Adam Neikirk

Greta Colombani, "Invocation, Evocation, Vocation: Communication with the Dead and Poetic Investiture in Felicia Hemans's 'A Spirit's Return.'"

It is of course STC's birthday today (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) born on this day 1772. Here is an excerpt from one of his great lesser known poems, "The Garden of Boccaccio":

The old-fashioned idea of "faery" was never far from Coleridge's mind when he was writing.

I just built a completely functional Commander deck in about ten minutes out of conceptual nothingness (not to be confused with ex nihilo). I think this is a new record for me.

a man in a blue shirt with the number 1901027 on the front ALT: a man in a blue shirt with the number 1901027 on the front

That feeling when you’ve spent days toiling over a citationally-dense theoretical chapter and start working on a more vibesy one

Upcoming BARS Digital Event: Shelley’s Anni Mirabiles: The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley (12 Nov 6pm UK time)

Roundtable with Neil Fraistat, Nora Crook, Stephen Behrendt, and Madeleine Callaghan

Free tickets on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shelleys-a...

Upcoming BARS Digital Event: Volcanic Romanticism (30 Oct 7pm UK time)

Presentations from Dilara Kalkan, Katerina Liontou, Chloe Melvin, and Kate Nankervis on aspects of the Diodata Circle, weather, climate, and volcanic sublimity

Free tickets on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/bars-digit...

'The Funeral Of Shelley' by Edouard Fournier (cropped)

"Away, away! to thy sad and silent home;
Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth;
Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come,
And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

#BookWormSat #poetrysky #romanticpoets #Shelley

Edinburgh University Press Journals - Table of Contents - rom: Vol 30, No 1

It appears that the Shelley Conference special issue of 'Romanticism' is currently available open access! Anna Mercer and I edited this issue, including essays by Nora Crook, Michael Rossington, @paulstephens.bsky.social, & more, from the 2022 Shelley Conference 🍂 www.euppublishing.com/toc/rom/30/1

BARS Stephen Copley Research Award - applications open (deadline Nov 15 2025)

Postgraduate researchers and ECRs working in Romantic Studies are invited to apply for a BARS Stephen Copley Research Award, to help fund research expenses up to a maximum of £500.

www.bars.ac.uk/main/index.p...

We are excited to announce the publication of our Summer 2025 issue, which includes essays by Hilary Havens, Greta Colombani, and David Mullins. The issue is available Open Access on Project Muse
@projectmuse.bsky.social
: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55681. Details in the thread.

Delighted to see my article on Felicia Hemans and why talking with the dead makes you a superior poet finally out in @studiesinrom.bsky.social 🪦📣
If you're into triumphant necromancers, ghostly revenants, and gender politics, go read "A Spirit's Return" which is marvellous and criminally underread!

Linktree to find my short stories about
🏚️ sapphic love, drinking with ghosts, and desperately needing to pee
🤖 large-scale flooding, a world without humanity, and post-apocalyptic raccoons
🦖 trans vampires, a dinosaur in a shopping centre, and a lot of blood for Christmas

linktr.ee/gretacolombani

Officially jacket season

Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities? The answer is simple: to spend untold sums on useless buildings by starchitects.

wrote briefly about architecture and the situation at u Chicago www.thenation.com/article/cult...

I think they have to be careful calling it "No Kings = No Paychecks" because we're probably not that far away from a "no paychecks" rally

an older man with a mustache is crying with his eyes closed ALT: an older man with a mustache is crying with his eyes closed

On the job market and writing a book

Introducing my niece to some bee boddily bo bop jazz

Call for Papers: British Society for Literature and Science (@thebsls.bsky.social) 21st Annual Conference, University of Strathclyde, 9th-11th April 2026. 200-word abstracts due by 12th December 2025.
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6183

My 1945 first edition of Harry Price's oddly-named 'Poltergeist Over England'. Its subject matter is clear enough, though. An uncommon book, especially in its dust jacket. The Wartime Economy Standard on paper meant the DJ was thin and fragile - it's not survived well on my copy.
#31DaysOfHalloween

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
When I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

First episode of RPW is in the books (or computer as it were)! I don't even think it needs much editing... hoping for many more such episodes in the future. 😀

I must go down to the seas again
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by

Photo of Sir Walter Scott’s house on a sunny day with very blue skies.

Stunning day at Abbotsford, the house and estate of Sir Walter Scott in the Scottish Borders.

I've got my white handkerchief ready!

Our friends at ‘Romanticism across Borders’ are back! As in previous years, all events will continue to be held online, with the first one coming up soon.

The session will take place on Wednesday 22 October, on Zoom at 5.30pm (London time, or GMT+01, i.e. 6.30, Paris time).

Definitely feeling sick today, but looking forward to recording the first *video* episode of Romantic Poets in the Wild for BARS tomorrow - w/ Cumbrian poet Jessica Sneddon as our guest!

Thinking about becoming a doomer

Peter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon Silicon Valley titan desperately tries to detach self from power in amateurish talks attempting to ape his favorite philosopher

I wrote about Peter Thiel’s lectures on the Antichrist and how the fact that there’s a strong chance Thiel thinks Greta Thunberg is the literal Antichrist isn’t even the weirdest thing about them — at the @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

The BARS President’s Fellowship is open to scholars from Black, Indigenous and other minority ethnic backgrounds working on any aspect of Romantic Studies to support research, teaching and/or public outreach expenses of up to £1500. Deadline 7th Nov 2025.
www.bars.ac.uk/main/index.p...

BARS 2026 First Book Prize: Calls for Nominations
Awarded biennially for the best first monograph in Romantic Studies, this prize is open to first monographs published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025.
Deadline: 12th January 2026.
More info: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6174