Brian K Goodman

We move to Budapest in exactly one month... 😬

Totally!

I kind of love the ‘69 translation. Also, Michelle Woods is great on this stuff.

The Nonconformists — Harvard University Press How risky encounters between American and Czech writers behind the Iron Curtain shaped the art and politics of the Cold War and helped define an era of dissent.“In some indescribable way, we are each ...

I write a lot about what Balint calls the "curatorial Roth and his public literary citizenship" in my book:

www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

‘Philip Roth’ Review: The Masks of a Writer Roth’s fiction drew heavily on his own life and literary reputation in ways that blurred imagination and reality.

Balint on Zipperstein's new bio of Roth: "Roth curated Penguin’s 'Writers From the Other Europe,' smuggling masters from behind the Iron Curtain into American sight: Tadeusz Borowski, Danilo Kiš, Milan Kundera and, crucially, Bruno Schulz."

www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

🇭🇺 On this day in 1956, Hungarians rose up against Soviet occupation — and showed solidarity with the 🇵🇱 Polish (“lengyel”) nation, whose June 1956 Poznań protests had been crushed.

🎥 Footage: Blinken OSA Archivum, post-colorized by Colorful History (Színes Történelem) YouTube channel

Writing for Dark Times A history of human rights that places writers and their ideas at its center. At Amnesty International’s headquarters in London hangs a large copy of Seamus Heaney’s “From the Republic of Conscience,” ...

Keep an eye out for this one from Hadji Bakara and @uchicagopress.bsky.social. It’s brilliant and necessary.💡

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo....

Ivan Klima, Czech Novelist Who Chafed Under Totalitarian Regimes, Dies at 94

When I was researching my book in Prague, Ivan Klíma and his wife Helena invited me into their home and talked to me for hours over zázvorová limonáda. Their hospitality was just one reason their apartment was a first stop for visiting US writers like Philip Roth.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/w...

This was a great excuse to finally read Riley’s book on Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe, and man is it a useful corrective on civil society, democracy, and authoritarianism (even if I don’t agree with all of it so far)

The Battle Over Civil Society - Dissent Magazine An interview with Dylan J. Riley on Trump and the state of American democracy.

New online: John Ganz (@lioneltrolling.bsky.social) interviews Dylan J. Riley on Trump and the state of American democracy.

www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

“Antipolitics is the ethos of civil society, and civil society is the antithesis of military society.”

-György Konrád

Come hang out at @redemmas.org on Wednesday October 1st!

Kino Lucerna, Dec. 21, 2013

Incredible. Would be so interested to see a deep dive on the period, roughly, between ‘68 and ‘89.

Ditto! The dissident intellectual milieu I study was definitely attracted to the failed attempts at "socialism with a human face," but now I'm curious about the extent to which these nineteenth-century antecedents were on their mind (well, aside from Marx, obviously).

Also, since I'm writing about Gyorgy Konrad right now, I guess I'll have to check out Citizen Marx on antipolitics (which I usually associate with 19th-c anarchists like Bakunin rather than the Owenites, etc.)

This review made me very curious about what these authors would make of a different liberal socialist tradition from the 20th century: attempts to liberalize state socialism from inside the Eastern bloc (Prague Spring, etc.).

An Open Letter to Our Students: Universities Do Not Deserve You At the start of the school year, two professors provide some hard truths about the state of academia and what you should fight for.

Thanks for this, @platanoclassics.bsky.social!

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

New at PB: In conversation with @carolyndever.bsky.social, @devoney.bsky.social talks about her new book “Wild for Austen,” covering everything from sexuality, erotica, and love to class, moms, dads, and the power of naughtiness.
www.publicbooks.org/weird-but-fa...

“68 Publishers ‘was far and away the most important of the émigré publishing houses,’ said Derek Sayer. ‘It basically kept Czech literature alive.’ And, Mr. Sayer recalled, Mr. Škvorecký ‘was very insistent’ that ‘[Zdena Salivarová] was the one who kept it going.’”

Unpaywalled: archive.ph/7JJjL

Zdena Salivarova, Publisher Who Kept Czech Literature Alive, Dies at 91

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/b...

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Friday's Weekly Round-Up - 732 - The Allen Ginsberg Project Big news on the William Burroughs front this week – the discovery of his – hitherto unknown – third wife! David S Wills breaks the story on Beatdom.  See here for an exclusive excerpt from Thomas Anto...

THE NONCONFORMISTS made the Allen Ginsberg Project's weekly round-up: allenginsberg.org/2025/08/f-a-...

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(And it’s still funded for next summer!)

ACLS Convenes Scholars of East Central and Southeastern Europe for 2025 Summer Institute in Bulgaria The residency offered 15 scholars time and space to research and writing in a collaborative, interdisciplinary setting.

There were no apocalyptic haboobs in Bulgaria this summer. Highly recommend applying to this institute co-sponsored by @acls1919.bsky.social and the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia.

www.acls.org/news/acls-co...

Love raising resilient kids in Phoenix in 2025.

(From today’s coincidental reading…)

"The Myth of the Useless Humanist" vs "Humanities myths, busted" a letter to colleagues

We need to offer counter-narratives to the reductions to humanities that many institutions are undertaking, and equip our colleagues across institutions with evidence that the myths being deployed to reduce our fields are not based in fact.
futurelostarchive.beehiiv.com/p/the-myth-o...