Brian Halley
@brianbhalley.bsky.social
Executive Editor at University of Massachusetts Press, based at UMass Boston. Views here don’t reflect them. Feminist, progressive, 🏳️🌈, into books, dogs, ocean, print culture, lit studies, environmental studies/climate justice, and more.
Pinned
Brian Halley
@brianbhalley.bsky.social
· Nov 16
Homepage - University of Massachusetts Press
Welcome to the online home of University of Massachusetts Press. We publish scholarship, literature, and books for general readers that reflect the quality and diversity of intellectual life on our ca...
www.umasspress.com
I’m fortunate to work with brilliant authors & colleagues at @umasspress.bsky.social and it’s worth checking out website. I’ll be posting on range incl my areas (print culture, env studies, lgbtq+ and gender studies, African American studies, Native studies, New England, etc) & probs w/ #publishing.
State dept employees and grantees have been told to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging.” Everytime you think they’ve gone the lowest, they go lower.
Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM
State dept employees and grantees have been told to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging.” Everytime you think they’ve gone the lowest, they go lower.
Reposted by Brian Halley
The number of immigrants in detention without criminal records has surged by over 2,000% since Trump reentered the White House.
Nearly half of all detainees have no criminal charges or conviction.
Trump was always lying about going after the “worst of the worst.”
Nearly half of all detainees have no criminal charges or conviction.
Trump was always lying about going after the “worst of the worst.”
November 26, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The number of immigrants in detention without criminal records has surged by over 2,000% since Trump reentered the White House.
Nearly half of all detainees have no criminal charges or conviction.
Trump was always lying about going after the “worst of the worst.”
Nearly half of all detainees have no criminal charges or conviction.
Trump was always lying about going after the “worst of the worst.”
Reposted by Brian Halley
As you’re preparing for your Thanksgiving meal, remember the skilled work it took to get that food to your grocery store.
Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.
Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.
November 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
As you’re preparing for your Thanksgiving meal, remember the skilled work it took to get that food to your grocery store.
Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.
Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.
Reposted by Brian Halley
This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.
November 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.
I wish the @nytimes.com would make press names clear for books in Top 100 (which would make dearth of uni presses more obvious). I had to click multiple times to discover Hagfish, a reprint/editorial agency of sorts that looks cool, who have a book called To Smithereens in list. #publishing
Hagfish
cargo.site
hag.fish
November 25, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I wish the @nytimes.com would make press names clear for books in Top 100 (which would make dearth of uni presses more obvious). I had to click multiple times to discover Hagfish, a reprint/editorial agency of sorts that looks cool, who have a book called To Smithereens in list. #publishing
A good one today.
Jessica McClure, After the Well
Can you tell our viewers what it was like? I / told you, I don't remember anything.
poets.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
A good one today.
I didn’t have phone out at Patti Smith’s Boston show last night, but I woke up today wanting to keep going by googling live clips of her. She’s still in full control, and still performing this song in a way that takes you right out of your body, now with references to env degradation and Gaza.
Patti Smith - Horses (Live,1976)
YouTube video by Mako A Secas
m.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:56 PM
I didn’t have phone out at Patti Smith’s Boston show last night, but I woke up today wanting to keep going by googling live clips of her. She’s still in full control, and still performing this song in a way that takes you right out of your body, now with references to env degradation and Gaza.
My mother spent her whole long career as a nurse. I learned so much from her. Two months plus after her death, leave it to the incompetent WH admin / feckless Dept of Education to insult and injure the profession by limiting student loans available for nursing. Our healthcare will only get worse.
November 22, 2025 at 8:09 PM
My mother spent her whole long career as a nurse. I learned so much from her. Two months plus after her death, leave it to the incompetent WH admin / feckless Dept of Education to insult and injure the profession by limiting student loans available for nursing. Our healthcare will only get worse.
Happy 75th birthday to @utpress.bsky.social! (Proud alum of UT, where I stupidly never got job or internship at incredible press which was right there bc I didn’t know I could?) @publisherswkly.bsky.social
University of Texas Press Celebrates 75 Years
The Austin-based academic publisher has evolved from a modest regional publisher into one of the most innovative academic presses in the United States, striking a balance between scholarly and trade s...
www.publishersweekly.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Happy 75th birthday to @utpress.bsky.social! (Proud alum of UT, where I stupidly never got job or internship at incredible press which was right there bc I didn’t know I could?) @publisherswkly.bsky.social
Reposted by Brian Halley
the gulf between the swift brutality with which places like harvard treated students protesting genocide and the endless, endless latitude those same institutions have given people like larry summers tells you everything you need to know
November 20, 2025 at 1:36 AM
the gulf between the swift brutality with which places like harvard treated students protesting genocide and the endless, endless latitude those same institutions have given people like larry summers tells you everything you need to know
Reposted by Brian Halley
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
November 19, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
Reposted by Brian Halley
Texas' abortion ban has killed another woman.
Let's be very clear: Republicans are killing women. Democrats need to start calling them murderers loudly and often.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
Let's be very clear: Republicans are killing women. Democrats need to start calling them murderers loudly and often.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
www.propublica.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Texas' abortion ban has killed another woman.
