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Leila Essa

@leilaessai.bsky.social

540 followers 280 following 340 posts

assistant professor of comparative literature at utrecht uni. projects on post-partition lit & authorial politics. current research and writing at https://intervention.sites.uu.nl/. she/her.

intervention.sites.uu.nl

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · Jul 10

a quick research blog update with lovely book news and much gratitude for anna bernard's solidarity talk at utrecht last month and for the "for now" conference organisers in berlin last week

intervention.sites.uu.nl/2025/07/10/f...

For now

The book that I mentioned in my last post is taking shape: Marta Cenedese and I have just signed a contract with Bloomsbury Academic for our edited volume Activist Writing / Activist Reading. We are v...

intervention.sites.uu.nl

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Lorena Jaume-Palasí @lopalasi.bsky.social · 3h

Maria Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize Winner sees her politics aligned with Milei's (see e.g. www.clarin.com/mundo/maria-.... She's signatory of the Charta of Madrid -created by the think tank of Spain's right wing party Vox, whose leader introduced it to Trump. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_...

Madrid Forum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 2h

Huge librarian appreciation week over here - taking care of, vocally supporting, and chasing up every single one of my purchase requests for this course

Mahmoud Darwish’s The Butterfly Burden reserved under my name

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4h

beautiful complaint

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So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · 1d

It's real & it's here. I'm real & I'm here. There were times during the writing where I didn't think that those sentences could simultaneously be true. So yes I am grinning like a dork.

Pre-order BAD LANGUAGE from Peninsula Press. It's not secondhand yet... 👇🏻

peninsulapress.co.uk/products/bad...

So Mayer, a short, grey-haired white person, holds up copies of Bad Language. There's a sign that says Second-hand Books behind them.

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Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 1d

If you're excited by long-haired literary men being in the spotlight, come along and see me talk with the ‘Kilkenny Krasznahorkai’ @elfodongo.bsky.social tonight!

Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 2d

Berlin pals, this is happening tomorrow! Please come along. The book is great and Tim is very funny and eloquent. It’ll be nice.

Me and Tim MacGabhann talking about his memoir THE BLACK POOL at Shakespeare and Sons on Oct 9th 18:45

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 1d

Huge admiration for Naoise Dolan. (Also imagining what any of the German PENs would have to say about a German author joining the flotilla.)

Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 1d

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan...The flotilla was illegally intercepted last night and seized by armed Israeli forces in international waters.
irishpen.com/2025/10/08/t...

Thousand Madleens flotilla Statement - Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann

8 October 2025 Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan, one of several Irish citizens taking part in the Thousand Madleens f...

irishpen.com

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 1d

The essay is here, thankfully web.archive.org/web/20080511...

web.archive.org

Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 1d

The wonderful Utrecht University librarians did get ahold of this out-of-print book for me, which is listed as the original place of publication in the German translation, but it turns out that it contains an interview with Adnan rather than the essay

Unheard Words: Women and Literature in Africa, the Arab World, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, edited by Mineke Schipper

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 1d

Crazy that syllabus design relies on the wayback machine now (Etel Adnan's To Write in A Foreign Language only available on the defunct Electronic Poetry Review)

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Silver Press @silver-press.bsky.social · 2d

Finished copies of Palestine is everywhere (publishing 16 Oct) 🖤 Edited by Skye Arundhati Thomas, this book contains dispatches from Gaza — essays, poems, images and letters from prison — reflecting on resistance, solidarity and the right to self-determination. www.silverpress.org/collections/...

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 2d

Joke’s on EU lawmakers because the single best veggie fake available in Dutch supermarkets is called ‘Little Willies’ www.reuters.com/business/eu-...

www.reuters.com

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Draught @draughtjournal.bsky.social · 2d

Draught is now live!
www.draughtjournal.com
Issue 1.1.1 with contributions by Glenn Adamson, Jen Calleja, Don Mee Choi, Mark Cousins, Daisy Lafarge, Mark Manders, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lisa Robertson, Christina Tudor-Sideri and Francesca Wade

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Books Upstairs @booksupstairs.bsky.social · 4d

A small fire at the front of the bookshop was started last night after rubbish bags that were awaiting collection were set on fire. The guards don’t have reason at this time to believe it was a targeted attack. Thankfully the damage was limited and everyone is safe. We are open for business as usual

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

"Thankfully the damage was limited and everyone is safe. We are open for business as usual. Thanks so much to everyone for checking in on us ❤️ So grateful for the kindness, THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️"

Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

Oh thank God, they write on Instagram: "A small fire at the front of the bookshop was started last night after rubbish bags that were awaiting collection were set on fire. The guards don’t have reason at this time to believe it was a targeted attack."

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Little Deer Comics @littledeercomics.bsky.social · 4d

❤️
booksupstairs.ie

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

Books Upstairs got me through Dublin lockdown

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

so maddening

Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

This is horrific - had literally just this morning been thinking about Books Upstairs as one of my favourite book stores to show my Publishing students

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 4d

‘Really shocking’: Independent Dublin bookstore damaged in arson attack

Books Upstairs manager hopes to partially open the D’Olier Street store later on Monday

www.irishtimes.com

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 4d

Ever since spending October 2023 in Berlin I’ve stopped really liking the city

Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 5d

Ideal way to get this one out into the world I think

Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 5d

(to read the book itself that is - keep in mind as an alternative to law school)

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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 5d

Gute Besserung!! Also: friends and I saw Shrek at the cinema yesterday and I told them about your book proposal and everyone was gagging to read it

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Signal @signal.org · 6d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 7d

This is who @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social is. Brilliant. Fearless. I fucking hate typing this shit out: Free Eman.

Amplify amplify amplify please.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 7d

@emanabdelhadi.bsky.social tells these cops about themselves.

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