Matthew Levay
@matthewlevay.bsky.social
Professor of English at Idaho State University. Modernism, comics, popular forms. Author: The New Old Style (U Nebraska P, soon), Violent Minds (Cambridge UP). Co-Editor: Journal of Modern Periodical Studies. You can call me Matt.
matthewlevay.com
matthewlevay.com
Pinned
Absolutely thrilled with the cover @univnebpress.bsky.social has designed for my book, The New Old Style: Anachronism in Contemporary Comics (coming August ‘26)! And special thanks to the wonderful and generous Cole Closser for allowing me to use their art.
Reposted by Matthew Levay
Important news: the deadline for the joint BAMS/MSA conference in Loughborough has been extended to December 29, 2025! You can review the CFP, and find links to the submission platform, here. www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...
www.moderniststudies.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Important news: the deadline for the joint BAMS/MSA conference in Loughborough has been extended to December 29, 2025! You can review the CFP, and find links to the submission platform, here. www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
Live updates from Chez Levay.
What’s it like to have kids? Breakfast for dinner and 11yo eats only hashbrowns and fried eggs, hates veggie sausage; 5yo eats only veggie sausage and scrambled eggs, hates hashbrowns. Cross contamination results in rage.
November 20, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Live updates from Chez Levay.
This sale includes preorders, so you can order my book for 50% off through the end of the year! Preorder your summer 2026 reading!
November 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
This sale includes preorders, so you can order my book for 50% off through the end of the year! Preorder your summer 2026 reading!
Reposted by Matthew Levay
I just want a literary life to be possible for my students, I earnestly do.
Increasingly when teaching I find myself dramatizing and sharing what my literary life is like: loving a book, finding out something new or shocking or unexpected about myself while reading a book, knowing or seeing writers in person, talking about books and teaching and writing with friends, etc.
November 18, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I just want a literary life to be possible for my students, I earnestly do.
Reposted by Matthew Levay
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
Different complaint, but the uncompensated travel required for these first-round interviews was truly something. I once had to fly from Boston, where I lived, to Los Angeles in order to interview for a job that was located—you guessed it—in Boston.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Different complaint, but the uncompensated travel required for these first-round interviews was truly something. I once had to fly from Boston, where I lived, to Los Angeles in order to interview for a job that was located—you guessed it—in Boston.
Reposted by Matthew Levay
The deadline for proposals for BAMS/ MSA in Loughborough is just TWO weeks away. It's going to be a great conference with lots of opportunities to socialize and the usual MSA panels, roundtables, workshops, seminars. If you can't join us in person, submit a proposal for an online panel/ roundtable.
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
November 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
The deadline for proposals for BAMS/ MSA in Loughborough is just TWO weeks away. It's going to be a great conference with lots of opportunities to socialize and the usual MSA panels, roundtables, workshops, seminars. If you can't join us in person, submit a proposal for an online panel/ roundtable.
Reposted by Matthew Levay
I sent this to someone yesterday who had no idea it existed and so I’m sharing it here—if you are trying to find a publisher for your scholarly monograph and not sure who to approach, start with this, courtesy of our pals at @aupresses.bsky.social
AUPresses Subject Area Grid - Association of University Presses
Guide to the subject areas in which member presses have recently published.
aupresses.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I sent this to someone yesterday who had no idea it existed and so I’m sharing it here—if you are trying to find a publisher for your scholarly monograph and not sure who to approach, start with this, courtesy of our pals at @aupresses.bsky.social
This is completely correct.
NUCLEAR OPINION:
The comics enthusiasts under-regard strips
The comics enthusiasts under-regard strips
November 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
This is completely correct.
Morning dog walking path
November 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Morning dog walking path
Simultaneously laughed out loud and felt deep admiration at the description of attending a Jimi Hendrix concert: “how can I be bourgeois after I’ve seen that?”
Delighted to listen to the twentieth anniversary celebration of Entitled Opinions, a show that has kept me company for many years. Here’s to many more.
Entitled Opinions: The Twentieth Anniversary
A conversation between Robert Harrison and Christy Wampole about the origins and history of Entitled Opinions.
entitled-opinions.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Simultaneously laughed out loud and felt deep admiration at the description of attending a Jimi Hendrix concert: “how can I be bourgeois after I’ve seen that?”
