Alan Thomas
@agthomas
Editorial Director, University of Chicago Press. On book publishing, literature, and photography.
Frances Ferguson’s “Records of Reward: Essays on Literature and Value,” now out from the University of Chicago Press in the Thinking Literature series. Order at link and take 30% off with promo code UCPNEW. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Remembering Morris Philipson (1926-2011) on what would have been his 100th birthday. The formidable and formative director of the University of Chicago Press from 1967 to 2000, Morris gave it an editorial personality that, through many changes since, it still carries. @uchicagopress.bsky.social
New in the Thinking Literature series: Benjamin Saltzman's sweeping account the ancient gesture of "Turning Away" and Anastasia Eccles's "Perverse Attachments," a brilliant dissection of frustrated agency in the novel. @b-a-saltzman.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Mary Beard signing copies of her new book, Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, before a bravura talk at the Chicago Humanities Festival @uchicagopress.bsky.social @wmarybeard.bsky.social
New in the Thinking Literature series: Jennifer Soong’s SLIPS OF THE MIND: POETRY AS FORGETTING and Robert Scott’s READING HEGEL: IRONY, RECOLLECTION, CRITIQUE. 30% off with code #UCPNEW on the UChicago Press website @jennifersoong.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Thinking of Shirley Hazzard, who would have been 94 today. This picture is from my last visit with her, in 2014: she is holding her 1963 portrait by Sam Falk. Savor at least a paragraph today from her great novels, Transit of Venus and The Great Fire.
Cover reveal — Allison Carruth’s “Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech” unmasks the tech industry’s quasi-religious faith in environmental engineering. Forthcoming in January. Preorder now with code UCPNEW for 30% off: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
John Guillory’s “On Close Reading” is here! See also Scott Newstok’s companion website, Close Reading Archive: www.closereadingarchive.org Orders placed directly with Chicago are shipping now (30% off with promo code UCPNEW): tinyurl.com/4ew4tm6h
New this fall, the 11th and 12th books in Chicago’s Thinking Literature series: Julia Jarcho’s “Throw Yourself Away: Writing & Masochism” and Leah Middlebrook’s “Amphion: Lyre, Poetry, & Politics in Modernity.” @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Coming to Philly for MLA? Don't miss Jonathan Kramnick and Ross Wilson in conversation with Anahid Nersessian about their new books at Head House Books, Jan. 5, 6:30PM.
Michel Chaouli's forthcoming book, SOMETHING SPEAKS TO ME, probes the deepest impulses behind literary criticism. It also has a cover drawing by one of my favorite artists, Frederick Sommer. It will be gorgeous, inside and out. To be published in February by @UChicagoPress .