Let's be very clear: Republicans are killing women. Democrats need to start calling them murderers loudly and often.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
Let's be very clear: Republicans are killing women. Democrats need to start calling them murderers loudly and often.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
Please note: none of these are university presses. Thank you.
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 19, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Please note: none of these are university presses. Thank you.
Reposted by Brian Halley
“Closeups show human faces distorted beyond recognition, sprouting extra appendages. The bodies of what appear to be dogs horrifically merge with human figures. Happy holidays indeed.”
Town's Huge Christmas Mural Was Generated Using AI, Resulting in Ghastly Chthonic Horrors
An enormous new mural near London, depicting a crowded Christmas scene, has drawn outrage and mockery from passersby.
futurism.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:51 AM
“Closeups show human faces distorted beyond recognition, sprouting extra appendages. The bodies of what appear to be dogs horrifically merge with human figures. Happy holidays indeed.”
Next couple of weeks includes first an Erykah Badu concert and then Patti Smith. I’ve made some good decisions.
November 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Next couple of weeks includes first an Erykah Badu concert and then Patti Smith. I’ve made some good decisions.
Rest in power, Alice Wong, a powerful activist and writer
November 17, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Rest in power, Alice Wong, a powerful activist and writer
Reposted by Brian Halley
In February, Vought told the Federal Reserve & a federal judge he was requesting $0 of the $329m available, because CFPB had too much money. Now that it's running out, he has a new excuse.
Don't let Vought keep stealing from you. Tell Congress: restore CFPB funding & fire Vought NOW! nteu335.org
Don't let Vought keep stealing from you. Tell Congress: restore CFPB funding & fire Vought NOW! nteu335.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:37 PM
In February, Vought told the Federal Reserve & a federal judge he was requesting $0 of the $329m available, because CFPB had too much money. Now that it's running out, he has a new excuse.
Don't let Vought keep stealing from you. Tell Congress: restore CFPB funding & fire Vought NOW! nteu335.org
Don't let Vought keep stealing from you. Tell Congress: restore CFPB funding & fire Vought NOW! nteu335.org
Reposted by Brian Halley
Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.
November 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.
Reposted by Brian Halley
This amount would fund NEH for more than a decade.
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
This amount would fund NEH for more than a decade.
"When we listen to audiobooks produced in the West, they have a Wakandan accent," said Eghosa Imasuen, executive director of Narrative Landscape Press in Lagos, Nigeria... "Nobody talks like that on the continent." via @publisherswkly.bsky.social
African Publishers Battle ‘Wakanda Problem’ as Market Grows
Africa's 54 countries often get flattened into one imaginary place, but now publishers across the continent are fighting back by building literary bridges across the continent, prioritizing local read...
www.publishersweekly.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:40 PM
"When we listen to audiobooks produced in the West, they have a Wakandan accent," said Eghosa Imasuen, executive director of Narrative Landscape Press in Lagos, Nigeria... "Nobody talks like that on the continent." via @publisherswkly.bsky.social
Reposted by Brian Halley
Since January, Trump's Treasury has quietly gutted enforcement of the corporate alternative minimum tax — a huge boon for big business and wealthy investors.
Meanwhile, he's led an all-out assault on Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that help the poor.
Reverse Robin Hood.
Meanwhile, he's led an all-out assault on Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that help the poor.
Reverse Robin Hood.
November 10, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Since January, Trump's Treasury has quietly gutted enforcement of the corporate alternative minimum tax — a huge boon for big business and wealthy investors.
Meanwhile, he's led an all-out assault on Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that help the poor.
Reverse Robin Hood.
Meanwhile, he's led an all-out assault on Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that help the poor.
Reverse Robin Hood.
Reposted by Brian Halley
Huh well it turns out I heard from a few federal workers about this and well
"We civil servants organized to help our colleagues face the hardship of the shutdown, we put up with the pain and our only request was to not be betrayed like this. Trade our pain, make it count."
"We civil servants organized to help our colleagues face the hardship of the shutdown, we put up with the pain and our only request was to not be betrayed like this. Trade our pain, make it count."
November 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Huh well it turns out I heard from a few federal workers about this and well
"We civil servants organized to help our colleagues face the hardship of the shutdown, we put up with the pain and our only request was to not be betrayed like this. Trade our pain, make it count."
"We civil servants organized to help our colleagues face the hardship of the shutdown, we put up with the pain and our only request was to not be betrayed like this. Trade our pain, make it count."
This is blood on the hands of all of us Americans led, yes, by Elon Musk/DOGE, Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Republican leadership in Congress. It is truly awful and cannot be overlooked or forgotten.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 10, 2025 at 5:47 PM
This is blood on the hands of all of us Americans led, yes, by Elon Musk/DOGE, Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Republican leadership in Congress. It is truly awful and cannot be overlooked or forgotten.
Holiday sale at @umasspress.bsky.social - and let our team guide your buying with selections from our fantastic backlist!
'Tis the season for giving books! Our annual holiday sale has arrived! - University of Massachusetts Press
The holidays are fast approaching, which means that it’s time for our annual holiday sale! In case you’re not sure what to buy, we’ve curated a list of
www.umasspress.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Holiday sale at @umasspress.bsky.social - and let our team guide your buying with selections from our fantastic backlist!