a dictionary of spectral curiosities
It's that time of the year again: the time I look back on what I've read over the past 12 months and reflect on what I loved the most, and what I want to read more of in the year to come. I will have read over 40 books in 2023, many (most?) of them …
How do you feel today? How do you really feel? To be honest, I'm not feeling that great. In fact, every day I feel myself getting angrier, more heartbroken, more disappointed. How could I not be, knowing what I know? Dead bodies keep piling up in Gaza. In Ukraine, a madman threatens with the ghost …
Eugène Carrière, Sleep (1897). Source: National Gallery of Art As a child, for many years, I used to have this experience at regular intervals: I'd wake up from a deep nightime sleep or a brief daytime nap, suddenly very alert, my heart racing, with a strong and unshakeable feeling that I had something very important …
When I was younger, I used to get excited about celebrating International Women's Day every year. Receiving bouquets of flowers, hearing enthusiastic discourses on TV and radio praising the achievements of girls and women everwhere made me feel motivated and appreciated. But as I grew older, I started to really experience the difference between that …
Continue reading "International Women’s Day: Wicked (?) Women"
Answering 8 questions about transitioning from an English PhD into a non-academic role.
A litle over two years ago I was writing about my struggle with people's assumptions about me in my adopted country. In that blog post, I was reflecting on the pitfalls of the not-so-innocent "where are you from?" question that many migrants like me face when they open their mouths to speak. The culprit? Doubtlessly …
This month I made jam for the first time in my life - my first ever preserve of any kind. My mum has made jam many, many times. When I asked her to give me a run-through of her jam-making technique she just said: "Oh, it's easy, it's very easy! There's nothing to it, you'll …
Continue reading "Jam, pickles, and the ghost of domestic Gothic"
What is something not-so-secret and somewhat strange that you do that gives you purpose? For me, it's bringing flowers to old graves that no one seems to visit anymore. It's not as random as it might seem. Wherever I live, I seem to get attached to old cemeteries, and in particular churchyards. They bring a …
Continue reading "Bringing flowers to a forgotten grave: Celia Holloway (1799-1831)"
Yes, somebody actually put this on their bio. Does this count as copyright infringement, or fair use under the copyright law? After many, many, many - possibly way too many - years stuck in monogamous relationships that weren't good for me, I'm finally experiencing what some might call "freedom." For some months I did the …
I am a migrant. I moved to the country I now call my second home when I was a young adult. When I moved away from my home country, that was my first time stepping outside my home country's borders. That was my first time on a plane. My first time living away from home …
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 