Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 8d

What a joy it was getting this page ready to go! All the thanks to @helenaesser.bsky.social for the material!

Here we'll have reflections, contemplations, speculations and more (all of a Victorian/neo-Victorian nature, of course).

Interested in contributing? Follow the link below & get in touch!

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 8d

Excited to announce that the VPFA blog has launched! Thanks to Emma Butler-Way for her hard work in getting it ready for today, for more information check out the blog at the link below:

victorianpopularfiction.org/the-vpfa-blog/

The VPFA Blog

The VPFA Blog Welcome to the VPFA Blog! Here we will have ponderings, reflections, speculative readings, and more, for the reading pleasure of our fellow Victorianists. If you would like to submit …

victorianpopularfiction.org

2 4

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 8d

There are, I think, few things as humbling as the automatic captions to a lecture that reveal just how often you say 'Um'...
Oh, and Panopto has spoken: my name is now, apparently, Emma Holloway...

1

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Mari Ellis Dunning 🖋️ @mariellisdunning.bsky.social · 11d

Want to try something new? I'm running #Writing Women again through Aberystwyth Uni's Lifelong Learning.

✶ Online course
✶ Self-paced
✶ One to one feedback
✶ Expert guidance

Here's the link to my course, & there are heaps of others to choose from too!

www.aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-...

#WritingSky

2 3

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Alice Vernon @alicevernon10.bsky.social · 28d

Happy publication day to Ghosted! This book was so much fun to research and write, and I can't wait to go on a ghost hunt again.

Thank you to everyone who's ordered a copy! I hope you enjoy reading it...with all the lights on, obviously. 👻

(Note: video plays crackling static sound)

3 7 11

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Andrew King @andrewkingc19.bsky.social · Aug 31

Reflections on leaving salaried academia: lessons I've learned.

profandrewking.me.uk/2025/08/31/r...

Reflections on Leaving Salaried Academia

My tenure as full-time Professor of English at the University of Greenwich ends today (31 August 2025). Inevitably, I find myself reflecting on what the institution and I have given each other. Wha…

profandrewking.me.uk

3 2 16

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Mari Ellis Dunning 🖋️ @mariellisdunning.bsky.social · Aug 15

I'll be running Writing Women again in the new semester through Aberystwyth University's Lifelong Learning.

✶ Online course
✶ Self-paced
✶ One to one feedback
✶ Expert guidance

Here's the link to my course, but there are heaps of others to choose from too!

www.aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-...

1 6

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Alice Vernon @alicevernon10.bsky.social · Aug 11

Ghosted is published in one month! It's all getting very exciting. Bev the Haunted Doll is positively crawling the walls.

No, really. She's crawling up the walls. Send help.

Pre-order: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ghosted-9...

A banner advertising my book Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking. A spooky candle is in one corner, and an upside-down crucifix in the other, with the tagline: 'A social, historic and scientific exploration of our fascination with the paranormal.'

1 5

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Comma Press @commapress.bsky.social · Aug 4

‘This famine is an engineered one – a war on our bodies, our clarity, our ability to move’ Read Sondos Sabra’s Letter from Gaza in The New Statesman. www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Letter from Gaza: “What I feel isn’t just hunger. It’s slow, internal erosion”

This famine is an engineered one – a war on our bodies, our clarity, our ability to move.

www.newstatesman.com

1 4

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Aug 2

"Is there a felicity in the world superior to this?"
Celebrating meeting a Big Deadline with a holiday to reconnect with the chalk of my childhood. Have I been finding myself crying every now and then at the scenery I've not seen for 4 years? Yes. Am I relaxed, and feeling at ease? Also yes.

View of Seaford head, looking over Cuckmere Haven. White chalk cliff, green hill, shingle beach. Bramble and hedgerow in foreground, with a wire fence

1

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 30

Aberystwyth MusicFest is a truly glorious thing - we're so lucky to have it & all the wonderful variety of music it brings to Aber. Very much looking forward to this evening's offering: Jane Austen @ 250: The Beautiful Cassandra - a recital of some of Austen's letters underscored by piano music...

Bi-lingual English and Welsh programme for Aberystwyth MusicFest event, Jane Austen @ 250: The Beautiful Cassandra

3

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Alice Vernon @alicevernon10.bsky.social · Jul 28

👻GHOSTED pre-order offer at Waterstones!👻

From now until Thursday, you can get 25% off pre-ordered copies of Ghosted with the code SUMMER25. Everyone who pre-orders it will be forever blessed by Bev the Haunted Doll.

#paranormal #ghosthunting #nonfiction

www.waterstones.com/book/ghosted...

An advert for my book Ghosted in the Waterstones 25% off summer offer. Pre-order with code SUMMER25 to get the discount.