Delighted to listen to the twentieth anniversary celebration of Entitled Opinions, a show that has kept me company for many years. Here’s to many more.
Entitled Opinions: The Twentieth Anniversary
A conversation between Robert Harrison and Christy Wampole about the origins and history of Entitled Opinions.
entitled-opinions.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Delighted to listen to the twentieth anniversary celebration of Entitled Opinions, a show that has kept me company for many years. Here’s to many more.
For my print culture, periodical studies, and comics studies friends: this account is a great one. Give it a follow!
"Oliver's Adventures" by Gus Mager, 1926-1934
March 30th, 1933 as seen in the San Francisco Chronicle
March 30th, 1933 as seen in the San Francisco Chronicle
November 7, 2025 at 5:18 PM
For my print culture, periodical studies, and comics studies friends: this account is a great one. Give it a follow!
Reposted by Matthew Levay
New Lynda Barry comic alert
"My Grandma would want me to fight them." I have loved Lynda Barry cartoons for 40 years. Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...
November 1, 2025 at 10:28 PM
New Lynda Barry comic alert
Reposted by Matthew Levay
The deadline for the joint BAMS/ MSA conference is fast approaching! It's exactly one month away on December 1, 2025. Please note it's the same deadline for panels, papers, roundtables, and workshop/ seminar proposals. You can propose in-person or online panels/ roundtables (but not hybrids).
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
November 1, 2025 at 6:14 PM
The deadline for the joint BAMS/ MSA conference is fast approaching! It's exactly one month away on December 1, 2025. Please note it's the same deadline for panels, papers, roundtables, and workshop/ seminar proposals. You can propose in-person or online panels/ roundtables (but not hybrids).
Reposted by Matthew Levay
Always two, no more, no less.
Be honest. How many books are you in the middle of reading right now?
October 27, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Always two, no more, no less.
With the Mariners sadly missing out on the World Series, RSL falling flat in the playoffs, and Leeds flailing near the bottom of the table, it’s up to the Mammoth to resuscitate my sports fandom. So far, they’re meeting the moment.
October 27, 2025 at 12:55 AM
With the Mariners sadly missing out on the World Series, RSL falling flat in the playoffs, and Leeds flailing near the bottom of the table, it’s up to the Mammoth to resuscitate my sports fandom. So far, they’re meeting the moment.
We’ve been to orchards across New England, but the best apples I’ve ever had in my life are from Blackfoot, Idaho.
October 25, 2025 at 10:05 PM
We’ve been to orchards across New England, but the best apples I’ve ever had in my life are from Blackfoot, Idaho.
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
October 22, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
For the last five years, being a Vanderbilt alum has been an exercise in humiliation. But today is easily the biggest humiliation of them all.
Saw someone say Vanderbilt "rejected" the compact so I'm reupping that they very much did not. As the student newspaper said, at best, they failed to reject the compact. Students, faculty, and staff should act accordingly.
Vanderbilt has arrived, late to the chat, with this shambles of a response. While technically true, this is a clear abdication of any moral responsibility. They even work in a mention of their commitment to "institutional neutrality" later in the email.
October 21, 2025 at 6:11 PM
For the last five years, being a Vanderbilt alum has been an exercise in humiliation. But today is easily the biggest humiliation of them all.
Scenes from the pumpkin patch
October 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Scenes from the pumpkin patch
2000 people, maybe the largest protest in Pocatello history.
'No Kings' rally in Pocatello draws massive crowd
POCATELLO — An estimated 2,000 people gathered at Caldwell Park on Saturday for the "No Kings" rally, possibly the largest protest in Pocatello history.
www.idahostatejournal.com
October 19, 2025 at 12:15 AM
2000 people, maybe the largest protest in Pocatello history.
A dramatic morning in Pocatello
October 15, 2025 at 2:45 PM
A dramatic morning in Pocatello
Reposted by Matthew Levay
Did you know the next MSA Conference in the UK will be a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social? And if you can't make it to the UK next summer, there will be opportunities to present in online panels and roundtables at this conference. More information in the CFP:
The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...
www.moderniststudies.org
October 14, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Did you know the next MSA Conference in the UK will be a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social? And if you can't make it to the UK next summer, there will be opportunities to present in online panels and roundtables at this conference. More information in the CFP: