsky.social @keegancf.bsky.social and forthcoming from @glavey.bsky.social and @nicksturm.bsky.social

writing a book review: a good resolution for 2026! I try to do one annually.

and a very incredible wonderful thing is happening to me because of book reviewing that never would have happened otherwise! review books!

may I recommend writing a book review? it's fast, it's useful, it's a good thing to do. if it's an academic review, just look up the book review editor for a journal where you'd like to publish and pitch a review of a book that came out in the last few years or is forthcoming

thank you for reading and sharing it!

Glavey Rock 2025

Anyway, here's Glavey Rock open.spotify.com/playlist/6My...

Gertrude Stein’s Preparations for the Afterlife The author knew recognition of her works would take time—and planned accordingly.

I reviewed Francesca Wade's "Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife" for the New Republic: newrepublic.com/article/2027...

thank you so much!

thank you, Tim!

(not to invite myself, but I'd be happy to zoom in if you'd like)

Thank you

our dog had some tangled fur on her ears. I trimmed it and now she’s Anna Wintour?

They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2

weekend goals!

I want to make them and serve them next to salami on a cheese plate

Also with the right poem this is the beginning of a full hour's class discussion.

a fun thing to do to start class is have students read a short and seemingly straightforward poem, circle a single word that surprises them, and discuss their findings with a neighbor

please understand that I will never get over my grudge against E. Gordon Gee for what he did to WVU, to the group of people—the students, faculty, staff, alums — who make up the university, and to the citizens of West Virginia to whom it belongs

brilliant @optionalstephanie.bsky.social is my former colleague and always friend and inspiration

CRUCIAL! by Stephanie Foote

"I...lived through the devastation of a solid public university by a professional grifter who imagines himself as a visionary, and who takes every opportunity to express his vision. That person was Gordon Gee, and the university he destroyed was West Virginia University"

this is really great -- as Rilke said, you must ruin your life

"Those of us who reject romantic notions of individual genius nevertheless can admit that there’s something to be said for a dose of extreme, un-assimalable newness—an aesthetic experience that does not appeal merely to our existing tastes and preferences, that does something unprecedented to us."

SAME

it's my birthday today, and so I'll repost this into your timeline one more time just to say that writing this essay already felt like a tremendous gift, and I've been really moved by and grateful for the many powerful responses to it -- thank you

here’s another Portland-area fundraiser for a family torn apart by ICE. husband shipped to Tacoma, wife just gave birth to twins www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-aid...

I’m teaching a graduate class this spring on legal and literary personhood. NYC consortial students welcome! Let me know if you have questions.