1 2

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 23

When I say I am very excited about this...
Mari has done something really rather special with Witsh, shedding some much-needed light on the witch trials in Wales - not as well known as those in Scotland or Pendle, but no less indicative of the precarious position of women in a patriarchal society

Mari Ellis Dunning 🖋️ @mariellisdunning.bsky.social · Jul 23

❀ WITSH ❀

There's just 3 months to go until Witsh hits bookshelves! I'm so excited to be able to share this story with the world.
✬
I don't want to inundate anyone but just to say, pre orders are open: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wits...
✬
#Witchcraft #Witchrature #Wales #WritingSky #HistoricFiction

1 1

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · Jul 17

Delivered a paper at our conference this week? Why not turn it into a full article for the next general issue of Victorian Popular Fictions? Our latest issue is out now and is open access: victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...

1 1 4

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Andrew King @andrewkingc19.bsky.social · Jul 17

Hear hear!

It's the @vpfa's deeply rooted refusal of hierarchy in the interest of welcome and joy combined with serious intellectual ambition, isn't it?

It's proof renewed every year that fun and rigour make a great alloy!

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 16

Well, #VPFAExtremes has been wonderful - the height of my summer so far, as ever! I am deeply grateful to be part such a fantastic, extremely warm and collegiate association. Thoroughly enjoyed the last few days - diolch pawb!

Conference programme: 17th Annual Conference of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association. Heights, Depths, and Extremes. The Birmingham & Midland Institute, Birmingham UK. Victorian picture of a group of people confronted by a sea monster

2 10

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 16

Well, #VPFAExtremes has been wonderful - the height of my summer so far, as ever! I am deeply grateful to be part such a fantastic, extremely warm and collegiate association. Thoroughly enjoyed the last few days - diolch pawb!

2 7

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 16

Fantastic work by a fellow Aberystwythian! Really interesting paper about the connections between Corelli and Curie, the assumed relationship between women working and then aging, and, of course, the patriarchy... (Women being able to work *despite* going grey? The horror!!) #VPFAExtremes

Jamie Gorrod @jamiegorrod.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our next speaker in the Science and Imagination panel at #VPFAExtremes is Bridget Morgan, with her paper 'The Rejuvenated Spinster: An Alternative Narrative of Ageing in Marie Corelli’s The Young Diana: An Experiment of the Future (1918)'

1 1 5

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Helena Ifill @helenaifill.bsky.social · Jul 15

A great meal with great conference pals! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

6 11

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 15

HUGE shout out to Keira for handling being the sole speaker like a pro! I certainly enjoyed chairing this panel, even if it was a slightly unconventional one. I'm *always* game for talking about Jane Eyre - this was an absolute pleasure. Thank you Keira for being such a good sport! #VPFAExtremes

Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · Jul 15

Unfortunately, the other presenters on this panel (Kailey Pire and Rida Leonard) have been unable to attend, so we are now having a Brontë-themed chat instead. Currently wondering, why DID Jane marry Rochester?? #VPFAExtremes

2 9

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · Jul 15

Unfortunately, the other presenters on this panel (Kailey Pire and Rida Leonard) have been unable to attend, so we are now having a Brontë-themed chat instead. Currently wondering, why DID Jane marry Rochester?? #VPFAExtremes

1 2 2

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 15

Day 2 of #VPFAExtremes is a-go! We have more fantastic panels on the way, and some exciting lunchtime excursions on the menu ...

Birmingham and Midland Institute, Victorian redbrick building on the corner of a street

1 4

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · Jul 15

We're all a big family at VPFA! So great to see so many familiar and new faces joining us every year ❤️ #VPFAExtremes

Helena Ifill @helenaifill.bsky.social · Jul 14

It's been a lovely 1st day at VPFA 2025! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

2 10

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Birmingham & Midland Institute @bmi1854.bsky.social · Jul 14

Day 1 of the @VPFA1 conference is drawing to close. What a lovely way to end. Victorian silent movies accompanied by pianist @bianca.vancea_pianist

See you all for day 2 tomorrow

#VPFAExtremes #silentmovies #victorian #history

3 8

Reposted by Emma Butler-Way

Helena Ifill @helenaifill.bsky.social · Jul 14

It's been a lovely 1st day at VPFA 2025! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

4 13

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 14

I had the best time presenting this paper! It was such a great panel to be on - by a *wild* coincidence, we had two separate papers, featuring two separate books that both just so happened to have a character with the last name of Tempest, and someone accidentally selling their soul...
#VPFAExtremes

Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · Jul 14

Next we’ve got @ebutler-way.bsky.social talking about the legacies of Jane Eyre in A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott, particularly the role of fate #VPFAExtremes

4 8

Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · Jul 13

Ah no! We shall have to make up for it next year! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

1 1