Getting Catherine Nicholson on the Renaissance poetry beat is one of the best moves the NYRB has made lately. This essay (which I'm a little late to) on some great new Milton books is terrific. nybooks.com/articles/2022/…

"Thompson is surely right that Shakespeare is not like spinach. For that reason, the question of whether he’s 'good for you' may not be the most salient one."

Happy – thrilled you might even say – to share that I'm writing a short book on the writing practices behind the plays of Shakespeare and other Renaissance dramatists, as part of claire m. l. bourne's and Rory Loughnane's new Cambridge Elements in Shakespeare & Text series for Cambridge University Press.

Paper Monsters by Sam Fallon charts the striking rise, at the turn to the seventeenth century, of a new species of textual being: the serial, semifictional persona. Browse the CAP #BritGrad2022 virtual exhibit here: combinedacademic.co.uk/brit-grad-2022/ Penn Press BritGrad 2025

Probably unwisely, I wade into the presentism debates (again). Plus a presentism round-up of writing by or about Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Sam Fallon, Vanita Seth, David Armitage 🇺🇦 davidrarmitage.bsky.social, David A. Bell, + Joan Scott. chronicle.com/newsletter/the…

The best book on Shakespeare's language since that Barolo in the background was bottled (at least).

The Autumn 2022 issue of ELR is a special one. Wendy Beth Hyman and Jennifer Waldron put together a collection of superb articles on modes and theories of Renaissance Fiction. We couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. Thread follows, but: go read! journals.uchicago.edu/toc/elr/2022/5…

This review is just incredible.

On whether the language of "calling" is necessarily a mystification, by way of Weber and Wendy Brown. Plus recs from Parapraxis, Aeon Magazine, and Marginalia Review of Books's interview with Lorraine Daston. chronicle.com/newsletter/the…

i wrote about the english institute, the dimming of academic “stars,” and the humanities’ stubborn belief in the power of words to save us, for Chronicle Review chronicle.com/article/the-en…

A lot's been happening on the Nashe project and its spinoff, 'Penniless?'. Here's a summary of what the team have been up to: look out for more coming soon. medium.com/@a.cornish/pen…

This whole episode--from the circulation of a false allegation for clout to the non-apology smothered in a sense that the right politics permit malicious lies--is incredibly dispiriting.

Very, very, very excited to announce ThomasNasheProject' podcast series, The Precarious World of Thomas Nashe, is going live from Monday 6 Feb. You can listen to the trailer, and subscribe to the series, at precariousworld.podbean.com. ->

It's funny the way anti-elitism from Ivy and para-Ivy faculty ends up insisting on the difference it pretends to reject. "What could ~Harvard~ have to do with regional publics?" is an exhausting routine.

"Hunter’s lucid and innovative book begins from the assumption that play scripts were mined by audiences and readers for examples of eloquence." Lisa Hopkins reviews matt hunter's new book: doi.org/10.1086/724734

If you've been waiting for the right time to pick up *Paper Monsters*, it's currently 75% OFF (just $16) Penn Press with the code FRANKLINSFAVES--along with great early modern titles by Holly Crocker and Jason Scott-Warren. pennpress.org/9780812251296/…

"The absorption of new reading practices developed by humanist intellectuals had profound effects on religious reform, sparking a transition from . . . sacramental to textual forms of participation." Review by Sam Fallon: doi.org/10.1086/726068

For Liberties Journal of Culture and Politics, I wrote about what "affirmative instrumentality" misses: libertiesjournal.com/articles/curri…